Monday, January 10, 2005

New blog on offshore outsourcing

I found a new blog yesterday, called "Offshore Software Development Liverpool: Thoughts." Most writers on offshoring come from the position of those that are threatened by the trend. But this writer, Tony Radford, is on the other side of the debate: he is the founder of Redland Software, an offshore software development firm in Romania, with offices in Liverpool, UK.

Interestingly, Tony is a Brit, not a Romanian. He tells the story of how he came to set up shop in Romania, while on a mission of mercy.
On my first trip to Romania (to assist on projects with orphans) I fell in love with the country. Perhaps it was the wonderful climate, or maybe the (mostly) friendly and generous people - who knows. Anyway I returned there several times and always enjoyed myself.

I decided that I wanted to have a good reason to stay working with Romania. I did some research into the IT industry in Romania and discovered that the IT guys there are very talented, hard working and well motivated. Also, the salaries are a lot lower than in the UK. So I decided to set up a software development company in Timisoara in western Romania.

It took a couple of years of hard work to get the software development team working well. For the first two years the business was run on a part-time basis. Now it is a full time activity for me. I formed Redland Software. 'Redland' has nothing to with Romania being a former Communist country (as in 'red' 'land') but is in fact the name of a nice district of my home town of Bristol.
Tony's blog is new, but hopefully he'll keep posting. Check it out.

Related posts
Offshoring leaves software firm not so jolly
Risks of offshore outsourcing
Outsourcing: the next bubble?
India losing its cost advantage
Pendulum swinging back on offshoring?
Productivity risks in offshore outsourcing
The supply-side argument for offshore software development
Offshore outsourcing driving down US IT salaries

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