Maximize IT

Factors for Successful Offshore Engagement

The success of offshoring in a client-vendor engagement is dependent on many factors and emids has always strived to achieve them. The learnings in making offshoring a success, and taking an initial simple client-vendor relationship to a strategic partnership have been multiple. The core differentiator that emids has always maintained and strives to bring as a value add to its existing customers is the fact that the foundation of emids is very domain focused at the core. A strong healthcare focus ensures that all horizontal services offered – Consulting, Development, QA etc have a healthcare vertical sense to it. Apart from this, there are more areas which deserve a mention. We will look at insights from emids' engagement with a major HIT vendor as the backdrop.

Defining the Right Engagement

When it comes to the engagement model, we at emids believe that there is no 'one-size-fits-all' approach which is effective. Different works have different styles of execution and due to this there is always an initial study by emids to propose an effective model. The various models used are project based, SLA based and Extended Center Model. For the above mentioned HIT vendor, what started as a small project execution has now turned into a fully fledged Extended Center Model for this client with the total resource strength now many times the size with which this engagement was started. A total of 5 different projects are now in full swing which encompass almost all product offerings that this major HIT vendor has.

Management Insight

Another major success criterion is the right usage of the resources and proactively understanding the client needs. While engaging this HIT vendor, emids brought its technical expertise and strong project and delivery acumen to convince the client that they have made a right decision by shaking hands with emids. The pilot project had its own set of difficulties due to the dependency on a third party which not only slowed the execution down but also required a lot of patience from emids resources to understand the dependency related requirements.  As all this had to be done without compromising on the time schedule, consultants were flown in to the client location in US who then not only became the onsite interface of the offshore team back in India but also became the 'ears' to the voice of the customer. The smooth and professional ongoing execution of the pilot project was immediately noted and appreciated by the client and soon a very senior client delegation was on its way to India to see as to how best this client-vendor relationship can be maximized.

Optimal Amount of Processes

Once committed to a streamlined delivery there are certain processes that are followed at emids. The processes not only cover a strict adherence to the ISO 27001 norms for Information security but also a usage of an internal Quality Framework to ensure seamless delivery in addition to the CMMi process followed.

It is also worth mentioning here that emids is a HIPAA aware organization and business associate agreements are signed with clients to ensure PHI protection.

Velocity of Growth

The growth that emids has achieved with our longstanding clients has been steady. The adaptation of client work culture and understanding the technologies and practices followed by the client has always been a focus and is the most important thing followed while expanding the team size.

The combination of technical expertise which prompted this client to look beyond the pilot project,  the second level of expertise coming from healthcare-focused approach and the professional approach of executing and delivering the work has resulted in this client-vendor relation to evolve into a strategic partnership.