At the IBM Rational Software Development Conference last year the main hurdles experienced when outsourcing or offshoring projects to countries like China and India was a hot topic of discussion. One that came to the forefront was Communication.
Communication is one of the most important issues for any offshore outsourced project but the differences in culture will more often than not prove to be a stumbling block. So also could time zone differences. The Rational Conference panel advised outsourcers to use the Rational ClearCase version control tool, and the Rational ClearQuest bug tracking tool among others to help them through this. They advise that these tools can be used to facilitate communicating and coordination with the service providers.
Rational ClearCase allows the outsourcer to revise controls and configure management of the source code and other software development features. It is capable of handling projects with as many developers as there may be. It can be configured to support a large number of SCM (Supply Chain Management) needs. However it can turn out to be pretty expensive for small enterprises.
Rational ClearQuest is a workflow automation tool, particularly its bug tracking system. It can be used to create ordered steps for resources assigned to specific goals.
Originally designed to track bugs in software development projects, it permits a company to organize tasks that are connected to new features.
Alternatively, since these software are pretty expensive, one could decide upon using open source software such as Geeklog, Wiki, Bugzilla and CVS instead. Although they are normally used in IT offshoring projects they could be used in other projects as well.

The real estate sub prime crisis may be bad news for those at home but it’s good news for legal process outsourcing firms (LPOs) in India.
Over burdened with the innumerable numbers of mortgage cases and bankruptcy filings and the paper work they entail, US firms have stepped up outsourcing the work to Indian firms that have proved themselves up to the task. Now, not only are these firms busying themselves with the regular filing, processing and claims tasks they do as a matter of course, but are also undertaking jobs connected to legal analytics, discovery and litigation support, and first-line document drafting.
India has over 200 LPO firms besides its service providers such as Infosys and Wipro to choose from for this. Top of the class are Pangea3, OfficeTiger, Mindcrest , Evalueserve, Integreon, and SDD Global.
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In its January issue, the New York Law Journal described legal outsourcing to India as a reality.
Commenting on the decreasing level of resistance to it and the corresponding acceptance of it, the journal put this mainly down to the cost advantage.
“LPO salaries for Indian lawyers are generally well below 10,000 USD a year. By comparison, a US contract lawyer usually earns around 30 USD an hour while associate base salaries at major firms in New York start at 160,000 USD a year,” the journal says.
The report details how companies having already outsourced their work to India have had positive experiences.
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In 2006 and 2007 the bar associations of New York, California and Los Angeles had declared their views that there appeared to be no ethical problems with the offshoring of legal support work by American attorneys to lawyers in other countries under certain conditions. Many United States attorneys and law firms are already adopting such ethical guidelines.
According to the president of SQ Global Solutions, Ram Vasudevan, this nod can only result in the Indian LPO market, currently measured at $130 million and with around 1,000 non-lawyers and lawyers, carrying out important legal outsourcing services in India, growing by leaps and bounds in the near future. In fact, according to Forrester Research, it is expected to reach $4-billion by 2015.
Vasudevan has been quoted as saying, “The guidelines state that US lawyers who are contemplating outsourcing legal services to other countries should inform their client that the work is being outsourced, besides protecting the client’s confidences. The US law firm should also be closely involved in the supervision of the outsourced work. In addition, the entity performing the work must perform conflict checks to avoid any unpleasant surprises.”
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More than any other country, perhaps, India has entered the legal outsourcing arena in a big way.

And not without reason. With its excellent law offices manned by efficient and well trained lawyers, and with English being spoken fluently all over the country there is no compromise in the quality of work done. Besides, without a doubt it is far cheaper.

Even thought the LPO or legal process outsourcing work is performed in India it can still be managed by a reputable American firm, thus ensuring quality and accountability.
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