August 27, 2014
Many think of India when they think of outsourcing software development, but many other countries are offering quality and cost benefits that are leading companies to shift development elsewhere.
Here you will find some of the best countries that offer a viable alternative to outsourcing to India.
First, it’s important to note that costs in India are going up, and competition for quality engineers there has increased, leaving companies to turn elsewhere. This means that finding alternatives is not only important, but can provide a number of benefits that India has trouble delivering.
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe includes the countries of Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia and Ukraine that are increasingly seen as top outsourcing destinations. (Hungary and Poland are also popular software outsourcing destinations but are geographically considered as part of Central Europe). Eastern Europe offers a highly educated workforce, a lower cost of living that reduce costs of developers, and high quality work.
Furthermore, many engineers speak excellent English and are very familiar with the work culture of western software companies based in countries like Great Britain, Canada and the United States. Traveling to/from Eastern Europe also tends to be easier than that of India.
China
Although quite a bit of manufacturing has already been outsourced to China, there has also recently been significant growth in outsourced software development to the country. The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology already predicts that Chinese software and IT outsourcing will account for $10 billion in revenue by 2015.
Chinese software developers have a reputation of being easy to work with while still producing quality code and software packages. Although there can sometimes be drawbacks, such as higher costs than India, China has produced hundreds of thousands of engineering and computer science majors leading to reduced costs and a high level of expertise.
Furthermore, there are often government initiatives and incentive programs designed to work with you to attract investment and capital, helping you increase your profit and global reach.
Latin America
Latin America is heating up as a destination for software engineering outsourcing due to its cost convenience and a wide selection of talent. Most countries in Latin America are producing skilled workers to meet software and IT market demand, places like Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and Peru are proving they can offer a large pool of skilled programmers and IT workers. Bolivia and Venezuela offer the best value in the region.
Latin America is an especially good destination for those who want a creative take on a software application or design project. Latin American programmers are known for having a talent for thinking outside the box, whereas many programmers in India are seen to excel at process-oriented and repetitive programming. An added bonus is that many Latin American countries operate in the same time zone as companies in the U.S., making it a more convenient location for many American software businesses to outsource operations.