Practical know-how of the Global Project

Hitoshi Goto

Ukihiko Takagi

In Part15, we discussed "infrastructure risk" that we should be careful about overseas projects.
This time, we will look at how to get along with the inflexible “overseas vendors”.

It is important to decide the "review day" at the time of contract

In Part 10 of this series, we said Brazilians don't care much about the delivery time, but India and China don't tend to deliver early even if they are finished earlier.

Some would say that it is not a problem if they deliver on time, but delivering on time does not always mean that they have done a thorough test.
They cloud be thinking, "If we get it out as soon as possible, we'll have to fix it immediately if a defect is found," or "We're likely to have room for development capability and we'll be required to move ahead with other tasks."

However, if it is delivered on time (and often delayed), there is no problem with itself. The problem is that unintended deliverables are delivered. Therefore, not only in China and India, it is important to specify the delivery date after specifying the period of the deliverables review and inspection in the contract.

As for a domestic project in Japan, we decide the review date not in the contract but at the stage of making the project plan. On the contrary, it is important to decide the review date in the contract.

Allow time for budget, secure budget for specification change request

Japanese vendors have become much more “non-flexible” than in the past, but it seems that in many cases they can be rescheduled by urgent requests or priority changes.

"You must realize that you cannot expect such flexibility with oversea vendors. It is because of contractualism and there is a fear that internal control is strict and things not described in the contract are said to be against compliance."

That is the same thing in Japan, but in the case of a Japanese IT vendor, you can often make adjustments through discussions when there is a good relationship. So for those who have been working with foreign vendors for the first time, their "Non-flexibility" would be beyond your imagination.

Therefore, it is best to fix the specifications at the contract stage as many as possible and make sure that there is no change, but it is bothersome that there are many cases where this is not the case.

So the practical solution is to have enough time and secure a budget for changing specifications. We often do this.

However, there will be projects that it is difficult to do so. In such a case, at the vendor selection stage, you will be selecting a "flexible" company. Specifically, that means choosing a company that wants to continue to work for Japanese companies.

"However, such a company does not do anything without any condition. For example, it is important to negotiate on a give-and-take basis. That means you would support the vender for what they should carry out, such as the issue arrangement and the initial analysis work, etc., then ask them to deliver the deliverables earlier."

<<Read [Part 15]Read [Part 17]>>

Inquiries about our services and solutions