One of the risks of outsourcing tech builds or development, often means losing control over the technology direction, decision-making, and suitability with your product and business goals.
That’s why we think it is essential to involve yourself in key tech decisions, especially those about tech stack, system architecture, and the development roadmap and process.
Establish clear communication channels via tools (like Zoom, Slack, etc) with your tech partner, plus regular check-ins and updates will help to ensure alignment with your vision and requirements.
Alternatively, if you’re not that tech-savvy, learning it yourself or hiring a local tech lead or finding a tech co-founder can provide on-ground oversight and ensure any outsourcing aligns with your business objectives.
Safeguard Your Intellectual Property
When disclosing your intellectual property to a third party, make sure there are clear guidelines about the ownership of the business IP, as well as having access to the code for your product or platform.
Make sure you are diligent in reviewing the IP clauses in your contracts with outsourcing partners. Ensure that your contracts clearly define the ownership of developed IP and include non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to protect sensitive information.
In addition, make sure you can control access privileges to your infrastructure, coding, and deployment environments. If there are any doubts, you can always revoke someone’s access to reduce the potential threat or harm they could cause.
On top of that, regular audits and external legal benin phone number library reviews can further safeguard your interests, so when in doubt perhaps you should seek legal advice or seek out another provider.
For example, you wouldn’t want to follow in the footsteps of these Execs in Japan who outsourced their development work to North Korean software engineers, and got caught doing it. Warning signs include inaccurate use of the Japanese language, suspicious-looking names, and names not matching payment accounts.
*The Tekkon team in Nepal at their annual Tekknite event, a chance to celebrate achievements and come together as a group.
Cultural and Communication Barriers
Japan itself is a country of unique culture and language, and perhaps even more so when it comes to ways of doing business. So, when it comes to outsourcing with a tech partner, there may very well be gaps and differences in communication style and business culture.
In this particular situation, selecting development partners who adapt to your communication style and business etiquette is vital. You could even consider cultural training for both your team and the outsourced developers to foster mutual understanding.
Tools and methodologies that support clear, consistent communication (like daily stand-ups and user stories) can bridge communication gaps and align the vision across the team both local and remote.
When it comes to communicating with the Japanese, some unique elements to be aware of in their Business culture include:
- Nemawashi: a Japanese business practice of informally discussing and gaining support for a proposal before officially presenting it. It helps address any issues early and ensures broad agreement.
- Indirect Communication: Responses may be non-committal or vague, such as “We will consider it,” or “That might be difficult,” which can imply disagreement or rejection without stating it outright.
- Honne and Tatemae: Japanese concepts referring to a person’s true feelings (Honne) and the public face they show (Tatemae).
Quality Concerns
Suppose you’ve ever visited or even lived in why is the insurance broker profession important? Japan. In that case, you’ll note that the country prides itself in its Omotenashi approach to customer service, and the same quality standards can be said of the products you can buy throughout the nation.
As a result, it’s important to also ensure development work, whether local or offshore meets the high standards expected by Japanese markets.
One way to mitigate this is to implement rigorous quality checks and regular reporting. Ask for daily updates on progress and involve a third party to review the code if necessary. Setting clear, measurable quality standards from the start will help maintain the desired level of quality.
Furthermore, ensuring code is tested from the point of cybersecurity is also a growing concern. As Japan has historically been the target of a large number of cyber-attacks, there is much more attention being paid to reducing vulnerabilities and bolstering security. Major Japanese brands including Fujitsu, Toyota, Sony and Line have all reported to be recent victims of cyberattacks over the past few years.
That’s why Kishida’s most recent visit to the US was crucial from this perspective. As he was able to secure a $2.9B investment from Tech Giant Microsoft into their AI and Cloud Infrastructure. Demonstrating just how serious the nation is about tackling cybersecurity and innovation going forward.
Time Zone Differences
Naturally, when working across different countries, there bz lists may be some inevitable differences in hours, affecting communication and workflow, and limiting the time for meetings.
A way to work around this is to choose outsourcing locations with similar time zones, that either overlap or adjust working hours to create core time windows where both teams are working.
This alignment will help to ensure there is sufficient time to schedule regular meetings and timely updates, facilitating smoother project management and collaboration across your business.
Another thing to consider is the difference in public holidays, for example when Japan is off on Golden Week, Obon and Silver Week, the rest of the world still continues to work through. Meanwhile, China has Chinese New Year and similarly Vietnam has Lunar New Year in late January/Early February for almost 2 weeks. Diwali in India happens over 5-6 days around September to November.