Belatrix Software Factory (BSF), a leading software development outsourcing vendor from Argentina in South America has been awarded the highest prize by ProMendoza, a non-for profit organization whose mission is to expand and promote Mendoza’s industries.

This award is normally given to more “traditional” industries in the region such as wine-making and metallurgic construction so it is a great honor for Belatrix to receive such a prestigious award and the recognition that comes with it.

“We at Belatrix are extremely happy for this award and I’d like to thank our whole Belatrix team of more than 170 professionals from Argentina, Peru and China that work tirelessly in trying to exceed our clients’ expectations, they are the real reason of our success. I would also like to highlight the role that ProMendoza has played not only in elevating our region’s exports in general but also in helping Belatrix expand its horizons,” said CEO Luis Robbio.

The award includes monetary incentives, promotion initiatives as well as a trophy. Belatrix plans to use the funds to continue expanding the markets it serves. Belatrix has a very solid presence in the US market with active clients in many states such as California, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Massachusetts, Florida and Texas, and it is expanding on the successful relationships it has more recently developed in Europe, UK and Canada.

Globant CEO Martin Migoya welcomes the firm's growth, fueled partly by the creative tech approach of CTO Guibert Englebienne (at left).

By Dennis Barker

Well-known nearshore trailblazer Globant revealed parts of an ambitious, globally expansive growth strategy this week with the acquisition of a small and savvy mobile software developer in Silicon Valley. The acquisition, taken on face value, shows Globant is doing what very few Latin America-borne IT players have done in recent years: land onshore in the US, make an acquisition or two, and create US jobs in the process. (Outsourcing bashers, explain how such companies hurt the US economy.)

Globant, never afraid of standing out from the crowd, appears to be gathering increasing market velocity on its way to becoming one of the few ‘household’ names of Latin America IT services.

The firm enhanced its mobile and social-media capabilities this week by acquiring Nextive, a U.S. firm that specializes in those types of applications. Globant also became the first Argentina company to buy a U.S. company. (Price was not revealed.)

Nextive, based in San Francisco, will lead development in Globant’s Mobile Studio software unit. “Adding this talent will increase the Studio’s skills and naturally the number of people working on products for mobile devices, social apps, and to a small extent gaming,” said Martin Migoya, Globant co-founder and CEO. “Nextive will add expertise that will help us continue to develop innovative software. They have a lot of deep understanding of the popular mobile platforms, including iOS and Android.”

“We also expect that the deal will allow us to increase our presence in the U.S.,” Migoya said.

Globant already has several marquis brands it works with, including Google, EA, and LinkedIn. Migoya said 80% of their revenue comes from projects in the States. Nextive’s current client list includes GSN and Crowdstar. The company already has offices in Buenos Aires and Córdoba. “We will take advantage of those locations to serve clients,” Migoya said.

Globant is looking at other North American companies it might snatch up. “But honestly,” Migoya said, “there are not a lot of U.S. technology companies for sale right now that would be a good fit, that share the same culture the way Nextive does.”

One of the most interesting aspects of the acquisition is Globant’s pronouncement that it will be bringing jobs to the U.S. as a result. “We plan to hire 200 people within the next 18 months, starting very soon,” Migoya said. Although the country is suffering from high unemployment, Migoya said competition for skilled mobile developers is tough.

“We like to think that creating jobs for people is part of our what we do,” Migoya told Nearshore Americas. “Making money is important, of course, but if that is all we are trying to do, that is not very interesting.”

It appears to have been a good year for Globant so far. Earlier, the company landed $15 million in financing from two capital firms.

As for where the Globant/Nextive team might be focusing its efforts, Migoya said in an earlier interview that “the area that we’re seeing the most innovation happening these days is in social applications connected with the main social networks…. Corporations want applications that allow them to access that world, in order to target their customers in a more efficient and specific way – this is the big thing that’s bringing social networks into the news these days.”

Migoya also noted that Globant is “not an IT outsourcing company. We are a developer of software products for global customers.”

About those recurring rumors that Globant itself might be scooped up, Migoya chuckled. But he did say the company is considering going public, with the possibility of an IPO sometime in the next year.

