While India, China and Southeast Asia continue to dominate A.T. Kearney’s annual ranking of the most attractive locations for offshoring of service activities such as IT, business processes and call centers, the United States ranks surprisingly well in a new version of the index.

      For 2005, the global management consulting firm added four lower-cost cities in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and France to determine how they compare to more traditional offshore locations across the 40 measurements analyzed to create the Global Services Location Index (previously known as the Offshore Location Attractiveness Index). The United States, represented by San Antonio, ranked 11th out of the 40 countries evaluated.

      Additional findings from this year’s index include:

      •India remains the best offshore location by a wide margin, although wage inflation and the emergence of lower-cost countries decreased its  overall lead.

      •Improved infrastructure and relevant people skills have increased the attractiveness of China as a low-cost option for servicing Asian markets.

      •Thailand jumped from 13th to 6th in this year’s index and Southeast Asian countries now make up four of the top six locations on the Index.

      •Offshore attractiveness in Europe continues to migrate eastward as Bulgaria, Slovakia and Romania all enter the Index for the first time.

      •The Middle East and Africa appear to be the next frontier in offshoring  as countries such as Egypt, Jordan, United Arab Emirates and Ghana perform well.

          “In previous years, clients kept asking us where lower-cost cities and regions in the U.S. and Europe would stand if they were included in the Index,” said Simon Bell, director of A.T. Kear...

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