By Patrick Haller

At the beginning of December, a group of 34 Colombian software designers, mobile app developers and gaming designers participated in an exploratory tour to Silicon Valley – meeting with executives at Google, Facebook, Pixar, Apple and Cisco.

The trip – which was organized by Proexport Colombia – featured several key takeaways, including alternative business management and process approaches, leading-edge ways to market and sell software and the need for Colombians to worry less about certifications and focus more on serving core business needs.

This was the second such trip of its kind (a smaller one was held in May 2010). “At the end the feeling was that they (the US companies) could work with the Colombian firms and enter the market. The experience was very inspiring,” reported a representative from Proexport.

Understand What Matters

The main takeaways from the event included understanding the way that firms in Silicon Valley structure their business models, the importance of risk taking and reducing the widely held fear of failure and the need to focus on the business opportunities in the US. Peter Darling, Vice President of US Market Center (US-MAC), stressed the importance of Colombian firms having a presence in Silicon Valley, understanding the needs of US clients and responding to them quickly.

Cross-collaborating between US and Colombian companies was a key theme. Proexport will be organizing a trip for representatives of US firms to visit Colombia so they can see firsthand the type of software services and development being done in cities like Bogota, Barranquilla, Cartagena and Medellin.

“We Latins tend to “beat around the bush… We take a longer time to close business. In the US it is straight to the point” – Jorge Enrique Umana, an executive with Azuan

Opening Doors

Gustavo de la Vega, CEO of Proactive Consulting – soon to be rebranded as Nativapps – a developer of cross-platform apps, benefited from the access to people and companies that individuals would not normally be able to meet. “Now we are developing four or five business leads. This event is really important to get awareness in the US about what Colombian companies can do,” he said. With a development center of 80 engineers in Cartagena, Proactive Consulting established an office in San Jose, California under the Nativapps brand to help forge direct connections with US clients. Having been part of the first trip to Silicon Valley, de la Vega used this opportunity to consolidate his relationships with US contacts and the market. Currently he travels to the Valley two or three times annually, but given the success he has had, that will change to monthly in 2012.

de la Vega observed that in Silicon Valley, a startup can begin in a garage or basement with no funding and concentrate solely on developing the product before formalizing the structure or thinking about an office and attracting investment. He also noted the “union between artists and geeks” which fosters creativity and innovation, especially in design. Perhaps most importantly he saw how important it is to create apps and software with a simple user interface and usability.

One of the main challenges that is seen across Colombian industry is the lack of understanding of effective marketing. While Proactive Consulting has quality products that can compete in the US market, according the de la Vega, the company has a deficient comprehension of how to market them. “That is the key more than technology – marketing and understanding the US market because it works differently from the Colombian market,” he said. “In the US every one wants to pay with a credit card, download the software and use it. In Latin America they expect you to send an engineer to show them how to use it. The software needs to be so simple so that you don’t need guides to use it.”

Culturally, Colombians tend to believe that they must obtain degrees and certifications  in order to be taken seriously. This is a point of contention for de la Vega, “If you check the big companies like Facebook and Google they are not trying to get certifications – they are focused on the business. In Colombia they think if they get a lot of certifications they will be better, but you need to create the product in order to get better.” However, certification is definitely required if a company is developing security products or doing business with the government, he stated.

English language skills continue to be a challenge in Colombian industry, including technology. Having recognized this, Proactive Consulting contracted an institution with American teachers to train its staff in Cartagena.

Get to the Point and Innovate

Jorge Enrique Umana, Business Director of Azuan, a software developer, noticed that the ways of conducting business in the US are very different from Latin America. “We Latins tend to “beat around the bush,”” he said, “We take a longer time to close business. In the US it is straight to the point.” He believes that Colombians will have to adapt this approach if they hope to successfully conduct business with the US and Europe.

Umana echoed de la Vega’s concern that English language proficiency is not up to par, but observed that the Colombian government is trying to address the issue. While the technology infrastructure received a lot of attention from the federal government, with 50% of the population enjoying Internet access and a national push to make it available to all citizens, Colombia is still far behind the US when it comes to e-commerce and e-banking, Umana said. Physical infrastructure, such as roads and transportation, also has to improve within the country. Due to the devastation caused by an unprecedented rainy season, most of the funds are being spent on repair as opposed to improvement.

