By Alex Polezhaev
IT outsourcing having become incredibly popular attracts people by many false great expectations imposed by cheap coding factories. The point of view dictated now everywhere is in fact a nonsense if one thinks about it better. Programming just can’t be cheap full stop. Information technology is among of those top notch sciences like nuclear physics, nanotechnologies and Mars expeditions. Moreover, all they rely on IT. IT degrees are ones of the most expensive to get in the college and ones of the most prestigious. Programmers are earning perhaps best salaries. Software is really expensive. Floorspace in offshore business incubators costs more and more each day.
So how can be programming cheap?
Yes, salaries vary from town to town and from country to country but you can’t really expect 5-10 price difference between your local and offshore developers.
In fact, IT outsourcing has broken all rules of outsourcing per se. People looking for legal or business process outsourcing don’t necessary look for some monetary saving. At the same time, IT outsourcing means cheap human force. Which can’t happen if you look for quality and not for investing your money into Indian economy.
What does IT outsourcing really mean? In many cases, it means a total disaster for your business. In some cases it means having something working at a slightly less price than having it developed by local or other professionals at significantly faster timeframe.
However, outsourcing that we evangelize can be defined as access to unique resources with unique potential, experience and specialization that are unavailable locally or extremely expensive.
Sure, the price should not be the key consideration for successful IT outsourcing. Customers seek expertise, niche skills, stable vendor relationship, and continuity of the workforce. All these and more are to be found in Russia, according to a recent White Paper by IDCentitled “Russia as Offshore Software Development Location: Should You Consider This Your Next Move?” (free download here http://www.epam.com/news-and-events-analysts-reports.htm).