India Is Well-positioned to Win the Race in the Field of Custom Application Development

The boom of custom application development is a relatively new phenomenon, which occurred only after computer manufacturers have switched to non-embed software solutions and open-source software platforms gained popularity. Originally, software developers in emerging markets like India, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, Latin and South America, have no access to software documentation required to develop a reliable custom-made solution based on licensed software. Following a series of court battles and overall change in market philosophy, however, today's software market allows for creation of virtually unlimited number of customized software solutions in every field of life.

These markets developments, for their part, allowed software developers and vendors across the world to compete on equal terms with large multinationals, with custom application developing now considered a major software market segment. New software development centers emerged, mainly in Asia/Pacific region and Central and Eastern Europe, where scores of gifted and well-educated software developers started making custom software to meet requirements of local markets, originally, before setting foot in new markets abroad. Thus, today's custom application development is often outsourced to software firms in these regions, with India leading the pack in the sphere of software outsourcing.

This is the big picture in the field of custom application development and it is well-documented in numerous reports and market research papers. A good number of analysts, however, tend to focus on obvious economic drivers that have led to this market situation, apparently underestimating other factors which influence today's market for custom-made software applications.

First of all, major educational hubs in the field are no more concentrated in Europe and the United States; India has managed to build a network of reputable educational institutions in the sphere of computer hardware and software, while Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union traditionally produce well-educated professionals in the field. Secondly, all and every student now has access to myriads of open-source software solutions from which to borrow ideas and functionality, or on the basis of which to build a customized software application. Free and open-source operating systems compete on equal terms with licensed rivals, thus opening the gate to creation of entirely custom-made solutions, from the underlying operating system to business software to applications for individual users. This, combined with lower labor costs in Asia/Pacific, Eastern Europe, and Latin America, made these regions major suppliers of customized software.

Some economic experts blame software outsourcing for loss of jobs in their respective country, urging adoption of legislation to protect local software developers. On the surface, there is sound economic logic in such an approach. An in-depth market analysis, however, would reveal that adoption of such restrictions shall only decrease competitiveness, resulting in higher business expenditures and regulated labor market, which does not stimulate positive economic development in the long run.

For example, India is leading world provider of custom application development services through outsourcing thanks to a combination of factors that are natural for a free-market economy; namely, well-educated software experts, lower labor costs, access to and investment into technologies, and development of research and development hubs, where large-scale projects can be completed on time. These are factors quite similar to the competitive advantages provided by the Silicon Valley in the early days of the software industry, minus the lower payroll costs.

Anyway, custom application development market cannot be re-shaped through administrative measures for good reasons; businesses around the world have need for reliable tailored applications and need them cheap. Thus, development of custom-made software is driven by the very same market forces that drive any other industry and outsourcing of custom application development to countries like India is an inevitable process whose roots can be traced to the basics of entrepreneurship: buy cheap, sell dear. To put it simply, custom application development is destined to flourish and countries like India are well positioned to grab even bigger market share in this lucrative market.

How India Software Consulting Firm Can Help Reduce Costs

Most businesses need software consultancy assistance at some stage of their development, and hiring India software consulting firm can provide additional benefits, if the IT consultant is carefully selected.  Not so long ago India has been considered a developing nation that can hardly be ranked among leading world nations in terms of technological advancement and availability of well-educated and well-trained IT staff. Within the lifespan of a generation, however, India emerged as leading power in the field of software development and outsourcing of research and development activities, developing also a very competitive software consultancy sector.

As we have already mentioned, most successful businesses require software consultancy services to enhance their efficiency and implement the best software fit for their business operations. Obviously, one could hire a local consultant who is well-acquainted with local market conditions and specifics; nevertheless, such an approach is not mandatory in many scenarios. Enterprises in the West witness continuously growing charges for IT consultancy services, even in stagnating economy, while those services very often do not require any specific in-depth knowledge of the local market. For example, the implementation of a customer relationship management (CRM) system does not require such knowledge, while expertise in the field of custom-made software applications and reasonable pricing policy can be of advantage to the business customer.

In fact, India is the leading world exporter of software products, mainly software applications whose development have been outsourced to Indian software developers, and local software experts have gained invaluable knowledge in the field of software development, implementation and adoption. Furthermore, local software industry enjoys lower payroll costs which can translate into lower costs for end-customers who look for consultancy services in India. In a supply and demand driven economy India-based software consultancies have the advantage of providing cheaper yet reliable service in business environment where demand is continuously growing.

The price of a service is not the most important single factor to assess, though. Access to technology, staff preparedness to cope with complex tasks and projects, ability to innovate are essential factors in the world of software consulting services, and the price for such qualities is high in the West. In contrast, India now possesses both the human and the technological resource to provide world class IT software consultancy services at the price of a regular service, affordable to anyone who is running a business. And since distance is no longer a factor that has negative effect on a business project, remote software consultancy projects are growing in numbers.

On the other hand, India software consulting firms are under constant pressure to deliver because rival companies in Latin America and Eastern Europe are similarly well-equipped to provide reliable and reasonably priced IT consultancy services. Which in turn results in better service and even lower costs for business customers who have decided to hire India-based IT consultant. A good number of market-leading multinationals now rely on India's software consulting companies for taking both strategic and everyday decisions in the field of IT, an approach that allows corporations to save markedly on IT personnel and get reliable advice in the same time.

A growing number of enterprises located in Europe, the US and elsewhere have realized that hiring an India-based software consultant pays back, and, to surprise for many, can result in access to know-how inaccessible through other businesses channels. This is because India's software developers and vendors work on projects that increasingly involve cutting edge technologies, thus gaining knowledge previously available only to researchers and software developers in the West. And since knowledge has always been the most precious commodity, hiring a reputable India software consulting firm can prove to be a very wise decision from strategic point of view.