LeverPoint has 270 employees in New Delhi doing technical work and 30 in the United States managing projects. When LeverPoint wins a new customer, it flies in a project manager from India, who is an employee of LeverPoint, to meet with executives from the U.S. company. The group lays out a plan for the venture, including a timeline and product specifications.

Atlantic Management Center Inc., a Falls Church company that sells technology products and services to the government, is one of LeverPoint's eight customers. Gloria E. Phillips, AMCI's chief executive, said she considered offshore outsourcing two years ago, but never went through with it because she "couldn't find a comfort level" and felt it was too risky to lose management control of the company's work. But Phillips, who launched an offshore project with LeverPoint in November, changed her mind as she learned more about the process and its potential financial benefits. She estimated that the company was able to build software that manages environmental sensors for 35 to 40 percent less than it would have cost to do the job with U.S. employees.

One of the biggest advantages, Phillips said, is that the company didn't have to hire new full-time employees for the project. She added AMCI didn't lay anyone off when it contracted with LeverPoint.

"It gives us a choice," Phillips said. "It's another capability in our toolbox." She said she will use offshore developers again under the right circumstances. "I don't know that it will be our entire business model. I think you've got to look at things on a case-by-case basis."

Suresh Balabisegan cites the dot-com crash as the biggest impetus for the growth of companies like DigiBlitz Technologies Inc., the Falls Church outsourcing firm he founded in 2001. As small businesses struggled to survive, more and more turned to outsourcing as a way to save money, he said.

DigiBlitz has a 100-person operation in Chennai, India, that provides call center and technical support services for clients. The company also acts as a liaison, setting up U.S. companies with other Indian development centers and managing the work for customers. The company, which also targets small companies, now has 10 clients.

As a venture capitalist with New Markets Growth Fund in College Park, Rajesh Rai's day job is to review business plans. But he has become so convinced of the need in the market for offshoring services that he is now helping several of his associates set up such a business.

"As a small company you don't have the resources, the knowledge, the contacts to know how to do it. They are looking for somebody they can talk to here. They don't just want a middleman," Rai said. "I think if there is a company that can do this in the middle well, there is definitely an opportunity for that."

Ellen McCarthy writes about the local tech scene every other Thursday. Her e-mail address is mccarthye@washpost.com.