For Outsourcing IT, Have You Considered North Korea?

You know the board game Go? Did you know that one of the top computer Go programs comes from North Korea? Did you know there are a number of major IT firms in North Korea? Did you know that there are IT firms in North Korea that accept foreign outsourcing contracts, just like IT companies in India and China do? One of them, the Korea Computer Center, has more than 1000 employees.

The man who knows all these facts and more is Paul Tjia. He’s a senior consultant and founder of GPI Consultancy, based in Rotterdam [in the Netherlands]. He’s the author of Offshoring Information Technology: Sourcing and Outsourcing to a Global Workforce, a guide for business executives interested in offshore labor, and he wrote an article in this month’s issue of Communications of the ACM titled “Inside the Hermit Kingdom: IT and Outsourcing in North Korea.” He joins us by phone. [read more..]