offshoring-it-services Hardware, Management, Services
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Offshoring Ministry IT Services?

Posted by John Saddington on Mar 20, 2010

Is that even a “sane” idea?

I’ve worked with tons of businesses in the marketplace who have sworn that they’ll never hire their own internal IT staff ever again after having amazing success with offshoring their IT resources.

Of course, I’ve heard just as many stories that are more like disasters and nightmares too.

But what about for ministry?

Are you offshoring any of your IT services in your church? Have you heard of any ministries doing this?

A curious thought for this Saturday evening…

John Saddington

John is the Chief Editor @ The 8BIT Network and Senior Blog Junkie here at ChurchIT.He enjoys Triple-Tall Americanos, developing Wordpress Themes, and a few other Random Things.

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8 Responses to “Offshoring Ministry IT Services?”

  1. Kenny
    Saturday, March 20, 2010 at 10:53 pm

    SURE!

    I’ve personally used several outsourcing platforms to find freelancers to do work:
    http://www.essistme.com/2009/12/07/outsource-your-work-with-freelancers/

    Even a virtual assistant is easy to find using these marketplaces — bonus is when you find Xtian freelancers to help you with the Kingdom work!

    I’ve also been in a church where offshore freelancers were used to follow-up with hundreds of volunteers in executing events – reminders, notices, post-event calls, and more.

    One of my latest neat little projects — I found an eastern european coder to help me build out this little project: http://godvertiser.com/2009/12/10/stop-searching-the-bible-go-straight-to-the-truth/

    It’s not strictly a church project, just one of my own, but related nonetheless.

    Kenny Jahng
    http://www.Godvertiser.com

    p.s. I want to challenge your label for “off shore” — there’s tons of “domestic” freelancers out there ready, willing and able to compete in the same marketplace. Many times, finding a domestic freelancer can provide legal benefits, reduce friction based on language / communication issues, cultural understanding for nuances, especially regarding design, writing projects, etc.

    Reply
  2. Aaron Melton
    Saturday, March 20, 2010 at 10:57 pm

    You can offshore some services (hosting, web design, coding, etc) and others you can’t. Unless, of course, you’re shipping your busted hardware out to get repaired. :)

    Reply
  3. Nick Shoemaker
    Sunday, March 21, 2010 at 12:29 am

    I think some things should just be in house or at least local.

    Call me old school, but I think there needs to be a general understanding of the local picture. (And, sorry, but India isn’t the same as Anytown, USA.)

    There’s a place for this type of thing, but I think the local church would benefit more from local IT than ulta-long distance.

    Reply
    • Stuart
      Sunday, March 21, 2010 at 3:37 am

      You said it.

      I currently work for one of the world’s top 10 (but high up that list) outsourcing companies and I still struggle to see – other than cost savings – why any compnay would go for it.

      As to ministries …. and here I’m thinking church, then no, it’s a bad idea.

      Reply
    • John Saddington
      Sunday, March 21, 2010 at 10:27 pm

      i think this is a good point. local provides context.

      Reply

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