That is the message that the company has been hammering home with considerable success in recent months, securing business which sees it acting as an optimiser between US companies looking to offshore work to India, and the Indian development teams doing the work. In these relationships, the key is to provide a 'cultural bridge' between India and the USA, aiming to ensure that both sides have the same understanding of a projects requirements.
 
The typical experience that US companies have is that they hand an entire project over to an Indian firm, expecting them to take care of the whole development cycle. But what happens is that they ask for a green apple and end up with a purple pear, because there are significant differences in language, terminology, and methodologies, says André van Biljon of The IQ Business Group.
 
What companies need to understand is that accessing the considerable and high-level of expertise in India requires that all the cultural and language barriers are identified and that a cultural bridge is built between them. Terminology used in the USA for example, may mean something different in India and therefore it is critical that those differences are understood and overcome.
 
International clients can benefit from a go-between which will enable them to talk exclusively in terms of business requirements, and rely on a designated third party to effectively translate that into technological terms which can then be parlayed to the development team responsible.
 
Furthermore, it is important to be able to add value such as protection of the clients intellectual property. Because the attrition rate in India is high, there is a risk that intellectual property can be lost to a team through the departure of an individual developer, causing delays as that knowledge is reassembled. One of the areas of added value we bring to the client is that we protect that intellectual property by managing that information and ensuring it stays with the group, says Steve Lauter of The IQ Business Group. 
 
Another area where value can be added to the customer experience is the reduction of costs associated with post-development tasks such as bugs and reworking, because the requirements have been clearly explained by means of the cultural bridge.
 
The principal advantage of outsourcing development to India is the speed with which a development team can be scaled. There is a vast pool of talent which can be drawn upon in India, which makes excellent sense for businesses.

It is, however, mistaken to believe that there are major cost benefits to be gained as often the length of time to develop can offset the benefit of a lower hourly wage. On the other hand, businesses can enjoy the luxury of quality development work without the increased head count which would be required should the work be done in-house.
 
Off-shoring to India also presents challenges due to the fact that time zones for the USA and India are very different, making working together a complex matter.

Using The IQ Business Group model, however, US-based clients are able to enjoy a more co-operative time zone which enables them to give The IQ Business Group in SA a functional design document at the end of the working day, and find it ready by the time they return the following morning.

By using SA as an optimiser therefore, complexities regarding the time zone between India and the USA can effectively be obviated.