8 Dangers of Outsourcing Website Development

Globalization has helped the economies of the creator as well as the consumer country to grow. Goods made in Asian countries, prominently in China, have flooded western markets and given the lower cost it has been a win-win situation for both.

Dubai depends on imports for not just food but also for most of the goods consumed locally. It has yet to build the capacity to produce locally.

But it is surprising that many companies are still getting quotes for website development from companies based outside Dubai, when companies like emQube are present locally to create their dream websites. Many companies that outsource to India when surveyed cited ‘cost’ as the major advantage and at a conservative estimate the savings is almost 30-40 percent cheaper.

In our last 20 years of website development work for companies we have realized that what looks to be cheaper at first turns out to be more expensive when you finally complete the site. Here are compelling reasons to reconsider outsourcing creative and collaborative work to companies outside Dubai.

– Website development is a creative project, and it requires deeper understanding of the local market as well as the client’s requirements. It takes much longer to explain requirements over video than face-to-face.

– Development is also a collaborative effort, and it takes more time and effort to communicate with a remote team than it does with a local team. The management and executive time wasted is not being factored by the client in the full cost of the project.

– A local company is more accountable as it must build and protect its reputation with local clients. It is more flexible and cooperative too.

– A company registered in Dubai is legally bound to ensure work is completed as per the terms of the contract thus ensuring the advance paid and subsequent payments are honored.

– While time-zones may not matter, a local company is more responsive than a remote company. The rate of abandonment of outsourced projects is much higher than local.

– A local company has its management available to you for any escalation or discussion, while a remote company may not even have a qualified representative in Dubai.

– A website is a living statement that needs to be upgraded and updated as the company evolves and hence a local company is always going to be around as compared to a remote company.

– And lastly, in many projects as they progress the real scope of work is discovered late leading to cost overrun that is demanded from the clients.

Our intention with this article is in no way to disparage companies outside Dubai. It is simply to make you aware, based on our experiences, of the cons involved in outsourcing your web design project to other countries.

Mohammed Sutarwala, Managing Director, emQube