Pakistan amongst top 20 outsourcing destinations

Pakistan has become the 20th most attractive outsourcing destination, according to consulting management firm A.T. Kearney. Even as concerns increase about Pakistan’s stability and the growing displaced population due to ongoing military operations with the Taliban, the country made a significant jump on A.T. Kearney’s 2009 Global Services Location Index released May 18. Pakistan went from #30 in 2007 to #20 in 2009.

This is a snippet from the Businessweek article by Rachael King published on June 4 2009. The A.T. Kearney index ranks the top 50 countries worldwide for locating outsourcing activities including IT services and support, contact centers and back-office support. Countries are measured on 43 different attributes related to financial attractiveness, people and skills availability and business environment.

The 2009 A.T. Kearny ranking has surprised some people because of the current instability in certain parts of Pakistan. However, those who are working with Pakistani Outsourcing companies do not find it surprising at all. Despite the instability, Pakistani outsourcers (whether it be outsourcing companies or freelancers who work in the Rentacoder space), have shown over the years that, despite power breakdowns and political problems, they  have not let this impact their ability to deliver quality services on time and on budget.

Many of you will remember that even subsequent to the Marriott blast in Islamabad, when the Evacuee Trust STP was very badly damaged, IT organizations did not suffer any downtime because they had Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Plans in place. Large organisations like LMKR and Ovex Technoligies, and smaller compaies like Ikonami, Jin Technologies and Cogilent Solutions were all up-and-running within hours of the disaster over the weekend. Many of their customers in the US and elsewhere did not even realize what had happened. I remember one CEO telling me that his US client had remarked “How do you do it? We are still not 100%  operational after Hurricane Katrina … and look at you guys”.

Expertise of Pakistani IT companies has also continued to improve as they work with clientele in various markets and consistently meet customer expectations. I am proud to be a part of this industry and I have faith that the innovation that we have seen over the past years is only the tip of the iceberg.

TechLahore, one of my favourite techblogs, has also put up a post regarding this article which is well worth reading.

Let us all go and post some positive comments on the Businessweek article – and if we can get our customers to do so, it would be even better.