Here at MoveYourWeb we are excited about WEB emerging as a platform and continue supporting leading pioneering technology companies by assisting in creation of a leading web products and services. With the increasing (soon the word would be changed for dominating) popularity of online media over the traditional media (tv, newspapers, books) it’s fun to read a real book sometime on weekend. Googling the information is just the typical way it’s done so we need to get away sometimes too.

Reading traditional books (especially business books) is becoming more of a fun rather the part of self-improving or gaining the specific knowledge. It’s nice to touch the book and not just see at the screen of the laptop, share it with someone who can find the content useful. This weekend I’m reading Joel Spolsky’s Concise Guide to Finding the Best Technical Talent which our action script guru Dmitry shared with me as a must reading. While on it I have a few people in mind which I will definitely pass it further on. A lot of ’sales’ pitch in the book led me to the idea that business books are different from all other books, say cooking books. An author of a business book needs to convince the reader about the importance of the ideas contained in a book. He is giving the case studies proving the theory, showing the success stories and engaging the reader inside the business stories. At some point the business book becomes the adventure to the reader and kind of time waster – looks like the sales pitch keep 80% of the books content with 20% going to actual prescriptions.

With this said the reader should be actually prepared to reading. Take the sticky notes or paper and make notes all the time you drop on the information allowing to improve what you do at work! Remember: if you haven’t implemented at least three improvements after finishing reading the book during 1-3 weeks you waisted the time! It was just an adventure to you, when you were following the author but you missed the most important 20% of the book since you haven’t implemented it in the real life.

Tags: general thoughts, management
Posted in general thoughts, management | No Comments »

India has been dominating offshore outsourcing market since its opening. Despite the cultural differences the majority of American companies considered India the best place to outsource jobs to, mainly because of the cost benefits. However, the decline of the U.S. dollar against other currencies including the Euro, Yen and the Indian Rupee makes most countries such as India, China, Russia and number of European countries less competitive in offshore development. The currency exchange trends give Belarus a competitive advantage in terms of its outsourcing potential. In addition to other benefits that Belarus has to offer, exchange rate factor gains momentum: BRB/USD exchange rates are fixed and the value of the Belorussian ruble follows that of the dollar.

Since the rupee has appreciated by 8.9 percent against the US dollar in 2007-2008, Indian outsourcing companies now have to compete with the countries that have more favorable dollar exchange rates. The following graph shows the recent dynamics of INR/USD exchange rates.

(source www.exchange-rates.org)

The rising appreciation of rupee against dollar and West Asian currencies is not the only challenge for Indian outsourcing providers. Indian economy is overheating with excessive demand pushing prices even higher. Considering the current account deficit the U.S. has got with China future looks very promising for Belorussian outsourcing companies. But the favorable situation on the currency exchange markets is not the only advantage Belarus has got.

(source www.exchange-rates.org)

Considering the future we see the Belarus keeps BRB on the same exchange rate to the USD thus maintaining this advantage to other outsourcing destinations.

Tags: offshore web development, outsourcing
Posted in outsourcing | 3 Comments »