Quant Programming in Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is a popular location for low-cost work that's mathematically intense. "Recently we've seen analytics and rocket science work going to Eastern Europe locations such as Romania, Budapest and Hungary because there's a concentration of Ph.D.s and economist types," says Adam Schneider, a partner with consulting firm Deloitte. "A lot of modeling occurs over there."

In addition to these countries, investment banks and India outsourcing providers are even going to Russia and the Ukraine for quant programming talent, according to Sunil Subbakrishna, partner in the strategic IT and operations practice at Oliver Wyman. Small, local firms and India-based outsourcing firms in countries such as Hungary will provide 15 or 20 local programmers to an investment bank, Subbakrishna relates.

Processing in the Philippines

For decades, the Philippines has been high on the list for process outsourcing, such as accounting work. "The Philippines, like India, has a large English-speaking population, and ... there seems to be a tradition of people studying accountancy," says Subbakrishna. " The costs are at least as cheap, and maybe even cheaper, than India."

Vietnam, Malaysia, Iceland, Anyone?

New outsourcing players in small countries clamor for outsourcing attention every day. A Malaysia outsourcing firm has been heavily marketing itself on Forbes' Web site, for example. "Vietnam is getting discussed more and more as a potential offshoring location for France," adds Subbakrishna. "Having been a French colony at one point, there are a lot of French speakers there." Similarly, German companies have been sending IT work to Poland, where many people speak German and there's little time difference, he notes.

The most surprising outsourcing location, according to Subbakrishna, is Iceland. "There's talk of moving data centers to Iceland," he says. "There's cheap power available, it's relatively unpopulated so there's land for sale, and it's cold in places that need to be cooled."

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