Get in touch with some of their references and ask them whether they had a good experience with concerned OSP.

---> Criterion: The OSP Should Know Their CAD

Now it’s time to ask them for a small paid sample, preferably a minor portion of a project you plan to outsource. Check if their output is satisfactory (you would know best about this). Evaluate whether they asked you all questions they should have before they started drawing, which is a sign of good planning practice.

---> Criterion: The OSP Should Know Their Commercial Paperwork

Send them a detailed specification of CAD work you want done and ask for a quotation. Evaluate their quotation based on whether it clearly describes technical scope, cost, delivery time, non-disclosure, modification costs, payment terms, guarantee and mode of payment. If all these topics are overed, you are probably talking to someone with commercial competence --- good!

---> Criterion:Be Satisfied with Contact Person

Phone this person and chat briefly with him/her. Decide whetheryou feel he/she is competent and easy to deal with.

~~~ The Evaluation's Over: Now What? ~~~

By now you have an idea of how good OSP is. Start by sending them a modest assignment. Don't be worried if there are many technical questions: these should decrease as OSP does more assignments for you. But that's not all. Careful selection of offshore CAD service providers is not only factor involved in successful offshore CAD outsourcing. A major cause of outsourcing breakdown is client's failure to manage ongoing process. There is a lot to be said here; it will all emerge in my next article --- stay tuned!

You can freely reprint this article provided that you do not edit it and include following resource box: _______________________________________________

Lakshman Balaraman, MS (University of Michigan), B Tech (IIT), runs an architectural and engineering design firm, The Magnum Group, India (http://themagnumgroup.net), that provides CAD drafting services to global marketplace. You can freely reprint his articles in your website, ezine, or ebook. ________________________________________________

In same way that you cannot get a piece of paper to wrap and shape water, growing your own business as efficiently as possible can never be made to totally conform to any one system. However, without any structure, you can’t achieve optimal levels of success. You’ll experience decreased follow-through, resulting in subpar levels of performance, profits, and personal fulfillment. The balance between two is what I meant when I said, “using YOUR System as THE System.”

Here are three simple steps you can use to begin creating your own system for growth, and how you can prepare yourself to profit from marketplace of new millennium:

Step 1. Gain a thorough understanding of your own "Natural Style." (This is a combination of your unique personality, passions, experience and skills/abilities.) By doing this you'll be equipped to bend and mold proven (but generic) success strategies to suit you and your business more quickly ... and with much less painful trial and error!

Step 2. Research and gather proven success strategies and time-tested techniques that directly apply to your business or industry. (There's no need to reinvent wheel, so look to others in your industry who have already made it big.)

Step 3. Finally, you'll want to practice principle of "Xponential Growth" in your business. This is a proven process of intentionally planning for, and then making, small incremental improvements in multiple areas of your business. When you consistently repeat this step, your business will grow on a daily basis, almost indiscernibly. Yet, when analyzed over an extended period of time, you will have achieved Xponential growth in astounding proportions!

When you work together with your business coach and a peer group of successful business owners to consistently follow through on these steps – you will accelerate this entire process even further. With these high-leverage resources, you'll experience growth that's rapid and flexible, while being consistent and focused.

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