Exclusive interview with Globant CEO Martin Migoya

By Tarun George

One of Latin America’s IT stars, Globant has proved that it can take Nearshore sourcing successfully to Silicon Valley. But what is the plan in coming years? We spoke with CEO Martín Migoya to find out. He tells us how Globant is differentiating itself in software development, and discusses his plans for acquisitions and public offerings. Read on for more.

What are the key areas of innovation in tech services that your customers are looking for in 2011?

Migoya: They’re mainly looking for innovation around mobile applications, and around gaming technology. Those are the areas where we’re seeing massive movement  , such as firms expanding the use of gaming technology into other areas like training, etc.

But the area that we’re seeing the most innovation happening these days is in social applications connected with the main social networks, and how those can be replicated efficiently without a massive amount of development effort. Corporations want applications that allow them to access that world, in order to target their customers in a more efficient and specific way – this is the big thing that’s bringing social networks into the news these days.

It’s not that we don’t innovate around more traditional outsourced functions like application testing or creating new applications – that’s the baseline. We look at how to develop software using agile methodologies, leveraging a lot of the open source software and the commercial software available out there. We’re continually innovating in these areas, but the things that are really hot right now are gaming applications and all the things related to social applications. Firms are looking at how to surprise their customers with new applications.

It’s not just about engineering and making sure it works, but also about art and creating a good interface – that’s what makes a successful and innovative software product.

In your experience does Latin American IT sourcing get the respect it deserves from Silicon Valley?

Migoya: I would say that Latin America is increasingly well known in California, and the US in general. There are obvious advantages with the time zone and proximity that can be used in a very dynamic way. We can interact and do a lot of distributed agile work that would be impossible in other geographies.

But the other thing that’s gaining visibility now is Latin America’s capacity to innovate – something that’s very rewarded in Silicon Valley. It’s challenging the attitude that people from the US have about Latin America given the recent crises and other things. The talent and cultural fit also allows our engineers to connect with the engineers there. Being able to create a social media application means we have to know a lot about social networks, and that is true in Latin America. It’s a well developed market for commercial software, and a powerhouse for open source.

Another point is that design is key for successful software products today. It’s not just about engineering and making sure it works, but also about art and creating a good interface – that’s what makes a successful and innovative software product. That artistic approach that we have in Latin America is very compatible with what Silicon Valley is looking for right now. At Globant, we’re trying to create not just a software development company but also a company that resembles the culture of Silicon Valley.

Talking about Globant in particular, when do you plan to take the company public?

Migoya: Well you know that’s an impossible question. We have a general timeframe in which we’re planning to do it, and we still need to do a lot of growing in order to get there. I’d say the plan is in about 18 to 24 months. Maybe a little earlier than that.

(Editor’s note: Globant co-founder Guibert Englebienne said in this TechCrunch article in December 2009 that the plan was to go public on Nasdaq in two years)

Globant is also a prime acquisition target, especially for the large Indian firms looking to solidify their position in Latin America. Is there anything on the table right now?

Migoya: We’ve had many different offers from different companies. But I honestly think that the best way forward is to keep on doing what we’re doing. We’re not looking for anything more than growing the company and making a successful story for all the stakeholders participating in it. So there’s not an acquisition or anything that will happen in the next year.

How does Globant differentiate from farshore locations like India and China?

Migoya: The experience of creating a new software product has changed in the last few years. In the past when you had a product you wanted to create, you’d go to an engineering powerhouse. Once the product was done, if you wanted a cool interface, you’d go to a local digital agency. Today those two things cannot be separated any longer, and at Globant we are combining them.

Software development has evolved into an experience where you need not just engineering, but also design, innovation and the infrastructure that will support the product when millions of customers buy it. Globant is where those things – engineering, design, innovation, infrastructure – meet scale.

Belatrix Software Factory of Mendoza, Argentina announced that it has won the “Export.AR 2010 Award” awarded by the Export.AR Foundation and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship of the Argentine Government.

Mendoza, Argentina, Friday, December 17, 2010. The firm Belatrix Software Factory (BSF SA) of Mendoza, Argentina has been awarded the Export.AR 2010 Prize, awarded by the Foundation Export.AR and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship of the Argentine Government.

