We get several emails each day asking us to outsource work overseas.

We will never do this, for a few basic reasons:

1. Language barrier - I was contacted via LinkedIn by a so-called Brand Consultancy based in India. They are called "Zero Creativity" - enough said there. Google them at "0creativity.com" - this isn't a joke!!

2. Poor Quality - When getting inspiration for our new company name, we invited some self-professed "professionals" to get involved in naming the new company. We came up with eternally better names ourselves, and the list of names provided by one individual would have caused embarrassment to a pre-schooler, let alone a professional. See point 1.

3. It costs you more - I was recenly approached by some friends who had outsourced a website design to Nigeria using a freelancing website. They paid £650 for the site, which was (and still is) broken in several places. This is almost two years after it was commissioned, and the site is still not live!

4. It's not secure - All trust levels aside, the website in point 3 cannot be upgraded to the latest version of WordPress. Because Wordpress is an open-source CMS, it MUST be constantly upgraded to the latest version. If it is not, it's liable to be hacked. Unfortunately the site in point 3 can't be upgraded to the latest version due to the shoddy customisation performed by the overseas programmers.

5. It will break - Keeping the site in question up-to-date in terms of the latest version would break the site, incurring ongoing development costs to constantly repair it after each upgrade. When you effectively auction your site's construction out to the lowest bidder, you get something that just about works (if you are lucky). However because the site has been built with one thing in mind: "How fast can I build this thing and get paid?", you end up with something that falls over as soon as you make a change to the code - it will be built for speed of getting it out of the door, not to be the robust, scalable platform it should be.

6. It's not future-proof - Often there is no commenting in the code, so giving the site to another developer is like asking them to learn a new language. In many cases where we are given sites like this to repair, the easiest and most cost-effective thing is to simply rebuild it.

In the case in point, they would have not only saved money on their original £650 outlay by coming straight to us, but their site would have gone live within a couple of weeks, not years. It would be better made, better supported, communication would have been easier, and the standard of work higher.

If you are thinking of outsourcing any of the following types of project overseas, come to us for a quote before you do:

  • -Website Design
  • -Search Engine Optimisation
  • -Software Development
  • -Email Marketing

It could save you a lot of time, money, and hair!