Competitive Advantage

Recognizing the current high unemployment and underemployment in rural areas, we have created a concept called ROOTS (Rural Office Of Technology Services). Our ROOTS model brings software development to locations outside of metropolitan areas and has been successful by leveraging modern communications technology with skilled, abundant, eager, and hardworking individuals available in rural America.

The CrossUSA business model, ROOTS, provides you with:

1. Lower Costs: CrossUSA can and does consistently provide IT application support for 25-40% less than the prevailing metropolitan rate standard.
2. Stable, highly motivated workforce: the CrossUSA workforce is loyal, highly motivated, and very productive due to high job and lifestyle satisfaction.
3. Relationships built for the long term: Turnover is extremely low because CrossUSA staff members desire long-term employment. In addition, CrossUSA dedicates staff resources in their Rural Development Centers to clients, so knowledge and expertise developed by staff is retained with the client.
4. Development capacity of a ‘virtual company’ infrastructure without footprint costs: Support is provided without creating a burden on the client’s infrastructure (building, cubicle space, computers, etc.) because CrossUSA locates development and support teams off-site. This is a direct competitive advantage for CrossUSA, as most competitors require the client to provide workspace and infrastructure for their staff, which increases costs for the client.
5. Reduced Risk: The CrossUSA ROOTS support model is much more immune to the threats and risks present with offshore support alternatives because the entire organization is located in safe, secure, rural communities within America. In addition, rural locations in small, out of the way communities decrease the exposure to the threat environment present in America today. The net result is stable, low risk support for CrossUSA clients.

CrossUSA offers both, an attractive option to offshore outsourcing and a more cost-effective long-term alternative than most domestic outsourcing organizations.

1. An alternative to offshore: CrossUSA does not directly “compete” with offshore because the rate structure is higher than the offshore offerings. However, CrossUSA firmly believes our close proximity to clients (3 hours by car vs. 20 hours by aircraft) and an attractive on-site/off-site ratio (1:10 vs. 1:3 respectively) combined with advantages in reduced risk and higher stability adds value for our clients. Furthermore, the true cost of offshore resources is usually higher due to the numerous hidden costs with this alternative, including travel, language differences, poor coding standards, additional management overhead, and frequent software re-writing.
2. An alternative to domestic contractors: CrossUSA leverages our lower cost of operation in Rural America to offer a lower cost solution than our competitors do. Most companies providing programming services place programmers at the client site, which requires the client to not only pay high metro area contracting fees but also provide space and computers.