The university system, Umana observed, doesn’t prepare students for the real world so that it takes longer than it should for a new graduate to adjust to the work environment. “We have to change that approach,” he declared, “We (Azuan) are connecting with students in order to gain as much time as we can with them. We are trying to bring the company much closer to the universities and create research groups within the universities.” By doing so students are encouraged to be creative and innovative while still at university, which gives them a solid base for entering the job market.

Learn From the Best

With production operations based in Bogota, and sales offices in Panama, Mexico, Brazil, China and Colombia, Brash 3D is one of the biggest companies to have had representation in Silicon Valley. Luis Martinez, CEO of the stereoscopic production company, echoed de la Vega’s appreciation for the fact that Proexport opened doors that would have been inaccessible otherwise. This being his first trip to the Valley, Martinez was very happy to get an up close view of how companies like Facebook and Google operate.

He realized how important it is to be really close to the biggest companies in the industry in order to learn from them and work with them. “For example,” he said, “I learned a different model of managing employees from Pixar. We usually check the quality one time a week but at Pixar they do it every two days. This way they are managing the process and always controlling the production pipeline.” Another thing that struck Martinez was how these large firms provide everything to meet employee needs, such as food, beverages, dry cleaning, fitness facilities, doctors and even gum. This allows the programmers to be more productive, so much so that many of them don’t have time to take advantage of all the benefits. “In Colombia no one would work,” commented Martinez, but seeing what is available inspired some ideas as to how his own company can improve productivity.

In addition to curiosity, Brash 3D’s products also generated interest from potential investors, and collaborators. “One guy was interested in seeing if they can do production in Colombia and send it to the US,” said Martinez. “We had a positive reaction from really important people when they saw the product, like the 3D ads we are doing for movies,” reported Martinez, “They asked a lot of questions at Pixar.” Overall, Martinez believes that the US attendees did not expect the quality of the Colombian tech products and were surprised at what was presented to them.

Obtaining a visa to visit the US for Colombians can normally be difficult at best, but it was streamlined for the participants given that this was an official mission sponsored by a Colombian governmental agency. In the first quarter of 2012 Proexport will open registration for the next mission to Silicon Valley  and there are hopes that in addition to a new group, the 24 companies who participated in this round will attend again.

By Patrick Haller

San Andres, Colombia is a top vacation spot for Colombians and foreigners from around the world. Long-known for its relaxed vibe, coral reefs, snorkeling and similarities to Jamaica (including a vibrant Rasta culture and worshipful love of Bob Marley), it is perhaps one of the last places one would think of to open a contact center. Yet, that is exactly what Barranquilla, Colombia-based Transcom did a year ago.

So, what happens when the high-demands of a 21st century call center are put on the shoulders of a culture that is more familiar with sandals and sunshine than service-levels and client “sat”?

Although English is the first language for the majority of the native population, the creole accent sounds like a sharper version of their Jamaican ancestors, which can make comprehension a bit  challenging.  Despite the fact that the national vocational training institute, SENA, has established call center training and English classes there, and a new $27 million dollar fiber-optic cable connects the island to mainland Colombia, the 22 square mile island of under 100,000 residents, San Andres is very much in a class by itself as it warms up as a niche destination in Latin America outsourcing.

Transcom started a pilot program wherein they hired people from San Andres to work in their Barranquilla office but they soon realized that there was an untapped opportunity on the island and decided to open a center there. The company took a risk and retrofitted existing office space into a 110-seat call center operation to service a transportation client in the US and Canada.

Since the population is dependent mainly on the tourism trade, which is affected many factors such as economics, island-wide illness and perceived security issues, the unemployment rate on San Andres is higher than in mainland Colombia. But this fact didn’t make the recruitment process, or establishment of a new work culture, any easier. Since the center operates 22 hours non-stop, one of the main challenges Transcom encountered was finding people to work the 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. shift. Or to start the day at 4:30 a.m.

Alone on the Island

“We have the only call center on the island, so we are implementing a new culture,” says Lelio Sotomonte, CEO of Transcom. Prospective agents are attracted to the regular employment, fair pay, a career track and a comfortable work environment. The agents also have the chance to interact with other cultures and to improve their English. “I wouldn’t say it was difficult, but we had to make them understand what a call center is,” Sotomonte recounts. San Andres boasts a population of about 60,000 residents and to the surprise of many, sits far closer to Nicaragua’s east coast than it does to Colombia. (Territorial disputes continue today in fact between the two countries regarding Caribbean possessions.)

