Time is very important in terms of business and making profit. With outsourcing of tasks of utmost importance, being at its best now by many huge organizations all over the world, time is definitely a very essential factor that cannot be neglected. India is a preferred location for outsourcing of projects, because of many advantages, as discussed in our article “Outsourcing work to India”. With time zone difference being an added advantage for India, it only makes it a preferred choice for various countries to outsource even their crucial projects here.
Time difference – The fact
Countries in different parts of the planet follow different time zones. For example, India, one of the preferred choices by outsourcing countries, follows the Indian Standard time. This time zone is different from that followed by the countries in the other parts of the world, as follows:
- EST (United States): India is about 10.5 Hours ahead of EST.
- MT: India is 5.5 hours ahead.
- Middle East/East Africa – India is about 2.5 Hours ahead.
- Australia – India is about 4 Hours behind.
- Europe – India is about 5.5 Hours ahead.
With these time differences, it might occur to few that management of the outsource team might become difficult. But there could be another positive side to this issue as well.
How is time difference proving useful?
Quality Customer Service
India has a time zone that proves beneficial to the outsourcing countries to provide continued and unhampered service to their clients. With quality customer service being the order of the day and increasingly becoming demanding and essential in terms of competition and existence of an organization, each and every company is looking at giving their customers reliable service and sharing a feel of empathy with them. For this, choosing a country like India that has varied time difference proves to be useful.
24x7x365 Services due to culture differences
So when time difference arises, organizations can give their clients continued services and support, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Also, the holiday patterns differ in different countries, as the culture and heritage vary. This results in providing yearlong support to the customers, thereby going a step forward in giving the customers 365 days of continued service, a year, even when locally, all are getting their share of holidays.
Onsite and offsite team co-ordination
Many large organizations have an onsite and offsite team, who work on various projects in a combined manner. The onsite team that works in the parent country, works in the morning hours, on the project requirements received from the client and passes it on the outsourced company in countries like India, to be processed here. By then, it is morning in India, where the team works on the requirements. Once they are done with their share of work, they send it back to the parent country, where it is morning again, and the onsite team works on the remaining work and sends the update to the client. This brings in an excellent co-ordination of work, among the onsite and offsite teams.
Effective utilization of Time
From the way the onsite and offsite team co-ordinate and work, depending on the time zone differences, it is very obvious that effective utilization of time is also being done, as work is being done on a given project even at nights, thereby speeding up the process of finishing the task. This results in timely submission of the project, thereby increase in customer satisfaction, reliability and loyalty.
Increased productivity
The above explained onsite and offsite team co-ordination also results in increased productivity of work, as the time taken to complete the work is lesser, with more time being left to work on new issues and projects. This leads to an increase in the productivity of the organization.
Ultimately, cost efficient
So how is this whole issue of time zone proving useful in terms of cost? Well the answer is very simple and obvious. In countries like India, employees are also ready to work at night. So the same space can be utilized in the daytime as well, for catering to the needs of another team or probably another country that has a different time zone, so that more productivity is also called for, with less cost involved.
If managed effectively, time difference can prove highly advantageous to the outsourcing companies. With proper planning and lots of research done, prior to outsourcing a project offshore, it is a proven fact that success is definite!