Overseas calling for ambitious IT managers

Europe is the place to be for IT managers hoping to line their pockets, according to a survey by human resources consulting firm Mercer (www.techpartner.news/?94840).

Mercer analysed the total pay of IT professionals in 6545 companies in 35 countries. The survey found those well-to-do Swiss pay the highest wages at US$140,960 in average annual earnings to their IT managers. Despite being a hub of fiscal and IT prosperity, the
US ranked sixth behind Switzerland, Denmark, Belgium, the UK, and then Ireland.

Everyone is talking about the skills shortage in IT and the higher wages elsewhere could cause problems over here. Australia ranked 10th in the top payers’ list with an average of US$88,850 being paid to IT managers. Without a doubt Australia is an attractive place to live and work, but if you can add nearly US$20,000 to your wages with a move to the US, or almost US$30,000 from the UK, then Australia could leak some of its much-needed IT talent to foreign shores.

However, the most alarming trend was the wages in outsourcing goldmines. The lowest-paying countries for IT managers was topped by Vietnam which pays a paltry US$15,470 per year. However even more startling was fourth-placed India at US$25,000.

Mercer said the pay pattern reflects the trend of US and Western European businesses outsourcing lower-skilled IT jobs to regions where talent is cheaper, while keeping more-demanding tech jobs requiring more complex skill sets locally.

With figures such as these you begin to understand why outsourcing is such a growing trend across the IT landscape.

India receives some 80 percent of the global spending on IT outsourcing, according to Gartner. IBM recently opened an autonomic R&D shop in India and Vodafone Australia has announced plans to outsource non-core technology and property operations, as part of its strategy to focus on core business.

European and US vendors can see from Mercer’s figures just how much they can save by outsourcing certain company operations.