Instead of just hiring anyone they could, Transcom was –and is– selective about the people they consider. Chief among the qualifications they look for are computer skills, a good work ethic and strong English capabilities. The company currently employs 90 people on San Andres, with the intention of filling all 110 seats. Instead of casting a wide net, Transcom now relies mostly on referrals from existing employees for qualified candidates. Initially, Transcom sent supervisors from their Barranquilla operation to San Andres for four months to help get the operation up and running, and to identify which agents had what it takes to be a good supervisor. Now, all supervisors are chosen from the existing agent’s pool and overall retention is good, according to Sotomonte.

Sotomonte reports that Transcom is considering testing out collections and sales service in order to gauge if the staff can manage multiple campaigns, and eventually add more customers.

Although Sotomonte is optimistic that San Andres can support other small-level call centers, Transcom is the only one currently operating there and investing time, energy and money in order to make their venture a success.

Nearshore Americas made repeated attempts to contact the correct person in charge of the call center training at SENA but there appeared to be some internal confusion as to who that was. Therefore, we are unable to report on the program specifics at this time.

Top industry advisor Tony Mataya talks about inflation, service quality and why we’re still in the early days of industry evolution.

By Luke Bujarski

Affordable infrastructure, low wages, big labor pool, and a strong work culture were all good reasons why satellite television provider DirecTV (DTV) chose Cali, Colombia as its newest Pan-American contact center hub. That’s what Site Director Fabian Saavedra shared with us during an interview earlier this week. According to Saavedra, their decision to go with Cali in 2008 has proved decisive to DTV’s success in Latin America, which currently dominates the subscription TV market across Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Puerto Rico.

But with over two million customers and hockey stick forecasts, Saavedra’s 1,400-agent Cali team is being stretched to its limits. Thankfully for DTV and other contact center operators in the region, there is plenty of Spanish-speaking talent to go around.

Cali is situated in what’s known as the Cauca Valley (la valle) where, according to investment promotion group Invest Pacific, the flat geography makes it ideal and cheap to build both edifices and new infrastructure. “Our second option was to expand in Bogota, but with real estate in Cali at half the price, it proved to make more sense for us,” explained Saavedra. Likewise, the cost of living is 25 percent less in Cali (CPI data) than in her neighbor to the north, where some weary commuters can anticipate travel times in excess of two hours each way.

Quick Stats on Valle del Cauca

- 4.38 million inhabitants (2.34 million labor force)

- 86.4 % urban population

- 15.4 % unemployment

- 26.4 % of budget spent on education (higher than Bogota or Medellin)

- 20K college graduates yearly (Cali only)

- 850 yearly graduates from bilingual high schools (Cali only)

The relatively high level of unemployment in Cali was also a huge opportunity for DTV. “Monthly wages are upwards of $100 cheaper here than in Bogota, and we receive plenty of applications,” remarked Saavedra. However, DTV is not the only company with significant contact center operations there. Local service providers include Ventas y Servicios S.A., Contact Center Americas and Telemark. These firms and a smattering of smaller players employ around 4,200 agents, most of which service Spanish-only markets. Sources indicated that multinational contact center players including Convergys and Atento are also looking at Cali with interest.

80,000 students are currently enrolled in university with over 50 percent focused on either business or technology related career tracks

English Needs Work

DTV Cali has had discussions with their counterparts in the US about the potential for bilingual operations. But with the huge workload coming out of Latin America, this prospect hasn’t gained much traction. Subscription-based services require a high level of client interaction as customers look to upgrade or opt out. According to Saavedra, their Pan-American contact center focuses on four key services critical to keeping all two million of their customers happy: In-bound customer service, client retention, sales, and social media engagement.

Likewise, English speaking agents fetch a high premium in Colombia. DTV has experimented with bilingual services out of Bogota, but resources are slim and can command wages upwards of 70 percent more than Spanish-only agents. Considering Cali’s minimal exposure to international markets, the situation there is probably not much better. Yet, in defense of Cali’s capability in the BPO space, Saavedra insisted that educational programs are well-organized and in place to deliver a formidable workforce of English speakers within two to four years.

What About BPO and IT?