The Export.AR Award’s goal is to publicly acknowledge the efforts and accomplishments of Argentine   companies in selling their products in international markets, motivating the growth and diversification of Argentine exports, it also is an evidence of their quality y competitiveness to generate a solid export-oriented culture among local companies.

The awards ceremony will be held at the San Martin Palace in Buenos Aires on Tuesday, December 21, 2010. The ceremony will be attended by important figures of the Argentine Government, including President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

“It’s really an honor to receive this important recognition and is also a motivation to continue moving forward,” said Mr. Luis Robbio, CEO of the firm. Mr. Federico Robbio, a partner at the firm, highlights “the great support that the government is providing through its programs promoting the Software Sector in Argentina.”

“This award is more than just a recognition of the efforts of all our people at Belatrix, it also means a commitment for Belatrix to continue promoting not only the Argentine software export services but also Argentina’s high quality human resources, “says Mr. Alex Robbio, who directs the marketing efforts of Belatrix and is also a principal at the firm.

About Belatrix
Since 1993, Belatrix has been a leading provider of IT outsourcing services outsourcing from its development centers in Mendoza, Argentina and a new center in China. Its focus is on the export of IT services outside of Argentina, with nearly 100% of its revenues being generated outside of Argentina and China.

Belatrix benefits from the Argentina Law of Software, which benefits top software companies in the country and is officially certified under ISO-9000 as well as having been officially assessed at Level 2 of SEI-CMM. It is also the largest software development company outside of Buenos Aires and a pioneer in the export of software development services.

Belatrix puts its focus on their human capital through empowerment and training, providing almost two thousand hours of on-site training to its staff per year.
To learn more about Belatrix Software Factory visit http://www.belatrixsf.com

By Tarun George

The Argentina outsourcing sector has been around for some time. Since the late ‘80s cities like Buenos Aires have hosted shared service centers for US firms, and while the country is still not an outsourcing powerhouse, it has recently been making waves in the IT services sector. The government has prioritized the software development and design industries over call centers, leading to a strong IT presence in the country, and many new home-grown providers that are being noticed by everyone from North America to India. But Argentina remains mired in chronic problems like heavy bureaucracy and red tape, arbitrary investment rules, and more recently, wage inflation. Nearshore Americas takes a look at some of these challenges to provide a balanced profile of Argentina as an outsourcing option for your company.

One of the MERCOSUR members along with Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, Argentina has a lot to offer in terms of business environment. According to the 2009 A.T. Kearney Global Services Location Index, Argentina ranked 27^th in the world and 5^th in Latin America as an offshore destination. Foreign investment has been on the climb, and some big names to invest have included Intel, Google, Siemens, LG, Yahoo!, HP, Microsoft and IBM. Many of them cite low wages, and an IT-proficient workforce as factors in their decision.

Some figures on Argentina:

• Ranked as the most innovative country in Latin America by The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Innovation Index 2009.
• Exported US$ 770 million in IT professional services, and $ 3.7 billion in business and technical services in 2008.
• Placed as 5^th best outsourcing services location for labour quality and availability, by Deloitte’s Global Shared Services Survey 2009
• Currency risk rating of B- by Standard and Poor’s, and GDP per capita of US$ 14,200.
• Ranked 118 out of 183 countries in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Report 2010.

Talent pool

Providers in Argentina that we speak to give the usual story about the cultural fit with customers, the quality of life, the time zone just a few hours ahead of the US, and the business profitability. But these days, that’s the basic standard for a LATAM outsourcing economy. What really makes Argentina stand out is its educated and qualified workforce. “There’s a huge talent pool of over 200,000 people, most of whom are engineers waiting to be challenged by new projects. We have doubled our talent pool in just the last three years”, says Martin Migoya, CEO and co-founder of Globant, one of the up and coming Argentine IT companies mentioned above. The adult literacy rate is 98.6%, and English capability in Argentina is one of the highest in the region, with 81% of the university graduates in IT successfully passing internationally recognized English tests.

Part of the reason may be Argentina’s “early bet on education”, says Alex Robbio, VP Business Development for Belatrix Software Factory, another leading Argentine software developer with an international focus. “Education is completely free for everyone in the country, and the result is a very large, very skilled middle class”.

“Argentina has so many pluses, and we have been growing rapidly. But the government hasn’t been helping too much in terms of marketing our advantages, even though they provide a lot of material support” – Alex Robbio from Belatrix

But Cristian Arguello, Country Manager of Argentina for Cognizant, says that while the talent pool is large, it may be less than the demand. “The challenge for Argentina is scalability. We have seen the demand for IT-specific workers grow exponentially in recent years. More qualified workers need to be provided to businesses by state universities and colleges”, he says. Cognizant recently announced plans to expand services offered from its main Buenos Aires delivery center.

With a population of nearly 41 million (much less than larger rivals Mexico and Brazil), it’s easy to see where Arguello is coming from. But an array of IT-specific education programs and scholarships by both the public and private sector is now aiming to draw more students into university programs in computer science and programming. Many of these initiatives were started only in 2006 and later, and it may be too early to see clear results.

Labor Costs

Due to the crisis and devaluation of the peso in 2002, wages in Argentina have been quite low compared to other LATAM outsourcers. “You can get an average IT staffer for a 30-35% lower wage than in Brazil, and a 20% lower wage than Mexico”, says Arguello. But in recent years as the IT industry has grown in Argentina, so has wage inflation, and inflation in general.

In 2009 inflation was 12-14%, and many economists predict that number to grow in 2010, despite official stats that put the inflation rate much lower. With the government considering salary increases in light of the mass labour protests last year, the unions are calling for contract renewals for workers with wage raises of 20-25%.

But Robbio maintains that while this will put pressure on the software industry, it should not be much of a problem since most IT workers in the country have chosen to remain non-unionized. Even if wages were to rise, Argentina would still compare positively with other countries, he says. So US companies based out of Argentina may find their labour cost advantage over other LATAM outsourcers getting smaller, but for now it is still significant.

Prosperar and Incentives

Under the Software Promotion Law implemented in 2004, Prosperar, Argentina’s investment development agency, offers a number of incentives for IT companies looking to set up in the country. Martin Migoya says that there are three main ones available to software companies:

• Up to 70% reduction on employers’ social contributions for employees.
• Tax exemption of 60% on total income tax.
• Ten year tax stability.

Arguello also mentions city-specific exemptions such as some reimbursements on real estate in Cordoba, and additional tax exemptions in Buenos Aires if a company sets up in the IT district of town.

Argentina’s infrastructure and telecom networks are also very good – they were privatized in the late ‘90s. According to the World Bank, Argentina has the highest fixed-line and mobile density in Latin America, and the highest broadband penetration in the region (along with Chile) at 8.8%. Costs of telecom and connectivity in general are competitive, and all the required infrastructure to set up delivery centers is easily available.

Challenges:  Painting the Town in Red Tape

Changing the rules – Political risk has recently been a problem for Argentina, as mentioned earlier. According to KPMG’s Nearshore Attraction 2009 report, “Argentina has a deserved reputation for arbitrarily changing the rules for companies, which has hurt investment in recent years”. Much of this is due to President Cristina Fernandez’s turbulent relationship with both businesses and labour unions. The economy grew by only 0.9% last year as it tried to bounce back from the recession, and the government faces rising debt obligations. As a result of all this, rules for foreign investment are often vague, and vary from region to region – Some analysts say that the choice of which Argentine city to set up in is more important than the choice to set up in Argentina itself.

Marketing – The government has also not done a very good job selling the Argentina brand. “People only hear the negatives”, says Alex Robbio from Belatrix. “Argentina has so many pluses, and we have been growing rapidly. But the government hasn’t been helping too much in terms of marketing our advantages, even though they provide a lot of material support”.

Bureaucracy – The strong presence of labour unions is an obstacle for companies considering Argentina, especially in light of the impending wage negotiations. Argentina is bureaucratic and often inefficient, and not an easy place to open a development center. Many US firms simply acquire local companies instead of setting up themselves, or engage in joint venture projects to outsource directly with a low cost commitment.

Some leading software developers in Argentina to check out are Globant, Belatrix Software Factory, and Cubika. As Migoya from Globant says, “Not only do we work with conventional programs like Microsoft and Oracle, but we’re also experts at open source. We understand how the US wants to create commercial software, and we save them a lot of time and money”.

The Future

With nearly 1600 software companies, local and foreign, operating out of Argentina, the country’s IT services industry seems to be growing despite its challenges, and looks set to keep on growing. And the action is not just concentrated in Buenos Aires anymore. “More and more firms have been opening in Tier II cities like Cordoba, Rosario, Mendoza and Mar del Plata”, says Cristian Arguello.  “In five years I think we’ll see many more companies coming to Argentina. It doesn’t seem to be slowing down”.

Source: CXOToday

GlobalLogic has acquired Cubika, a prominent software development firm with headquarters in Buenos Aires, Argentina and offices in La Plata and Mendoza. The partnership will combine Cubika’s Latin America workforce with GlobalLogic’s Velocity platform and global reach to create a major near-shore innovation hub for software product R&D.

Cubika has a team of more than 200 technology professionals with expertise in Flex, SOA, Java and .NET technologies. The company specializes in building software products for the media, entertainment, telecom and finance markets. By partnering with GlobalLogic, Cubika will be able to maximize its investment in Argentina while providing employees with greater career opportunities and the ability to collaborate on a global level.

“We have long wanted to say that we searched the four corners of the globe for the world’s most talented software engineers. Now we can,” said Peter Harrison, CEO of GlobalLogic, which already has a material presence in North America, Europe and Asia. “Argentina has quickly developed into a key technology hub, and Cubika has laid a strong foundation for even further growth here. The company has a great reputation, impressive client roster, strong management team and sincere commitment to Agile methods. GlobalLogic’s clients can immediately benefit from Cubika’s talent and near-shore capabilities, and Cubika’s clients can benefit from GlobalLogic’s depth, breadth and global reach.”

“We chose to partner with GlobalLogic because it has strong financial support and shares many of our same values,” said Sebastian Gryngarten, now Country  Manager of GlobalLogic – Argentina. “GlobalLogic’s growth plan in Latin America is exciting, and it already has a solid client base in the US. Our clients will benefit greatly from GlobalLogic’s worldwide presence and wide range of services and areas of expertise.”

A Q/A  Interview with Steve Mezak, CEO at Accelerance and author of Software Without Borders

“If all you want are cheap programmers then there are many companies around the world who will provide them”

Steve Mezak has been a part of the software development industry for over 25 years as a successful entrepreneur (he’s been a key player in six startups) and as a globally respected author on software engineering. His current company, Accelerance, works with development teams in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Costa Rica – so naturally Steve has a good sense of the quality of work produced out of Latin America and how the Americas stands up against the rest of the world.

When it comes to software development, there is increasing attention paid to code quality, establishing very clear requirements and working at a faster pace to move into production. Some say that it’s becoming harder than ever to offshore software development – theoretically slowing the process – because of these more pressurized conditions. Your thoughts?

Actually, in many ways it is getting easier to offshore outsource software development because many hard lessons have been learned over the years on what works and what does not.

For too long there has been an overemphasis on using outsourced software development just to lower costs. If you can hire programmers offshore at $30 an hour than hiring them at $15 an hour must be better. And if all you want cheap programmers then there are many companies around the world who will provide them.  Consequently, many companies outsourcing their software development learned that a low hourly rate does not translate into real savings if you also happen to want quality software as part of the deal.

Software development is not a “core competency” of many companies and outsourcing makes perfect sense for them.

Smart companies no longer seek to hire the cheapest programmers on the planet. They do want good results at a cost lower than hiring a room full of programmers locally. And they likely laid off employees in the recession and now want to use outsourcing as a way to get things done. Are they cutting costs? No, because costs are presently zero. They want to use outsourcing to get things done without having to hire employees back.

Having good software requirements are important, yet many companies try to outsource without them. In fact the most dominant requirement may be their limited budget and again outsourcing begins with a preoccupation with cost.

