Outsourcing, the Ukraine and other Tall Tales of AdventureJohn Nemanic MBA, Chairman, Hostopia.com Inc. December 14th, 2005

Ongoing Management Is the Most Important Key Success Factor for Outsourcing Projects

AgendaPast Success Stories

Recent Success Stories

We take the Plunge

Lessons Learned

Final thoughts

Past Success Stories (Part 1)Internet Direct Canada Inc.

Inception

Growth

Success

Past Success Stories (Part 2)Tucows Inc.

Inception

Growth

Success

Toll on Personal Life

Recent Success StoriesHostopia, Inception, Growth, Success

Great Story Why Outsource?

What is Geeks for Less?

Ukraine vs. Russia Where?

Simplified Map of Ukraine

GeeksforLessStaff

We take the Plunge

First trip to Ukraine Nov. 2003

2 Years Later: Dec. 2005

Lessons Learned (first)

Keep key core team of the developers onshore Manage the Workflow and Projects

Create Clear and Precise Specifications

Lessons Learned (continued)

Language, Culture, Work habits

Onshore staff = Security!

Management of total costand commitments

Final Thoughts

Ongoing Management Is the Most Important Key Success Factor for Outsourcing Projects

Questions?

References

http://eng.maidanua.org/www.managingoffshore.com

www.trestlegroup.com/documents.html

www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/04_ 45/b3907090_mz054.htm?chan=gl

www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml ?articleID=54201364

Links

Geeksforless Contact Information:Canadian Head Office Mr. Glen BeerGeeksForLess Inc.5915 Airport Road, Suite 110 Mississauga, Ontario, CanadaL4V 1T1Phone: 416-883-3030 (office) 204-291-9181 (cell)E-mail: gbeer@geeksforless.comwww.geeksforless.com

Headquarters: 110 East Broward Blvd., Suite 1650 Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301 Canadian Operations: 5915 Airport Road, 11th Floor Mississauga, Ontario L4V 1T1 Telephone: 1 800 322 9438 Fax: 1 800 979-9587 Email: sales@hostopia.com http://www.hostopia.com/contact_landing.php

Women of a new century take an appropriate place in family, business, and society. In current working conditions, a little help with education, crediting, investment or just a piece of information is enough to help a woman start and run her own business, become independent, support herself and her family. Traditional sex role proscriptions, stereotypes and conservative attitudes still exist and have the effect of shutting economic doors for the majority of women. Women are often discouraged from engaging in technical or managerial activities due to the prevailing belief that men are more serious and that women should be engaged in child rearing and taking care of the home. In fact, women earn less than men, giving them less economic power as individuals and as a social group. In addition, women suffer from the lack of business education, problems in gathering start up capital, and a lack of role models. The lack of business education is obvious and one of the main problems. If you dont have it, its more difficult for you to get started. The next one is start - up capital that is always difficult to obtain in Ukraine, but especially for women. This stems from the fact that women are less likely than men to hold wellpaying jobs. Men are more likely to run a company and have higher confidence and pleasure of working with the same sex and to discriminate towards women. In other words, women are less likely to get a good job. Consequently, less salary equals less ability to save, and fever savings equals less start up capital. As for the role models, women dont usually see the accomplishments of other women who managed to achieve success therefore they cant envision their own success.So, what can be done to deal with this situation? Entrepreneurship is a way to take control of your own economic situation in lieu of waiting for economic improvement to create more jobs. In a sense, entrepreneurship creates its own jobs. Entrepreneurship is on the rise in Ukraine, and to ensure that women are able to take part in this movement Womens Business Support Centres (WBSCs) have been set up to help them overcome the previously mentioned economic disadvantages. My goal is to show that these WBSCs have increased the economic power of the women in the communities where WBSCs exist, and to show how this has been achieved.

There are already some organisations that work at womens problems today. Winrock is one of the largest international organisations funded by USAID; it funds a group of Womens Business Support Centres around Ukraine that are mainly focused on teaching women business skills. Thanks to them, educational improvement, financing and informational support have been successfully realised for many women around the country during the last five years. All in all, Ukraine needs to recognise women as entrepreneurs throughout the community. The more entrepreneurship grows the more the market economy develops. In the long run, it will end up in boosting profitability and improvement of the employees lifestyles. Thanks to these Business Centres, educational improvement, financing and informational support have been successfully realised for many women around Ukraine during the last five years. According to financial results, these Centres have already helped lots of women on the way to their success. Women's Business Support Centres in Ukraine achieved the following results as of January 2003: 1251 women have completed three-month entrepreneurial training courses offered by Women's Business Support Centres. These graduates have established or diversified 391 businesses as well as created 1,212 new jobs. Women's Business Support Centres seminars have reached 1,230 women, of who 138 have started their own businesses, and created about 261 new jobs. As far as women realise their rights and freedoms they are in the position to achieve good success in their businesses. In such a way, gaining more knowledge and confidence, women changes themselves as well as their surrounding.

