Outsourcing Update

Information technology research and advisory company, Gartner, has just published it's annual survey of outsourcing locations by country in which it identifies the top 30 countries for outsourcing services.

Whatever the political or cultural differences that may continue to create demarcations across the world the web penetrates all of them for business purposes and when the interests of the buyer match those of the contractor then no amount of differences is going to prevent business being done.

For the small entrepreneur it probably remains the case that word of mouth recommendation is by far the most effective method of selection of a contractor – wherever they may be located. For the small amount of work involved the cost, particularly in time, of researching all the alternatives is just not worth it. Better simply to go with someone who has already done a good job for a friend or colleague.

However, for major players with large amounts of work the political and legal environment in which the contractor is working as well as the contractor's employees attitudes to things like privacy, data protection, copyright and intellectual property which may be influenced by culture are important when they may be considering placing long term contracts.

The 10 criteria used by Gartner in its evaluation were: language, government support, labour pool, infrastructure, educational system, cost, political and economic environment, cultural compatibility, global and legal maturity, and data and intellectual property security and privacy.

India continues to be the No 1 destination for outsourced IT work although strengthening of the rupee is causing a loss of competitiveness against some new arrivals. From our own experience Indian contractors need very thorough briefing and can be short on initiative in resolving minor issues.

New arrivals on the scene include Bangladesh and Sri Lanka with Bangladesh scoring well for low cost while Sri Lanka improved on government support and infrastructure.

You can read the full summary on Gartner's blog. Our own collection of outsourcing resources assembled by good old word of mouth methods is on our Smart Marketing Warriors Resources page where you can also find lots of other useful resources for your internet marketing efforts.

More interesting posts about Outsourcing

• Where Are Jobs Going Now? Peru, Bulgaria, Bangladesh. . . (dailyfinance.com)
• Risks Associated with Outsourcing (brighthub.com)
• Pros and Cons of Outsourcing (brighthub.com)