Should You Outsource Your Web Design
Deciding on whether or not to outsource your website design can be a confusing choice. Getting it done in-house can give you more control over the process, spare you delays and even save you some money. The pros notwithstanding, you may lose out on other counts. One is not getting a website developed from the right perspective. Secondly, missing out on creative and technical competencies. And lastly, taking resources away from ongoing projects for internal assignments does not make good business sense and may, in the long run, cost you more. So how do you decide on when to outsource your web design? Is it worth the extra cost?
Here’s what you need to consider:
Do you have the necessary resources to create a great website? Creating a website is a highly collaborative process depending heavily on strategic and aesthetic inputs from a wide range of experts, ranging from marketing experts to web developer and graphic designer to copy writer. At the onset, you need to check if you have all these skill sets in your company. Next, you need to ascertain if people with these skill sets have the required level of expertise.
In most cases it is found that that in-house resources are well-suited for part of the project but not others. In that case, outsourcing part of the project makes sense. However, outsourcing the whole project is more preferable, than pulling out and committing dedicated skilled resources from full time client projects to part internal projects.
What if you have all the skill sets with required expertise? It still makes sense to outsource because of yet another valid reason. Outsourcing can bring lot of fresh perspective to your web design. As an agency doesn’t know your business as well as you do, they can think like a real customer, and ask questions like your prospects would. In the process, you fine tune the design process to answer many questions that may come to your prospects mind.
Getting to view the outsider’s perspective from inside is impossible, probably because of too much acquaintance with your product. In the end, the outside perspective can make all the difference to your website design.
It’s a fallacy to think that in-house web designing can be less costly. Yes you do get your employees for free, but what about the cost of pulling them out from client projects. The so called savings may also get offset by the tendency to drag on the project, which is so common with internally-managed projects. Furthermore, the desire to pinch and save may deprive you of some stimulating ideas.
Outsourced website redesign costs are much more predictable and reliable because agencies have a repeatable process and have been doing it as part of their job. They have an instinctive approach to their job, something which handicaps your in-house team. A large number of these agencies can be found in developing countries like India, where the cost of getting quality and creative designing done is substantially less.
So, embracing outsourcing can be the best option for designing or redesigning your website.