[flexcoders] Who have YOU used for outsourcing mid to large Flex/CF projects?
My company is where I like it - small and maintainable - just a few employees. But sometimes I get some BIG projects thrown at me that are nearly guaranteed. The problem is, I don't want to hire anyone and it's too hard to keep a good group of reserve programmers busy 100% of the time. I've turned away at least 3 $30,000 projects in the last few months alone - and I hate it. I want to be involved, I want to grow the company, but I think the best solution might be to use an outsourcing house. Eventually these clients will stop coming to me and go elsewhere - and I don't want that to happen. So --- who have YOU used to outsource your projects to? Someone that does it all - Flex, CF, .NET, SQL Server, etc. I don't have the money to blow to try out places to find out they suck pondwater or never return phone calls. I want to manage the project and I want to be involved in everything, but I need a group that can continue to work even though they run into a roadblock on a separate piece. Now there are some INCREDIBLE groups out there that we all know and love (I won't name names, but one of them trained me in Flex) but $120/hour in this economy isn't going to cut it. So - who have you used that you like, that won't break the bank? And do they communicate well? (It's WAAAY to hard for me to express what I want to someone that doesn't understand English, so I need to be careful there too) Any recommendations/thoughts/examples? If you ARE one of these groups, PLEASE don't respond on this list - just reply to me directly. There is already WAY too much traffic on this list to begin with (I even hesitated sending this message) But what I'm REALLY looking for is someone who has EXPERIENCE with some of these groups - good or bad. Thanks for listening!
Re: [flexcoders] Who have YOU used for outsourcing mid to large Flex/CF projects?
Hey, this is just my opinion and what I've learned from working for people that run small companies. I don't have direct experience - but here's what I think In my opinion $30k projects just aren't that big. They're great to maintain your business, and by all means money is money - so who wouldn't want to take them. But I'd call a $30k project small to low-mid size. Maybe its a large project for you folks, but it will most likely be a small project for a company you outsource to. At that level you probably won't see much difference in the price tag if you folks were to do it in house, or if an outsourcing firm were to do it in house. Once you get into the bigger numbers like $100-$200k, you can at least start marking yourselves up a little more because you landed the project - and still pay the outsourcing firm a decent rate. My recommendation would be to keep the project in-house, but maintain a large rolodex of contractors. $120/hour is probably normal for outsourcing because they'll most likely be hiring a project manager on top of their programmer to manage your project. If you contract a good programmer at like $60-$80 per hour, and use an in house project manager or producer, you can probably achieve the same results. Like I said.I've never run a company, so this might be bad advice - but its probably what I'd do. ben Pat Buchanan wrote: My company is where I like it - small and maintainable - just a few employees. But sometimes I get some BIG projects thrown at me that are nearly guaranteed. The problem is, I don't want to hire anyone and it's too hard to keep a good group of reserve programmers busy 100% of the time. I've turned away at least 3 $30,000 projects in the last few months alone - and I hate it. I want to be involved, I want to grow the company, but I think the best solution might be to use an outsourcing house. Eventually these clients will stop coming to me and go elsewhere - and I don't want that to happen. So --- who have YOU used to outsource your projects to? Someone that does it all - Flex, CF, .NET, SQL Server, etc. I don't have the money to blow to try out places to find out they suck pondwater or never return phone calls. I want to manage the project and I want to be involved in everything, but I need a group that can continue to work even though they run into a roadblock on a separate piece. Now there are some INCREDIBLE groups out there that we all know and love (I won't name names, but one of them trained me in Flex) but $120/hour in this economy isn't going to cut it. So - who have you used that you like, that won't break the bank? And do they communicate well? (It's WAAAY to hard for me to express what I want to someone that doesn't understand English, so I need to be careful there too) Any recommendations/thoughts/examples? If you ARE one of these groups, PLEASE don't respond on this list - just reply to me directly. There is already WAY too much traffic on this list to begin with (I even hesitated sending this message) But what I'm REALLY looking for is someone who has EXPERIENCE with some of these groups - good or bad. Thanks for listening!
Re: [flexcoders] Who have YOU used for outsourcing mid to large Flex/CF projects?
Three words John C Bland http://www.johncblandii.com/ He's a friggin Flash / Flex / CF / .net genius. Also a former Flash Platform User Group Manager here in Phoenix and now an Adobe Community Expert. My company has used him many times on big important projects. =] -- Alan Rother Adobe Certified Advanced ColdFusion MX 7 Developer Manager, Phoenix Cold Fusion User Group, AZCFUG.org
RE: [flexcoders] Who have YOU used for outsourcing mid to large Flex/CF projects?
Yeah, I've seen some of John's work and heard him speak at meetings here in Phoenix as well. His client list and work are impressive to say the least. +1 From: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com [mailto:flexcod...@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Alan Rother Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 5:50 PM To: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [flexcoders] Who have YOU used for outsourcing mid to large Flex/CF projects? Three words John C Bland http://www.johncblandii.com/ He's a friggin Flash / Flex / CF / .net genius. Also a former Flash Platform User Group Manager here in Phoenix and now an Adobe Community Expert. My company has used him many times on big important projects. =] -- Alan Rother Adobe Certified Advanced ColdFusion MX 7 Developer Manager, Phoenix Cold Fusion User Group, AZCFUG.org This message is private and confidential. If you have received it in error, please notify the sender and remove it from your system.
