With the current economy and the need to reduce overhead costs it may be a good idea to begin considering outsourcing your web project needs to a vendor/consultant.  

Let’s face it, we all know the situation with the economy and the need to cut costs internally as much as possible.  Last week layoffs surged to over 300,000 since late August 2008 (see Techcrunch article for specifics http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/17/tech-layoffs-surge-to-300000/) with more layoffs announced and in all probability, more coming.

With the need to reduce costs, How could outsourcing be a benefit to you and your organization?  

Depending on the type of vendor and contract period that you are considering, it could help to reduce your overall budget expense.  Outsourcing could also help to ensure that your project is delivered on-time, and in a smooth and efficient manner.

First, lets address budget. Vendor outsourcing would certainly be less costly than hiring and training new employees to address your web projects and/or updates/edits.  As mentioned above, layoffs are at a high right now and most companies have had to downsize in one way or another.  If you are lucky and can hire, hiring and training can run anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000 just in ad placement, interviewing, background and drug checks and then the internal training (this doesn’t include salary compensation). Where, with a vendor there would be some expense in the research and proposal/interviewing stage, but then vendors are the experts and professionals. From that point on they should be able to take over and handle your project and web needs based upon the contract requirements.

Your website, in most cases, is your first impression to the general public, your members, your potential new members, your audience and your buyers. It is important to keep your website as up-to-date and fresh as possible.  Information/content needs to be updated timely and of relevance to keep users coming back to your site.  Functionality needs to be updated and user friendly. Technology is always changing and being updated, you need to stay in the forefront of your competition and ensure that you offer your website users with a good experience when they visit your site. You want them to keep coming back.

Vendor outsourcing is a viable solution to assisting you and your company with maintaining a good web presence, staying ahead of the competition through updated content and web strategies/technologies, and increasing users and traffic to your site. 

Timing of your project is important and your selected vendor is the expert in the web strategy, design and development field. They should be able to provide you with a schedule timeline with milestones and updates throughout the process. Your vendor is representing you and your company. A good project depends on a good project manager. Your selected vendor should be a good project manager and ensure that the project experience and outcome is a smooth one for you and your organization.  

I found a post that was done a few years ago regarding vendor consulting and still believe that this is relevant, the post was from the www.problogger.com site and does include good information and good comments that are definitely worth the time to review.  http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/11/27/hiring-a-web-consultant-pros-and-cons/

When preparing a response to an RFP you need to include any assumptions that you may have based your response on. This is a common practice and pretty much takes care of the unanswered or standard items that may come up but none-the-less, very important.

Ensure that you list all assumptions in as much detail as possible.  It’s OK if they are listed in more than one area of the response.  The more the better in some instances to ensure that they are read and agreed to.  

Items that are normally included as part of the assumption outline include:

1. Files types and File formats of images, logos, etc. that the client may be supplying. (i.e., Logo/Images are to be supplied as vector based images at 150 dpi);
2. Point of Contact for both Project Manager and Contact (list point of contact names from both parties, this will help cut down on the task of receiving multiple emails from various client contacts;
3. Response times to inquiries (i.e., questions/inquiries received during normal business hours of 8am – 5pm Monday through Friday will receive a response within 24 hours of receipt, etc.);
4. Changes/Modifications – how will these be handled? (i.e., all changes/modifications to specifications will be reviewed with an estimated time of completion and charge provided for approval, etc.);
5. For newly developed web sites, an assumption to add is “Testing & Approval”.  The site will be fully tested by the client and approved prior to placing on the live web servers, any changes requested after this time will result in additional charges;
6. Edits/Updates – stipulate in the assumptions that any requested edits/updates will be performed during regular business hours and any requested edits/updates that are to be received after regular business hours are subject to additional charges’
7. Communication – add in the assumptions the communication process, i.e., the Project Manager will communicate and provide the client project manager with a status update via email once per week, etc. (whenever or however this is to occur).

As a recommendation, also add a line under the estimate amount and/or somewhere within the stated rates, that the rates reflected are for work performed during the business hours of 8am to 5pm Monday through Friday. Special requests for work performed outside of these hours will be subject to additional charges with an estimate provided for approval at this time.

After the job is won and the contract is approved, the next stage is the Project Specifications.  I recommend that you at least include these same assumptions and pricing guidelines within the specifications as well on a separate page.  Possibly have the client and project manager initial this page as well.  Not to be overly anal about the assumptions or the guidelines, but it is best practice to ensure that these are read and agreed to.

Remember, you based your proposal upon these assumptions. Having them ignored during the course of the project could result in project creep, loss of monies due to additional expenses not accounted for, or an unhappy client because the project was not what they had thought.