Ukraine Versus India: Which Is The Better Place For Outsourcing?

When India emerged as the queen of outsourcing, she never dreamt that another country would soon arrive on the scene to steal the show. India has long been the most dependent country for outsourcing because of a number of reasons, but another country in the Eastern Europe was also gearing up to pose strong competition. In fact many countries in the Eastern Europe had been prepping themselves to become experts in the field of IT, but it was Ukraine that beat them all and silently crossed all competition off the list.

When we examined this trend, we uncovered a couple of areas where Ukraine scores a few points over India. However. India does have several more advantages than its Eastern European counterpart. Once India smoothens out these wrinkles, it can continue to be the queen of outsourcing.

The time difference factor

Ukraine does score over India over the time difference factor. In Ukraine, the workers/staff would be just 2 hours ahead of you while in Kochi, India this would be around 4.5 hours. This allows for more collaborative working with the Ukrainians than between the UK and India. The advantage here with Indians is that they have been working overtime and in the wee hours of the morning and late into the night to combat this time difference factor.

Cultural differences

The cultural differences between India and the UK are probably the biggest hurdle to cross. Ukrainians are so different on this count, and many people choose to go for them for their frankness and downright honesty. Indians, as a rule do not cross their seniors or elders even if they are wrong. They would grumble, talk behind the person’s back, but never directly to the face. And as a team if they make a mistake, they will generally play the blame game and try to pass the buck. Nobody would be willing to take the responsibility. The seniors would start blaming the younger team members who would not dare speak lest they lose their jobs. This was how it was until a generation ago. But the new generation of youngsters is getting bolder and is no longer afraid to speak their mind.

Ukrainians on the other hand, were never afraid to speak their mind and they will not mince words if they realize their superior is wrong. They might even be rude if they spot a mistake, but at least they are likely to tell you their opinion rather than indulging in sugar coating.

Now, lets look at certain aspects that still allows India to maintain her position. Shows she is not ready to trade her position without a fight.

Government

Ukraine’s conflict with Russia and political unrests in the country is a major deterring factor for the country. The instability in Ukraine forces most countries to reconsider their decision in choosing the country for outsourcing. Comparatively, the India government is more stable, and companies investing in the country know for sure that their investment will grow. Businesses are safe in India because there is only one ruling party that holds the majority and political unrests are few and far in between. India is leveraging its benefit of being a democratic country.

Infrastructure

The infrastructure growth in the country is far superior when compared to Ukraine. Even when there is a power outage, India gets back on her feet without work getting affected in between. But Ukraine is still struggling with power outages and blackouts, even in Kiev, the largest city in Ukraine. The infrastructure quality in Ukraine is definitely poorer.

Language proficiency

One of the most important deciding factors in outsourcing work to a foreign country is the language. If the country you are entrusting the work to doesn’t have good language skills, both written and verbal, the whole drill gets wasted. The language proficiency is due to the good standard of education provided in the country. The younger generation has more exposure and experience, and they have the capability to understand and detect accents and respond accurately. Unless accents are clearly understood, you can never say whether the other person has understood what you are trying to convey. This could eventually affect the quality of work. This is also another reason why most of the companies prefer to start their call centres in India. In the country, even kids are trained to speak in English even before they enter kindergarten, especially in the Tier 1 and 2 cities.

Education

Ukraine does fair well on the education count. The country ensures the students get high quality education and nurturing students to meet the growing outsourcing demand. It is true that the Ukrainians nurture their kids and mould them with good education. But they do not have the essential practical skills that companies demand so much. Large companies have to spend time and resources to set up staff and train them to be competent enough. Education in India is a mixed scenario, and there is a glaring disparity between Indians in the villages and in the cities. In the cities, education is given great importance, while in villages it may not be so.

Conclusion

Both Ukraine and India fare well as outsourcing destinations in their own regions. But technical competence in India is far superior when compared to Ukraine. There are about 621 technical institutes in the country that’s churning out students with explicit knowledge in their particular field. But the geographical proximity of Ukraine to European countries is another factor that’s bringing it closer to be an outsourcing destination to be wary of.

The cultural differences that people face in India is hardly there in Ukraine because they are more open minded and have an efficient way of doing things. As for language, Ukraine is indeed growing to be really proficient in English as well. However, India is pretty strong in startups, and is ranked third in the list of startups in the entire world pertaining to health, cyber security, health tech and IoT.

Interesting links about the topic:
Were To Outsource Your Development?
Which Is The Top IT Outsourcing Destinations: Ukraine vs. India
India vs. Ukraine: Pros and Cons

Pictures: Flicker.com / Nicolas Raymond/ Dennis Candy


The author: Reema Oamkumar is engaged as a thought leader at www.Software-Developer-India.com which is a part of the YUHIRO Group. YUHIRO is a German-Indian enterprise which provides programmers to IT companies, agencies and IT departments.

2 Comments
  1. Unfortunately many of the above is just incorrect and looks like a prejudice towards one country. I have dealt personally and through several companies I have worked for with Indian developers over a course of 15 years. And regretfully Indian developers are last on my list and this is the same for many other businesses also. Indian developers just do not have enough grasp of the english language and their skill level is rarely if at all according to what they claim. They are especially lazy in providing quality coding and logical options that are considered only as normal with developers from western european countries or Ukranian developers for that matter. In the end the cheap price of the Indian developers is really expensive because of the extra time you spend for correcting mistakes, wasting time on communication problems and getting them to actually code what was agreed upon in the first place. The work ethic and mentality is just appalling with Indian developers, and that is just the plain truth. Do yourself a favor and directly go for Ukranian developers or anywhere else for outsourcing your work. It will save time and money and a whole lot of stress.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.