Riding the Offshore Wave

Computerworld - Writing a practical, resource-rich Offshore Buyer's Guide on outsourcing is asking for trouble these days. By devoting so much of this issue to offshoring (with stories from print appearing online at QuickLink a2290 and additional exclusives online at QuickLink a3600), we're priming the pump for a flood of angry e-mails from unemployed programmers, software engineers and other IT workers who are experiencing firsthand the frightening downside of what Gartner calls an "irreversible megatrend."
But our sympathy for their plight doesn't make a dent in the reality that most CIOs and senior IT managers face today. Their painful paradox is having to cut IT costs while stepping up services or delivering better business capabilities. Offshore outsourcing is how they're doing it, regardless of how politically unpopular or career-wrenching it may be.
Our industry is caught in the powerful undertow of a worldwide industrialization of IT, where some once highly prized software skills are now commoditized and where standardized transactions can be easily processed on a global basis. Ignoring low-cost labor for high-quality work is impossible. Sheerly technical skills were once the most prized assets in IT, but the game has moved on to those with business process analysis and project management skills.
Yet in talking with executives who are involved in offshore projects, I've never encountered one who didn't go reluctantly into the decision. Or one who wasn't justifiably worried about job losses, language barriers, security problems and loss of control.
Instead of lamenting the harsh realities, we're opting with this report to help manage the change. It's a complex and risky business, this global juggling of IT projects. It's also a fiercely competitive market and more than a little overwhelming for many organizations. By producing a country-by-country guide to outsourcing strengths and weaknesses, we hope to fill in a huge gap of vital information about taking IT offshore, whether you're considering software engineering in India (the undisputed leader at the moment) or eyeing the numerous other nations that are positioning themselves to snag some of the U.S.'s offshore dollars.
Our report focuses on 11 countries, ranking the leading offshore contenders by level of technical skill, political stability and network infrastructure. It provides on-the-ground experiences from IT managers who've succeeded at offshoring despite the obstacles. There are frank assessments of which countries provide the most comfortable cultural experience for Americans (Canada and Ireland) vs. those with the cheapest labor (Vietnam, Mexico or China). We also analyze a number of emerging trends, such as "multisourcing" (hiring outsourcers in numerous countries) and "daisy-chaining"