ERRAN CARMEL is an Associate Professor at the Kogod School of Business at American University in Washington DC. PAUL TJIA is a senior consultant and founder of GPI Consultancy in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

• Preface; Part I. The Fundamentals: 1. The offshore landscape; 2. Offshore economics and offshore risks; 3. Beginning the offshore journey; 4. The offshore country menu; Part II. Managerial Competency: 5. Offshore strategy; 6. Offshore legal issues; 7. Managing the offshore transition; 8. Overcoming distance and time; 9. Dealing with cross-cultural issues; Part III. Other Stakeholders: 10. Building software industries in developing nations; 11. Marketing of offshore services - the provider perspective; 12. Offshore politics; Biographies; References; Index.

'… there are some fascinating insights here for IT executives … The superb content isn't surprising once you realize that co-author Erran Carmel … was a leading expert on globally dispersed software teams long before CNN's Lou Dobbs ever heard of offshore outsourcing. … As you'd expect, the book has country sketches and thoroughly covers subjects such as managing contractors, risks and legal issues. But for me, the richest sections deal with 'soft' topics like cross-cultural issues and overcoming the problems of distance, time zones and language. For example. there's a great danger of miscommunication with Indian IT workers if Americans use slang, business code words or too-subtle hints. An American who says, 'I was a bit disappointed that …' may actually be upset, but the Indian may interpret that statement as 'It doesn't really matter'. And while American IT workers use the word contractor as a business term, in India, the term could mean one who cleans toilets. Don't fly to Bangalore without reading this book.' Computerworld