Software Development has assumed extreme significance in the light of the global demand for new IT solutions and IT-enabled services. Appropriate software development gives the right amount of impetus to the functioning of the web sites and the quality of services they render. This in itself is a daunting task, requiring thousands of skilled professionals to put in hours of research, experimentation, testing and trials.Skilled manpower, technology and infrastructure are essential, apart from the demand from the IT industry. It is here that offshore outsourcing plays a major role. The developed companies making rapid strides in the field of information technology have always been finding it difficult to find the right amount of manpower needed. On the other hand, developing countries, especially Asian countries like India and China, have been following an IT policy that has resulted in the generation of enormously skilled manpower and a really well developed IT infrastructure. This has led to a real boom outsourcing with the destination being India.



India, by choice rather than by destiny, has become the ideal zone for offshore software development. The early 1990's saw the rapid opening of India's economy to the world, focusing on being market-oriented. This major tilt in the Indian economic policy, saw the rapid inflow of foreign direct investment and foreign business interest to India. The availability of highly skilled and talented software programmers and well developed IT infrastructure attracted the companies from developed countries to India, like moth to the flame.India boasted of the highest number of CMM Level 5 certified companies and the presence of several Indian IT companies listed on the NYSE and NASDAQ which in turn attracted a large number of Fortune 500 companies that outsource their software needs to India.

With the offshore outsourcing business to India touching new highs, Indian outsourcing partners are growing in confidence and moving up the ladder to offer more and more complex and specialized services. Moving away from the bits and pieces outsourcing, Indian companies have today specialised in developing complete softwares and development packages for global clients. The software development process has several stages like need analysis, defining requirements, establishing a software specification, designing the software with great application and dedication, writing the software, coding it and successfully testing it.

Through years of successful offshore outsourcing, Indian companies have behind them rich experience in not only documenting software but providing support thought out. Indian software companies are constantly improving their development standards by enhancing their skilled manpower base and their development facilities. These Indian companies have today progressed into customized solutions development.The high quality of the solutions outsourced from India as well as popularity of custom software development involving emergence of creative and innovative solutions,have made companies from developed countries look to India as a viable ,dependable outsourcing destination.

The strongest factor in favor of outsourcing to India , is the fact that the Indian Government is strongly committed to IT development with IT being one of the top five priorities of the government. This unequivocal stance on the part of the government , has instilled confidence into the minds of the overseas companies who flock in droves for offshore outsourcing to India. The Software Technology Parks of India offer world-class infrastructure and various incentives and concessions to encourage foreign investment and promote software development in India. The fact that India has a stable government with a stable democratic process and a peace-loving population has made it one of the world's ten fastest growing economies. The timely privatization of the infrastructure segment has led to creation of convergence , a major focal point of IT development today, by integrating the ISP, Telecom, VSAT, Cellular and networking sectors. India's large business houses and public sector undertakings are working towards creating greater bandwidth availability.

Outsourcing has progressed from the rudimentary specific application development to the whole gamut of designing and developing the entire requirements of custom software needs and is spreading to new uncharted territories. The new areas include E governance, Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, financial services, transcription services and retail services. The fast disappearing geographical boundaries and the convergence of the world towards IT enablement, has made India's role as the leading offshore outsourcing services provider with special emphasis on software development, is undisputed . With a superabundance all positive factors and conducive climate, it is not really surprising that most of the leading technology giants of the world like Microsoft, Sun, Oracle, SAP, IBM , Dell, Apple-Macintosh and many more, have opened full-fledged offices in India, looking to take advantage of the excellent software development services provided by Indian outsourcing and BPO giants like Infosys, Wipro, Satyam and so many more companies.

The future outlook for outsourcing from India, is certainly bright. Having established its' credentials beyond any doubt, India is poised for growth on all frontiers, be it quality solutions, quality infrastructure or quality manpower. Backed by such strong fundamentals like quality assurance and timely deliveries, India has emerged as the number one destination for software development outsourcing, outpacing China and other fast-growing Asian countries.