El Salvador’s Effort to Improve English Starts to Have Real Impact
November 25th, 2011By Jon Felperin
One of the most pervasive and challenging issues across the Nearshore region is establishing English language training programs that actually do work – and actually produce well-trained professionals. One country that has been working on this in a sincere way for over ten years in El Salvador – in large part because of the commitments several major contact center players have made. The results of focused collaboration between private industry, federal government and USAID is beginning to show good results.
Costa Rica’s Free Trade Zones Not Looking So “Free” After All
October 18th, 2011
Chinchilla is at odds with the head of CINDE, Costa Rica's lead investment agency
By Luke Bujarski
Costa Rica’s system of free trade zones may not be “free” for much longer, if a controversial tax on products and services exporters gets bundled into the government’s latest deficit reduction plan. While local authorities, including President Laura Chinchilla, confirmed with Nearshore Americas that the new tax proposal would not affect existing companies, many are worried that a change to current policy would rock the proverbial boat, and send mixed signals to an otherwise bullish foreign investment community. NSAM also notes that a policy which favors existing companies over new entrants could open the door for hostilities between the public and private sector.
Price War Looming for Guatemala’s Bilingual BPO Market?
September 30th, 2011By Luke Bujarski
“More English, more English, and more English,” exclaimed VP Kapil Rajvanshi from 24/7 Customer during a presentation at this week’s Global Services Summit in Guatemala City. The market here is indeed showing some concerning signs of overheating, as we quickly discovered during talks with the heads of Guatemala’s six BPO families. While saturation and wage inflation is nothing new in Central America, what has Guatemala’s BPO Commission president Herman Lopez deeply worried is the prospect of a race-to-the-bottom price war between the very people put in charge of coordinating a sustainable strategy for the country’s booming BPO cluster.
Honduras Starts to Make Real Headway as a BPO Player
September 23rd, 2011By Peter Ryan
As the potential options for Nearshore delivery to the US continue to increase, Ovum notes with interest the slow but steady emergence of Honduras as a viable location for BPO delivery. Although arguably not a country on the shortlist of many prospective investors even two years ago because of concerns surrounding stability and crime, more vendors and their clients are looking at Honduras in a different light.
Schumer Pushes New Bill Requiring Disclosure of Location of Offshore Resource
September 21st, 2011Source: Loeb & Loeb, LLP
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) introduced a bill that would require customer service agents located outside of the United States and working on behalf of entities conducting business in the United States to reveal their physical location to U.S.-based customers at the beginning of any electronic communication initiated or received by them.
The Notification of Origin of Telecommunications and Internet Consumer Exchange (NOTICE) Act (S.1536), introduced on September 9, 2011, and co-sponsored by Sens. Bob Casey (D-Penn.) and Claudia McCaskill (D-Mo.), states that a “business entity that either initiates or receives a customer service communication shall require that each of its employees or agents participating in the communication disclose their physical location at the beginning of each customer service communication so initiated or received.” The bill defines “business entity” to include any entity established to make a profit by “purposefully availing itself of the …
Sourcing Advisors: “A Total Waste of Money”?
September 1st, 2011
Parkinson: Advisors are driven by models, not by flexibility
By Patrick Haller
The decision for an outsourcing client to use an advisor can be daunting, especially if the buyer believes they have “been there – done that” and that they can manage any challenges or complexities they encounter. Advisors are “a total waste of money” for buyers operating in familiar territory, says John Parkinson, SVP Enterprise PMO at Axis Capital, who was also a consultant for twenty years and named as one of the world’s most influential consultants in 2003.
Unosquare and KM2 Solutions Partner in Honduras
August 29th, 2011Unosquare LLC, with operations in Guadalajara, Mexico and Portland, Oregon, today announced a collocation and business partnership with KM2 Solutions in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Through its established location inside the world class Altia Business Park, KM2 Solutions will provide Unosquare with infrastructure and employer services.
For its end of the partnership Unosquare will provide advancement and training opportunities for KM2 employees. Unosquare provides US customers with software development, testing, and application support services from its nearshore locations. KM2 provides contact center services from its nearshore locations and both companies leverage the lower cost labor pool and same time zone advantages for their US clients.
“This partnership will give KM2 Solutions call center employees, our most valuable resource, more options to expand their own career,” said Maggi Williams, Chief Global Strategy Officer for KM2. The partnership is intended to advance and expand the lifecyle of a nearshore contact center worker by giving …
India’s Hinduja in Talks to Expand in the Nearshore
August 24th, 2011Source: The Financial Express
Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS) is eyeing new geographies to expand its footprint globally and has its sights trained on the Central and Latin American countries for the same.
“We are looking at near shore destinations like Jamaica, Mexico and Costa Rica to service the US market. Also, on the radar are Gautemala and Colombia,” HGS’ global CEO Partha DeSarkar told FE on the sidelines of the ongoing Nasscom BPO Strategy Summit.
The BPO has had some success in Jamaica where it is in talks with one client and the deal could be finalised by December. For the Indian market, however the company plans to follow a different growth model by setting up a partner network.
“The partner will help US improve our speed to market. We plan to follow this strategy in the international market also where we are not culturally aligned,” …
Ortega’s Head of Foreign Investment Opens Up about BPO, Venezuela and Getting the Facts Out There
August 22nd, 2011
By Luke Bujarski
In an exclusive behind-closed-doors interview, Nearshore Americas and market research firm Ovum teamed up to speak with Mr. Alvaro Baltodano, politically appointed head of investment promotion for Nicaragua’s Ortega Administration. From labor capacity to investor perceptions, Mr. Baltodano was very well informed and open to talk about the key issues.
“Pro-Business” Ortega Makes Surprise Appearance at Nicaragua Conference
August 17th, 2011
NSAM's Luke Bujarski meets with Ortega in Managua
President Daniel Ortega made a surprise appearance last night at “Let’s Grow Together“, an International Investment forum organized by ProNicaragua and being held in Managua. In a surprise turn of events, “El Presidente” arrived at the Hotel Intercontinental to address a crowd of 150 foreign and domestic investors and economic development professionals.
In total, 65 companies from Latin America, Taiwan and the United States are at the event watching closely for signs of true investment potential and a commitment from government officials.
