Resources to help start-ups, small and medium businesses select the geographic region and country that best meets their offshore outsourcing needs.

Regulation can be a significant burden to businesses across the globe.  In many cases, these burdens are higher in the more popular offshore outsourcing locations.  The cost of regulation directly impacts captive operations, but those firms outsourcing to a third parties also bear the cost through higher rates.
The leading comparative measure of the impact of [...]

Corruption is a global scourge that impacts developed and developing nations. It acts both as a direct financial tax and as an indirect impediment to a range of business activities.  While the United States and Western Europe are not immune, corruption often has a bigger impact on operations located in offshore locations.
The leading comparative measure [...]

Quality national education programs are critical to building competitive offshore locations.  The leading comparative national education survey is the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).  The latest data was collected in 2006 and covers 57 locations.  Together, all the countries in the program account for 90% of global economic output.
The survey focuses on 15 [...]

BPO is leading way for the IT sector’s return to normalcy amid the recession. Incidentally, many of the first time offshorers are turning to Indian vendors to take on their projects.

Total workforce availability varies greatly across the top offshore outsourcing locations.  China and India are in a league of their own with workforces of 800 million and 500 million respectively. Granted, the over whelming majority of these resources would not be employable in technology or business process outsourcing operations, but they provide a massive reservoir [...]

The cost of office space is typically one of the top three expenses for an offshore services operation.  As in the United States or Western Europe, real estate expenses are highly variable even within a specific country or city.  In many cases, premium office space can be more expensive in offshore locations that the cites [...]

When evaluating new offshore locations one of the key metrics is financial savings.  For most operations, the primary driver of cost savings is lower wages or labor arbitrage. To help illustrate the relative position of key locations we have compiled salary data across a number of countries, job titles and experience levels.
Methodology
The key source of [...]

Per capita income of different offshore locations can provide some insight into the long-term cost competitiveness of a country.  Typically, skilled IT, BPO and KPO employees command wages significantly above country averages, but low average incomes can help countries maintain cost advantages.
For example, India has had rampant wage inflation for high skill workers.  Until the [...]

The overall size of an offshore location provides good context when starting a location evaluation.  The population of top outsourcing locations provides an overview of the broad set of human resources and national income statistics provide a summary of overall economic output.
From a population perspective, India and China overshadow all other outsourcing locations.  However, when [...]

When first starting to explore offshore outsourcing locations for a new operation or project or it is helpful to step back and get an overview of key countries.  Population statistics, while not a key determinate in selecting a location, provide a rough sense of the overall resources pool.
It is well recognized that India and China [...]