Table of Contents
Why consider switching software development vendors?
These are some of the reasons to potentially change your software development partner:
Change of priorities. In many cases, a switch can be the result of changing priorities. For example, if your company’s focus has shifted from building applications for internal use only to selling them externally as well, or if it has decided to discontinue one product and start working on another one with a different technology your current partner does not excel at.
Change in strategy. If your company values innovation over efficiency or vice versa, then it’s important that the vendor understands this — otherwise there will be conflicts about how projects should be completed. In addition, if there’s been any change in leadership at either party (your company or its outsourcing partner), then it could affect how smoothly things go when making decisions together about future projects and goals.
Changes in culture/leadership/technology landscape/market/economy/competitive landscape. There are many reasons why a vendor may not fit into its current position anymore — When considering these variables, take into account the potential restructuring of your outsourcing strategy approach, which might even include changes in the geographies where you are hiring the service.
Is it worth it to change my outsourcing software development partner?
Consider the following
Cost savings. It’s important to focus on the total cost of ownership and not only hourly rates. Consider and compare your current partner’s maturity, processes, capabilities, access to talent as well as rates to see things holistically.
Improvement in quality of deliverables and communication. If your current outsourcing software development partner has provided poor quality deliverables and/or poor communication, then it’s time to move on and find another partner who can do better.
Improvement in delivery time and project success rate.
Do keep in mind that a vendor handoff, knowledge transfer plan execution and ramp up times do eat significantly into your focus and output.
Main risks and challenges when switching technology vendors?
When switching technology outsourcing vendors, you will face several risks and challenges. First, there’s the risk of vendor lock-in—you may be locked into an agreement that prevents you from switching providers if the relationship doesn’t work out as planned.
Another issue to consider is losing business continuity: Your current provider may not be able to transition your data or services seamlessly when they no longer provide them. This could lead to downtime, which can disrupt your organization’s operations and damage its reputation among customers or partners. You need a new provider that can handle these transitions smoothly.
Additionally, when switching technology outsourcing vendors, you’ll need to find a company that knows how to retain employees, especially key personnel who know how things work at their old company and can help set up services with their new one (if necessary). The same goes for customers —they’re used to dealing with certain people at your company and might not like being transferred over without much explanation about what happened or why it happened so suddenly (if ever). If this happens frequently enough over time from being on different sides of multiple contracts with different companies within one industry sector (as opposed to just one), then eventually everyone gets fed up with having their questions unanswered by neither side because no one wants anyone else knowing what they did before working there now….
Make sure you have a process in place before you choose a new outsourcing provider
Before you begin the selection process, your organization needs a formal process in place. This is because outsourcing involves more than just choosing a vendor. You’ll also need to:
-
Define the services you’d like to outsource and determine who will be responsible for overseeing each service.
Determine what metrics will be used to measure performance.Develop a plan for how you’ll go about switching vendors if needed (and how this would impact your clients).
-
Define which capabilities your new partner needs to have in order to cover any gaps left by the previous vendor or gaps on your strategy moving forward.
-
Determine if the change in vendors will also require a change in geographies where those services are provided and if there are additional variables to keep in mind (such as time zones, intercultural communication)
-
Develop a plan for how you’ll go about switching vendors if needed (and how this would impact your clients).
Main steps to change a software outsourcing partner
Now that you have a clear understanding of what to expect from the vendor change process, here are the main steps to take:
Create a knowledge transfer plan design. This will help you determine what needs to be done and by when in order for your business continuity and seamless transition into your new software outsourcing partner.
Develop knowledge documentation. This step entails creating guides and instructions that explain how all aspects of your company’s operations function, including processes and procedures, protocols, standards, templates and data structures.
Select a new vendor partner. After choosing which technology suppliers will best meet your needs while minimizing risk factors such as cost or time-to-market pressures on development projects within an established timeline—and after making sure they understand those needs—you can begin engaging with them through conversations on how they plan on delivering solutions around those needs so there’s no misunderstanding later down line once things get started up again under their watchful eye; also make sure everyone agrees beforehand about who owns which elements (like code) in case anything happens along way during transition phase.
How to define a knowledge transfer plan for switching a technology vendor
Once a decision to switch has been made, it is time to develop a knowledge transfer plan. This should include all areas for knowledge transfer which may include:
Technical topics – technology, applications and infrastructure.
