Outsourcing vs. in-house Web Team

For growing companies, the matter of hiring or creating an in-house creative team eventually comes up when everything’s stable, and there’s an actual budget for marketing, advertising and promotion. That kind of dilemma is settled immediately, just by looking at the size, needs and the future paths that the business wants to take. However, with Internet playing a huge role now on the fate of a company, businesses should also consider about their web presence. Thus, the question comes up: is it better to outsource or to just create a company’s own "web team"?

What does this "web team" comprise of? The web team should have a marketer, an adviser, and a designer. Those are the three basic people—it’s up to the company to add more, or to hire people who specialize in a certain area. This team is in charge of the company’s web presence; from the initial start-up, to sustaining its virtual viability in the long run. Projects that would be under them would be the company’s website; it’s e-business and e-commerce affairs; online marketing and advertising, etc. This team would make use of tools such as a CMS, Photoshop, HTML editors, possibly Sitegrinder, etc. The rule to go by is that anything that has to do with the Internet, the web team handles it.

Now that you’ve got an idea on how important it is to have a separate team taking care of the company in cyberspace, it’s time to consider whether you would rely on an outsourced team, or an in-house one.

Large companies that are already established usually opt for creating an in-house team. Having an in-house team is cheaper and possibly more productive in the long run. Scouting and hiring your own people will definitely get rid of problems like competition against rival companies. It will ensure more business loyalty and knowledge, and will be able to produce results that would be able to project the image that the company really wants. The web team that will be staying in-house your company will also be able to grow with you and the rest of your employees, and can thus apply it to their work.

The downside, perhaps, of having an in-house web team is the same with the disadvantage of having an in-house creative team: since the people you hire would be interacting with the same material again and again, chances for an innovative and "fresh" outlook and output for cyberspace is minimal. Your web team might get stuck and become stagnant in one idea for too long.

Now that is where outsourcing shines: you can be assured of consistently different ideas, since different sets of people would be working with your company. Plus, this is cheaper on a short-term timeline, as you would be working on contractual basis. Meaning, you only pay for a certain amount of work and such.

Now the catch is that since you’re working with various people not attached to the company, the image you want to project may not be understood completely, or may even be interpreted in a different manner. Misunderstandings are likely to arise, and conflicts may form. Of course, this is from a case-to-case basis.

Often, probing and studying your company’s profile, size, mission, vision and goals will help you make that decision regarding your web team. Keep in mind that nothing would really be perfect for your business, but as long as you’ll make it work, it’s good.

Sitegrinder
Contains tutorials and such on building your own website from Photoshop without any manual coding.