Engagement Models

Maarga has evolved engagement models to suit an intermeidated business model, with a clear value proposition for an onsite business partner and an offshore team. The objective of any engagement model would be to provide a virtual team to the system integrator while adjusting the level of commitment, level of control, investment required (both time and money) and the cost savings generated through offshore economics to optimum levels for the situation at hand.

Broadly there are three engagement models that move from a low involvement, low control mode to a very high involvement, very high control mode. These are:

• Project Subcontracting - The Lotus Business Partner chooses to engage with Maarga as and when a project with some potential for offshore work turns up (see "Is your project offshorable?"). This is a great way to start with offshoring - the commitment to the offshore vendor ends with the end of the project and the deliverables are fairly clearly defined. The negatives of this model include the fact that communication lines established over the course of a project might be lost and any new project would involve building the communication & collaboration infrastructure again.
• Retained Team - In this model, the Lotus Business Partner retains a small team of resources that are dedicated to work from the concerned Business Partner. This retained resource is kept busy with any work that comes the way of the Business Partner that can be offshored, including small projects that are not otherwise considered offshore candidates. Intro page covering the different engagement models and transition graphic. Pros and cons table.
• Offshore Development Center - This is the highest involvement model that has compensating cost savings going with it. Under this model, Maarga sets up a dedicated development center for the business partner with multiple experienced engineers screened to the specifications of the business partner. The infrastructure in the development center is also exclusively dedicated the the Business Partner.

Which engagement model should you choose?

We recommend that you start with a project subcontracting model and move onto either a retained team or to an offshore development center. While the subcontracting model is great for starters, it does not offer the price, resource lock-in that the other two models provide. Customers with a fairly big offshore plan (consistent utilization of more than 25 people) should consider the offshore development center option seriously.