web design services overseas

distracted

Anyone ever use these services from companies in Eastern Europe or India to build web sites?

Graham

I've used a few in the last 2 years with mixed results.

1st Project) Completed succussfuly, and only 5 months behind shedule not bad for a project that was supposed to take 6 weeks!!

2nd Project) Completed in record time, within budget and developers added several nift feature I hadnt even considered.

3rd Project) The development company vanished along with initial deposit.

Although I would consider off-shore development for future projects, I would be very careful in choosing a development partner. It's been an expensive learning experience.


My advise would be:

Take references.

Examine sites developed for past customers (contact these past customers).

Check with local directories (yellow pages, chamber of commerce etc to ensure the company actually exists.

Make payments in stages upon completion of key project milestones (you may have to pay an initial amount upfront though).

Have all deadlines and key milestones defined in advance.

Document you requirements fully, when you have finished go back and re-do the document, again and again and again. One of the biggest causes of friction between developers and clients is lack of communication. You asked for X they thought you said Y and delivered Z.

Ask for constant updates, one of the problems I had was with weeks of silence only to discover fundamental problems.

Check the person you are communicating with is doing the work, there are lots of so-called off-shore web development companies that act as nothing more than a middle-man. This is not wrong per-se as long as they are adding some value, and not just increasing the communication chain.

Hope that helps some, if there's anything else I can help you with let me know.

Best of luck

Graham

One thing I forgot to mention:

Try putting the project out to tender locally too. In the current economic climate some or the smaller Irish/UK/US web agencies actually come very close on price.

The last tender I put out internationally was actually completed by a UK company.