A Rock and a Hard Place: Engaging Remote Help in the Era of WikiLeaks

The need both for talent and to safeguard sensitive information will require companies place increased emphasis and focus on Verification of temps, vendors and contractors.

It’s even more important to leverage the expertise of verification and certification authorities dedicated in a specific field, as opposed to develop this competency internally.

What a difference a few weeks can make.

A February 2 article by Lauren Weber in the Wall Street Journal touted "The End of Employees", describing how the current philosophy of many companies is to “outsource every job… that is not customer-facing”, utilizing a combination of TVCs: temps, vendors and contractors.

A little over a month later in the same publication, Shane Harris reported how early evidence suggests rogue contractor(s) at the CIA could be the source for the most recent WikiLeaks dump of highly classified material. Edward Snowden, the person responsible for the 2013 security breech, was also a contractor. Harris wrote, “The possibility that a contractor may have been to blame for such a potentially damaging leak is sure to renew scrutiny of the use of outside experts to conduct highly classified work.”

How should a company, regardless of size, evaluate its options when developing software, considering both realities? Well-articulated Verification and Certification protocols vis a vis TVCs must be instituted to meet this ever-growing risk, and its potentially seismic impact on business operations.

Sadly, the latest CIA scandal is just the latest involving the access and dissemination of sensitive information held “private” by both business and governments. While this has been a concern and a reality throughout the ages, similar acts today are now hyper-enabled by technology.

Still, the ability of a company to meet market demands for technological innovation and enhancements is limited by scarcity of software development talent in mature markets all over the world. Whether you’re in Tokyo, Sydney, Berlin, Stockholm, London, New York, or San Francisco, it’s a Seller’s market: it’s tough to find, hire, pay and retain quality talent. While the companies described in Lauren Weber’s article are well-known -Alphabet, Wal-Mart, Pfizer, etc.- mid and small sized companies face the same (greater?) challenge.

Clearly, companies will have to continue to rely on TVCs, but will need to be even more vigilant when engaging them.

It is important here to revisit an earlier quote stating companies are outsourcing every job that is not “customer-facing”. Software development clearly qualifies here. But what about the process of finding temps, vendors and contractors? An error in finding a quality person/group can set you software development back months; an error in finding an ethical person/groups can set your company back incalculably.

Fortunately, when identifying global service providers, distinguished in the area of software development, there is Accelerance. Accelerance’s business is aggregating and certifying this market, comprised of thousands of groups spanning all time zones. Their certification process involves an exhaustive study of an individual company’s expertise, work culture, and maturity of processes. Accelerance affirms the declared proficiencies in various technologies and verifies the outcomes of stated case studies. Finally, for elite service providers, Accelerance takes the extra step of flying around the world to visit them, performing a tip-to-tails inspection: the only true way one can begin to “understand” a group.

A well-articulated Verification and Certification protocol, in large part, should be comprised of the the rigorous work done customarily by Accelerance.

Companies of all sizes could benefit from Accelerance’s experience. However, many insist on doing this work alone, not taking into consideration how multifaceted the process, and the time (and related cost) it takes to do so. Here they endeavor to become experts in an area they most likely are only tangentially familiar. Anecdotal evidence indicates it takes six months to find that trusted Partner if done thoughtfully. Each company will need to individually calculate that total cost at their specific bill rate, estimating at least 10 hour per week. Perhaps even more significant, when the trusted Partner is found, the individual company has no way to monetize that research (and the skill set acquired), with the work completed going in the waste basket.

Despite the CIA scare, a steeply competitive business climate will necessitate Companies ever more clearly define what is, and is not, their core business, and Partner with outside groups that are better at non-core activities. Given the sensitivity of information these TVC’s touch, however, Companies will also need to refine the process by which they find these outside groups, acknowledging that dedicated professionals like Accelerance can help vet the marketplace of vendors better, faster, cheaper than they could ever do on their own.

Lesson learned.

Michael McAuliffe is the Managing Director of Accelerance, Inc.

Accelerance is the global authority on software development outsourcing. We connect Western companies with the most qualified software talent in the world.