Eastern Europe Advantages
A critical factor in your selection of an offshore partner is the location
where your team will reside. Each geography has unique advantages. As you
evaluate your projects needs, Augmentive believes that Eastern Europe
offers the following advantages to anyone building an offshore team:
Highly Educated Work Force
Eastern Europe has a history of technical training and expertise. The education
system is heavily focused on math and sciences, which has created a large pool
of talented software engineers. As Russia and the Ukraine evolved into
independent market economies, the reduction of government funded research jobs
created a surplus of highly educated developers. The end result is a large
workforce that is highly educated, motivated and readily available at a low
cost.
Low Turnover
Turnover is a costly result of mismanaged offshore projects. This is especially
true for companies that rely on extensive training for their software
engineers. In addition to Augmentive's retention programs, the low turnover
rate in Eastern Europe reduces your exposure to employee loss. In a recent
study, Gartner found that India has the highest turnover rate while Russia and
the Ukraine had turnover rates significantly lower than India and the United
States.
Communication
A critical factor of any distributed development model is the ability of
project team members anywhere in the world to effectively communicate. There is
a window of direct communication between the United States and Eastern Europe
during normal business hours. Unlike India and China where creating a
communication window is extremely difficult, the overlap of work hours between
the US and Eastern Europe allows for four to five hours of collaborative
development each day. During this time, you are able to schedule conference
calls, videoconferences and direct communication with your team. Augmentive
knows that this increases effective communication contributing to team
cohesiveness and eliminating confusion and frustration.
Accessibility
Augmentive's experience shows that the majority of communication among a
distributed development team will happen through conference calls or via the
Internet. However, there will be times when face-to-face interaction
facilitates a project. When this occurs, Eastern Europe has a distinct
advantage over India and China. By plane, each of our resource centers is
located within 21/2 hours from several
European hubs including Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. This results in
approximately 50% reduction in travel time and costs when compared to other
offshore geographies like India and China.
If you would like to learn more about one of our resource centers, please
contact us.
