These days in the world of cheap outsourced CAD, it’s can be very tempting to hire on offshore drafting services firm to do your production. The allure is certainly understandable. The claims being made by so many of these firms go something like this: “Trust us to do your drawings and details, because we are experienced professionals that can complete your project on time, and at a billable rate that is lower than the typical wage at Walmart.”As principals, CFOs, project managers, the promise of getting labor so cheaply sends images of profits, promotions and bonus checks dancing through our heads. Trust me, been there, done that, bought the T-shirt (or perhaps, was “sold” the T-shirt is a little more fitting, no pun intended.) I have very solid experience in this arena. And my intention is certainly not to knock outsourced offshore CAD labor, because it has a place in my own business model. I have a solid relationship with several overseas firms, precisely because I’ve, well, been there, done that. More on that later.The real challenge lies in knowing where to set your expectations, along with adjusting to certain cultural differences which can lead to less-than-effective communication with your outsourced consultant. In a nut shell, outsourcing your CAD production can be a great solution, but one that carries with it a learning curve - a potentially steep one. That learning curve can be well worth the investment of effort and time - or not, depending on your project/budget/timeline and the consultant you are working with.Once upon a time, while working as a project manager for a large, well established A/E firm (prior to going out on my own) I / we found ourselves in a difficult pattern with what was frankly, a difficult client. Without mentioning names, this was a national retail/restaurant chain, and we were producing an average of 2 to 4 construction document packages per week for new store locations, while serving as the Architect of Record for permit expediting on about that many more per week (the client was in a period of very aggressive growth, which I hear through the grapevine has slowed quite a bit.) The pattern? We were using more billable hours to produce these drawings than budgets allocated (see reference to ‘difficult’ above.) We responded with a concerted drive towards increased efficiencies, and tried shifting from a “one Job Captain per project” approach, where the employee assigned would be the sole “owner” of the project, to an integrated team approach, where 3 to 5 job captains would tag-team the project. This actually improved our margins and timelines, but the improvements were inconsistant, and at times, inadequate.
Enter outsourced CAD Drafting consultant(s) with those tantalizing promises of slashing our labor costs. I actually instigated the whole sordid affair. My wife is from India, and there are no shortage of engineers and design professionals in her family. I suggested to my (ahem ..) “superiors” that outsourcing could be the solution to our strained budgets, and the proverbial ears went up (shot up actually.) Soon afterwards, my father-in-law spoke to a couple of engineer/architect colleagues overseas while there on a business trip, and introductions were made. A couple of proposals and emails later, we were off to the races, eyes gleaming with anticipation, and barely discernable dollar signs.
Thats when the learning curve officially started. Admittedly, there is the usual stuff that only rookies would get thrown off by, like who’s ftp site would be used for uploads and downloads, which platform of instant messenging would be used (if any) to emulate the luxury of “real time” interaction, much like you would get with employees under your own roof. What time of day do we “check in”, consdidering there is a 12 hour difference between time-zones. Minor inconveniences at worst. So far, so good.
Then, there was a “little” hiccup. For background, this client’s projects required the use of a proprietary, specialized software package as opposed to something simple like using the industry standard for CAD production (see reference to ‘difficult’ above *again*.) This of course means that our consultant needs to install that same piece of software in order to do any work on these projects. Simple, we’ll upload the installation to a diretory via FTP, and they can install it on all their workstations. Yeah, right. Due to some mysterious “variables” that were not “compatable” on their workstations, it took over a month of troubleshooting from our side and theirs, just to get the software properly functioning.
Time to forge ahead and make up for lost time. This is when their production team finally had a chance to dig into the software and use it to produce a set of drawings, on an already completed project selected for training purposes. The idea being, we give them the raw data as if it were a new project, they do their best to complete it in an acceptable time frame, and we compare theirs to the real thing. We expected their to be some learning curve, which would be facilitated by rounds of “markup, pickup, repeat” a la FTP and a few sessions of IM, until their team is on the page with us.
Weeks later, including multiple emails and IM sessions seeking clarification on everything from how to use the tools to generate the information (there were complex routines built into the drawing process, involving data extraction and scheduling tied into drawing elements, ad nauseum, so it should not have been surprising) to questions that vaguely sounded like people completely unfamiliar with common industry design standards, the moment finally came: the coveted, first progress check-set came in. And after a labor effort that took about 4 times longer than required, that first attempt was less than 20% complete and/or correct. And this is not an exaggeration.
Did I say ’same page’ earlier? Way too ambitious. Try, same volume, or, same shelf maybe. No offence to this consultant, but it became clear, about 2 months into this “learning curve” that there were serious challenges afoot here. It really was not an issue of competency, I truly believe that this firm was/is qualified. But, they work in a different culture, including a different professional “office culture”, which in turn brings with it issues of language (and “dialect”,) customs, and industry standards that are all anywhere from mildly to wildly different from those in San Diego, CA (where I happen to be.)
I think the reality of it is that in theory, with tools like ftp, the Web, email, instant messeging, it should be relatively simple (again, in theory) to exchange large amounts of information between two parties on two differing continents - but that doesn’t make it simple. Bottom line, no matter how high or low the billable rates, we take proximity for granted, in terms of how valuable it is to real communication and interraction. In some applications, industries, areas of interest, sacrificing proximity may pose little to no barrier to effective communication. But, based on experience, my conclusion is that in this business, without having a consultant close at hand, at least for some period of training, you had better budget time and money to deal with that learning curve.
As I eluded to earlier, I very much value my offshore consultants, and in some scenarios, they enable me to pass along a leaner pricing package to clients. However, that didn’t happen without “paying my dues”, and I suspect it cannot happen for anyone considering striking up a relationship with an offshore consultant, without a considerable investment of time and effort. Whether that translates to front-loading the effort by flying in a team for 2 weeks of on-site training, or spreading it out over several months of fits and spurts via electronic communication from within different time-zones, be prepared for it. Over the long term, it can pay off. But the next time someone promises straightforward drafting or design services at $10.00 an hour (give or take) just remember that timeless expression that starts off with: “If it sounds too good to be true….”
