For western European companies it seems to be getting more and more attractive to outsource to countries, that are quite cheap and very close, rather than very cheap and far away. The story of outsourcing in central and eastern Europe is, that old business models are loosing out, while high skilled outsourcing is arriving fast. The regions most obvious advantage, low labor costs is diminishing, partly because of the greater price advantages in China and partly because of their upward drift in wages That is causing companies to hunt much harder for lasting advantages based on talent and geography rather than low wages and plentiful labor.
Since the collapse of communism habits, attitudes and values have changed drastically. Economies that were on the verge of hyperinflation 15years ago, are now preparing to adopt the Euro. The EU has improved the legal environment either directly or indirectly, as even countries like Romania and Bulgaria only hoping to join the EU are developing in the right direction.
So western contracts and investments are flooding into eastern Europe. So far the biggest fuel for the boom has been wage costs that are typically still half western levels. According to some estimates the wage costs in Eastern Europe are 50%/60% below western Europe while they are in India 75% lower.
One of the big winners of outsourcing is the Czech Republic, where the quality of outsourcing work is said to be world class. Even according to Indian entrepreneur it matches or even surpasses the best of what is done in India. According to companies interested in outsourcing the Czech republic has a friendly time zone, good political and regulatory environment, multilingual workers and cultural affinity to western Europe.
That highlights the important issue that wages and salaries are only part of the game. All depends from the weight of the time factor. If it is a production which is relatively free of time pressure than a center in India might be attractive. But if it is a sales center, cultural points and timing are getting very important. If time and customer understanding plays a role than the nearer the location the better, if time and cultural background doesn’t play a very important role than distance is no problem.
But there are disadvantages in Eastern Europe too. It is not just steadily rising costs, as rising productivity can absorb that to some extend and labor may be only a small part of the ultimate price. The biggest shortcoming is a legacy of communism, a shallow talent pool, particular for middle managers, who are customer focused and conscious of quality, These clearly were not needed during the time of communism.
But positive in eastern Europe is the widespread multi-language knowledge, as German, English and French are widely spoken. And other languages can be learnt surprisingly fast.
A fix for management problems can be found in the employment of western Europeans, but they are costly. So we see a completely new trend. The new trend in east Europe is for investments by firms active in the field of outsourcing from places such as China, India and even Turkey. Firms there are eager to gain an edge on their rivals by moving closer to the customer and overcoming cultural affinities by at the same time taking advantage of low local labor costs .

Near field communication
Any idea what “near field” can mean? Read on.

New wireless technologies, from Wi-Fi to Bluetooth to 3G, generally promise to be faster, longer- range and more efficient than their predecessors. So a new technology, called "near- field communication"(NFC), is coming now somewhat unusual compared with other, up to now better known wireless standards. It operates over very short ranges-measured in mere centimeters –and it transfers data at a comparatively sluggish pace, not much faster than a dial- up modem. Doesn’t sound interesting or?
But NFC's goal is to supersede even older, more fundamental inventions: bank notes, coins, keys, and tickets. It could also spice up advertising posters and make it easier to exchange data between mobile phones and other device.
NFC technology could fuse tickets, key cards and cash mobile phones. It could turn your mobile phone in to a travel pass, wallet, cinema ticket, or even your door key. Another possible application is in marketing. Smart posters could include a NFC chip, so that holding a mobile phone against the poster cause a related web page to pop up on the phone's browser. Ringtones or "wallpaper" graphics could even be downloaded straight from the poster.
So it seems to be worthwhile to follow up its development.