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- Outsourcing could work, given the right conditions:
- The biggest risk is that we have never worked together previously. Maybe we can start outsourcing with people we have previously worked with and mature our ability to package up work and quality assure it using mostly asynchronous methods of communication.
- We need the flexibility to engage differently skilled resources for different work. For example, we need a front-end developer for fixes and improvements to the Angular app, but a technical content person for migrating old/tail sites.
- Making the numbers work by outsourcing development is not easy and requires careful attention to the pay expectations of the staff involved. There are additional costs associated with not being co-located and these need to be factored in.
Recommendation
We are seeking permission torecommend that the Web Team:
- Outsource work to ex-staff, as a way to trial outsourcing during 2017, maturing our processes and understandings.
- Negotiate a master agreement contract for service with Joe Lobotka, Andrew Bredenkamp and Mike Clarke
- Identify an offshore web development company that we could afford to engage on a 'contract for service' basis, possibly in the Philippines
- They would already have staff that have the key skill sets that we require.
- Their (hourly) rate would need to be competitive.
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