The correct answer is     (C.) Cognizant Technology Solutions (Nasdaq: CTSH)

Most companies appreciate the cost savings available in lower-paid, but still highly-skilled offshore labor markets. They also like having local reps available to personally answer questions and assist hands-on with any issues that might pop up. Cognizant's unique onsite/offshore delivery model solves both demands at once.

The firm is one of the world's top providers of software programming, systems development, data warehousing, application testing and maintenance, and a wide range of other IT outsourcing and consulting services. The U.S.-based company has regional offices from Dallas to Los Angeles with technical teams that can be dispatched to fulfill certain tasks in person -- everything else is seamlessly handled in development centers located in foreign markets like India.

This dual approach explains why the company has been able to forge tight relationships with so many North American clients and gain ground on larger rivals like Infosys Technologies (Nasdaq: INFY). While the Indian IT services market has been growing at a heated +30% rate during the past five years, Cognizant's sales have been climbing at +50%. Even last year's historic slowdown couldn't alter that growth trajectory. Despite tighter discretionary spending, the firm's sales still shot up +32%, tops for the industry. Cognizant's employee headcount quadrupled from 15,000 in 2004 to 61,000 last year. During the first six months of 2009 (when many businesses were in layoff mode), the firm added another 2,400 people to the payrolls.

That growth has not gone unnoticed. In fact, Cognizant ranked 7th on Forbes Magazine's list of "Fastest-Growing Tech Companies" and was recently named one of BusinessWeek's "50 Top-Performing Companies." And after a blowout second quarter earnings report, management just raised its full-year outlook and is now forecasting sales to rise +12% to $3.1 billion.

That's why StreetAuthority editor Nathan Slaughter has wandered the globe looking for companies such as Cognizant that are bringing in cash during this recession not via unsustainable cost cuts but by creating true sales growth. They're not always easy to find, but in his latest issue the Half-Priced Stocks newsletter, Nathan has identified six companies that are bringing customers in while most companies struggle with the opposite. With three-year revenue growth rates as high as 73%, these stocks are outpacing their competitors by more than a 2-to-1 margin. To learn the names of Nathan's picks, and to learn more about Half-Priced Stocks, please visit this link.