By Filipe Pacheco

High costs are one of the prices international companies must pay for doing business in Brazil– especially when it comes to the services industry. Now one of the most plugged-in financial institutions in the world, the International Monetary Fund, has released numbers that demonstrate what many suspected anyway: The cost of living in Brazil in 2011 rose to slightly higher than that of the United States.

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On the record: Brasscom, Tivit, Neoris point to some immediate requirements

By Felipe Pacheco

With the World Cup just around the corner, the world waking up to it’s formidable economy and the expanding demand for sophisticated IT services – Brazil is just now entering a powerful new era. To get some perspective on the year ahead, and to hear what Brazil’s technology service providers need to do and deliver to help their outsourcing customers succeed, we talked with five prominent members of the Brazilian IT scene.

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By Filipe Pacheco

For a native English speaker – whether from Winnepeg, Canada, Oklahoma City,  or the suburbs of London – it is not hard to tell the difference between the verbs “do” and “make.” But that is not an easy task for a Brazilian. Simply because in Portuguese both words have just one translation: “fazer.”

“Brazilians also have difficulty pronouncing the l and r the way they’re spoken in English, and to recognize the differences of pronunciation of words such as “hit” and “heat,” and “beach” and the female dog word,” says Ben Lowenstein, an American who has a degree in neurobiology with a focus on the evolution of languages.

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By Edileuza Soares

Amazon will soon start offering cloud computing services to small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) in Brazil, using basically the same model it employs in the US. The company has already hired an executive to lead the operation and is quietly creating its team in Brazil.

The official date for opening the Amazon office in Brazil is still secret, but rumors say that it will happen soon, possibly by the end of December. The executive chosen to lead the operation is José Nilo Cruz Martins, a Brazilian who was local director of sales for Google, worked for Sun before its acquisition by Oracle, and he also worked for Promon.

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By Filipe Pacheco

GFT is a German company focused on technology services and consultancy for the financial industry. So why would Mr. Ulrich Dietz, global CEO who founded this company in 1987 in the middle of the Black Forest, be so interested in the Brazilian market?  If there is one industry in which Brazil stands out as one of the best models in the world in terms of innovation and professionalism, it is the financial business. Marco Santos, who is the country manager for GFT in Brazil, agrees that local competitors are highly qualified and the industry is well established — but he says there is quite a lot of room to grow for those who offer IT solutions in niches or application areas that are not yet adequately addressed. Mobile banking systems would be one good example.

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In the first part of this post, I briefly explained the concept of Lean thinking as it relates to Nearshore application development. Due to economic pressures and other factors, many companies have begun seeking Nearshore partners who have adopted the Lean approach in order to improve the cost, quality, speed, and agility of projects. In this installment, we’ll look at what the Lean concept actually means as it relates to the client, and the ways in which these principles manifest in real-world project scenarios.

But what does “Lean” actually mean?

Although the word “lean” may initially be confused with frugality, we must be attentive to its depth. Remember that the purpose of Lean application development is to improve cost, and also quality, speed, and agility – and it’s no accident that agility and speed are grouped together. Agility does not necessarily mean doing things quickly. It means doing the right …

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In any economic climate, a company’s most important objective is ensuring that the cost of doing business does not overshadow any returns it derives as a result. When margins are robust, companies can afford to invest heavily in technologies that may not immediately produce visible returns, but can be counted on to reap benefits several years down the line.

However, when these margins become razor thin and the future looks uncertain, companies must quickly adapt their strategies and invest in only the projects that can provide an immediate return on investment. With companies seeking new IT approaches for achieving faster (almost immediate) ROI, many have begun looking for partners that can incorporate Lean thinking in their Nearshore development projects.

Based on the manufacturing model Toyota successfully leveraged as it achieved market dominance, Lean IT provides a systematic approach to simultaneously improving cost, quality, speed and agility.

Experience shows that it is …

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In the first installment of this post, I looked at the importance of user experience in Nearshore mobile application development, as well as how companies seeking to engage a provider for development projects should consider those who can create a customer feedback loop to determine the features that will ensure apps are both downloaded and kept on the devices by their users.

In this installment, I’ll look at another key tactic companies can use to ensure that their providers are developing apps that can provide an optimal user experience.

Find a Provider That Makes Creative and Development a Unified Process

In many Nearshore app development projects, companies will engage an outside user experience (UX) designer to define the usability and design components of their apps. It’s always beneficial to bring in a proven resource that genuinely understands user interaction, and can effectively use this knowledge to bring the development team …

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By Filipe Pacheco

After months of promises and expectations, President Dilma Rousseff anounced yesterday in Brasília a series of measures designed to boost certain segments of Brazilian industry, including the IT services sector.

The new project, Plano Brasil Maior, or Bigger Brazil Plan, proposes policies that could make Brazilian IT companies more cost-competitive globally and boost exports of Brazilian software and services.

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Enzo Micali  (who recently left Harris Interactive) explains what has drawn him to Latin America

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