Tackling Trust, Transparency, and Communication Challenges in IT Outsourcing

IT organizations must develop communication, transparency, and trust channels to overcome possible IT outsourcing challenges.

The value of IT outsourcing is evident. Outsourcing saves time and money. It allows development teams to fast-track projects and reduces time-to-market. It also bridges any skills gaps in the development team.

To this end, even the most successful companies and brands outsource specific tasks. The likes of Alibaba, Skype, GitHub, WhatsApp, and Slack, among others, are all products of well-coordinated outsourcing. Among NIX clients there are also well-known, award-winning tech companies, which have chosen outsourcing as the most preferable option for their product development. HumanEyes is one of the most illustrative examples.

The HumanEyes Example

More recently, HumanEyes stands out as evidence of what IT companies can achieve with smart outsourcing. The company’s 3D virtual reality (VR) Vuze camera has been a huge success, and currently one of the coolest mobile accessories. It’s perhaps the most versatile immersive camera ever made.

Vuze has already won a few awards too. It won the best 360-degree camera category at CES 2019 and made the top five list of the best 360-degree cameras for 2020. It was also the camera used to shoot the first 3D VR video at the international space station. These are just of the highlight wins for the Vuze in the past 12 months.

Challenges HumanEyes Resolved with Outsourcing

However, what’s most interesting about the camera isn’t the sleek design or its futuristic features. No. It is how the camera came into being.

Vuze wasn’t developed in one lab by a single, homogenous team. It’s the result of synergy — of outsourcing.

Although the company didn’t outsource everything, HumanEyes got a lot of work on the camera done through outsourcing. Some of the tasks they outsourced included;

• The development of a mobile 3D video editor for 4K and 5.7K content shot in 360 degrees. The editor needed to be equipped with multiple editing options, including filters, animations, and effects such as Little Planet.
• Provision of options to stabilize the captured video. These provisions had to include the option to track the object in 360 videos and, eventually, the possibility to crop it into a standard 2D video.
• Creating a mechanism to edit captured videos on the fly (during playback) when dealing with high-resolution media.
• Designing the product in such a way that the firmware would be updated through a mobile app to ensure accurate operation with the different product versions.
• Maintaining a constant connection between the client device (smartphone) and the mobile app. This was important since, in the Vuze camera, the client device serves as an access point with a separate Wi-Fi.
• Implementation of video streaming for the two most popular social media networks — Facebook and YouTube. Two additional requirements here were the need to deliver dynamic video quality and support for the user’s mobile device as an intermediate link.

Now, it’s important to understand that HumanEyes isn’t a pushover in the 3D camera industry. The company is a powerhouse name that currently holds more than 70 patents in 3D computer vision and image processing. They could have built Vuze in-house.

But, like many other IT teams out there, they didn’t have all the time in the world. They had a deadline to beat — a launch date looming. How could they beat the deadline without compromising quality or overworking their team? Outsource! And do it together with NIX.

In the end, it worked out really well for the company. First off, together with NIX, HumanEyes was able to build one of the best 3D cameras ever seen. We completed all the work in just six months and did it so that the client didn’t have to overstretch their resources (people and processes) to get the job done.

Nailing Trust, Transparency, and Communication; Lessons from HumanEyes’ Success Story

IT organizations can learn useful lessons from HumanEye’s outsourcing success. But, above all, we learn how to get the trust, transparency, and communication aspects of outsourcing right.

HumanEyes had to pass some of the project’s most delicate tasks to a third-party — in their first outsourced project.

It wasn’t easy. Trust was a major challenge. Like any other business owner delegating duties, they had all kinds of questions. On the example of HumanEyes any company that considers outsourcing can learn what are the correct questions to ask before the start.

• Could they trust the third-party?
• Did the third-party understand the specific needs of the project?
• Did the company have the tools to do the job?
• Could they deliver on time?
• What if they got it wrong?

Ilya Kottel, VP of R&D at the company, was particularly against outsourcing. He had prior experience with outsourcing — none of them ended well. He was, therefore, against working with external teams. Despite encouragement from other leaders at the company, he remained opposed to the idea. Only in the very end did he accept to give outsourcing a chance again choosing NIX as a vendor, and was finally extremely satisfied with the results.

How NIX and HumanEyes Passed the Trust Test

NIX always suggests solving the trust challenge with two vital outsourcing tools — transparency and communication.

The first step for HumanEyes was getting to know the offshore team and building mutual trust. To this end, the two parties set up meetings, put all cards on the table, and clearly stated their agenda and objectives. Each member of either team had to know what the project entailed, the desired results, and how to achieve the identified goals.

These meetings also allowed both parties to ask pertinent questions. HumanEyes got the opportunity to “interview” the third-party while the third-party was able to investigate and find out all the details relevant to the project. The feedback was then used to address potential issues before the partnership began.

Next, the two teams drew up a collaboration formula that laid out each party’s role throughout the project and identified communication channels to enable constant engagement. One of the key takeaways from this step was the setting of metrics to measure the progress of the project. This way, it was easy to determine whether everything was going to plan.

Meanwhile, the communication channels allowed the teams to share experiences and frustrations (where any existed). If there were challenges that would impact deadlines or projected costs, the teams shared these issues via the identified communication platforms. The same applied if HumanEyes’ needs changed in the slightest way. If they wanted one of the features tweaked, they could communicate it without trouble.

Success in the Results

With all the above mechanisms in place, the stage was set for a successful partnership. The trust and transparency ensured prompt and amicable resolution of any ensuing misunderstandings. Simultaneously, the collaboration and constant communication meant that everyone was focused on one thing — successful competition of the project — which is exactly what happened.

After the official release of the Vuze Camera, NIX proceeded to work with the company, maintaining and supporting the product.