Offshore IT services such as personnel management and help desk support are quite different from offshore software development. We have said in another blog that Windows 8 and the cloud will eliminate the need for offshore IT intensive processing, and that’s true. The advantage of IT services processing offshore lies in the lower labor costs associated with operating the IT systems, performing the service and the lower infrastructure costs associated with offering the services.

Moving an IT service to the cloud eliminates infrastructure costs and the costs to operate and maintain the infrastructure. It also eliminates or greatly reduces the labor costs associated with the service since there’s no longer a need to import and export data, assure its compatibility, and all of the other tasks associated with data movement between two or more widely separated locations. All are eliminated when the service is relocated to the cloud. Tightened integration with and within the cloud reduces labor requirements even further.

But none of that is possible without user and cloud integration, and that requires software developers. They will still be needed for the foreseeable future, and using offshore resources to fill that need is the best choice for a number of reasons.

1.Offshoring allows for a wide variety of skills to be assembled as needed for specific development projects. The client is not concerned with or interested in the personnel roster, only in results accruing from a wide selection of highly responsive development firms, lower labor costs, a better selection of highly skilled specialists, and compressed development schedules. Overhead costs are typically lower too because of a less expensive business environment.

2. Offshoring projects can be results driven. In-company politics are eliminated. The developer’s only interest is to over-achieve and to win future business. Project managers can reinforce this drive with financial incentives to attract the best talent and insure productivity, incentives that are very motivating but that are still substantially less costly than they would be in the USA.

3. Offshoring allows remote project managers to deliver a vision, indifferent to the development process; they benefit, however, from a highly skilled and motivated development team. Their location and the local technological sophistication is not a concern. Skilled developers in areas that are technologically handicapped can now create amazing programs using only the requirements they’re given, their innovation and the stimulating environment of their offshore team members. All they need is Internet access and a suitable workstation.

With the cloud eliminating borders in software development and project management, a whole new world of collaboration and design is on its way. It no longer matters which country people are working in but rather what the quality of the code is. Knowing that offshoring provides you with the best of the best in programming and design at a cost you can afford means handing the project over to an offshore company is just good business.