As a systems and software engineer by training, Saavedra also spoke highly of Cali’s potential in technology related services. “We have good universities and a healthy technology ecosystem here.” Indeed, seven out of the nine universities, including Universidad del Valle (UV), are all heavily concentrated in the southernmost zone of the city. In total, 80,000 students are currently enrolled in university with over 50 percent focused on either business or technology related career tracks.

This cluster of colleges is also organized around technology-driven services through a Cali-born initiative called ParqueSoft. As a consortium of over 300 digital art and information technology firms, ParqueSoft hosts a colorful array of startups with names like Techmovin, a software and solutions firm focused on logistics and transportation. Homegrown vendor Carvajal Technology & Services is also said to have an impressive software and applications development center in Cali.

A recent public-private initiative known as BPO City (Ciudad BPO) also speaks in favor of the region’s commitment to growing the sector. This collaboration between the city’s various government bodies, investment promotion agencies, universities, transit authorities, and enterprises has called for measures such as the establishment of a free trade zone for services, additional subsidies for corporate training, college program alignment, and others.

The True Test is Yet to Come

Cali might be considered a late entry for those actively tracking LatAm’s global services marketplace. Nevertheless, it appears to have all of the right elements to see continued growth in the sector, particularly in servicing Spanish-speaking clientele. Saavedra is certainly bullish on the region and has pushed Cali’s labor pool and infrastructure to successfully support a demanding and quickly growing international operation like DTV.

However, Cali’s ability to transcend cultures and language barriers has yet to be seriously challenged by a major bilingual operation. As Colombia continues to attract the attention of big multinationals, Cali will most likely be put to the test sooner rather than later.

Capgemini’s Steve Rudderham on why media has to be more proactive telling the real Latin America story.

Genpact will operate out of the popular FT zone "Zona Franca'

By Patrick Haller

After scouring Latin America for a new hub, the global BPO company Genpact has decided that  Bogota is where its future lies.  Citing an impressive improvement in security, political stability and a high-quality talent pool, Genpact announced yesterday  at a special press conference in Bogota, that it is in the process of building-out 750 square meters in one of the city’s Zona Franca facilities. With a long-term vision that anticipates the hiring of up to 1,500 employees (95% of whom will be Colombian) and an investment of up to $10 million over the next three to five years, Genpact is angling to plant its footprint solidly on the Latin American landscape.

Although it already has a presence in Mexico and Guatemala, the company has determined that Colombia is a country where it is easy to implement this type of investment, especially where Human Resources are concerned.

Genpact has earned a reputation as pioneers in the BPO sector in countries such as China, India, Poland, Hungary and Mexico, and in Colombia it has found all the ingredients that are conducive to growing a strong business. This discovery is due, in part, to the work and dedication of Colombia’s Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade (MCIT), ProExport Colombia and Invest in Bogota. “It is always hard [being pioneers] but it has been easier here. We have gotten greater support from them than anywhere else in the world. They are first class,” said Pramod Bhasin, Genpact Vice Chairman, referring to the Colombian agencies. He continued, “Colombia offers a favorable business climate for Genpact and for our clients; a rich talent pool with a high literacy rate and complementary skill sets. Genpact is honored to establish its roots here in Colombia and become part of its culture and its thriving business community.”

ProExport has been working with Genpact since 2008 when a representative in its India office approached the BPO provider with the idea of exploring Colombia

The company is currently recruiting up to 100 employees to launch its 200 seat center by January or February 2012. First it will offer Finance and Accounting (F&A) service as well as procurement and supply chain BPO to North American clients, then add business development staff to secure Latin American clients. The Bogota location will also act as Genpact’s hub for its Smart Decision Services business, which encompasses analytics, reengineering and risk management services. Genpact’s investment is part of the Productive Transformation Program that the Colombian federal government has been developing to promote the outsourcing services sector as one the 12 economic sectors that are considered “pillars of industrial policy.” According to the MCIT, Colombia aims to create 72,700 new business process management services jobs by 2014, which will bring the total to 142,280. It also seeks to increase exports from $200 million to $1.1 billion during the same period.

ProExport has been working with Genpact since 2008 when a representative in its India office approached the BPO provider with the idea of exploring Colombia. “We are convinced that this decision not only confirms the confidence that foreign investors have in the country,” said President of ProExport, Maria Claudia Lacouture, “but the great potential of the business process management sector.” Genpact’s investment, Lacouture explained, is not so much one of capital, but one into Human Resources, allowing Colombia to show a different capability than what the world may be accustomed to.

