Confession time: I’m a Starbucks fanatic. For me, the day hasn’t begun until I’ve had my triple grande nonfat cappuccino. In fact, the company’s former CEO Howard Schultz is someone whose leadership and guidance I’ve always admired (I’m the proud owner of an autographed copy of his book: Onward.) It was Schultz’s idea to create a third place to have coffee: a place that wasn’t your home or office. This vision created a new alternative at a scale that didn’t previously exist.
The Sparq business model follows the same concept. Up until recently, businesses had two options for their IT workforce strategy. Businesses could bring in the talent to their office in their city, often at expensive hourly rates, or they could offshore the work to an outsourcing firm for less expensive hourly rates and figure out how to manage the cultural, security, IP, and time zone challenges. At Sparq, we saw the need to create that third option at scale.
Small cities, big opportunities
Onshore domestic technology talent is abundant in smaller cities such as Albuquerque, NM; Oklahoma City, OK; or Mobile, AL. These cities, complete with large universities, low cost of living and high quality of life, represent millions of available technology talent waiting to be deployed to solve software problems for the world’s greatest companies located in much higher cost locations. Sparq selects cities like these based on our proprietary data analysis of the qualified talent pool, the quality of life and the affordability of living in these locations. We then establish software development centers complete with the look and feel of a “Google-esque” environment, where software developers and quality engineers can focus on creating applications to support our clients on their digital journeys.
The beauty of this third option, unlike Starbucks, is that it actually costs less than the other available options. With a substantially reduced cost of living in these smaller cities, the dollar goes a lot further than in San Francisco, New York, or even Atlanta. Also, when measured against offshore, domestic sourcing is more cost-effective when evaluated by the total cost of ownership (TCO) of completing a successful project in today’s agile software development world.
The right blend
I’m not saying that businesses shouldn’t consume the available talent within their own cities or even offshore, as both have their respective roles to play in the sourcing strategy. What I am saying, however, is that there’s a new coffee shop available that serves a remarkable third alternative that may just taste better than your traditional sources. Find out more about our unique blend of services here.
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