glendonTodd Capital LLC, a private equity firm that focuses on investments in business services companies and investments in real estate, announces the acquisition of Toutatis Inc. by glendonTodd Capital LLC and Performa Partners.

Based in São Paulo, Brazil, Toutatis Inc. is a full service business process outsourcing (BPO) provider in Latin America and offers a wide variety of BPO solutions in human resource outsourcing, finance and accounting outsourcing and procurement outsourcing. The firm has offices in ten countries throughout Central and South America, including: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela, and Uruguay, giving it the ability to serve international clients with operations throughout the region. The company’s unique ability to deliver BPO services across Latin America from its shared service center in Uberlândia offers flexible and cost-efficient solutions by providing user-friendly, accurate, seamless execution.

Todd Furniss, Managing Partner of glendonTodd Capital explains, “We focus on those industries and companies …

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Capgemini, one of the largest multinational IT companies in the world with presence in 40 countries and more than 50 years of experience, will open a subsidiary in Bogotá to offer its services to local clients and subsequently to clients based in other Latin American countries while using Colombia as its regional base of operations.

“Colombia is a key country in our regional expansion strategy; it’s a country experiencing strong growth that has a very capable workforce and a very competitive cost structure. For that reason we decided to open offices here,” said Peter Kroll, Senior Vice President of Capegemini North Latam.

Proexport Colombia facilitated Capgemini’s landing in Colombia; the company will generate 400 jobs in the next two years. “’We look for computer scientists that have graduated from Colombian universities and we train them to provide Capegemini services to national clients and to other clients in the region,” explained Kroll.

“More and …

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PRONicaragua stood out with the best results among all investment promotion agencies in the world in the 2012 Global Investment Promotion Benchmarking, recently published by the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA).

Among the 189 institutions evaluated, PRONicaragua was the only institution to achieve a rating of “best practice,” the highest distinction awarded by the study in each of the three evaluations implemented. This edition marks the first time in history that a non-member country of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) receives such recognition.

Robert Whyte, the World Bank’s Project Manager for the GIPB 2012, mentioned that with FDI levels only slowly recovering post-crisis, it is more important than ever for government agencies to be highly responsive to the needs of potential investors as they search for new investment locations, adding that …

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Opportunities to deepen ties ranging from trade and investments to education and security

The First CEO Summit of the Americas wrapped up on April 14, 2012 with calls for greater cooperation among Western Hemisphere nations on matters ranging from trade and investment to education, science and technology and security, in order to boost prosperity from Canada to Chile.

At the end of the conference, held ahead of the 6th Summit of the Americas, Presidents Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia and Barack Obama of the United States participated in a roundtable discussion in front of an audience that included more than 700 top executives from many of the Western Hemisphere’s leading companies.

After praising the economic and social progress achieved by countries such as Brazil and Colombia over the past decade, Obama said there were many fields where countries in this hemisphere could collaborate fruitfully. “We’ve never felt …

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Mobile application development is the latest offering from Neoris. The global business and IT consulting company has also developed its own native app for the iPhone, Neoris Mobile, available for download from the iTunes store. The Neoris app easily toggles between English, Spanish and Portuguese for real-time access to the company’s press releases, Twitter feed, YouTube channel, white papers and office locations worldwide.

Neoris Mobile is also available for the Android platform and can be downloaded on Google’s Play Store. Android currently leads the smartphone market, deeming it mission critical to have apps that run on this platform, according to Neoris’ Mobile Solutions Team.

Since apps are actual applications that are installed on a mobile device, the main features are that they can be accessed without a browser or an Internet connection — major advantages for a remote, agile workforce that requires real-time access to collaboration tools, reports and functionality while on …

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By Filipe Pacheco 

Ci&T, one of the most prominent Brazilian IT services and outsourcing companies, has always considered exporting IT products and services in a different way than many of its peers – Cesar Gon, its CEO, has made clear how important it is for the company to grow “with a different model” than that made famous by the Indian rivals. 

The same can be considered when growing in the domestic market. In line with that idea, the company has just announced a partnership with an American company, Vistex, an SAP solutions and services provider, to offer SAP products to its Brazilian clients.

“They come with their expertise in the products, especially those designed for the retailing industry, and we add our knowledge of the Brazilian market,” says Paulo Seixas, SAP business director for Ci&T.

He explains that similar products for commercial management had been developed and …

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“Laurus International is the first call center opened by the President of the Dominican Republic and it is an honor to welcome Dr. Leonel Fernandez, to our building today” commented Rudy Ganna, President and CEO of Laurus International, when the company inaugurated its state‐of‐the‐art call center facility in downtown Santo Domingo at the end of March. “We are eager to show our facilities, which features technology, security, productivity tools and employee amenities never before implemented in the call center industry. We also want to highlight our longstanding and deep commitment to expanding trade in the DR and creating careers for Dominicans that provide the highest level of comfort and care to our employees,” concluded Ganna.

The opening of its latest facility is part of a three year expansion plan in the DR to serve its rapidly growing demand for nearshore contact center and BPO services. Laurus International was founded in 2007 …

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Globant, the Latin American leader in the creation of innovative software products, today announced the appointment of Reid Hoffman to its Board of Advisors. Mr. Hoffman comes to Globant following a recent investment in the company by the not-for-profit Endeavor Foundation´s Catalyst Program, of which Mr. Hoffman is a Board Director.

Globant runs a network of more than 2,500 software engineers, developers and designers based in 15 locations across Latin America and the US, creating innovative software products for international clients including LinkedIn. Globant is responsible for the development of LinkedIn’s mobile applications for Android and iPhone, and the implementation of the OpenSocial framework to integrate applications with the professional network (more information on http://blog.linkedin.com/2007/10/31/linkedin-open-s/).

Commenting on his appointment, Mr. Hoffman said, “Globant is a great example of the Endeavor Foundation’s mission of catalyzing long-term economic growth in emerging markets. The team struck me with their vision, …

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Source: Reuters

Brazil slashed interest rates by a larger-than-expected 75 basis points on Wednesday, stepping up its battle to revive struggling industries that threaten to derail the recovery of Latin America’s largest economy.

In its boldest move since August, when it surprised markets and began the current round of cuts, the central bank lowered its benchmark Selic lending rate to 9.75 percent from 10.50 percent in a split decision.

Two of the bank’s seven directors wanted to lower the rate by half a percentage point for the fifth straight meeting.

It was only the second time on record that Brazil has cut the Selic below 10 percent, taking borrowing costs to their lowest level in nearly two years.

Directors made the decision hours after data showed industrial output fell nearly three times more than economists had expected, the latest indicator to suggest Brazil’s boom is fizzling.

Central bank chief Alexandre Tombini is treading a …

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Source: Smart Planet

U.S. companies looking to outsource IT services and business processes are increasingly eyeing Latin America, and Mexico in particular.

It’s “near shore” versus offshore in action.

Closer to home than India or China, often with a deeper cultural affinity (especially among Southwestern states), Mexico has become an increasingly competitive option in the past five years.

“Mexico has made important advances,” said Javier Allard, president of the Mexican IT industry trade group AMITI. “We don’t want to compete with India, China or the Philippines. There are many niches.”

Neoris, a Mexico-based company that provides IT and business process outsourcing (BPO) services in Mexico, Argentina and elsewhere around the globe, is one of the companies seeing gains, as demand for near shore outsourcing from U.S. companies grows.

Neoris handles the e-commerce portal for a major home improvement retail chain; manages “enterprise resource planning,” or ERP, for an auto parts manufacturer and oversees …

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