Examine More Than Cost Savings When Judging the Nearshore
February 2nd, 2012By Patrick Haller
When making sourcing decisions, a lot of attention is paid to the pricing structure and qualifications of service providers, while their actual location is sometimes a secondary consideration. However, when assessing a destination, it’s important to realize that what might be favorable today can morph into a nightmare scenario tomorrow. Don’t be caught unaware and unprepared for the ever-changing dynamics of the Nearshore.
Second Annual Nearshore Nexus Comes to New York City this April
Nearshore Nexus, the only North America investor conference focused entirely on the Caribbean and Latin America IT and BPO sector, will take place on Thursday April 19, 2012, in New York City.
Nearshore Nexus will feature the best minds in global services to examine the growing role Latin America is playing in delivering quality outsourcing services to businesses across the Americas. The outsourcing sector in Latin America has been growing at over 20 percent per year – noticeably higher than the global average. The theme for the 2012 edition of Nexus is: “Intelligent Analysis of Outsourcing in the Americas.”
“I’m very proud of the fact that we will attract delegates and sponsors from over 15 countries in Latin America. This testifies to …
Investment Data Reveals State of Interest in Latin America Locations
January 25th, 2012By Reshaad Durgahee
Lima, Peru: Surprisingly emerging.
In the period 2003 through 2010, Europe and Asia were the largest recipient regions of foreign investment projects in shared services and BPO activities, accounting for 46% and 29% respectively. Meanwhile, interest in Latin America has clearly been growing. The number of shared services and BPO foreign investment projects in Latin America rose year on year until 2010, when the total number of projects entering the region decreased by 15%.
Staff Reduction: How to Make the Most of a Painful Situation
January 24th, 2012
By Daniel Berthiaume
A crucial aspect of many IT outsourcing and BPO initiatives is internal staff reduction. Despite the cost savings and more efficient operations that might result, few managers look forward to determining who stays and who goes when a department outsources certain functions. But properly evaluating employees in the event jobs need to be terminated is absolutely critical to BPO success.
Sheltered Services Offers ‘Goldilocks’ Option
January 17th, 2012By Luke Bujarski
Sheltered services is an approach that has long been standard practice in the manufacturing industry, but now it’s becoming more of an option for customers of IT and BPO services too. Because of time zone alignment, the sheltered model can be particularly effective for customers of Nearshore providers – especially for North American customers of providers based in Mexico.
Creating Effective SLAs: Pay Attention to Productivity and Data Accuracy
December 21st, 2011
By Marc Tanowitz
As outsourcing buyers use service levels to measure the performance of a provider, service level agreements (SLAs) are one of the buyer’s fundamental vendor-performance management activities. An SLA’s agreed-upon quantitative provider requirements establish the baseline performance levels and define the monetary credits or other remedies associated with a provider’s failure to meet the standards. The principal role of an SLA is to align buyer and provider objectives.
Are You Paying Attention to the Financial Stress Weighing on Your Outsourcing Partner?
November 8th, 2011Vendor management requires an ‘all in’ approach to lowering risk
By Jan Erik Aase
In a recent Forrester survey, senior IT professionals ranked “security concerns about giving work to a third party” as their greatest concern about moving into managed services relationships. Surprised?
Although conventional wisdom says that giving vendors end-to-end accountability for a portfolio of applications and services is the best way to reduce risks in managed services relationships, far too many sourcing professionals believe that this end-to-end accountability eliminates the need for due diligence and other governance activities.
At Panama Summit, A Second Look at Buy vs. Build
August 29th, 2011
Shared services showdown: Panama City
By Luke Bujarski
At last week’s IQPC’s Shared Service and Outsourcing Summit in Panama City, Panama, the most popular people at the conference were the corporate buyers weighing in on BPO vs. owned centers and whether to take established captives and merge them with third-party providers.
The big question we came away with: who is closing whom?
Latin America Captives: Costa Rica and Panama Poised to See Shared Services Expansion
August 17th, 2011
Rutchik: Captives remove 'incremental risk' of third-party deals
Pace Harmon’s top captives expert talks about maturity of captives, impact from Mexico’s violence and why labor laws favor third-party outsourcers
By Luke Bujarski
Everest Group’s most recent quarterly Market Vista Report came out in recent weeks with some potentially staggering implications for Latin America’s offshoring landscape. The global tally recorded a new 42-month high with 61 new captive announcements and zero divestitures. Yet most of these announcements were located in Asia, followed by Eastern Europe and Africa. What then are LatAm’s prospects for captive operators?
Can Latin America’s Captives Pitch like Third-Party Providers?
August 11th, 2011
Oshri: Captives Must Evolve
By Luke Bujarski
It’s time for captive centers across Latin America to grow up. While recent data published by Everest Research officially took the captive center model off the endangered species list, changing tides in management and increasing global competition suggest that it will be far from smooth sailing for LatAm’s captives industry.
