A leading travel technology company located in the United States had a business requirement to streamline their software development and maintenance operations. Faced with rising development costs, product transitions, and need to capture tactical business opportunities, this company asked Backes Crocker to help them develop an offshore outsourcing strategy that would allow them to work with multiple vendors across all of their technology organizations.

Backes Crocker worked with the executive management team to understand how an offshore outsourcing strategy would affect their existing business and how it might help them in the future. Based on the strategy and goals established during this phase, Backes Crocker assisted the client in creating an implementation plan and comprehensive services agreements with several qualified offshore vendors. Key features of the plan included transition from a traditional technology staffing model to a dynamic, centrally managed, offshore model. By working with the client every step of the way, we were able to successfully implement a highly manageable offshore program that was in place and operational in a matter of months. Our work with the client's offshore program management office enabled them to meet their program staffing and expense goals on schedule.

Our value to the client was not only in supplying the expertise needed to plan and implement a comprehensive offshore outsourcing program, we also added significant value in our ability to listen and understand the needs of the client and develop a program and supporting business processes that directly supported their goals. Our services were on time, on budget, and on target.

Perhaps the most rewarding part of working on this project is what our client had to say about our services; "We could not have accomplished putting this program in place without Backes Crocker."

A Fortune 500 financial services company needed a process to manage an existing large scale offshore outsourcing program. When we initially met with the client, they had multiple offshore vendors working in various technology organizations within the company. There was no common process, vendor agreement, or ability to manage and measure the vendor activities across the company.

After working with executive management and the outsourcing program management team, Backes Crocker determined that the client needed to develop and implement a program governance plan. This governance plan created the foundations of the internal business processes they needed to effectively manage multiple vendors working on a large number of projects. The objective was to provide the vendors and development organizations with a repeatable process for initiating, managing, and measuring a technology project - regardless of size and complexity. Parallel to this, we worked to encourage the client to bring all of their vendors under a common master services agreement and labor rate structure. This not only provided much needed intellectual property protections for the client but also assured that labor expenses were being managed. Finally, we generated a comprehensive portfolio of metrics for the client to evaluate key measures on a regular basis. This allowed them to determine if the outsourcing initiative was meeting their intended goals.

Our value to the client was in our ability to work within their existing outsourcing program and transition them from a distributed and passive program management model to a central and active program management model. Without this model in place, the client had no capability to manage the risks that are inherent to outsourcing. Our governance plan and metrics portfolio gave them the tools and ability to do that.

A venture capital funded technology company needed to find a way to meet product delivery demands with changing technology and a growing company. Balancing internal growth with the ability to generate revenue was extremely challenging for this start-up company. Our client needed to find an alternative staffing model to extend their operating capital while servicing an increasing customer base and changing product technology.

Backes Crocker brought their experience in the offshore outsourcing industry to this client as well as their experience in the software development industry. Having extensive experience in introducing outsourcing to a software development organization, Backes Crocker was able to relate to the delivery pressures, changing technology, and shifting project priorities that occur on a regular basis. Our team was able to conduct a vendor search and evaluation for the client, advise them on a strong services agreement model, and work with their internal team to create a self-manageable outsourcing program. The solution allowed them to keep control of their projects and intellectual property while enabling them to increase their development capacity through qualified, lower cost resources.

Our value to the client was in providing more than just advice on outsourcing. Although that was the objective of our work with the client, we were also able to help them align their company for growth through the use of a flexible resourcing model. This is not easy in early stage companies because processes and infrastructure is usually far from being a priority. We we were able to accelerate the development of business processes and project management infrastructure that is critical for their growth. Our feedback from the client was; "If we had to do it over, there is no doubt that we would use Backes Crocker again to help us with the program."