It has been estimated that the world market for software is rising rapidly. In 2006 this industry remained dynamic. The total volume of the IT sector, according to preliminary data, will be over 1trl 60 bln rubles ($60 bln). This is 20% higher than in 2005. Expected revenues for electronic services are 745 bln rubles ($28 bln), which is 21% higher than in the previous year, and prospective revenues on postal services are 54,4 bln rubles ($2 bln), which is 27,4% higher than in the previous year.

The lion's share of this market is either outsourced or offshore programming (offshore software development) when the on-demand of some large corporations is present. According to the research company Gartner, 72% of IT users opt to outsource. 

Russia now is one of the leaders in exporting software and outsourcing services. Today in Russia, there is between 25 and 30 thousand people in the field of exporting software, while in 2004, exports amounted to 560 million dollars. It is expected that in 2007 this figure will exceed 1 billion. The growth of the industry is due to the increase in demand for programming in the Russian market. With the support of the IT sphere that could grow by 20% annually. The government concept of the IT industry development would be a further impetus for growth in Russian IT-businesses. The Russian resort developers and large companies have several advantages over their counterparts from other countries. These include high levels of training, the cost of services, geographical proximity to the countries of Western Europe, and the developed countries of South-East Asia and the Middle East.

Some respected Internet sources give very cognitive information and can influence thinking. One source displays a diagram that shows offshore software development destinations. You can find several countries there, but Russia is not represented. Where is it included? Is it located in the “Eastern Europe” or “Other Countries” category? 

On the other hand, more and more large companies open development centers in Russia. This week Google opened its second development center outside the US in the same country. The country is Russia and the development center is located in Saint-Petersburg.  
 
Google chose Russian specialists to develop innovative software solutions. Murano clients do the same. If you are looking to set up your own offshore development center in Russia, we would like you to consider working with our dedicated teams of talented and highly skilled technical professionals.  
 

It’s obvious that lots of companies can minimize their development costs via offshore outsourcing. Thus usually one of the main criteria for choosing an offshore destination is price. Don’t you think this is a mistake?

If you seek a successful offshore outsourcing engagement, you must think of the results you want. You should pick a vendor that matches you in size or the size of your projects. It’s worth paying attention to developers’ abilities, skills and experience; put emphasis on people rather than on specific requirements of your project.

As for Murano Software, we are quite effective at cooperating with small and mid-size companies that are innovative. We provide our clients with dedicated teams of talented and creative problem solvers who are able to realize the client’s ideas successfully.

In our opinion, the best offshore effect occurs when the finished software product delivers the full functionality required to meet the needs of the client and it is delivered on time and on budget without any unexpected changes in the process of the development.
To get the desired offshore effect, you should enhance your in-house IT-team by engaging the top specialists in the world. Therefore ask for resumes, don’t be immediately concerned with how quickly a project can get done. Ask for company hiring policies and strategy. And finally, you’ll benefit from having access to a diverse talent pool that can quickly fulfill your requirements and deliver the quality software products and achieve better ROI.

Customers expect that software development outsourcing companies employ efficient methods of communication. As we say, outsourced software development doesn’t have to be a struggle, and clients should have the opportunity to take advantage of all outsourcing benefits.

Communicating via Instant Messaging is widespread; moreover it is an essential part of your relations with offshore software developers for discussing details, controlling the development process and exploiting the benefits of agile software development methodology.

To overcome the time differences, the offshore software developers that you contract with could shift their working hours. This makes online communications via IM possible and provides both parties with convenient timing arrangements. As a company focused on outsourcing, we hire technical professionals with a good knowledge of English. You, your IT director or your entire in-house IT team can collaborate or keep track of development achievements (depending on your needs), both verbally and in writing, via e-mail, MSN, Skype, NetMeeting conferences, the telephone and so on.

Of course, it could occasionally happen that you hear English spoken with an accent or that you may not be able to stay in contact with developers throughout your working day because of the time difference. Obviously we don’t dispute that these are points you have to be aware of when engaging in offshore outsourcing. We don’t hesitate to raise these issues, as we know that for our clients, location is not the essential factor in their decision to contract with us. Our clients contract with us primarily due to their interest in cooperating with experts in custom software application development.

One of the initial questions raised, when thinking of offshore outsourcing software development is how to maintain communication. Productivity in software development is measured by meeting customer needs, thus communication is all-important in providing time-to-market, cost-effectiveness and fulfilling other requirements. So when you select your offshore partner make sure that they have their headquarters or, at least, an office in your country.

We, at the Murano US office, not only discuss development needs before contracting, we also encourage feedback (both positive and negative) from our clients. This allows us to adopt our processes, react to issues quickly and replicate successes.