For more than 10 years now, localization providers have been moving their production and project management to lower cost locales, especially China and India. This has been done mainly by acquiring local companies.
With its production centers in Thailand and Colombia, Andovar also had lower production costs than in America or Europe, but rising costs in Thailand and lack of space for new staff in our Bangkok office spurred us to look for a new production center.
Labor costs have risen sharply in China and their currency is slowly strengthening, whereas the Indian rupee has dropped sharply against the dollar. Andovar considered possible offices in many countries in Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe before deciding that Kolkata, India best met our needs. Costs are only one factor when choosing a stable base for production.
- Kolkata is only 2 hours 10 minutes and a $150 return ticket from Bangkok. This means it is easy to fly staff between offices for training.
- India allows 100% foreign ownership for many types of business (including localization) and the capital requirements are very low.
- Labor costs in Kolkata are considerably lower than in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, the traditional bases for IT companies. However growth in the IT sector is now at twice the national average.
- It is simpler and lower cost to set up fully fitted out office in Kolkata right next to a metro station than in most cities. TCO of offices are in the range of 10-15% of similar offices in Singapore and New York for example.
- The greater Kolkata metropolitan area has almost 15 million residents and 14 universities, providing an unlimited skilled labor pool.
- The presence of other localization companies in India allows easier recruitment of talent. In India relocating from city to city is quite common.
Andovar’s Kolkata office is now open for business and is continuing to make hires in project management, engineering, desktop publishing, QA and Accounting. See our careers section for more details!
