The Wall Street Journal published the article, Vietnam Wins Attention
As New Outsourcing Hub (subscription required) that describes the increasing interest in Vietnam as an outsourcing destination. Among those flocking to Vietnam are many large companies including Intel, Microsoft and Sony.

Rates in Vietnam are lower than other more well-known destinations, such as India. Vietnam even competes well with China, with a young and enthusiastic work force. Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) is considered one of the best non-Indian cities for outsourcing.

Most Vietnamese companies are employing Vietnamese Americans for sales, marketing and business strategy positions. In some cases, returning Vietnamese help to minimize the lack of fluent spoken English ability in young Vietnamese programmers and other workers.

If you don’t have a WSJ subscription to access the article, you can read a copy here on the NeoIT website.

Bookmark to:
          

Clients always want to know how much it costs to hire a programming team offshore. The answer is that pricing is all over the map (pun intended) and depends on the location, size of the team you need and how long you plan to use them. The fact remains that you can hire programmers elsewhere for a rate much lower than hiring programmers in the U.S.

You can quickly find a global software development team in the right place and for the right price by using the Accelerance Global Partner Network. 

A single budgetary number you can use for global software development is $25 per hour. That is an average blended rate and you will pay less than that in some locations and more in others. In comparison, the absolute lowest blended rate I have heard for U.S. programmers is around $40 per hour. 

A prospective client called me the other day and asked about rates. She was told elsewhere that paying more than $15 per hour for programmers in India is a rip-off.  I agreed that if all you need is a couple of junior PHP script writers that you will manage directly then you can get rates even lower. 

A blended rate is the average rate you pay for a team of programmers containing both junior and senior people. You will see much lower rates for individual junior programmers right out of school or with limited experience. 

In India, the blended rates are around $20 per hour, although Indian rates are being pressured by inflation, the rise in the value of the rupee compared to the dollar and salary inflation due to increased competition. In general rates will be higher in Latin America and lower in places like China and Vietnam. 

Rates are significantly higher at the larger Indian outsourcing firms due to their brand recognition. A Trends In Indian IT Services Pricing report from Forrester says rates are much higher than $25 per hour. I think it reflects the higher rates of large Indian firms. 

In my opinion, cost is just one factor to consider when you select a global software development team.  What sense does it make to pay less than $15 per hour for a cheap programmer that cannot deliver quality software?

Bookmark to:
          

213 Garcia Avenue
Half Moon Bay, CA 94019

Bookmark to: