Riding an offshoring backlash in Oklahoma
Ciber's low-cost domestic tech center is part of a broader effort to grab dollars that might otherwise go offshore.
It's now a certifiable trend, this push to use low-cost domestic operations to snag tech spending that might otherwise go offshore.
First we heard from information technology services start-up Rural Sourcing, and its facilities in Arkansas. Then software development firm Decision Design said it was expanding on the fringes of Silicon Valley in addition to an office outside of Chicago. On Thursday, systems integrator Ciber announced it opened a low-cost application development center in Oklahoma City, and plans to launch several more such "Cibersites" in 2005 and 2006.
A common thread here is the companies are setting up shop in places where the cost of living can be lower than in tech hubs like San Francisco and Boston.
The companies also are betting clients will want to avoid some of the problems that can arise when sending tech work to places like India and China. Offshoring isn't dead by any means, but it's become clear that not all overseas arrangements work out well. Decision Design, whose clients include Lehman Brothers and JPMorgan Chase, says it was brought in several times last year when a customer's offshore project wasn't panning out properly.
"Our Cibersites clients will have another choice in avoiding the hidden costs of offshoring, such as language gaps, intellectual property protection, travel, time schedules, infrastructure vulnerability, political risks and increasingly high employee turnover," Cibersites Division President Tim Boehm said in a statement.