Wednesday, May 23rd, 2012

Medellin is one of those cities that you never want to leave. Blessed with mountains on all sides,  a Mediterranean climate and some of the best beef dishes anywhere in Colombia (especially when over a barbeque), Medellin is shaking loose from the shackles of its past and putting a remarkable amount of focus on global services. We spent a few days there last week – and got to know how the Paisas people see Colombia’s second biggest city evolving as a hub for innovation and global engagement.

MG 1155 2 Medellin Slideshow: A City Blooming for BPO
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Many of Medellin's schools are equipped with high-tech hardware.
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HP is projected to move into this section of "Ruta N" over the next few months.
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Bancolombia's headquarters on in Medellin where it employs over 10,000 workers.
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The super modern Ruta N facility is set to become a center for foreign entrepreneurs - on the left bean bag, Carolina Ardila Lopez, business development manager for Ruta N, to the right, Kirk Laughlin of NSAM.
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The Medellin metro runs, north - south, through the city's valley.
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Yuxi Pacific is one of a group of newly landed software firms. Setting up in Medellin was a "no brainer'" for Yuxi CEO Michael Puscar.

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Red tape, scalability, labor analysis, financial incentives and investment risk are among the burning issues for a Nexus panel joining together Ann Harts, Kevin Parikh and Fabrizio Opertti

 

 

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By: Michael Santamaria

Michael Santamaria 18456 300x198 Be Rigorous from the Start or Your Outsourcing Engagement will Fall Short There’s little doubt that Business Process Outsourcing is here to stay; the lure of “easy” cost savings is just too powerful for companies to resist. But the truth of the matter is that implementing a successful outsourcing project is hard work and realizing those “easy” savings is by no means a foregone conclusion. While data on outsourcing failure is hard to come by, the Aberdeen Group has reported that 21% of outsourcing projects fail to meet stakeholder expectations, and Gartner puts the outsourcing failure rate as high as 30%. Although neither study defines what constitutes a “failure,” the bottom line is a large percent of projects end with unhappy clients.

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By Dan Berthiaume

When selecting a location for BPO service delivery, there are some standard metrics most BPO buyers use to determine the best location. However, “standard” does not always mean “right.” Just as in so many other areas of business, sometimes the common wisdom in the BPO realm is outdated, distorted or just plain wrong.

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By Luke Bujarski

Distinguishing between domestic and export driven business is becoming increasingly important to vendors operating in LatAm. How are Brazilian banks outsourcing their back office? Why is Mexico’s manufacturing industry rebounding and what technology solutions are producers looking for? Is Colombia’s telecoms market the next big opportunity? Likewise, multinational enterprises will be looking for those service providers best suited to support their specific industry, as they invest in these oft complex markets.

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Patrick Cogny of Genpact explains the reason global pharmaceutical are grasping for global outsourcing partners.

 

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Vishal Ahluwalia 239x300 Make Vendor Selection Process Visible and Transparent

Ahluwalia was among 25 experts speakers at yesterday's Nexus conference.

By Patrick Haller

When it comes to making sourcing decisions, buyers have many things to consider. They need to look beyond the surface cost benefits and truly evaluate if there will be synergy between their organization and the outsourcing provider that will lead to mutual successes not only in the short-term, but well into the future. Vishal Ahluwalia, Executive Director-Head Outsourcing/Off-shoring WMA Ops at UBS Wealth Management, a recognized global sourcing evangelist, has been effectively implementing and managing outsourced vendor relationships for close to twenty years.

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Uribe at Podium1 300x200 Uribe Declares New Day for Nearshore at Nexus

Uribe highlighted positive social, political and business developments in the Latin American/Caribbean region

Kirk Laughlin, CEO of Nearshore Americas, kicked off today’s Nearshore Nexus Conference at the Crowne Plaza in New York City by stating nearshore outsourcing has gone from “novel to mainstream.” Laughlin promised that conference speakers would illustrate how outsourcing destinations in Latin America and the Caribbean are “no longer in the shadow of India or China,” but have instead become vibrant providers of sophisticated IT and business outsourcing services in their own right. The first speaker, former President of the Republic of Colombia Mr. Alvaro Uribe, delivered on that promise.

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By Robert L. Scheier

sunset 300x199 New Survey Claims US Clients Prefer Farshore to Nearshore 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.

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By Steve Rudderham 

Most outsourcing arrangements are literally “out” sourced in that services are delivered from a remote location. Whether that location is within a few miles of your corporate headquarters or on the other side of the globe, you need to ensure the services are delivered in the appropriate manner without physically being there to oversee the operation. The provider often promises an “extension of your operations,” but this task often winds up being one of the biggest challenges of BPO, but fortunately there are a few basic steps BPO buyers can take to manageably ensure quality service delivery from remote locations.

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