Software development is difficult and adding drastic time zone differences to the equation only makes the process more challenging. Engineers know that to solve difficult engineering problems, all parties involved in the development process must be able to communicate easily with their counterparts. Usually, a local team holds meetings, talks face-to-face or over the phone, and uses e-mail, instant messaging, and other technologies to communicate. Communicating with any member of your Quarksoft team is just as easy. Our development team is located no more than two time zones from any customer in the continental United States or Canada and our engineering and project management teams speak English. Quarksoft also works with our customers by aligning office hours so that your team and the development teams are in contact for at least eight hours every day.
Our geographical location makes communicating real-time as simple as picking up the phone. If you try calling India while you are at work, you will likely get voice mail, since they are generally sleeping while we're awake. Another benefit working with Quarksoft is that if you ever want to "kick the tires" of your development team, Mexico City is only a 2-6 hour flight from any location in the continental United States or Canada. From most locations, you can fly to Mexico, meet with the development team and fly back on the same day, with no jet lag. Compare that to traveling to India, which takes approximately 22 hours one way. A "quick" visit to Asia could easily use up more than a week of your time (plus the corresponding jet lag). Travel to China and Vietnam require similar amounts of time and money.
In 2003, Mexico's university and technical college system graduated over 25,000 engineers; last year this number was over 65,000. Of these 65,000+ graduates, research indicates that close to 50 percent are suitable for software development activities. This percentage is almost double the rate of qualified Indian graduates and over four times the percentage of qualified Russian graduates.
By working with leading Mexican universities, Quarksoft plays a direct and active role in increasing the number of qualified engineers. We are advising the universities on curriculum development which results in more rigorous training in mathematics, technology, software engineering and specialized areas. As a result of these efforts, Quarksoft is able to choose and pursue the best candidates from a growing talent pool of well qualified graduates. In addition, Quarksoft new hires also receive an additional six weeks of technical and process training upon joining the company.
Is a critical factor when developing quality software and delivering the solution on-time and on budget. Quarksoft has one of the lowest turnover rates in the industry, about 10%, so our customers are assured that the developers initially assigned to the team, remain on the team until the solution is delivered. Similar to Japanese work values, Quarksoft employees are treated fairly, well paid, dedicated to their jobs and focused on producing excellent work and delivering on-time - every time.
On average, Indian developers are facing extremely high turnover, on average upwards of 40%, with some experiencing over 90% turnover and Chinese firms have more than 25% turnover. One result of high turnover is less than ideal working conditions and lower wages which are often met by competing firms. Regardless, high team turnover has detrimental affects on product development and acquisition costs, product quality and scheduled delivery.
IP protection is the same in Mexico as in the United States and Canada so customers do not need to worry about losing their IP. The North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, protects Intellectual property rights (patents, copyrights, and trademarks) and internally, Quarksoft respects the IP of our customers.
As Professor Geert Hofstede, Emeritus Professor, Maastricht University said, "Culture is more often a source of conflict than of synergy. Cultural differences are a nuisance at best and often a disaster." Due the high level of integration of the American, Canadian and Mexican cultures and economies, the nuisance level is already extremely low and in Quarksoft's particular case, cultural problems don't exist. When you say, "yes", we understand "yes". When you say, "no", we understand "no" which makes working and effectively communicating with your Quarksoft team members almost effortless.
Quarksoft strives to offer the absolute lowest costs in the industry and further backs this up with an unprecedented 12 month warranty on all work. When all product acquisition costs including, travel, local management and engineering expenses, communication costs, longer communication times and more are taken into consideration, current research indicates that Mexico can be up to 35% less expensive than doing development in the United States and canada and 20% less expensive than offshore development options. Of course, support and maintenance after delivery is one hidden cost as well and Quarksoft's warranty covers this.