Successfully Outsource IT

Nothing beats an actual hand-shake.

Based on our experience, when it comes to outsourcing this is so true. This is why World ZhuLu Corp. operates its "Creative Design, Solution and Implementation" offices in North America and Europe, because we believe in not only "nothing beats an actual hand-shake", but also that we must be on-site with our customers, to understand the day-to-day-operations, the problems, pain-and-sufferings and be ready to switch the directions on the dime as quickly as our customers. Relying on the Systems Requirements document in a foreign country with programmers who don't understand your business needs is the surest way to fail.

For example, McDonald's core-competency is fast food. Therefore, running an integrated supply/distribution system and logistics for McDonald's is a highly specialized system that requires a fast-food industry veteran to manage any software development and would be justly worried about relying on a document in a foreign country (that may not even consume beef) to make sure it is done correctly. This also follows sticking with your core-competency. If CitiBank started develops Commercial Off-the-Shelf software products, it would not necessarily be the most efficient and competitive utilization of their assets.

For many small to mid-sized companies, it would quickly eat up the profitability and bottom-line when bringing in full-time IT staff-members to support their back office systems. In fact, to this matter, a Telecom company may be considered a High-Tech industry - but this does not pre-qualify its IT department to be able to produce the best pricing tools for its Local-Loop operations.

On the other end, many companies hire someone to outsource a software project for them, only to find that outsourcing company uses developers who don't understand how to develop a system to meet their needs. In a worst case scenario, years and millions of dollars are spent and nothing working is ever delivered. Only a shadow of the software originally envisioned is developed, and the Onshore/Offshore vendor then blames it on the poor systems requirement document provided by the Customer.

In our experience, the solution-provider must thoroughly understand the business, the workflow, and even the operational nuances. In practice, this is translated into being an integrated part of our customers' businesses, understand their industry, sector, mark segmentation and niche - and ultimately their customers. This goes beyond the sharing of our customers' pain-and-suffering, beyond being a Vendor to be able to answer to the opreationally detailed questions that our clients ask of us as to how they function - as a business, but also proactively engaging our customers' directions.

We are keenly aware that the real-world as most of the businesses live in, requires a fluid mindset, the tactical and strategic maneuvers that could take place on a dime, that the business environment and the competitive landscapes could be changed drastically during the 3-months or 3-year long System-Development phases.

In other words, we help our clients to succeed.