Mon Dieu! Montreal’s Tech Entrepreneurs Target Design and Multimedia
April 13th, 2012By Luke Bujarski
Montreal’s recent start-up boom is putting Quebec Province on the map as a social media and cloud-driven innovation hub. What used to be a conservative tech city hosting primarily ‘big’ IT including Research in Motion and Nortel Networks is quickly rebranding itself as a top-shelf start-up ecosystem. Companies like Ateneo Digital, Bespoke Mobility, and Art Sumo are just three of what could soon be global household names sprouting out of Montreal. The tech community in Montreal also draws parallels between Silicon Valley in terms of city size, educational resources, and cultural diversity.
Why is IBM Tying up with Brazil’s Most Famous Billionaire?
April 12th, 2012
By Filipe Pacheco
The encounter of two giants: one of them is IBM, a global IT provider, and the other is Eike Batista, the richest man in Brazil and the commander of a corporate empire in the country. Together, they closed a deal that includes the construction of an industrial tech center and the supply of outsourcing services of around US$ 1 billion in a ten year interval.
New Survey Claims US Clients Prefer Farshore to Nearshore
April 10th, 2012By Robert L. Scheier
A recent study out of Duke University shows that American companies still prefer India, China and the Philippines to the Latin American Nearshore for IT infrastructure and application development and maintenance (ADM). The percentage of finance and accounting work done in Latin America rose from 10 percent in 2009 to 16 percent in 2011, with application development and maintenance (ADM) work rising from seven to 12 percent in the same period, according to the International Offshoring Research Network Project at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business.
US and Europe to Lose Millions of Business Services Jobs as Part of “Natural Evolution” of Globalization
April 4th, 2012By Jon Tonti
Of the 8.2 million business services jobs held domestically at the beginning of 2002 in some 4,700 companies based in North America and Europe only 4.5 million will remain in their domestic markets by 2016 according to a study by The Hackett Group, a management consulting firm. The same study finds that the amount of business services work moving offshore will “level off significantly” during the next few years due to changes in the conditions of offshore drivers.
By Luke Bujarski
The next-generation of outsourcers could soon be relocating to a place most of us only hear about after the news of some high-profile tax scandal hits the morning papers. With only 55,000 inhabitants, it doesn’t take long to realize that the Cayman Islands will never be Latin America’s BPO workhorse. Yet, this has not stopped real estate group Cayman City Enterprise from working with the local authority to build out a 50-acre business park catering to, among other niche industries, outsourced services firms.
The Top Six MBA Graduate Programs in Latin America
March 29th, 2012Chile, Brazil and Mexico Dominate Our Comparison of Leading B-Schools
By Clayton Browne
Human capital has long been a major issue for outsourcers looking to establish operations in Latin America, but the issue usually mentioned is a dearth of technical employees (outside of a few hot spots like Monterrey, Guadalajara, São Paolo and Santiago). However, as outsourcing operations have expanded over the last couple of years, global employers across a wide range of fields are also reporting difficulties in finding high-level, well-educated management employees (typically MBAs or equivalent) in Latin America.
Costa Rica: A Small, But Rising Competitor in the Global IT Economy
March 29th, 2012By Mark McLoud and Jagdish Dalal (COP)
Until recently, the IT Services industry has been dominated mostly by large companies leveraging their presence in mass-scale geographies such as China and India and servicing equally large clients in the US and Europe.
By Patrick Haller
Andy Wasser, Associate Dean at Carnegie Mellon University, has been instrumental in building the university’s Masters of Information Systems Management, Masters of Science in Information Technology, and the Masters of Science in Information Security Policy & Management programs. These programs have earned the reputation of being the highest ranked graduate level Information Systems programs in the US, and have educated top IT talent from around the world through a unique distance learning methodology that teaches over 200 students a year.
Will Mexico’s Presidential Elections Impact the Nearshore Wave?
March 27th, 2012
By James Bargent
When Mexican President Felipe Calderon took office in 2006, he became leader of a nation divided by a close-run election that was tainted by allegations of widespread fraud. Six years later, and the legacy he will leave come the end of his term in December will be similarly divisive for Mexicans and foreign business interests alike.
The Brazilian Proposition for Service Desk and Field Services
March 27th, 2012By Francisco Blagevitch
The IT market in Brazil is run by more than one million professionals, accounting for $95 billion in income in 2011, which is equivalent to 4.4% of the national GDP. The scenario points to continued growth, mainly because Brazil has shown itself to be an important player in many areas worldwide. The eyes of the world have turned toward us; we live in a time of a strong and vibrant economy, with constantly increasing capacity, along with one characteristic that makes us very different from other cultures: our willingness to serve.
