China not cheaper than India?
Exec from India's Wipro says Chinese programmers may be less expensive than in India, but supervisors cost more.
Programmers in China work for 10 percent to 15 percent less than those in India, but that doesn't mean the overall cost of performing technology tasks is cheaper.
So says Sudip Banerjee, president of the enterprise solutions division at India-based tech services giant Wipro Technologies. China's revenue in software and information technology services has been rising quickly, to $6.8 billion in 2003.
Wipro has operations in Shanghai with about 20 staff. But China doesn't offer a price advantage over India, Banerjee said, because supervisor-level staff cost about 25 percent more than in India.
"When you take a project, and you do it on a 10-member team (or a) 20-member team, the net cost is the same," Banerjee said in a recent interview.
Lower costs are a major reason U.S. companies are shipping application development work and other tech jobs abroad--though some IT operations in the United States are trying to compete on price as well.
Banerjee indicated that the price of Chinese IT outsourcing services could rise over time. He said it is likely that China's currency, the yuan, will be at some point.