The first time Interval International, a timeshare broker, signed a major outsourcing contract, it did it with developers  in China, reports Stephanie Overby at CIO magazine. The deal, struck two years ago, was for new application development work, and the goal was to replace core applications and establish greater agility within the IT group. While the arrangement has provided some benefits, it has not been without challenges.

Interval chose a San Francisco-based IT services provider with a development staff in Shenzhen, China. The group had the right skills and expertise, and the costs were one-third lower than in-house development, according to Marie Lee, the company's CIO. Everyone working offshore, including 20 Java developers and five QA testers, is required to go through security screening and training. Interval stores its source code and data in the United States.

Interval also required that the Chinese developers have sufficient English skills, but their written communication proved better than their verbal skills. Although the team leaders were fluent, communications were sometimes garbled en route to programmers. The company handled the communication problem by rotating jobs and bringing people from China to the United states for a couple months at a time to learn more about requirements and help with design. Every three months, Interval brings a new team member to the United States.

Another challenge was the Chinese holiday calendar and the 13-hour time difference, so some of Interval's IT staff adjusted their schedules. This challenge ended up presenting its own benefit in that it allows the company to work around the clock.

To get some ideas on assessing outsourcers in China and India, take a look at a side-by-side comparison Overby wrote of the two countries. She reviews 24 variables, including labor force, purchasing power, customer rationale, average ITO salary, management maturity and supplier base.

For more:
- see Stephanie Overby's article at CIO
- see Overby's comparison of China and India at CIO

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