One of the beauties of offshoreoutsourcing is the near-infinite diversity of professionals based anywhere in the world. An entrepreneur has all the means to devise the most effective system of vendor selection. So any country could potentially be an offshore destination. While most often, the topic of IT offshoring evokes names such as China, India, and Russia, one country that’s hardly spoken about is Ukraine.

Brainbench, a skills measurement and certifications company, recently conducted a survey titled The Brainbench Global Skills Report, 2005 in which Ukraine features prominently as a country with a significant treasure of IT skills and certifications. It is among the top five countries based on the number of certifications received. In case of specific skills in the IT category, Ukraine is consistently ranked only after heavyweights such as the US, India, China, and Russia. In specific IT skills within database development and administration, programming and development, systems and network administration, technical support, telecom, and web development and administration, Ukraine has earned either the fourth or the fifth position among 179 countries that were rated. Certainly, that is noteworthy, but more importantly, it draws attention to a more fundamental fact. Ukraine’s IT prowess is not to be undermined.

Ukraine’s offshoring industry started small, but is steadily building itself to become a key player in the field. While Ukraine isn’t likely ever to rival India, it certainly has the potential to become a prominent player. The offshore programming industry, although small, is growing fast. According to Market-Visio, a research firm in Moscow, Ukraine’s software exports grew by 43 percent to $100 million in just one year. The market prospects for 2005 are valued at $150 million. There are 300 outsourcing companies that export ITO services. In fact, most Ukrainian software companies started with 15-20 people either in the late 80s or early 90s. Today, most of the top players have sales offices in the US and West Europe.

In 2004, around 10,000 programmers were employed in the industry, working for customers such as Boeing, DaimlerChrysler, General Electric (GE), Citibank, and NASA. Much of the work is customized business software. But gaming is also growing. Kvasar-Micro, Ukraine’s largest InfoTech Company recently landed an order to develop a computer game for mobile handsets. Ukrainian engineers have even developed software for Boeing space and military programs.

As an offshoring destination, Ukraine may take a while to become a destination, which has instant recall. However, it has the capability to garner that kind of patronage as a viable nearshore alternative for European companies and entrepreneurs much sooner.

Ukraine’s main selling point is the quality of its mathematical education, and cheap labor. An average programmer in Ukraine earns $500 a month, not quite as low as India, but half the level in Moscow and a fraction of programming salaries in the West.

Ukraine has approximately one percent of the world’s population, but six percent of the world’s physicists, chemists, mathematicians, biologists, computer programmers, and other highly trained professionals.

The new government is showing extreme interest and support for foreign investments in the country. While Ukraine moves towards joining the EU and WTO, the laws, including those covering intellectual-property issues, are being revised to create better environment for the economy’s development and growth. This applies to s software development as well, IT being the most rapidly developing sphere of the Ukrainian economics.