Major research in Scandinavian countries has shown that increasing numbers of companies are outsourcing their software development, especially their SD function. Most Swedish companies outsource 90 to 100% of this function. Actual savings in these Swedish and some Danish companies reaches as much as 40 to 59%.
Also, a higher percentage of the companies in these countries are choosing to outsource nearshore (within or close to the same time zone) as opposed to offshore (at least 2 time zones away). This touches on an earlier comment Lexi made about outsourcing locally, which in my opinion is a great idea.
The main pressures for outsourcing are:
1. To reduce operating costs
2. Shortage of domestic IT resources and specific skills
3. To accelerate time to market via scalability and flexibility
4. Improve business development strategy
So what are the U.S. trends in comparison to these Scandinavian? Could we take after these countries and focus on nearshoring as opposed to offshoring?
The interplay of the US economy with others on a global scale opens the doors to many markets to US companies. The ability to go to an English speaking country like India with extremely skilled IT workers at a significantly lower wage range is just too tempting. Finding situations nearby where the skilled workforce and potential for cost efficiencies being gained exist would be something to explore. As countries in Latin America develop and move towards increased IT education. Potential exists there for nearshoring
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