“What can you get done for $50K (or $25K, or even less)?” They ask. As one of our nearshore partners says, “Just because your budget is limited doesn’t automatically reduce the complexity of the software you need.”

Software development is not a “core competency” of many companies and outsourcing makes perfect sense for them. If there is pressure, it is to find the outsourcing vendors who can truly provide a professional software development service and not just a roomful of programmers in an exotic location. Of the thousands of vendors out there, smart companies want to outsource only to the good ones.

What are some of the things that stand out for you in terms of what Latin America offers in software development?

The obvious features of Nearshoring to Latin America are physical closeness to the U.S. and time zone overlap with our work day. The workday overlap enables more convenient implementation of Agile software development methodologies like Scrum which include a daily stand-up meeting (the Scrum) between all stakeholders in the software development process.

There is also a cultural closeness shared between North and South American countries too. Most professionals in Latin America are able to communicate in English and many share a passion for excellence and achievement with good companies in the U.S. They are often ready to challenge the assumptions a client brings to the table and as one of our partners says, “engage in the intellectual swordfight” over the best way to do things, with respect of course for the client and what they ultimately want to achieve.

How does the quality of software development in places like Chile, Colombia, Argentina and Mexico stand up to the rest of the world?

We touched on country culture above and all these countries you list here have many cultural similarities to the U.S. One aspect of this is the universities in these countries are very comparable to those in the U.S. and Europe, often granting a 5-year degree to engineers and programmers.

In contrast studies have raised questions about the quality of graduates from some higher educational institutions in China and India. There are excellent universities in these countries of course, but there are also a great many schools that are more akin to technical colleges here in the U.S. that provide training but not a well-rounded education leading to a Bachelor’s degree. Specifically the work of Vivek Wadhwa at Duke University has pointed out the lack of internationally accepted accreditation standards have led to the problem of many graduates not being prepared for multinational projects and the give and take (and sword fights) expected by many U.S. clients in the process of hashing out requirements. (Click her for an example.)

I see less of these issues in Latin America where it is also more common to find a corporate culture of recruiting talent graduating from the best local universities. Even so, it is important to select a partner in Latin America or anywhere else that has a corporate culture close to your own.

What are the biggest mistakes companies are making right now when it comes to sending work offshore?

Here are the three big ones:

(1) Selecting a vendor because of a single recommendation from a friend or relative. Referrals are a big source of business but too many vendors will say yes to any client. And just because they worked well for your brother-in-law doesn’t mean they have the skills needed for your software development.

(2) Buying primarily on price and not recognizing that software development is a creative process rather than just a financial transaction. Domain experience, technology, software development process, and above all , the ability of the team members to collaborate with you are all factors that need to be considered.

(3) Not knowing how to describe your software. There is no such thing as a perfect specification but there are tools and techniques that have proven effective over the years for describing the desired software behavior. The key is to describe the steps your software users will take to achieve their goals. Creating a clickable prototype is an invaluable technique to storyboard the software before heavy duty coding and testing takes place. It is a lot easier (and cheaper) to change a prototype than thousands of lines of source code. This is especially true for web applications that are so common these days.

(Latin American developers) are  often ready to challenge the assumptions a client brings to the table and as one of our partners says, “engage in the intellectual swordfight” over the best way to do things, with respect of course for the client and what they ultimately want to achieve.

In your book, “Software Without Borders,” you talk about the need to “fiercely protect your intellectual property.”  What specific steps do you recommend?

The chapter of the book dealing with IP protection describes the legal, physical & electronic measures your vendor should in place to protect your source code, assets and ideas. Even in countries with a limited history of IP protection you will find vendors who will provide IP protection you need.  They understand it is a basic requirement of winning your business.

You should have a legal agreement describing the services to be provided. And your vendor should have door locks, guards and hacker-proof firewalls to keep out the bad guys.

Another recommendation in the book is that you deal with vendors who only provide custom software development services (and perhaps other IT services) and NOT vendors who also sell their own software products. This avoids the nightmare of having your code winding up in their products. And having code from their products winding up in yours is not good either when you some day want to sell your company and need to prove that you actually own the source code of your products!

