Just as manufacturing went offshore, software development and management is also going global especially to India and China. According to Gartner, Inc., by 2007, China will be neck-and-neck with India with each having approximately $27 billion in annual outsourcing revenue. Companies need to realize what locations will benefit both short-term and long-term IT and business requirements. China is a unique global sourcing leader and has specific technology and skilled resources benefits that make it an excellent sourcing opportunity for our clients' needs.

India has a proven model and many companies, such as General Electric, have reaped its benefits by being "first-to-market". With 83% of companies already outsourcing to India, poised to become the world's IT sourcing leader by 2008, now is the time to start realizing the IT and business advantages of China. In many cases, our clients are outsourcing in India and are looking for a scalable redundant sourcing location. China is an excellent global location as it has an endless supply of highly skilled resources. Sourcing decisions made today will represent where you want to be 5 years from now.

In other cases, our clients are already working in China and want a more open and economically advantaged market to increase domestic exposure. Resourcing in China will help to do just that.

The China Advantage

  • Sustainable Cost Savings: China provides a long-term cost savings model that is significantly lower than India or any other outsourcing location.
  • Vast IT Resources: Today, China has more than 400,000 IT resources, with 50 million people joining the workforce each year. In comparison, the U.S. has 500,000 IT resources, and India currently has 400,000. A.T. Kearny believes that in 5 to 10 years China may equal India in providing Information Technology and outsourcing services, at least in the English language.
  • Business Application Expertise: China has more than 8,000 software service providers, which has produced IT resources with deep domain experience.
  • Culture: The people of China are very entrepreneurial, and share a business culture that is closer to the U.S. versus any other major sourcing country.
  • Infrastructure: China has world-class technology infrastructure and networking capabilities that are unmatched by any other country in the world.
  • Educational System: This year alone, China will graduate more than 50,000 English proficient IT professionals with degrees in computer science. This number is expected to rapidly grow to more than 200,000 IT professionals per year within the next two years and English is mandatory for all college graduates.
  • Software Engineering Process & Maturity: China has an established software maturity. The methodologies, tools and practices used by most IT professionals in China are currently patterned after the west.
  • Economic Growth: China's GDP at the end of 2005 was $1.651 trillion and growing at 9.5% per year. According to Fortune Magazine, China is modernizing faster than any society in history.
  • Communications: China currently has 73 million cell phone users and 94 million Internet Users (3rd in the World behind the US and Japan)
  • Sourcing Country Evaluation Criteria

    Below is a weighted scale from 1 -10 in order of the most important factors in evaluating offshore countries.

  • Sustainable cost advantage (10)
  • Software engineering process & maturity (9)
  • Caliber and sustainable quantity of technical resources (9)
  • Strong domestic market with domain and vertical expertise (8)
  • Language (7)
  • Infrastructure (7)
  • Educational system (5)
  • Culture (4)
  • Government commitment (4)
  • Geo-political considerations (3)
  • There are many countries that are appropriate for providing smaller scale outsourcing and niche technical expertise, such as Canada, Russia, Ireland and the Philippines; however, these countries will never be able to become mainstream sourcing countries due to limited labor resources; therefore, China is clearly the only other viable, long-term sourcing country for primary non-niche outsourcing.