It's always difficult to compare apples to apples when you compare technology consultants but I offer a few things for you to consider. If your company wants to hire a programmer there are many hidden costs and caveats:

• You are limited by the talent you are able to able to find within your area. What are the chances the best person for the job is living in your area and unemployeed? If he or she is capable, then he or she is already working! Don't forget about recruiting costs, possible relocation costs, new hire bonuses, and your own human resource costs long before a single line of code is written.

• Having a programmer on staff means physical costs including the computer, the operating system, and thousands of dollars in development tools that must be licensed for each developer. Additional quality tools cost even more.

• Having any employee on staff is a commitment. You have a commitment to provide costly health insurance, tax costs , vacation time and a variety of other "loaded" costs. You're also limited on how and when you may be able to terminate the employee.

What about programmers from India or China for $10/hr?

Outsourcing to developing countries has a lot of advantages if you are the type of expert that knows exactly what you are doing. There are many drawbacks to consider:

• Did you know that electricity and other basic services are still limited, even in the some of the most high tech overseas cities? Deadlines and schedules can be tough to make when the developer doesn't control the work conditions.

• There is always a communication gap when working with overseas developers. In order to accomplish something you must know exactly what you want and (more importantly) you must already know how to describe exactly what you need in very technical terms. As a technology consultant, I deal with you at a very high level and there is never a need for you to understand the inner details of the work.

• Most quality developers overseas are already working for a much larger company and making a very good rate. Many of the outsource programmers available on trade sites, script selling sites and simple auctions are "fresh" and inexperienced. They will take virtually any project for money without knowing exactly how to do it ahead of time. You may or may not get something working in the end, but you can be sure your long term cost of ownership will be much higher.

• Your software needs testing. This is often overlooked when you consider the cost of technology. It's not likely that your inhouse staff has a quality testing lab available and it's even less likely that the overseas programmer you are working with has access to a testing lab that can reproduce problems. Debugging is the most expensive part of any long term project..

• What protection do you have if your project is created entirely overseas? What actions can you take if you find that your overseas developer charged you to build a product and then they turn around and sell that exact project to 3 or 4 more companies or package it as shareware. This is becoming more common and there is very little your company can do if it happens.

• What protection do you have if your program stops working after 30 days? Can you reach the developer? Are you even talking directly to the developer? The reality is, most of the outsourcing companies and even very small ones hire English proficient "managers" to handle the communication. They aren't the programmer or technology expert so you risk loosing details in translation.

• It's 10pm, do you know where your programmer is? Keeping track of time zone changes is another major part of any project involving outsourced workers. If your company is in California and it's 10pm, your programmer is likely to be sleeping. His shift starts in about 4 hours, unless he's got school that day. By the time you wake up, he's just about ready to go offline.

So what is the hourly rate?

Brian Pollack's technology consulting hourly rate is $95.00/hr. Make sure you're asking the right question though. Here's an example, which of these construction workers would you hire to build your next house?

Tony has been in construction is entire life. He's built over 250 houses in career so far. Because of his experience, he can build your house in 3 months for $200,000.

Sally charges much less. She is pretty sure she can build your house for only $180,000. She's been reading a book from her library and she's built a number of dollhouses already. Some of them are still standing.

If you want your project done right, ask the right questions. Have more questions, Send me an email!