The Potential and Perils of Outsourcing Creative Services to India

Let us help you find a good company in India who will provide you with creative services like creative writing and communication. This article offers information on what one should expect from Indian service providers and useful tips on how to avoid potential pitfalls.

Creative Services That Can be Outsourced

The outsourcing boom started with software and expanded to call centers now it is moving into other high end services like engineering, architecture, research, technical writing, creative writing and creative services.

Some creative services that can be outsourced are
 

• Illustrations
• Business Writing,
• Photography
• Editing
• Screenwriting
• Photo Editing
• Creative Writing
• Proofreading
• Cover Design
• White Paper Development
• Journalistic Writing
• Art
• Technical Writing
• Graphic Design
• Storyboarding
• Video Editing
• Textbook Manuscript Layout
• Instructional Design
• Animation
• Music Composition

What to Expect from India?

The Indian education system combined with natural talent has produced not only a large number of technically competent software professions but technical writers, script writers, artist and many other professionals.. It would be difficult to find another country with a higher level of English writing and editing skills combined with a literary and film history. The result is a large number of qualified people ready, willing and able to provide quality content for a variety of media and for a variety of global customers.

The Indian professional's outlook has been very global. Combine this with the advantage they have gained from dealing with global customers during this current outsourcing boom and the result is that Indians can easily create and write from this perspective. Futhermore, the Internet has opened the world and flooded India with a lot of information from the West creating a perspective that is a merger of East and West. This bi-cultural global outlook gives Indians a keen insight into global trends and markets and makes their output uniquely valuable.

Here are some categories of business content that would logically be outsourcing to India

• Media and Communication,
• Future Asian Trends,
• Cross Cultural Communications
• Outsourcing Case Studies,
• Outsourcing to Indian
• Cultural Insights for Global Marketing
• Business Technology, Business Execution in a Developing Country,
• Strategy in an Global Internet Economy,
• Indian Corporate Governance,
• Cross Cultural Leadership,
• Emerging Asian Markets,
• Opening New Markets With the Internet,
• Labor Arbitrage

These examples of business writing are just categories of high end outsourcing that are emerging from India.

The Risks of Outsourcing Creative Services

Outsourcing many of these services to India can be straightforward and entered into with little risk or at least a lot less risk than a software project. The best way to avoid risk is to limit deliverables and payments to small chunks until thrust, quality and reliability are established. A sample project is a common way of testing before entering into a large project.

A Good Process is Helpful

As in all good outsourcing it is wise to predetermine a good clear process to assure quality. It is recommend that this be requested of the vendor before consider their services. A good to clear detailed document spelling out exactly what is required often prevents confusion later on. A good vendor will have a questionnaire or checklist to help capture exactly what you want.

Recommendations

If you are an American be prepared for some minor differences. For example in writing you might expect some minor differences in grammar, spelling and style. British English is common in India but the influence of American TV has helped many Indians understand the subtle differences and adapt accordingly. The Indian style can be more formal and wordy. It may help to prepare some writing guidelines and request some modification in style. However, the college students of today are so globalized that some of these difference are fading rapidly.

In spite of this if you outsource writing or other creating services, for example, expect to edit or tweak the final work according to the target audience. This may be required when more creative services are outsourced as cultural nuances may appear more often.