A whitepaper on outsourcing TYPO3 projects to India.

1. OUTSOURCING TYPO3 PROJECTS
A White paper on engaging Srijan, India
ABOUT SRIJAN
Srijan is an IT consulting company engaged for over 8 years in designing
and building web applications, and IT infrastructure systems using open
source software.
TYPO3 EXPERTISE
Srijan has been engaged in writing Extensions and building websites on
TYPO3 since mid-2004. To see a list of extension, please visit:
http://new.srijan.in/typo3_extensions.html. During implementation of most of
its projects, Srijan follows best practices of Web Accessibility and other
Standards and validates them against automated tools such as
http://validator.w3.org/.
Apart from TYPO3, Srijan has deep expertise in other open source
frameworks such as Ruby-on-Rails, Python based frameworks like Django,
and PHP frameworks such as Seagull and Symphony. It also has
specialised skills in Linux Sys Admin. To know more, please visit our
website at: http://new.srijan.in/projects.html.
OUTSOURCING TO SRIJAN
Srijan has successfully delivered projects outsourced from agencies and
end-customers alike, in Europe and USA since 2000, in various technologies
and frameworks. Over this time Srijan has evolved its engagement model
with customers and addressed successfully the challenges that an
outsourced environment throws up. There is a general perception that small
projects such as the ones for TYPO3 cannot be outsourced. While small
projects of 200 hours or less do pose their own challenges, Srijan has
designed practices to deliver such projects successfully and in-time. Some
key things adopted are:
i. Use of Basecamp as the project collaboration tool for maintaining all
project communication
ii. Well documented estimation practices, for even small TYPO3
projects
iii. Dedicated Account/Project Managers to provide one-point-of-contact
for customer accounts and projects
iv. Extensive and regular use of Skype Voice conversations to ensure
smooth communication
v. Internal practices of Resource Management and Resource Allocation
Srijan Technologies Pvt Ltd www.srijan.in

2. PARTNERING WITH SRIJAN
As a customer in Europe or North America, an
“I can only tell you my
engagement with Srijan as a partner, could give experiences with this
you the necessary access to best-of-breed particular company Srijan
Technologies in India. If
skills in TYPO3, and other open source the situation occurs we
technologies, while leveraging the lower cost certainly would make use
of this company again.”
advantage of India. Srijan is shortly opening a
A happy Srijan
Romanian development center managed by its customer – Joost van
upcoming Swiss office. This would give near- Berckel, Shared Service
Center ICT – 3xO,
shore advantages to customers in Europe. Technische Universiteit
Delft – in an interview to
Srijan currently has over 12 people highly Thomas Schlichtherle for
the T3N Magazine
trained in TYPO3 extension development or
implementation, in an overall company size of just under 20 people. It is
hiring more people and increasing capacity further to about 15 people
specialising in TYPO3 in the next 1-2 months. While there are some
qualified people available in India, Srijan mostly hires and trains people on
TYPO3, through peer-training programmes, and well-documented
knowledge.
ENGAGEMENT MODEL
The engagement model can differ significantly
“Offshoring does not
between small to large projects. While for small eliminate good
projects the best practices adopted as above requirements planning and
good communication and
can suit project needs, larger projects may management. You need
require on-site consulting. For such central person who can
dedicate a couple of hours
requirements Srijan can arrange for its Project a day to an ongoing
Managers to travel to customer sites in Europe project.”
or North America. Alternatively, Srijan has A happy Srijan
strong partnerships with agencies in both these customer – Charles
Overy, CEO, LGM Model,
regions who can be of assistance and provide USA– in an interview to
onsite consultation, and act as a front-end to Thomas Schlichtherle
for the T3N Magazine
Srijan.
It would be imperative for the agency to have an Account/Project Manager
with thorough understanding of TYPO3, or atleast in designing web-
applications in general, and must be able to dedicate 1-2 hours every
alternate day or so, on Project communication, management and co-
ordination with the counterpart at Srijan, throughout the lifecycle of the
project.
Srijan Technologies Pvt Ltd www.srijan.in

3. TIME ZONE CONSTRAINTS
Time zone differences between New Delhi and, say, Germany, are in the
range of 3-4 hours depending upon the time of the year. This offers a perfect
combination of, 3-4 overlap hours each working day, and the undisturbed
time to both parties to focus on work during the rest of the hours.
For North America, India offers early morning or late night overlaps with
counterparts in the Eastern Time Zone (EST). Calls are normally pre-
scheduled 1-2 times each week thus allowing.
Once Srijan's Romania office comes up, it will be able to offer 3-4 hours of
working hour overlaps to North America and nearly 100% working overlaps
to customers in Europe.
LANGUAGE CONCERNS
All of Srijan's developers have formal school and college education in
spoken and written English. English is the default business language in
India. Thus, Srijan can work well with all English speaking regions of Europe
and North America.
Srijan Technologies Pvt Ltd www.srijan.in