A Gartner Group article (posted in Developer for some reason)explored offshore development. It only considered India, the Phillipines, and Eastern Europe as possible sites.
But why think offshore: Think Canada instead!
IT salaries are 1/4 to 1/2 less than those of those for similar jobs in the USA in the Canadian provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland. (In Ontario and BC salaries are similar to those in the US. In Quebec the official language is French.)
Our schools churn out lots of comp sci and programming grads, which combined with our lack of corporate head offices, results in these low salaries.
One major US retailer is paying a higher rate to have development done in India that it would cost to have it done in Canada ($50/hr, $210/hr plus expenses for meetings).
Canadians have a similar work ethic to Americans, similar educational standards, first rate telcommunications, speak the same language, reasonably easy air-access, simplified border crossing and work-permit regulations, we’re in the same sets of timezones, and virtually all of our streets are safe for any kind of foreign visitor … but wages in the IT sector in our low-cost regions are much less than in the US.
I’m an analyst with a consulting firm. I’m not in sales (maybe I should be).
I’d be very interested in knowing what sorts of rates various US companies are paying for what sorts of off-shore services.
e-mail me at orange789@shaw.ca if you have info. If you don’t officially represent your company I’ll understand you not mentioning their name.
– Keith
See the Gartner Group article here
https://www.techrepublic.com/article.jhtml?id=r00820011121ern01.htm