Russia touts innovation over cheap labor

At last week's Russoft conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, representatives from the Russian software development industry said that they are moving away from traditional outsourcing models. They plan to rely more on partnerships with overseas companies, touting talent and innovation over cheap labor. Indeed, today's Russian development companies prefer to work with customers to create something new rather than to simply churn out program code in the commodity market, eWeek says. Russian development companies also want to be viewed differently from competitors in India, China or South America. Instead of being thought of as outsourcing providers, the Russians want stable, long-term relationships that span the course of years. Russian execs say that their companies can offer teams that stay together for a decade or longer, giving them more depth of knowledge than what's normally found in more traditional outsourcing.

Learn more about software development in Russia:
- see this eWeek article