Gartner has determined that Colombia is one of the main countries in which to locate BPO services. “The welcoming of Genpact to Colombia will be an important milestone of third-party outsourcing for Colombia,” stated Lacouture. Bogota is a center for BPO providers that accounts for 55,000 employees. Some of the elements that have fostered this growth are the 94,000 annual university graduates, 50% of whom are engineers. “The industry has been developed,” said Adriana Suarez, Executive Director of Invest in Bogota, “there are more than 16 companies in Colombia: IBM, DirectTV, Indra, Everest. IBM has a sales center in Bogota, Convergys has 1,000 employees here. Genpact gives a very high aggregated value.” Teleperformance has also established a strong presence in Bogota.

The Genpact deal was the first joint effort between ProExport and Invest in Bogota, agencies that have traditionally pursued separate opportunities. The success of this venture could signal a turning point in their approach to doing business, one that has been a long time coming. “This cluster is very important for Colombia,” declared Juan Carlos Garavito, General Manager, MCIT, “from now to 2014 we expect to create 70,000 more employment opportunities.” Bhasin stressed that Genpact is committed to providing such opportunities, and said that when Genpact enters a market a large percentage of the industry will also establish operations there. “I hope we can be a catalyst for investment into Bogota. This supports our strategy for Latin America,” he explained, “Our aim is to build a local technical, reengineering, BPO business to serve Latin American clients.”

Bhasin went on to say that the developed world is going through turmoil today, and industry is turning to emerging markets as safe havens. Taking a local approach wherein local employees respond to local (regional) clients, enables Genpact to train the employees –a process which can take up to three months– and introduce other opportunities to that market. “We hope to provide high-end services such as analytics and advanced modeling to Latin America from Colombia,” Bhasin said. Over the next two years Genpact will explore other Colombian cities such as Medellin and Barranquilla to determine where it would be most advantageous to open additional offices.

Genpact’s entry into Colombia is fortuitous, as Rodrigo Chávez, Sector Manager Latin America & Caribbean Region at the World Bank announced today that Colombia is the best prepared country in Latin America in which to withstand another global economic recession.

Barreto: Go global over local

By Dan Berthiaume

An increasing number of innovative global IT companies are launching in Latin America using a hybrid model where some employees and resources are located in Latin America and some are located in the US. Serial entrepreneur and Colombian native Andres Barreto, who at 24 has already launched three successful global technology firms, knows first-hand about the benefits the hybrid model offers.

Barreto began his career as an entrepreneur during his freshman year at the University of Florida. Frustrated by the difficulty of finding legal avenues to download music, especially Colombian music, he co-launched the successful global music download service Grooveshark. Although Grooveshark was launched completely inside the US in Gainesville, FL, the experience got Barreto thinking about possible ventures involving Latin America.

From Nowhere to Somewhere 

The next step was to explore what could be done in Latin America, which has comparable benefits to Gainesville, which is in middle of nowhere, explains Barreto. “It was cheap to live in Gainesville and grow a team of 80 people from Gainesville, compared to growing a team of 80 people in New York or Silicon Valley. I started to imagine what could be done in Latin America with the low cost, available talent and access to information, which is not as great as some other places but certainly adequate.”

So Barreto developed a team of Latin American journalists and bloggers and spent two years interviewing entrepreneurs and investors. From these efforts he developed pulsosocial.com, which Barreto describes as a “Latin American version of TechCrunch or Mashable. We report and promote entrepreneurship, as well as run events.”

During the last two years, Barreto says the entire entrepreneurial IT culture in Latin America has grown tremendously.

Bringing the Americas Together

Barreto’s third tech start-up, OnSwipe, makes full use of the hybrid model that brings North America and Latin America together. The digital publishing and advertising platform for touch screen devices such as iPads was originally developed by teams working in Guadalajara and Mexico City, Mexico and Bogota, Colombia. Although now based in New York, OnSwipe still has IT employees based in Mexico. Content publishers get an app-like experience in the browser of a touch device, says Barreto. It offers full-page, printlike advertising that is better than a banner.

Getting Up to Speed

During the last two years, Barreto says the entire entrepreneurial IT culture in Latin America has grown tremendously. “Clusters of 300 or more people meet up to discuss entrepreneurship and a few will launch something,” he says. “The last six to seven months have peaked with software development as Latin American companies are finally launching their own products.”