After verifying these common security practices it ultimately comes down to having trust in your vendor to do the right things. That’s more of a gut feel than a legal agreement and gets back to finding a vendor with a corporate culture that fits well with yours.

By Kirk Laughlin, NSAM Editorial Director

Quick: Name a Latin American software dev firm that will land on NASDAQ within two years, boasting strong revenue and a world-beating reputation for building slick online social networking apps?

Answer: Try Argentina’s Globant, a classic Latin American success story that has so much upside that India Inc. (major India-based global services firms) has already tried to scoop it up.

Nearshore Americas sat down with Martin Migoya, the energetic chief executive of Globant and one of four founders of the company, recently in New York City, to talk about the firm’s big ambitions to become one of the world’s premiere offshore software development players.

Globant CEO Migoya: “There is no space to sell the company.”

“We are focused on transforming the software creation experience,” said Migoya. “We are convinced it can be an enjoyable experience.”

Globant has a plan called a “Global Manifesto” – and given its short life span and impressive track record of execution – the plan is working. Founded in 2003 by Migoya, CTO Guibert Englebienne, COO Martín Umaran and VP of Innovation Labs Néstor Nocetti, Globant is set to earn about $50 million this year, but the founders expect to be collecting between $300 million and $500 million within five years. Among other things the Manifesto calls for the company to go public on New York City-based Nasdaq in two years, giving the company the same kind of clout a typical US sofware maker enjoys.

About 60% of the company’s business comes from Silicon Valley. An early alliance with Google, where Globant helped promote and manage some of the largest implementations on OpenSocial, an open interoperability standard enabling social networks to interface with each other, appears to have helped influence future business. Clients have included Disney, GAP, Yahoo!,  Coca Cola,  and Linked-In. The company is especially focused right now on building a social network for Nike, currently in Beta.

Big Game Hunters

Globant’s momentum is clearly making waves, and top tier India-based global services providers, hungry to deepen their footprint in Latin America, are paying attention. In fact Globant’s name has popped up recently in the India press as a prime acquisition target by India Inc.

Migoya said Globant has already been approached by India firms and has turned down offers. “You need to have a consistent, long term plan,” he said. “There is no space to sell the company.”

Having spoke to both Migoya and Englebienne (during a separate interview), it is difficult to imagine how Globant ‘s top execs – at least in the near term – would surrender the passion they inject into Globant. In fact, the actual creation of the company was built on offering an alternative to the software developments practices and philosophies borne from India. “We have focused on changing the equation by having top quality engineers that add real value,” said Migoya. “We have found that many of the Indian firms have had trouble delivering breakthrough products.”

Design Powerhouse

Argentina rates high on the worldwide scale of design proficiency and dazzling visual innovations. The country’s designers are perennial winners of the prestigious Clio Awards, reflecting a thriving talent pool that Englebienne points to as an important contribute to Globant’s unique positioning.

Globant’s founders have spent a lot of time thinking about how to optimize the performance of talented professionals, establishing  “studio” groups that essentially act as specialized communities devoted to high-caliber, fluid output in specific domains. There are studios devoted to gaming (the company has a key alliance with Electronic Arts), game testing, consumer experience, transactional strategies and social networking. The typical studio consists of about 150 people, and is lead by a three-member leadership layer, representing operational, technical and business dev functions.

“Our studios are fundamentally designed to make sure the customer is satisfied,” said Migoya, who cites time zone, cultural fit with US and UK clients and strong personal data protection laws as key business enablers.

Not surprisingly, Globant has become an attractive place to work. In April, the company lured a top Latam Google exec, Gonzalo Alonso, to fill the role of operations vice president.

In addition to software development, Globant also has a full suite of IT maintenance services, and continues to strengthen its cloud computing footprint.

Migoya points to people like Michael Marks, former CEO and now chairman of Flextronics, as a key inspirational supporter. Marks was one of the first Silicon Valley executives to anticipate the rising influence of the Nearshore region in IT services.

Migoya admits that Globant is not a well known outside of Silicon Valley and points out that the company has been cautious about which clients to take on. But as Latin America emerges on the word IT services stage, Globant is undoubtedly going to get noticed – and taken seriously.

KEY LINK: Globant’s YouTube Site