CHECKLIST FOR SELECTING

VIETNAM SOFTWARE OUTSOURCING VENDOR

We have compiled a list of key steps and a
Checklist
checklist of the key considerations you may wish to
A. Country and City Evaluation
take into account when examining Vietnam as a
potential outsourcing destination and selecting a B. Vendor Evaluation
Vietnam software outsourcing vendor. Key steps to go offshore

CHECKLIST
A. COUNTRY AND CITY EVALUATION
(Top 3 Vietnam cities: Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Da Nang)

Political Stability Any political conflict in the last 10 years

Religious, ethnic disputes

Economic growth and stability

Natural Disasters Earthquake, flood, typhoon, hurricane, tsunami

Technology Software park, high tech park

Capability
Number of multi-national high tech companies

Infrastructure Internet connectivity

Electricity up-time

Transportation

Human Number of IT graduates

Resources
Availability of resources

Supply versus demand

Language skill English, Japanese, etc.

Pricing Average salary of IT engineers at different levels: junior, senior,

technical lead, project manager

Created by TMA Solutions (www.tmasolutions.com) 1

 Living Condition Your friends’ feedback
for Expat
Tourism preference

Multi-national companies’ reports, e.g. HSBC

Others Tax incentives

Time zone

B. VENDOR EVALUATION

Track record Company profile and reputation

Number of years in software outsourcing business

Case studies that are relevant to your needs

Customer list Number of active clients

Number of active clients that are large companies

Number of clients similar to your company

Service offerings List of available vendor services and experience in each service

Compare to your short and long term needs

Infrastructure Ability to expand

Electricity up-time, power generator

Internet connectivity, VPN

Network and communication

Backup system

Global presence Overseas offices

Any offices in your country

Human Number of engineers

Resources
Ability to attract talent

Recruitment process and criteria

Staff motivation and incentives

Created by TMA Solutions (www.tmasolutions.com) 2

 Human Attrition rate
Resources
Training system

Technical skill Skills coverage

Experience in large and complex projects

Innovation, R&D capability

Quality process Engineering process maturity

Certification

Project management tools

Metrics

Reporting

Visibility of offshore team activities

Escalation procedure

Language skill Language proficiency (written and verbal)

Language training

Relevant Domain expertise: finance, e-commerce, healthcare, education,

experience etc.

Technical skills: C++, Java, C#, PHP, mobility, cloud, testing, big
data and analytics, etc.

Ramp up Resource pool

capability
Ramp up time

IP Protection and Physical security

Security
Network security

Data security

Internal procedure

Business continuity

Pricing Pricing models

Blended rate

Rate increase

Created by TMA Solutions (www.tmasolutions.com) 3

 Pricing Non-labor costs

Overall cost

Payment term

Culture Professionalism

Commitment

Flexibility

Open & friendly

Integrity

Proactive

Innovative

Key Strengths Value propositions

Key expertise

Differentiation from other vendors

Key Weaknesses Limitations

What the vendor cannot provide

Sustainability Financial stability

Business continuity plan, disaster recovery plan

Dependency on a single customer, domain or market

Created by TMA Solutions (www.tmasolutions.com) 4

KEY STEPS TO GO OFFSHORE
STEP 1

Define your objectives & goals

Based on your business strategy and goals: cost saving,
scalability, time-to-market, competencies, vendor
diversification, etc.

How will you align an outsourcing model with your

Outsourcing
business strategy?
objectives

What services do you expect a vendor to provide?

Outsourcing
What will be outsourced and what will be kept in-house?
vendor criteria

Timeframe: when will you start the first outsourcing

project?

STEP 2
Prepare RFI/RFP
RFI: questions and information you need for evaluating a RFI
vendor (based on your criteria)

RFP: request a specific proposal for your needs and RFP

project

STEP 3
Vendor list
Collect potential vendors based on:

Recommendations from your network The list of

potential
Google search vendors

Industry awards and rankings

Created by TMA Solutions (www.tmasolutions.com) 5

 STEP 4

Due diligence
Send RFI/RFP to all vendors

Based on RFI/RFP responses, rank the respondents to Vendor 1st

create a vendor short list (shouldn’t select more than 3
evaluation
vendors and 2 cities)

Site visit to the short-listed vendors (optional but

recommended)

STEP 5
Project results
Test project (optional) (delivery,
communication,
Pilot project with one or several short listed vendors
dealing with
issues)

STEP 6

Evaluate and select a vendor

Master
Based on the results of due diligence and test project agreement with
the selected
vendor
Negotiate a master agreement as the framework for the
engagement

Plan for the first project: scope, performance measures, Kick off 1st
team size, team members project

Created by TMA Solutions (www.tmasolutions.com) 6