Which countries around the world are the best choices for your offshoring projects? This study by respected outsourcing/offshoring consultancy Tholons includes some nations that are obvious (India) but also some that are unexpected: will the neighbors of the U.S. to the north and the south both make the list?While Tholons breaks out these 10 into the two lists-Top Five and Next Five-I've combined them here into one. But before you see the overall list, take a look at how the authors describe the difference between the first five and the second five:

The difference between the Top 5 and the Next 5 offshore nations is most pronounced in the service-level maturity. In terms of potential, the Next 5 are not far behind . . . . Successful service delivery is the most significant factor in altering customer perception.

Here's the list of the Top 10 Offshore Nations from Tholons:

1) India 2) Philippines 3) China 4) Ireland 5) Brazil 6) Canada 7) Russia 8) Mexico 9) Vietnam 10) Poland

Here's the description of the Top Five from globalservicesmedia.com:

These countries typically have centers of excellence across multiple outsourcing segments and rank highly in a number of location-assessment scenarios. These five countries offer the strongest value propositions to clients based on the Location Assessment Platform and are considered as prime locations when considering specific outsourced processes. These emerged destinations will most often also have the unique advantage of scale and capacity as compared to smaller or emerging locations.

Very interesting list, and equally interesting perspectives on why certain countries make it and others do not. With one startup company, called Systems In Motion, launching an effort to offer "inshoring" IT services from delivery centers in the U.S., I wonder if other U.S.-based competitors will emerge, and if so will the United States begin populating these lists in the next few years?