Online outsourcing: US outperforms India
By Sandhya

Every week, Indian mainstream media reports on multi million dollar outsourcing contracts signed by IT-ITES majors like TCS, Wipro, Infosys and Genpact.  Even as the deals worth hundreds of crores are being signed and serviced, individual Indians and small firms are working on projects sometimes worth only 100 dollars.

A number of international websites like Odesk, Guru and Elance bring overseas businesses in touch with individual Indian software developers, designers, content writers and even marketing experts.  These deals could range from below $100 to a few thousand dollars. Some even run into tens of thousands of dollars.

American website Elance describes itself as a commerce site which helps companies find, hire, manage and pay contractors online. Elance has 100,000 technical, marketing and business professionals scattered in every part of the world who bid for contracts listed on the site.

Elance stats reveal that American contractors and small business are often out bidding Indian individuals and small business.  We have to keep in mind that many Americans would prefer to work with locals for a number of reasons including language

Elance has just posted its online talent report which makes for interesting reading.  There were about 101 thousand active employers who posted 308 thousand jobs in the last 12 months.  As these were small to medium sized project the total earnings were $245 Million in the year.

The Elance category of Information Technology covers skills ranging from PHP, HTML, Wordpress, Flash, Blogs to social networking.  Not surprisingly, India was the best performing country followed by United States.  Pakistan was at No. 3.  Demand for Mobile development grew by 180 percent. 

The Elance category of Creative covers skills ranging from writing articles, graphic design, content writing, Photoshop, Logos and copywriting.  United States was the best performing country following by India.  United Kingdom was at No. 3.  Obviously, good English skills counted for a lot while bidding for such contracts. Dollars spent by businesses on artistic and creative skills increased over 40% in 2009
     
The Elance category of Marketing covers skills ranging from SEO, internet marketing, Sales, advertising, press releases to telemarketing. In this category, USA was the best following by India.  Pakistan was at No. 3.  Revenue spent in Marketing grew 46% in 2009.

While India and Pakistan are doing quite well on Elance, they face stiff competition from smaller nations.  Individuals and small businesses from countries like Israel, Poland, Thailand and even Uzbekistan are grabbing more of the small and medium sized contracts these days.