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So you’re thinking about using a Cloud Services Provider to help supplement your technology team. You’ve probably looked at the standard offerings that these providers have: their experience, their qualifications, their client list, and their technology background.
There’s one differentiator, though, that a lot of organizers don’t think of, especially if they are going with a managed services provider for the first time.
Where in the world is the provider?
This question isn’t about whether their headquarters is near you or far from you.
It’s about whether they have a blended team, with offices in multiple parts of the globe:
- Onshore: Typically North America
- Near-shore: Lower-cost areas in the same time zone, such as South or Central America
- Offshore: Typically Asia and/or Europe
The Benefits of Blended Teams
Blended teams provide some important opportunities that could lead to competitive advantages in your operations, development, and bottom line.
First, a blended team can perform round-the-clock app development. If your provider is developing a solution for you, they can code in North American time zones all day, and then perform QA work in Eurasian time zones overnight. This can greatly accelerate the development timelines while ensuring that you have a strong handle on what’s being done.
Also, the flexibility of a blended team enables assigning work in different regions to match your cost and velocity demands.
Finally, a blended team ensures better reliability for your infrastructure. The days of a pager waking up a technician in the middle of the night for a system failure are gone. Having a live technical team covering your systems 24/7 is a necessity now, and a global team is the best way to provide that business continuity.
Our globally interconnected world provides new opportunities in the technology sector, and when you’re selecting a service provider, you need to ensure those opportunities are there for you as well.
