mark-ogierFor the past ten years it has been assumed that off-shoring IT software development to supposedly cheaper locations such as India or Asia makes good business sense. However, according to research by The Financial Times the recession has caused a sharp decline in the number of jobs sent overseas from Britain including those in the IT industry.

The FT report says that since the recession began last year little more than 4,000 redundancies, across all sectors, can be wholly or partly attributed to work being moved abroad.

The fact that people are off-shoring less when it comes to IT is no surprise to Milton Keynes-based software developer MMCC Consultants.

“Britain is a hotbed of first-class consultants and software developers,” said Mark Ogier, MMCC’s Managing Director. “Off-shoring IT work might appear cheaper in the short-term but a lot, if not all, can be done just as economically here in the UK.”

Not only can the cost of software development in Britain now rival that of foreign competitors, keeping IT development within the UK removes the inevitable problems of time differences and language barriers.

Mark continued, “Companies using off-shore software developers lose out on that all important business relationship between customer and supplier. With a complex industry like ours it’s important to build a strong working relationship between supplier and customer so they can work together effectively and overcome problems quickly. That’s not easy if your developer is thousands of miles away in a different time zone.”

On-going support is another important benefit of keeping software development in the UK. Follow-up meetings to ensure the software is performing as expected and iron out any teething problems are straight forward and involve only minimal travel.  Training and technical assistance are also delivered locally, often in person, rather than via a crackly line to an off-shore call centre.

So, does off-shore IT development still make good commercial sense? For those looking for the very cheapest headline price there may still be marginal savings. But when all is taken into account, the case for keeping things in the UK is becoming more and more compelling.

MMCC Consultants
Stuart Griffin
Tel: 0845 6585777
Email: stuart.griffin@mmcc.co.uk
www.mmcc.co.uk

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