Non-technical topics – processes, procedures, best practices, ceremonies (such as change control), dynamics (team structure and communication patterns) and culture.
In order for the vendor’s team to take over smoothly, this will require proper planning from day one of their engagement with you. You need to be proactive in ensuring that key stakeholders are involved in defining roles & responsibilities as well as doing a gap analysis between how things were done before versus how they are going to be done now. You should also consider if there are any new requirements that need to be addressed by your current team or if certain people will be required at all given their current workloads or skillsets available within the company itself.
Team level knowledge to document and transfer
In order to ensure that the knowledge transfer is successful, you need to make sure that all the relevant information is documented. The following are some of this information:
Repositories, network and access details – This includes any repository used as a backup or source code management system. It also includes access credentials to internal systems like JIRA and Confluence (if applicable).
Architecture Overview – This should include a high level overview of the architecture including different tiers, databases and other components used by your application.
Engineering Practices Overview – This should include practices related to design, development and deployment including branching strategy etc…
Individual level knowledge to document and transfer
You need to understand the logic behind the code. It’s important not to make assumptions about your new vendor’s capabilities, so it’s critical to set up one-on-one meetings with key personnel from each of your practice areas (product, software developers, QA, DevOps and UI/UX). The idea is that these individuals will share their knowledge of how things are done with you. This kind of exchange will help ensure that you’re able to get up running on day one in your new relationship with your vendor.
Review key documents between both teams. Take some time so that all parties can review certain key documents together—for example:
Use cases / scenarios
User stories and tasks list
Wireframes or mockups as they relate to user interface changes made after initial development phase
Knowledge transfer accountability
Before you jump into a vendor switch, it’s important to consider who will be responsible for knowledge transfer. Define the roles and responsibilities of each party involved in transferring knowledge: what do they need to do? Who will document the knowledge? How long should this process take? What is your timeframe for getting up and running with the new vendor?
Once you have this information explicitly documented review it with each key stakeholder involved in switching vendors. This helps ensure everyone has a clear understanding of their role in the process as well as any potential roadblocks that could arise during implementation.
Methods and tactics for the knowledge transfer
Let’s talk about the ways you can transfer knowledge to your new vendor.
Technical documentation: This is a vital part of the process and should be done as soon as you begin working with your new vendor. It’s important that they know how your system works and how it fits into your overall business, from start to finish. This can include diagrams of various processes, step-by-step instructions for each task or function (for example, how an order is placed), and other relevant information about what you do on a daily basis.
On-site training: Once technical documentation has been sent over, you’ll want to ensure that your new team members are able to implement changes without being held up by mistakes made by their predecessors (like myself). To do this effectively—and avoid having too much downtime between one team leaving and another starting—you may want to consider scheduling some training sessions before transferring responsibility completely over with live lessons done either remotely or in person at both locations where work will take place.
Live training: Even after all documents have been sent over and reviewed thoroughly by both parties’ staff members, there will still be questions left unanswered which won’t show up until after implementation begins taking place full time in all departments/areas/etc., so it will help to have if everyone involved on scheduled regular meetings through video conferencing tools like Zoom, Hangouts or Teams, to cover any additional questions that come up through the first months after the handoff.
Where and how to store knowledge
It’s essential that you have an easily accessible, secure space to store all of the information listed above. This storage should be aligned with your company-wide knowledge management system, and it should be covered in the business continuity and disaster recovery plans.
Additional considerations for switching a software development vendor
When evaluating a vendor, think about how their solution will help you achieve your business goals. For example, if you want to improve customer retention, look for a vendor with the ability to create an effective customer experience and provide seamless integration across channels. You also should consider whether or not the company has the right skills and expertise to help you evolve as a company.
Finally, remember that even though it’s time to move on from your current technology partner, they may still have some important lessons for you—including what not to do when choosing your next one!
Wrapup
Done correctly, switching your technology partner can be a positive experience for both parties. It’s important to do your research beforehand, so that you know what to expect from the process and how it will affect both parties involved. If you follow these guidelines, then switching vendors should go smoothly! If you want to discuss how to prepare for a transition like this, reach out, we can help.
