Country offers companies potential advantages, but uncertainties as well

In the competitive world of offshore outsourcing, Pakistan doesn’t get much attention. The main reasons can be found in any quick scan of news headlines about that country: terrorism and political instability, including two unsuccessful efforts to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf.

Nonetheless, Pakistan has a developing offshore IT services industry. And in many areas of the country, it’s business as usual.

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There’s much more to offshore outsourcing than lower labor rates. Industry experts and CIOs with offshore experience caution would-be customers to carefully examine all of the risks, including the hidden costs. It’s also important to protect intellectual property, examine the geopolitical risks in the region where the work will be done and effectively communicate the company’s overall outsourcing strategy to stateside workers.

Offshore outsourcing “creates some stressful situations, some motivational factors and some confidence factors with your own people,” says Rick Greenwood, CIO at GMAC-RFC Residential Capital Group in Minneapolis. Greenwood addresses those issues, in part, by keeping his company’s most important IT work in the U.S.

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