I’ll quote that work conclusion:

Full text is available at www.outsourcing.com

An article of Mark Monteleone is a great illustration of how that problem appears and what can be done to avoid it. Must read to all business analyst and other people working with requirements

In the begin I’ll try to downgrade couple myths about Russia and then present some reasons, why Russia should be considered for software projects outsourcing.

Myths.

1. Russia is very far away, so there is huge time difference between Australia and Russia.

1st part of the sentence is true, Russia is far, however due to it’s huge size there are many big cities in the Eastern part of Russia (Siberia and Russian Far East), where time difference with Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and other Australian cities is just 3, 2, 1 or even 0 (zero) hrs.

2.  Russian programmers don’t speak English.

English is a part of the standard education program in Russia for many years. An average Russian boy or girl studies English for 6-7 years in school and 2-3 years in University. While some Russian developers don’t have enough conversations practice, so indeed the level of speaking English may be not perfect, as a rule, developer, especially working in an offshore outsourcing business some time has a decent level of written English, an adequate for business and technical correspondence and IM communications.

3. Russian developers are crazy expensive, so outsourcing there doesn’t have much economic sense.

Such statement may be partly true if we are speaking about Russian capital, Moscow and possibly in some degree St.Peterburg. In other Russian cities, salaries of developers (and consequentially prices of Russian companies, that specialise in offshore outsourcing) are far from being crazy. More specifically, rates starts from around $(US) 20 per work hr or sometimes even a bit less (we are talking b2b transactions) and rarely exceed $ (US) 40. That maybe not the cheapest possible rates in the planet, but far from being higherst as well and below I will write about benefits, that justify that rates.

Benefits.

1. Russia is already a very popular software development outsourcing destination for customers from Western Europe and North America. Russian software export industry total revenue reached $1.8 billion in 2006. Now Russia is #3 country in offshore outsoucring business (after India and China) with share about 3% of market. So it is a big markey, with large number of providers that allow smart client to shop around and select from many possible partners.

2. Russian education system is focused on technologies, since and engineering. Student teams from Russian gradually every year amonth the winners of ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest . That strong education system provide good supply of bight talents to software development industry. Russian developers are considered especially good in projects that require the use of complex math and physic.

3. Business and general culture in Russia much closer to Australian in compare with Asian offshore destinations. In recent UC Irvine software outsourcing research culture factor was mentioned as being important for more than 2/3 companies using software outsourcing.

4. Russian companies manage to keep low (3-4%) annual employees attrition rate, that helps to avoid overstaffing and reduce risk of project delays.

5. Russian developers are used to think out of box and be flexible to adopt to changing requirements.

For additional information you may check that article It is written in 2006, so salary figures for Russian developers are not so attractive now, but in general there is a good analysis.

How can I help you?

With 16 years of experience of doing business in Russia and Eastern Europe and 10 years experience in offshore outsourcing I can provide you with qualified advice about possibilities that IT outsourcing to Russia opens for your business.  Contact me to schedule a meeting or phone/online conference.

I invested significant efforts and money to that venture and hope that it worth my endeavours. My family will movve with me, 2 years is to long time to live apart.

So I am very exited about my life in Australia, it should be fun

European IT company looking for reliable, self-motivated and energetic person to hold position of company country representative

Requirements:
Educational and work experience:
Completed university degree (Bachelor and higher), from 2 years of working experience in sales, project management and administrative duties. Experience to work in IT company will be big plus
Required skills: computer literacy (MS Office, E-mail, Internet), some IT background is a plus, commercial documents preparation, negotiations with clients and suppliers, management of small team of people
Language requirements: native Russian/Ukrainian, fluent English, working knowledge of Italian is highly desirable
Others:
Registration as private entrepreneur is desirable
Обязанности:
Sales of company service to Ukrainian clients, work with suppliers and contractors, represent the company in Ukraine, collaborate with headquarter

Full time, maybe not in regular work hrs sometimes.

Compensation level will be based on interview results, approximate level is 800-1200 USD

Email to send your CV – job@levashov.biz

There are several factors that will affect the compensations and main 3 are:

- location. Kiev has the highest salaries; compensation in Kharkov, Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk, Lvov and other big cities are lower, and what you pay in smaller cities is the lowest. That is the rule, but of cause it has some exclusions;

- qualification level and experience. Quite clear, the bigger the experience – the higher the salary

- position you need to fill. Related with previous but not directly. Team leader, senior developer get more than junior programmer

The very rough digits show the next picture:

- for the whole Ukraine salary for .Net developers starts from as low as $200 and finishes at $4000 as top margin. The median salary is $900

- if we take just Kiev we get a bit other digits: $250-$1200-$4000

Figures are monthly wages, after tax in US dollars.

I would say that it is hardly possible to find any decent candidate orienting on the bottom margin, I suspect that reporting bottom level salary may be possible in some internships for people without any experience only and for very reputable companies. If you want to find experienced candidate and do it fast you should offer salary higher than median.

Sources of information: different job and IT sites and own experience