• 1 Tier Direct Model: U.S. Corporation that owns its offshore development centers in China from which it provides capacity to its customers
• 1 Tier Indirect Model: China incorporated company with offshore development centers in China from which it provides capacity to its customers
• 2 Tier Contractor model: U.S. Corporation with 3rd party owned offshore development centers in China from which it provides capacity to its customers

Granted there are other indirect, non-specialist outsourcing service models such as the Indian headquartered vendor selling BPO, IT and software development services. These generalist companies may have set up a wholly owned subsidiary in China or loosely partnered with an in-China 3rd party. They may have even recently acquired a China based IT services firm and re-labeled it software development outsourcing services. Often they’re indiscriminately moving talent between the three service categories to balance their resources, at the expense of clients.

However, because these vendors are not true software development outsourcing specialists – the majority of their revenue and experience is tied to IT or BPO services – that model is not reviewed here. Also not reviewed are the staffing outsourcers in China because they’re neither software engineering services specialists, or even generalists.

Let’s examine the three China partnering models above – 1 Tier Direct, 1 Tier Indirect, 2 Tier Contractor – in more detail. The first, 1 Tier Direct, the Objectiva Software Solutions (Objectiva) model, delivers a number of important client benefits, including:

• Intellectual Property (IP) safety. Fully incorporated in the U.S., 1 Tier Direct specialists and the services they deliver are bound by strict U.S. regulatory and legal laws.
• Recruitment and retention oversight. China based software product engineers, QA engineers, software designers and other employees are direct employees of the company. They are not part of a loosely coupled contractor chain stretching between the U.S. or European customer, the software development outsourcing partner and its 3rd party China based contractor.
• U.S. Market knowledge. Executive management and service delivery leadership residing in the U.S. with deep, hands-on experience within customer industries and local markets.
• Software Product R&D experience. 1 Tier Direct specialists provide software product development outsourcing built on years of experience, ensuring optimal quality, economics and time to market.  Objectiva has been in China for a decade.
• In-China Market entry product sales and support consulting. For software product clients in the U.S. that need assistance setting up distribution, customer service and support for their products in the domestic China and wider Asia market, 1 Tier Direct specialists offer real value. Their capability to deliver sales consulting and build and extend Professional Services to product companies is based on years of experience building commercial and government relationships in China – in Objectiva’s case a decade.

Tier 1 Indirect and Tier 2 Contractor partnership models are particularly limited in the areas of IP protection and security, technology talent oversight, software product engineering experience, and customer industry and geographic knowledge. Lacking U.S. incorporation, many vendors don’t have the same IP related legal and regulatory oversight.

Others, because their China based employees are employed by third party in-China contractors, have limited oversight of the quality of the software engineering resources they offer to customers. Still others have only recently added the software product development outsourcing capability to their legacy service portfolio of IT, BPO and translation services – often by acquisition.

Objectiva Software Solutions is a 1 Tier Direct specialist, delivering software product development services to technology companies and enterprise customers from China for a decade.   While there are other important considerations when choosing a partner, including cost; resource availability; product familiarity and related experience; development and collaboration methodology; and even cultural fit; selecting the best service delivery model is critically important. Chosen carefully and combined with a proven mix of demonstrated capabilities, customers can guarantee the success of their software product engineering requirements.

Objectiva’s flexible engagement models, professionalism, long-term specialization, and talented, multi-cultural software product engineers, all combine to insure 100% customer satisfaction. Objectiva Software Solutions makes China accessible.