Northern Ireland drops out of offshore top 30

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Gartner today said Northern Ireland was one of the countries to drop out of its analysis of the countries best placed to host offshore IT operations.

The analyst carried out its annual assessment of the suitability of 72 countries around the world as offshore locations and found Northern Ireland, along with Sri Lanka, Turkey and Uruguay, were the only four not to retain a top-30 position.

These countries were replaced by new entrants Egypt, Morocco, Panama and Thailand, which emerged as credible alternatives to the BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Overall, Gartner concluded that a growing interest in ‘nearshore’ locations and cost cutting in response to increased economic pressures had benefited some countries’ offshore service capabilities more than others.

“Countries such as Mexico, Poland and Vietnam have continued to strengthen their position against leading alternatives, while others have forced their way into the top 30,” said Ian Marriott, research vice president at Gartner. “These countries 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.”

But that the four relegated countries had not underperformed this year. Instead, the dynamic nature of the market had seen others making stronger progress, Marriott added.

Strong interest in the advantages offered by nearshore locations was a key factor, including language skills, cultural compatibility, time zone and travel time, which emerged as important considerations.

This interest also fuelled the entry of two North African countries – South Africa and Morocco – in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, faring well alongside the likes of Ireland and Israel in term of language skills.

Evaluated against 10 criteria - that included language, government support, labour pool, infrastructure, cost, data and intellectual property security and privacy - Gartner’s top 30 locations for offshore services, by region, were:

EMEA: the Czech Republic, Egypt, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Morocco, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain and Ukraine.

Americas: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico and Panama.

Asia Pacific: Australia, China, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

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