There are many good companies that design software applications for Fortune 500 companies and medium sized companies.  I know, I worked for many of them!  The problem for smaller companies is that they cannot normally afford the costs associated with custom software so they have to make do with generic solutions that often are a poor fit for their business.  A poor fit eventually may cost even more because of inadequate business data and excessive labor costs trying to fit a round business problem into a square software solution.  Even when the fit is reasonably good, generic software provides no business advantage because the competition has the same generic software.

Fortune 500 companies cuts costs by outsourcing to Asia; they can sort of get away with this as they keep the key managers here in the USA.  In spite of this strategy, there are problems associated with outsourcing overseas, even for Fortune 500 companies.  I will give you a personal example:

A few years ago I was interviewed by a major Hartford insurance company for a contract position as an Oracle developer.  One of the young Indian managers who interviewed me expressed his concern about having someone working for him that was old enough to be his father.  It is an entirely reasonable concern for a man in his early 20's to have to manage someone in his late 50's.  It is also totally illegal for him to have said this, and if I had been turned down for the job I would have had to think about whether I wanted to talk to a lawyer.  Cultural issues such as this are why no small or medium sized business in their right mind should ever consider overseas outsourcing except to an American working abroad.  Your website or your custom Information Technology solution is supposed to bring you customers, not offend them and definitely not break US law and put you out of business.

Fortunately CIT Services has a solution.  Local outsourcing.  We won't entrust people who don't understand the US culture or laws with your application development!

The technologies we use include:

  • ASP.NET - This is Microsoft technology and is, in our opinion, the most robust and versatile internet development platform.
  • Microsoft SQL Server - This database is secure and powerful enough for all but the largest Fortune 500 companies and government agencies.  It is the preferred choice for small and medium sized companies.

The final topic is price.  If you were to outsource to most companies, you should expect to pay between $75 and $200 an hour for their developers and managers.  The lower hourly charge is for programmers, the higher for project managers and business consultants.  The problem is that rarely do you need a project manager or a business consultant.  Usually what you need is a programmer who has run his own business and is willing to listen to your problem and work with you on a solution.  That is what CIT Services is all about, listening and devising a reasonable solution.  Our long-term rate is $55 an hour, invoiced company-to-company.

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