With the growing need for innovative product designs, industrial engineers and architects are busy optimizing design. Today, design architects have reached a stage where they need to handle multiple projects at any given time due to increasingly stringent deadlines and competition; that’s why they often end up seeking help from virtual assistants to outsource AutoCAD drafting or drawing to help them.
Many engineering and architectural design firms have joined the outsourcing business push in countries like India. Engineering project companies seek outsourcing assistance from CAD design firms for 3D modelling and CAD drafting.
The partnership is beneficial for these companies as they only have to pay hourly or monthly fees. Over the past two decades, outsourcing services have proven their worth, being very reliable and low-cost; especially when there is a large volume of design work.
However, before outsourcing your work, it is your responsibility to evaluate several parameters of the CAD outsourcing company you are partnering with for design support solutions. It can make or break your company’s reputation, your clients and your relationship with your clients, and most importantly, your market value.
Assess the likelihood of outsourcing.
‘Research’ here essentially means discovering the need to outsource CAD work. Being a design firm, it’s obvious that your engineers and architects are involved in recreating existing designs to improve them with innovations and meet the needs of the ever-changing market.
Therefore, it goes without saying that designing and modeling for them is not a very economical option. On the contrary, outsourcing is often a cost-effective option in terms of time management, quality, costs, and business operations.
Once your design firm or CAD team is ready to coordinate outsourcing services, you’ll need to find the best CAD outsourcing company. VAStaff will share some things that our best clients looked for before they outsource AutoCad drafting to us. This is also what we focus on to become one leading CAD outsourcing service providers.
1. Proper communication with the outsourcing partner
The need for continuous communication lays the foundation for the development of efficient CAD projects. When offshore CAD writers are in contact with the right person, it helps them understand the exact requirements. However complex the project may be, if the project intent is well communicated to the CAD writer, what emerges is a quality product (both a CAD model and the final physical product).
Furthermore, the engineer or architect from the design firm can also make sound decisions, convey their design intent with the information provided, and supply the right set of missing details. A small tip is to ensure that designs/drafts follow the same standards. Anything communicated should be documented via email, making it easier to track input, challenges, and/or revisions.
2. Portfolio evaluation
While the real value in judging a CAD outsourcing company lies in the process, there is a great need to assess companies based on the type of work they have delivered in the past. Essentially, this will shed light on the capabilities of their CAD writers and managers and how they can handle the increasing complexity of projects.
In fact, a proper analysis of case studies, portfolio pages, and client databases will, to some extent, lead you to a conclusion about where the copywriting firm’s strengths lie and what their strengths are. This helps to separate the projects you need to submit them to. Whether in the industrial, architectural, furniture design, or machinery product fields, you will be able to identify the firm’s expertise and verify if it aligns with your needs.
3. Comparing costs always matters.
When outsourcing is viewed as a cost-cutting option, how can CAD managers eliminate the need to weigh the outsourced company’s fees and compare them to competitors? But the problem here is not just comparing costs, but quality in relation to the fees charged.
CAD writers at outsourcing companies are proficient with various CAD software programs. But those who have dedicated teams for each software—AutoCAD, Inventor, SolidWorks, Creo, or any other—are generally the ones who achieve excellence. It’s as if the CAD writer gains efficiency by operating a particular CAD tool over the years and can deliver quality.
Simultaneously, since offshore CAD design support partners charge their fees hourly or monthly, you only need to pay for the outsourced work volume clearly stated in the proposals. This prevents you from outsourcing all project details and allows you to prepare the parts internally to save costs.
4. Carefully review your contracts.
Projects are the determining factor for the success of any architecture or manufacturing company. If they leak, all the intelligence is at stake. Therefore, when outsourcing your projects to third parties, you inevitably share your personal information, organizational identity, and, of course, the projects themselves. Therefore, you need to ensure they have a well-designed privacy policy and that they adhere to it.
Ideally, offshore CAD partners sign a non-disclosure agreement [NDAs] with their clients. Be sure to do this before submitting your designs and check how strictly they adhere to them. Secondly, a thorough background check of the offshore company will give clues as to how well they follow these agreements.
The following is a project review that requires special attention. Your CAD outsourcing service provider should clarify whether they would consider the design and drawing changes, as recommended by your design engineer or manufacturer, at no additional cost beyond the initial changes. This is because ECOs originating from the shop floor are unavoidable if the tool is unavailable or broken.
5. Get to know the company
Anything about the offshore company’s reputation will tell you about the authenticity of its writers and engineers. There are several corporate social media platforms that provide information about the company’s reputation, in addition to its website. Check, analyze, show how well they serve their clients, and review client testimonials that maintain the credibility of their work.
These are some of the factors that our leasing clients, including design engineers, manufacturing firms, contractors, architects, architectural consultants, and product design firms, look for before sharing their projects with us.