Some authors and industry analysts in the
West tend to oversimplify the factors that determine a software consulting firms in India success, constructing their argumentation solely on the basis of
advantageous pricing provided to foreign customers by local software
consultants and IT service providers as a whole. While this statement has valid
grounds, the price of a service is never the sole, nor the primary factor
influencing a major business decision to entrust a foreign-based service
provider with IT auditing or contract an India-based firm to consult the
implementation of a business software solution that may cost millions of
dollars.
Like it or not, but India's software
consultancies have grown not only in numbers, which results in additional
pressure to lower prices, but have gained the necessary business and technology
know-how to compete on equal terms with rival IT consultants in the West. While
the pricing of a service might be a decisive factor for small businesses
seeking software consulting services abroad, medium sized and large
corporations pursue a certain level of reliability, professional background,
and in-depth knowledge. Therefore, a large multinational corporation would
rarely pick a software consultant that is not well-prepared to perform the task
whatever the price of its service might be.
Evidently, India's software consulting
firms are in position to offer advantageous pricing due to the local labor
market specifics; nonetheless, they have fought hard to attract business
customers and have set foot in the world markets only following a period of
knowledge gaining, where local companies provided service as contractors to
foreign-based entities. Western-based business customers started outsourcing
small software projects to India some two decades ago but since then the local
IT industry, backed by heavy government investment in education and
infrastructure, have gradually grow into a world leader in the field of
software outsourcing, which gave a marked boost to related services like software
consulting.
India's software consultants are now
well-equipped to perform complex tasks and successfully complete sophisticated
projects, and even started hiring foreign-educated professionals attracted by
the career growth opportunities offered by local IT consultancies. This is even
more remarkable bearing in mind that only a few years ago India experienced a
brain drain of IT professionals.
One should also be aware that a software consulting firm in India is destined to perform in a highly competitive marketplace;
therefore local companies cannot afford to lose customers due to poor service
because one should not leave India to find another reliable service provider.
Furthermore, working in the foreign markets, India-based software consulting
firms have gained both technology and industry best practices knowledge that
now allow those companies to meet the requirements of leading multinationals.
Thus, a software consulting firm in India is no more only an advantageous
source of affordable services in the field of software consulting but a major
player when the matter in question is to find the right price to quality ratio.
