ONE YEAR ON from opening our own Media 365 digital development centre in Bangalore I can say categorically it’s a decision which has been very beneficial for our business and our clients.
Coming from a banking background before media and marketing I’ve always had a conservative approach to business expansion. Our digital manager Harish, who was responsible initiation and management of the project, was very supportive in the way he allowed me to reach the decision at my own pace. Looking back it is easy to reflect that we may have over analysed the pitfalls and underestimated the benefits and it may be of value to others to share in the experience.
Why Bangalore in the first place? An easy decision this one because of Harish’s family ties and local knowledge. Add this to Bangalore’s label as one of the worlds largest digital hubs and home to global players such as IBM, Oracle, Adobe, GE, Intel, Microsoft and SAP and the reasoning looked sound.
Media 365 has always had its own in-house digital capabilities. It was clear to me in the early days of digital marketing that an outsourced model was inefficient not only because of the duplication of cost back to the client from double handling but also being at the mercy of the ‘farmed solution’ the big digital marketing companies provided. It was clear to myself and our team that tailored and localised solutions are far better engineered and result in far better deliverables. This has been complimented by having our own development centre in Bangalore where we take care of all our Mobile App & web development freeing up our Perth team for all the localised SEO, SEM and Social solutions.
If there is one challenge we didn’t foresee it was the perception by a semi Government client that their digital marketing was handled offshore and that their stakeholders would take exception to this. In the end no amount of reassurance that this was not the case could not allay their concerns that public perception is everything. I found this position quite puzzling in the face of how many Government construction projects end up offshore anyway. Either we’re in a global market or we’re not? At some point cost efficiencies must be considered after all those same stakeholders are looking for their service or product providers to deliver best price.
Thankfully our private and corporate clients had no such concerns and are more interested our capabilities and cost efficiency. Our Bangalore office offers us both and this is primary driver for our decision to tool up in India v Australia. Quite simply the digital community in Bangalore is at the forefront of the latest in software development combine this with a much lower cost base running at 35% of an Australian alternative and a workplace ‘can do’ attitude and we are streets in front.
In summary our first consideration was always capabilities we wanted to access the best in digital development the lower cost and better staff attitude are bonus benefits and I believe as long as the hierarchy of any decision is based on the same values then the decision is a sound one.
Upside: Capabilities, cost efficiency, care factor
Downside: Perception that offshore investment comes at a cost to local industry? India’s religious holidays can sometimes catch you off guard?