Outsource Magazine

While India remains the prime location for IT offshoring, new contenders have entered the market, according to analyst firm Gartner, which has published a list of 30 destinations for outsourcing.

The countries were rated according to 10 criteria that will help determine which locations are right for individual organisations. These were: language, government support, labour pool, infrastructure, educational system, cost, political and economic environment, cultural compatibility, global and legal maturity, and data and intellectual property security and privacy.

Egypt, Morocco, Panama and Thailand joined the group, while Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Uruguay dropped out. Other countries that entered the running as viable locations include Mexico, Poland and Vietnam.

"These locations will be seeking to take advantage of the opportunity created by the increased focus that many organisations now have on cost optimisation, as a result of the current economic crisis,"  said Ian Marriott, research vice-president at Gartner.

The study also found that South America is becoming an attractive proposition for the US, the largest buying market for offshore services.  Ten countries from Asia-Pacific are represented in the list, in addition to emerging countries such as Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

Gartner's top 30 outsourcing locations

    * Australia
    * China
    * India
    * Malaysia
    * New Zealand
    * Pakistan
    * The Philippines
    * Singapore
    * Thailand
    * Vietnam
    * Argentina
    * Brazil
    * Canada
    * Chile
    * Costa Rica
    * Mexico
    * Panama
    * Czech Republic
    * Egypt
    * Hungary
    * Ireland
    * Israel
    * Morocco
    * Poland
    * Romania
    * Russia
    * Slovakia
    * South Africa
* Spain
Ukraine.