Challenge
Want to compare two vendors? Why not have a “playoff”? That’s exactly what Rob Duchscher did when he wanted to evaluate two outsourcing firms. Duchscher is Vice President of Software Engineering at Starkey Laboratories, the world’s leading manufacturer of custom hearing instruments.
One firm was located in India; the other was Coherent Solutions, which has offices in the U.S. and Eastern Europe. Duchscher assigned each firm a project. “The language translation tool that the Indian firm delivered was significantly flawed,” he said. “It didn’t work, it lacked innovation, and from an architectural standpoint, I’ll just say it was less than optimal. We ended up tossing their deliverable and rewriting it. It was a very frustrating, expensive learning experience for us.”
Coherent fared much better on its assignment, according to Duchscher. The firm was tasked with completing a .NET database conversion, delivering some complex reports, and performing software testing for Prohear.Net, a comprehensive Office Management System Starkey provides to audiology clinics to run their businesses.
