Can Vision jobs be outsourced?

If you live in the US you’ll know that outsourcing, sometimes also called offshoring, (the two are not exactly the same,) of jobs is a hot topic. I think its common knowledge that a lot of software development is moving to the Indian subcontinent, where it can be done at a much lower hourly rate than in the US, but vision system development too?

Well, Soliton are trying to define a new paradigm by operating out of both India and Wisconsin. As I understand it, their pitch is that they can provide local (in the US) development and support while getting the code-writing done at lower cost. If this works, it should make it possible to either get more vision system for your money, or a less expensive system.

It does occur to me that making this is business model fly will require much better project management expertise than we usually see in the machine vision integration world, but perhaps Soliton are the guys to make it work.