WHITE PAPER: Offshore Software Development
Aspire Systems, Inc.
www.aspiresys.com Page 4 of 17
In contrast, areas such as India and Eastern Europe, were known to have access to thousands of
software developers. Many of these developers had Java and other Internet-related skills and were
available for anything between US $20 and US $40 an hour.
Gradually, as more and more firms tried out offshore outsourcing and realised not only the cost-
savings but also the quality development that they were getting from their offshore partners, the
nature of offshore projects started changing. In place of the routine, mundane work that was
earlier outsourced, the shift was now towards mission critical development projects.
With countries like India, Ireland and Israel already used to working with US firms, and having an
exposure to major software development environments like .NET and J2EE, the transition to
developing core applications was not too difficult. Besides the versatile technical skills in abundance
in these countries, some of them like India, with over 1,832 educational institutions and
polytechnics, also have a large workforce with good project management skills.
In today's competitive marketplace, escalating costs of software development and the shortage of
skilled software professionals are important issues of concern.
Offshore software development has emerged to be a viable alternative. But what exactly does
this term mean? It means software development carried out in countries that are strategically well
positioned to develop quality software, apart from giving you a decisive cost advantage.
