Daniil Ivanov
CNews, April 18, 2007 The advantage of Russian outsourcing IT-companies for the West is not just the cheap software development but also the high-level specialists and the cultural affinity to the West which the Indian specialists lack. This is the conclusion IDC specialists came to in their research based on the opinion of foreign clients. Analysts questioned top-managers of 20 large and medium US and West European corporations cooperating with Russian software developers. Among them there were 13 companies from the IT sector. Most of them used offshore development services, many of them are Russian developers' long-term clients. The first reason to address offshore developers is the low price. However the companies realize the price can't be the only criteria for cooperation and should be balanced with other factors as well. Thus, cooperation stability and low employee turnover is important. "Western companies now see us in a better way and more and more often choose our specialists for difficult solutions. But the main factor for it is not just the reliance on the state support of the IT-sector on behalf of Russia, but the low employee turnover and cultural affinity", said Svetlana Vronskaya, Reksoft Corporate Communications Head. Foreign clients point out the high professional and education level of Russian companies' personnel. They help implement complex projects which is a big advantage of the Russian IT-industry. Another advantage mentioned by the respondents is the close culture and work ethics (6 out of 20 companies mentioned it), clear understanding of business objectives. This distinguishes Russian companies from other offshore programming countries. The specialists' English is improving although it is not as good as that of Indian specialists. However, they said the poor level of English is not as important as the cultural gap. IDC analysts noted none of the respondents mentioned the infrastructure or intellectual property violation as the Russian companies' weak point. "Two years ago analytics contained materials where it was written the country has a poor telecom-infrastructure and IP protection", said Svetlana Vronskaya. Another advantage of Russia for foreign clients is the time difference between the countries. Most of them said however, the developers adjust their work schedule to the client. It is also important to mention the time difference is advantageous only for companies situated in the Western part of Russia. IDC analysts say Russian companies are flexible on the market and dynamically deliver new products on the market, thus boosting the client's income. Mikhail Zavileisky, Data Art Director General shares the opinion. "Our developers discuss the work with the client, offering new solutions and best ways to reach the objective", he said. "This is in what way our companies differ from Indian teams who usually perform their work rather meagerly and algorithmically fearing of spoiling the relations with their clients and losing the contract. Our teams are more creative, and the results are better". Besides, Mr. Zavileisky pointed out the ways for the Russian IT-industry to develop successfully. It is useless to compete in market volumes, since Russia is far behind India and China in population terms. So, the country should try to boost the income from clients, he believes. This could be done by way of producing complex and expensive products. The revenues from these sales should be directed at training new specialists. "We shouldn't follow our Indian colleagues' experience were business participation in education facilities is sometimes absurd. Some higher education facilities teach students purely what would be required in their future job. On the one hand it is good. The specialists demonstrate good results at the beginning. On the other hand the growth potential is low", said Mr. Zavileisky. He said 80% of Russian companies have fundamental knowledge of the subject and this helps them grow in different directions required on the Russian market. Indian IT-industry has become the victim of its success, the research said. The fact that the country is considered to be a popular IT-solutions development center encouraged high labor cost and employee turnover. So, stable teams become the advantage of other countries participating in world outsourcing. As it has been mentioned above, foreign clients believe there is low employee turnover in Russia. Experts say the situation will not last long. According to Gennady Smorodin, Scandinavian groups' coordinator (non-formal union of IT-developers) employee turnover has started, which is caused by foreign companies opening their development centers in Russia. "Russian companies working on the domestic market are not competitive salary wise. Those who are able to compete with foreign companies have to increase salaries or come to terms with employee turnover", said Mr. Smorodin. IDC analysts believe Russia needs to develop own brand as an offshore programming country. The research says the lack of technical skills and knowledge might prevent from the implementation of a number of projects. That is why the Russian IT-industry should demonstrate it could offer knowledge which American and western Specialists lack. "Russia cannot openly compete with India. This country can develop complex software and should promote itself by way of it. To create own brand we should demonstrate high education level", said Gennady Smorodin. Valentin Makarov Russof President said Russia is gaining the leading positions in software development on demand. Russian companies are successfully developing in the area of software product and technologies creation. Investment attractiveness is growing and we come to understand better the rules of the world market. State support is also growing. All this guarantees fast industry growth, he believes. |