I am on a flight to Florida for the OPDA Conference where I
will learn from the best and brightest of my peers the current trends and the
hottest new technologies.  On flights like this, I take the opportunity to
catch up on my trade publications.  I just got done reading Stephanie
Overby’s column, Closer to Home, in CIO magazine.

Stephanie points to many interesting trends in IT
outsourcing.  The key point she drives home is the “accelerating trend
towards domestic outsourcing.”  She often cites a recent study by
Forrester and many interviews she conducted with IT managers.  For example
she cites a large real estate firm’s IT Director who says about offshoring,
“Communications was a challenge” due to strong accents and lack of
understanding.  He also said “it was difficult getting the offshore team
up to speed.”   The US based team end-user satisfaction is up and the
local team adapts more quickly to changes.

A survey for HfS Research shows US based outsourcing
services are rated higher than offshore services.  75% said US based IT
service providers offered good cultural understanding and communication.
The offshore providers only got 30%.  US workers got high marks from 82%,
but Indian workers only got high marks from 37%.

I am proud to say that all of Alvaka Networks staff is US
based.  They all go through stringent background checks for drug use and
criminal history.  Suffice to say, we have a zero tolerance policy.
We even do background checks on driving records and credit history.  Our
facility carries the CompTIA Security Trustmark, giving us one of the most
stringent set of controls established by a third party in the computing
industry.  It is for these reasons that we have some of the most prominent
clients in healthcare, financial services, manufacturing and more.

Our clients are welcome to come inspect our facilities at
any time, meet with our staff and interview them.  All our staff is within
reach of domestic law enforcement and we closely manage our operational affairs
to control the activities and outcomes of our daily work.  Can you say that
about your offshore provider?

Read Stephanie’s column here:

http://www.cio.com/article/721461/IT_Services_Get_Closer_to_Home