Barreto cites three examples of hybrid Latin American IT companies he is a fan of:

Welcu, a Chilean event management services provider, Pictour.us, a Honduran developer of a digital travel booklet service which has 500 developers based in New York City, and Ovia.me, a firm based in both Guadalajara and Silicon Valley which allows companies to interview multiple job applicants simultaneously via video.

The Future Is Bright

Barreto is confident that during the next five years, Latin America is in a solid position for IT innovation and outsourcing. He says several shops are getting big and getting US clients, and that US investors are putting money into Latin American start-up funds.

They are creating actual products beyond microsites and aggregation, Barreto states. An engineer gets experience (working on a North American outsourcing project) and can then start their own company. Outsourcing is very useful in terms of developing talent. Latin America is getting way more competitive with outsourcing firms in Asia.

The biggest challenge to firms looking to launch Latin American IT ventures? Barreto says they often don’t think big enough. “It’s counterintuitive to launch globally,” he concludes. “It seems easier to launch in the local market, expand in Latin America and then in the US, but that is not the easiest, cheapest or fastest method. It’s actually easier to launch globally.”

Hurtado will add 1,200 more agents by the end of the year.

By Patrick Haller

Successfully implementing bilingual operations in Colombia has remained the biggest challenge for Teleperformance since  acquiring  locally-grown Teledatos last year. However, the provider doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon. With  more than 2,500 employees in Bogota, Teleperformance appears to have arrived at the right place at the right time by expanding both domestic and international business channels. To find out what’s next, we checked in with Juan Rodrigo Hurtado, President of Teleperformance Colombia, who formerly ran the Teledatos operation.

Teleperformance Colombia has a healthy respect for competitors such as Atento, Allus, Contact Center Americas who also serve the Colombian market, and Convergys and Sitel who attend global clients from Bogota. But they are determined to maintain their place as having the biggest global footprint. One way they do this is by training employees in the cultural dynamics of a given country, which isn’t always easy, as was the case when they had some difficulty imprinting the Spanish culture onto the Colombian call center operations.

Client Focused

Hurtado points out that one of their strong suits is the way they develop people. Additionally, they have established very strong relationships with their clients from a variety of industries like transportation, healthcare, telecommunications, pension funds, finance, manufacturing and retail. “One of Teleperformance’s main strengths is in business development,” says Hurtado, “this is an area where we are quite experienced and know a lot about the sectors we attend. We know the local market, and we have global sales force that is a dream team.” In Colombia, their top-tier client roster includes includes Avianca Airlines, Compania Nacional de Chocolates and the pension administrator Porvenir. They count Orange and Vodafone (with 3,500 employees dedicated to them) amongst their global customers.

The operator has added 1,000 full time employees over the last year to service customers from Spain, bringing the total to 2,500, and this market segment is seeing a great deal of growth. Teleperformance Colombia’s third target market is new and unexpected: they aim to have 1,200 dedicated employees to serve the English and Spanish speaking populations of the US by the end of 2011.

“Transforming Passion into Excellence” is not only a slogan, it is a corporate philosophy that extends from the executives, to the supervisors and the agents. It is the fuel that their call centers run on. Hurtado explained, “Basically that is the philosophy of the corporation; we start from the idea that passion is essential. The corporate philosophy is to achieve excellence and to count with people who are impassioned.”

Since Teleperformance acquired  Teledatos in 2010, Hurtado has been at the helm of the call center giant’s Colombian operations, and reported that they have had a very successful integration over the last eighteen months. Although the roles of “supervising and maintaining an organization that has an equilibrium between client satisfaction and employee satisfaction” are very similar in the two companies, one of the reasons Hurtado has found being head of Teleperformance Colombia to be a very satisfactory experience is “because it has allowed me to learn about a world class organization from a local perspective, which was not there before.”

On finding English-speaking talent: “It’s a new market so it is never exactly easy, but we have filtered the labor market and have found niches where we have found those resources” – Juan Rodrigo Hurtado

Meeting Standards

During the transition, Hurtado concentrated on qualitative and quantitative improvements by adopting the best methods on a global level, absorbing the best resources in Colombia and maximizing their potential. “The important thing was to adapt high level standards to achieve world class performance. By December 2011 we will be practicing, at 100%, the highest standards at a global level throughout the entire company.” Teleperformance Colombia also recruited staff from Mexico, Spain, the Philippines and Germany. The international mix is an important ingredient to Teleperformance’s success. “We are a multicultural company and that has made us a world class operator,” explained Hurtado.