Lets talk about specific women who have achieved success through the assistance of Womens Business Support Centres. The private company Borovik produces varnished miniatures, one of the first to produce this artwork in Nikolaev, is run by a graduate of the Centre. She made a team of seven people to help her produce the pieces of art. She wrote a business plan and took a loan from a bank to start her business. And now she is working to export these products. She is drafting future artworks that will allow her to get to the European market. Another graduate, Zhanna Mikhailovskaya, opened a subdivision of an information news agency in Nikolaev. So, even though she didnt open her own company, she achieved success by creating a partnership with an existing Kiev company. Another graduate interviewed in a local magazine says that she wouldnt have achieved success without the educational training provided by the Business Centre. The courses gave her both the self-confidence and the knowledge of how to run a company in such areas as marketing, management, accounting and laws.

The Director of the Womens Business Support Centre in Nikolaev, Anna Belyavskaya, says the purpose of the courses is to raise womens self-esteem and develop their self-motivation to conquer the problems they will face opening a company. Over half of the course is spent on finance and credit so that women can understand what they are doing and so that they wont be cheated by others. But not all women have needed access to support centres to achieve success. According to interviews conducted in Nikolaev, there are some examples that point out womens successes without any informational, financial or educational help from Women's Business Support Centres. The first of them is The Nikolaev Ukrainian Courses of Foreign Languages (NUCOFLa). The head of these courses Olga Koval practised in United Kingdom for more then five years teaching English language and literature. After that she came back to Nikolaev to open a business in terms of English Studies. At first she had not so many students but in a year she managed to spread materials about herself throughout the town. People liked her style of teaching English and therefore invited other people to study with them. Five years passed and now she has her own NUCOFLa Courses. She hired seven teachers with the level of Advanced or Proficiency to teach her students English basics and even more. She has additional studies in Business English for business people as well as the proportional classes for the Examinations as FCE, CAE, CPE and others. All of this is possible due to co-operation with the British Council where she gets all the essential literature needed and has the possibility for her students to take certificates in their levels.

Another example of the success of an individual woman who managed to achieve success with no help is Nathalie Zagradskaya who now has her own restaurant called Gorojanin and one of the biggest markets in Nikolaev. Her business started eight years ago when she took a loan of $10000. Before that she was working all over the town as a chef. She has a broad knowledge in this field and that is why she decided to start trading. After 25 kiosks and two grocery stores in Nikolaev region were opened she thought of opening a market. She gathered enough money, paid off her debts and opened a market that is now one of the best in Nikolaev. One year of good business passed and she opened a restaurant called Gorojanin. Now in Nikolaev her business is economically strong and shes planning to open a new restaurant hotel; by the way we have only three places like this so maybe in the nearest future we will have another one. Lets talk about specific women who have achieved success through the assistance of Womens Business Support Centres. The private company Borovik produces varnished miniatures, one of the first to produce this artwork in Nikolaev, is run by a graduate of the Centre. She made a team of seven people to help her produce the pieces of art. She wrote a business plan and took a loan from a bank to start her business. And now she is working to export these products. She is drafting future artworks that will allow her to get to the European market. Another graduate, Zhanna Mikhailovskaya, opened a subdivision of an information news agency in Nikolaev. So, even though she didnt open her own company, she achieved success by creating a partnership with an existing Kiev company. Another graduate interviewed in a local magazine says that she wouldnt have achieved success without the educational training provided by the Business Centre. The courses gave her both the self-confidence and the knowledge of how to run a company in such areas as marketing, management, accounting and laws.

The Director of the Womens Business Support Centre in Nikolaev, Anna Belyavskaya, says the purpose of the courses is to raise womens self-esteem and develop their self-motivation to conquer the problems they will face opening a company. Over half of the course is spent on finance and credit so that women can understand what they are doing and so that they wont be cheated by others. But not all women have needed access to support centres to achieve success. According to interviews conducted in Nikolaev, there are some examples that point out womens successes without any informational, financial or educational help from Women's Business Support Centres. The first of them is The Nikolaev Ukrainian Courses of Foreign Languages (NUCOFLa). The head of these courses Olga Koval practised in United Kingdom for more then five years teaching English language and literature. After that she came back to Nikolaev to open a business in terms of English Studies. At first she had not so many students but in a year she managed to spread materials about herself throughout the town. People liked her style of teaching English and therefore invited other people to study with them. Five years passed and now she has her own NUCOFLa Courses. She hired seven teachers with the level of Advanced or Proficiency to teach her students English basics and even more. She has additional studies in Business English for business people as well as the proportional classes for the Examinations as FCE, CAE, CPE and others. All of this is possible due to co-operation with the British Council where she gets all the essential literature needed and has the possibility for her students to take certificates in their levels.

Another example of the success of an individual woman who managed to achieve success with no help is Nathalie Zagradskaya who now has her own restaurant called Gorojanin and one of the biggest markets in Nikolaev. Her business started eight years ago when she took a loan of $10000. Before that she was working all over the town as a chef. She has a broad knowledge in this field and that is why she decided to start trading. After 25 kiosks and two grocery stores in Nikolaev region were opened she thought of opening a market. She gathered enough money, paid off her debts and opened a market that is now one of the best in Nikolaev. One year of good business passed and she opened a restaurant called Gorojanin. Now in Nikolaev her business is economically strong and shes planning to open a new restaurant hotel; by the way we have only three places like this so maybe in the nearest future we will have another one.