Ex-CIO promotes rural U.S. alternative to offshoring IT

The low-cost services firm does work in Arkansas facilities

By Patrick Thibodeau

October 4, 2004 12:00 PM ET

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Computerworld - Kathy Brittain White, a former big-league CIO, is capitalizing on her connections to win clients for her tiny, rural IT services company, which she hopes will eventually compete with offshore development firms.
White's firm is getting interest and IT work from marquee companies such as Mattel Inc., Sarnoff Corp. and Cardinal Health Inc., where White was CIO from 1999 to March 2003.
That's not bad for a year-old business based in Jonesboro, Ark., that has two development centers, each with 15 employees. White, founder of Rural Sourcing Inc. (RSI), is a longtime supporter of using low-cost IT workers in rural areas of the U.S. instead of sending technology work to India or China.
People who know White, such as Rich Kurowski, vice president of IT at Cardinal in Dublin, Ohio, said her IT savvy gives her model the potential to work. "Kathy can make things happen, and does make things happen," he said.
Kurowski, who is considering a pilot IT project with RSI, said he sees White's model as an alternative to offshoring.
"She knows how high the bar is for really putting this in place," said Joe Eckroth, CIO at Mattel. "She understands what the end result has got to be." White is on the board of directors at the El Segundo, Calif.-based toymaker.
White's approach is to build development centers, linked to local universities, that are professionally managed and feature rigorous development methodologies and training. "The ongoing challenge is to provide a quality product, just like any company would," White said.
Cost is a major consideration. RSI charges $38 to $60 per hour, depending on the skills required. Eckroth, who has been using RSI workers for about a year, said the cost is about a third of what it is in major metropolitan areas. He said RSI is ideal for projects that "you want to keep near you, like business intelligence."

Kathy Brittain White, founder of Rural Sourcing Inc. (RSI)

Business Connection
In the past few weeks, Sarnoff CIO Tim Mitchell assigned RSI some intranet development work that would otherwise have gone to his offshore provider. But he's known White from professional CIO organizational work, and that connection opened the door.
Mitchell said he's especially interested in RSI as a potentially reliable and stable source of U.S. workers, a requirement for some government contracts. Sarnoff is a Princeton, N.J.-based defense and electronics company and the successor to RCA Laboratories.
Wooed by state officials, RSI will open a facility in New Mexico in January and one in North Carolina

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