On the qualitative side of the equation, the company has achieved great international knowledge, and on the quantitative side, they have seen growth in the Dominican Republic, Spain, and the North American market (Canada and the US). “Before we had offshore and domestic clients, now we have added Nearshore which is distinctly different,”  Hurtado said.

For contact centers serving Anglo populations, English language skills are a continual concern. As this is a new area for Teleperformance Colombia, they are ramping up slowly. “It’s a new market so it is never exactly easy, but we have filtered the labor market and have found niches where we have found those resources,” Hurtado said, “It is quite viable to find bilingual labor in Colombia. For now we feel very comfortable in being able to achieve 2012 expectations.” Currently they have 500 full time bi-lingual agents working on the platform and, as mentioned earlier, plan to have 1,200 by December 2011.

Retention levels have also been favorable in the Colombian facility, but in Spain the levels have been slightly lower because, says Hurtado, it is a sales operation and employees rotate more in that environment. Although the Nearshore is a developing market for them, they are seeing retention levels similar to the local Colombian market.

“We have noticed that the new generations need help in developing a feeling of belonging, and we need to make sure they have a commitment to social and environmental issues.” To accomplish this, Teleperformance created two programs; “Citizens of the World” where employees participate in global level courses and “Citizens of the Planet” which gives employees the chance to plant a tree every year. Together, these initiatives give employees a sense of belonging and connection to their community and environment. Additionally, they can participate in the annual dance, singing and artistic competitions which bring finalists from around the world together in one city, such as Sao Paolo, to meet, mingle and compete. “It is also very important that they have career goals so they know they can grow within the organization. We try to inculcate that Teleperformance Colombia is a place where you can work and grow; that is what generates retention.”

Contrary to the experience of other international call center operators, Teleperformance Colombia has not had any problems with finding space. Perhaps this is due to the fact that they have taken over the old Avianca Airlines building, which is situated on the site of a new development project on the way to El Dorado International Airport. As of September 2011, when the first stage of development ends, 2,200 workstations will be installed, with another 1,200 stations expected to be in place by 2012. Hurtado predicts that the facility will be the most advanced, state of the art contact center operation in Latin America.

Teleperformance has 268 contact centers in 50 countries, including South American operations in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Colombia, and Central American locations in Costa Rica and El Salvador.

Source: TMCnet

Call-center outsourcing provider Sitel has appointed Raul Navarro as general manager for South America. In his new position, Navarro holds the responsibility for operational delivery as well as human resources and financial functions as they relate to the business of Sitel in Colombia, Chile and Brazil. Navarro will report directly to Don Berryman, general manager of Sitel Americas.

The decision to appoint Navarro was part of the new growth strategies implemented by the call center outsourcing provider in the Americas region as a result of strong growth in 2011, and the push towards continuously improving the company at every level in the important South American market.

“Raul brings to the team a wealth of knowledge and experience of growing and selling BPO business operations in the US and South America,” Berryman said. “We are excited to leverage his in-depth understanding of the BPO business.”

Navarro brings to Sitel over 20 years of senior management experience in BPO, which includes experience in consumer products, product management, executive sales, and marketing management. Prior to joining Sitel, Navarro was working with Atento as U.S. managing director and Teleperformance (News – Alert), where he was senior vice president with Teleperformance Internacional.

“My short-medium term objectives are to work with the regional Human Resources team in order to establish Sitel as a place where employees can prosper and advance organizationally,” Navarro commented in a statement.

Navarro will also work towards consolidating the credibility of Sitel’s call center outsourcing business with both the U.S. and global clients. Eventually, he aims to make Sitel an operational call center outsourcing leader throughout the region by transitioning from a product-based organization to a solutions-based approach to business. Additionally, Navarro will support growth within Sitel’s global network and ‘in country’ clients through the implementation of best practices and client-centric operations.

“I will also try to take advantage of the current boom period that is prevailing throughout the region but in particular, in the Brazilian and Colombian markets, and of course, deliver profitability and corporate value to the Company,” Navarro concluded.

Recently, Sitel talked about plans to expand to Belgrade, Serbia, in order to solidify its nearshore offering to the country. The call center outsourcing provider has plans to open a state-of-the-art customer care contact center in the Serbian capital.