Thieves in the outsourcing business
Steal: to take (the property of another or others) without permission or right, esp. secretly or by force.
Thief: a person who steals, esp. secretly or without open force.
I’m sure most of you are familiar with the verb (Steal) and how it is used to describe the spiteful act of the noun (Thief). I’m here to talk about a thief who stole from my company, directly attacked our employees and has tarnished the image of the offshore outsourcing software industry in Pakistan.
Custom application development firms like ours are usually engaged in providing software development services through a fixed time fixed cost contract. These are typically 3-6 month long projects after which support and maintenance services are provided as mandated by the SLA. Projects that require more than 6 months of development, or where the customer wants the offshore team to work with the onshore (local) development team often choose to go the ‘Dedicated Resource’ route. With the dedicated resource arrangement the development team works exclusively for the customer on their project. The Project Manager is responsible for being the bridge between the customer and these dedicated resources. His job is to make sure the work gets done according to the satisfaction of the customer. This model works very well for both the customer and the offshore company. Until you hire a rotten apple – a thief who after establishing a rapport with the client decides to steal your customer.
