Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Analysts Found Haven for Custom Application Development

Russia has become a haven for custom software development across the full range of application types, as well as custom R&D and design work, embedded systems development, specialized testing, software package integration and translation services. These particular skills, Gartner Group says, are highly available due to Russia's unique strengths, which it lists as follows: an elite university system; a highly skilled and ample workforce; an array of specialized expertise capable of solving large-scale, complex technical problems; and cost of labor advantage compared with the US and Western Europe.

As a result, Russia has expanded steadily over the last few years and is rapidly becoming a major destination for offshore software development and software testing. Belarus, Ukraine and Poland are among other emerging destinations in the CEE region that have been recently often cited as lucrative software outsourcing locations primarily due to strong government support of the IT sector and multiple tax incentives. Analysts predict that the region will have captured a 7 percent share of North American and Western European offshore services revenue by the end of 2007.

RUSSOFT, the nation's trade association of software development and IT services companies, lists companies such as Boeing, Alcatel, Reuters, London Stock Exchange and Siemens as examples of more than 250 global corporations active in Russia-based offshore software development.

"We are moving from the era of cheaper coding towards outsourcing of more complicated solutions related to core business," says President of RUSSOFT Valentin Makarov. "That's why Russia's acknowledged strong points such as high educational level and creativity are finding so many new opportunities."

According to RUSSOFT, Russia is ranked number three in the number of scientists and engineers per capita worldwide. That translates into a talent pool of over 4.7 million students, 50 percent of which are majoring in science, math, and computer sciences. And these students regularly win international programming contests. In the world's most prestigious competition, the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) International Collegiate Programming Contest, for example, the country boasts several gold medals in the last few years.

"Russia is of great interest to American high-tech because of the superiority of its software engineers," says Dr. Deborah A. Palmieri, president of the Russian American Chamber of Commerce based in Denver, CO. "They have exceptional theoretical ability, which when coupled with American know-how, provides a dynamic combination."

Source: Tech-2008

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