In a short article, "Frameworks to Execute Offshored Projects," software developer Mohan Babu describes his notion of an 'Offshoring Management Framework' (OMF) one that he elaborates on in his forthcoming book, Offshoring IT Services: A Framework for
Managing Outsourced Projects.
http://www.acm.org/ubiquity/views/v6i18_babu.html

Good article in the 5/10/05 Washington Post about offshoring in Pakistan. Despite challenges including an unstable power grid that may cause cumulative work outages of more than a day a month, there's an economic appeal to hiring mid-level programmers who are willing to work for "as little as $6 an hour," according to staff writer S. Mitra Kalita.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/09/AR2005050901158.html

To be honest, Pakistan isn't alone in facing power shortages, as you can read in Sumanthi Vaidyanathan's 5/10/05 WSJ article, "India Continues to Face Power Shortages, Hindering Businesses." In the article, Vaidyanathan cites an investment-climate survey for India conducted jointly by the World Bank and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), noting that "access to reliable power at reasonable prices is the single most significant constraint facing Indian businesses."

Related
1/29/05 article by Evelyn Iritani in the Indian Express, "Pakistan makes the outsourcing pitch."
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=63611

11/2/04 article by Anthony Mitchell,in the E-Commerce Times, "Pakistan Now a Hot Spot for IT Outsourcing." In the article, Mitchell speculates that the September 28, 2004, announcement by India's finance ministry of an income tax of more than 36 percent on foreign firms with software, R&D, and customer service operations in India will drive business to its neighbor which, in addition to offering cost advantages, also offers a large labor pool of English speakers - and a country that has fewer national holidays.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/37750.html

Country information
http://encarta.msn.com/fact_631504835/Pakistan_Facts_and_Figures.html

Travel info
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/indian_subcontinent/pakistan/facts.htm

Patrick Thibodeau's May 2 Computerworld article on offshoring tech support leads with news about Dell's new three-year contract with Honeywell to manage 57,000 of Honeywell's PCs. http://www.computerworld.com/managementtopics/management/helpdesk/story/0,10801,101456,00.html

The May 5 issue of the WSJ has an interesting article by Nicholas Zamiska, "Quality Luries Software Outsourcing," where Zamiska mentions that CMM certification is exploding - 243 Chinese companies joining 387 Indian firms.

The Deloitte-Touche document is an excellent paper. I have to admit that I expected it to be a glorified advertisement for Deloitte services, but there's a lot of meat there. When the study suggested that outsourcing seems to be losing luster for large corporations who might replace outsourcing to a "Transform-Operate-Transfer" model, I wondered what they were talking about. Had TOT become some hot trend I'd missed? The answer is that TOT is one of what Deloitte categorizes as five outsourcing models: 1) Centralize-Standardize-Outsource, 2) TOT, 3) Commodities Outsourcing, 4) Risk Transfer ("Insurance") and 5) Shifting Fixed Costs to Variable Costs.

The study was conducted by three "core study" Deloitte Consulting members, with input from eight other Deloitters and two academics. 25 large organizations participated in the study.

Deloitte Consulting LLP is a subsidiary of Deloitte USA and provided about 30% of Deloitte USA's 2004 revenues. Deloitte Consulting's Outsourcing practice offers application outsourcing, BPM outsourcing, and advisory services.

They've got a Webcast scheduled for May 11 that you can register for at http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/section_node/0,2332,sid%253D26568,00.html.

In an interesting 4/18/05 news item from the JDJ News Desk, reporters quote Leonid Reiman, Russia's Minister of Information Technologies and Communications, as saying that his ministry is spearheading Russia's effort to shift away from its dependency on fuel exports toward a knowledge- and service- based economy. Reiman, who spoke at the 8th Annual Russian Economic Forum in London, said that his goal was for Russia to become "a global leader in outsourcing and software exports.

Outsourcing IT development to Russia is nothing new. For example, Sun Microsystems, which currently employs about 150 contract engineers to do system software development in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Novosibirsk, was one of the first US firms to from the West to establish a presence in post-Soviet Russia about eight years ago.

http://linux.sys-con.com/read/49238.htm
http://www.russianamericanchamber.org/newsletter/sun_interview.html
http://www.sun.com/corp_emp/russia/

You can also read about Microsoft's subsidiary in Russia at http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1461553,00.html