Dialogue Magazine, the flagship publication of the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), publishes an opinion piece by Alexei Miller, Executive Vice President at DataArt, on the future of IT outsourcing after the financial crisis.
“All indicators are that Wall Street troubles will trickle down to the wider economy, affecting IT services spending changes not only at investment banks and services, but in other industries,” writes Miller. “To be sure, the old selling point of outsourcing – cost-cutting – is as potent as ever. However, compared to the IT economic downturn of 2002, a few things are different this time around… First, the market for offshore labor is much more saturated… Secondly, there has been a sizeable wave of complaint about offshore services delivered from the dominant locations…Thirdly, the industry at large has been too slow to innovate and lead, and too attached to the moniker of ‘cheap labor’.”
“All these factors lead us to believe that the market for ‘commodity’ IT outsourcing services is likely to flatten… These difficult times will present an opening for those vendors who have not just preached innovation, but practiced it, those who have spent their time understanding clients’ business processes and strive to improve them… We recommend that clients look for smaller, specialized vendors who will be willing to provide good terms, but will not look desperate. In this new world, clients will find themselves working with several specialized vendors at the same time and will need to hone a new skill – managing and bringing together reams distributed not just across continents, but across competing firms.”
Michael Zaitsev, CEO of DataArt, and Marina Kolesnik, Senior VP, were keynote speakers at the annual ITEC Technology conference in Philadelphia, focusing on Eastern Europe being the driver of innovation at the time of the economic slowdown. Zaitsev pointed that the current market conditions are filled with opportunities to get ahead of the competition by acquiring great talent and assets and by investing in new strategic projects. He showcased several recent DataArt client case studies, in financial services, new media and telecom, demonstrating how a Eastern European outsourcing company helped the firms in the U.S. and UK take advantage of the best opportunities by delivering strategic software development projects in record times and on budget.
Marina Kolesnik discussed the key differentiators of Eastern Europe as compared to other destinations, including India and China, specifically a highly educated work force, excellence in problem solving and complex analytical tasks, and cultural and geographic proximity to Europe. Kolesnik said that DataArt sees a strong demand for services despite the market slowdown, as the company helps clients to be more cost-effective and to reduce operational risks of hiring new people when the visibility is limited. She also pointed that the best areas for IT outsourcing to Eastern Europe are R&D, new application development and re-engineering.
Software development shop builds quality assurance, data import systems for popular Web startup
NEW YORK, November 18, 2008 -- DataArt, a high-end software development company with R&D centers in Eastern Europe, today announced and detailed the company’s ongoing development work with Twine.com, which helps individuals keep up with interests, together with friends, family, colleagues and other groups.
“DataArt has been a tremendous help in making our product a success,” said Nova Spivack, Founder and CEO of Twine.” DataArt brings great instincts and smarts to every project, but they’re nimble too, which is of the utmost importance in the startup world.”
Twine connects users to relevant content, products and people that match their interests, leveraging the collective intelligence of its users alongside next-generation Semantic Web technologies. Over time, Twine gets to know each user better and helps them to more efficiently scour the Web for relevant content.
DataArt developed an automated testing framework on Ruby/Selenium and implemented a comprehensive quality assurance program for Twine, including developing and running automated QA tests. These tests perform important verifications that are executed within the continuous integration process of Twine.
In addition, DataArt has developed various modules responsible for importing contacts from major online sites and services, including Gmail, Digg and Delicious, as well as Microsoft Outlook .csv files.
“We’re happy that our engagement with Twine has brought such fantastic results,” said Eugene Goland, President of DataArt. “Our mature processes fit well with their entrepreneurial energy, and I hope we continue the partnership in the years to come.”
About DataArt: DataArt (http://www.dataart.com) is a high-end software outsourcing company with industry-specific expertise in financial technology, telecom and media sectors. The company specializes in enterprise application development, system integration and business automation tools. In 2006-2008, DataArt was named one of the world's top emerging outsourcing providers by BusinessWeek, CMP's Global Services 100 and by International Association of Outsourcing Professionals, and was named a best-in-class R&D outsourcing provider by Aberdeen Group. Headquartered in New York City, DataArt runs R&D centers in Russia and the Ukraine and maintains offices in London, UK.
About Twine: Twine is a new service that helps users keep up with their interests together with friends, family, colleagues and groups. Twine was founded in 2003 by Web visionary Nova Spivack, who co-founded EarthWeb (IPO: 1998) which also produced Dice (IPO: 2007). The company is backed by Velocity Interactive Group, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital and Leapfrog Ventures as well as leading angel investors, and is headquartered in San Francisco. For more information on Twine, visit www.twine.com.
Media Contact: Vica Vinogradova 212-378-4108 x 4014vica@dataart.com
DataArt today announced and detailed the company’s ongoing development work with Twine.com, which helps individuals keep up with interests, together with friends, family, colleagues and other groups.
Dmitry Bagrov, Senior Vice President of European Sales at DataArt, spoke at the Outsourcing of Business Processes seminar organized by Leading Ventures Associates in London. His presentation, “Outsourcing to Eastern Europe: Fears and How to Deal with Them” addressed the risks and misconceptions of outsourcing to the region and highlighted advantages of working with Russia and the Ukraine.
He demonstrated that despite common political, cultural and communications fears inherent to the idea of outsourcing, successful enterprises have well-established partnerships and reliable local personnel in the region, which assures dedication to common business goals. Another important factor in assuring a successful outsourcing engagement is efficient resource management, which is aided by modern CRM systems, and proper market positioning.
