Assembly Line Vs. Couture Technology

I still have one foot in the agency world and one thing that amazes me is how many ad agencies are outsourcing their tech to countries outside of Canada (India, Columbia, China etc.).

I want to talk about how wrong I think this is and maybe not for the reasons that immediately come to mind.

Interactive communication is an art.

Let me use an analogy. If I were going to manufacture T-shirts that were all the same design and only really varied by size and colour, out sourcing that manufacturing based on price would make a lot of sense.

However, if i am making a one of a kind piece that would mean changes on the fly, a bunch of fittings with a model and having an intimate relationship with the sewers who were part of the creation team, i would have to work with people who i knew could solve problems.

And that is what great technologist do. They solve problems. Uniquely, elegantly and in a million different on the fly ways.

The amount of times that we have had a usability problem and our tech team and UX team get together only to find an amazing solution that no one had previously thought of, continues to astound me.

Innovation doesn’t happen on the assembly line.

My 2 cents? Be careful what you ask for, because in the end you just may get it. With digital becoming more and more important in clients marketing mix, it's not the cheap solution they are looking for, it's the right solution. And by not having the right technologists on your team, you will only ever have half of an answer.