15 Must-Ask Questions When Selecting an Outsourcing Agency

(A practical guide for non-technical founders)

1. Operating Model & Workplace Environment

• Where will our team actually sit – home offices, your facilities or a hybrid mix?
  A fully remote crew saves agency seat costs and as a result, forms a cheaper price for you.

2. Service Reliability & Productivity

• What real-time performance metrics and activity reports will you give us so we can independently verify uptime, throughput, and SLA compliance?
  Transparency is as important as the tools themselves. Dashboards that expose latency, ticket backlogs, commit velocity, and individual-or-team availability give you early warning of bottlenecks long before they snowball into missed release dates or breached SLAs. Insist on automated reporting pulled straight from source systems (monitoring, ticketing, CI/CD) so you’re not relying on manually curated slide decks that can hide problems until it’s too late.

• How will you deliver 24×7×365 technical and operational support once we go live?
  Continuous cover is essential for SaaS or consumer apps. You want clear staffing rosters, hand-off runbooks and on-call escalation paths. (Unity Communications)

3. Contract Flexibility

• What is the minimum term of the agreement?
  Contract length determines how quickly you can pivot if the partnership under-delivers or your strategy changes.
• What notice period and early-termination fees apply?
  Exit clauses protect you if funding dries up or strategic direction shifts. Push for zero or low break-fees and explicit ramp-down timelines. (TriNet)

4. Capability Proof

• Show us recent projects or applications that prove you can deliver our idea.
  Credible partners volunteer case studies with metrics, tech stacks and references, so you can judge domain fit and quality standards.

5. Security & Regulatory Compliance

• Which security controls (SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR processes, etc.) have you implemented for clients?
  External attestations reveal maturity. Drill into how often audits run and how findings are closed. (StandardFusion)
  
• Where will customer data reside, and how do you keep cross-border transfers lawful?
  Under the GDPR, location and safeguards matter; demand encryption, SCCs or other lawful transfer mechanisms up-front.

6. On-Boarding & Knowledge Transfer

• Walk us through your process for absorbing an existing code base or product.
  A structured discovery, documentation and shadowing plan prevents domain knowledge loss and speeds velocity.(Full Scale)

7. Scalability & Team Stability

• If we need extra skills, how long does it take to source and ramp new engineers?
  Best-in-class firms quote lead times (often 4–6 weeks) and keep a vetted bench to cope with surges. (JetSoftPro)
  
• Will assigned developers be dedicated to us, and what notice will we get if you must rotate people?
  Continuity protects velocity and IP. Insist on minimum notice periods and overlap hand-offs. (hallwil.com)

8. Governance & Escalation

• Will we have a named account executive who meets our leadership regularly?
  A dedicated account executive gives you a single, senior “owner” for results. This person anchors quarterly business reviews, consolidates feedback, and fast-tracks escalations, so problems don’t bounce between departments. Providers that embed a single point of contact report sharper KPI tracking and faster course corrections.
  
• Describe your formal escalation pathway for SLA breaches or critical issues.
  Regulators – and smart buyers – expect tiered severity levels, executive hotlines and documented remediation workflows.

9. People Policies & Retention

• How many annual-leave and sick-leave days do your staff receive, and which public holidays apply?
  Holiday calendars affect sprint planning and support coverage.
  
• What is your engineer turnover rate and what do you do to keep key talent?
  Rates well below the Business Process Outsourcing average (≈ 13 %) signal strong culture and reduce re-ramp costs for you. (hallwil.com)

Closing thought

Great outsourcing relationships start with hard questions and evidence-backed answers. Apophis prides itself on providing verifiable metrics, audited processes and transparent commercial terms – and we’re ready to discuss every item above (and more) to prove we’re the right partner for your next product leap.