IT Consultancy Neoris Grows in Brazil, Colombia, IDC Study Says
June 22nd, 2011MIAMI — Neoris announced today that IDC has ranked the company among Latin America’s top IT consultancies based on aggregate revenue, growth and market share for 2010, led by a strong showing in Colombia and Brazil. According to IDC’s Latin America Semiannual IT Services Tracker 2010, Neoris retained the number two spot for the sixth year in a row in IT Consulting, outperforming more than 150 other IDC-ranked companies and improving on its ranking in several countries in the region.
IDC’s Latin America Semiannual IT Services Tracker 2010 provides vendors with complete market statistics, trends, and forecasts covering 12 services markets. IDC examines and analyzes the top 154 service providers’ performance in revenue, growth, and market share in Latin America.
Neoris is ranked the largest IT Consulting and Systems Integration firm in Mexico, one of Latin America’s biggest markets, for the seventh year in a row. In Colombia, …
While the Colombian offshore contact center outsourcing market has not lived up to its billing, the Peruvian market picked up the slack and has grown impressively in the last two years. Spanish companies, which were the biggest offshore revenue contributors to both countries, have increasingly set up operations in Peru to provide offshore services to Europe and other Latin American countries. In 2010, Spanish companies accounted for 70 percent of Peru’s offshore contact center outsourcing revenues and only 41 percent of Colombia’s.
The Peruvian market is expected to grow faster than other nations within the region, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.9 percent from 2009 to 2015, compared to Colombia’s 12.4 percent. Similarly, offshore revenues accounted for only 18 percent and 43.7 percent of Colombia’s and Peru’s revenue pie, respectively.
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Colombian and Peruvian Contact Center Outsourcing Services Markets 2010, …
Koombea founder Jonathan Tarud helps create a new image for Colombia
By Patrick Haller
While the world may be waking up to Colombia’s commercial dynamism, the country itself seems to finally be coming to grips with its potential as a source for IT innovation. From Barranquilla to Medellin to Bogota, there are increasing expectations that Colombia is fertile ground for startups – especially in software product development. The government is poised to ease restrictions on software products and trade groups are focused on raising quality standards in an overriding effort to put Colombia on the map as a credible tech player. [Our top four picks among the new generation of Colombia IT innovators appears below.]
By Dennis Barker
Santiago Pinzón Galán would like to invite you to visit Colombia. And if you are someone who is afraid of visiting Colombia, he would like to invite you in particular.
Pinzón is executive director of ANDI, the Asociación Nacional de Empresarios de Colombia, a national business association that works to “expand and promote economic, social and political principles within a free enterprise system.
From a Nearshore perspective, part of ANDI’s role is to represent member firms before international companies and prospective clients. It’s the oldest business association in the country, and it represents 1,500 companies, or “thirty percent of the nation’s GDP,” Pinzón says.
Outsourcing in Latin America: Are We There Yet?
March 9th, 2011
The view on Argentina: The government has to get serious on incentives.
A LatAm-specific dive into A.T. Kearney’s 2011 Global Services Location Index
By Rodrigo Slelatt
Talk of Latin America emerging as a key offshoring location has grown significantly in the last few years. Multinationals and top outsourcing providers have set up delivery centers there, and countries in the region are making significant efforts to attract offshoring-related investment. Despite the efforts, the question remains as to how soon Latin America will become recognized as an established outsourcing region.
Latin America’s proximity to the U.S. consumer market has certainly served it well as a services hub. With a growing Spanish-speaking population in the United States and English proficiency rising in Latin America, customer service activities will naturally increase. But the region is aiming higher – just like India and the Philippines did over a decade ago. Latin America wants to become a global player in the BPO and ITO space. And for that it takes more than just language skills and proximity.
Convergys Lands in Colombia; Sets Up New Call Center in Bogotá
February 15th, 2011Convergys Corporation (NYSE: CVG), a global leader in relationship management, announces its expansion into Colombia with a state-of-the-art contact center that will provide top quality customer care services for leading corporations in the Americas. The new facility in Bogotá will bolster Convergys’ presence in Latin America, where the company already has offices and contact center facilities in Brazil, Mexico, and Costa Rica.
Known as the “Athens of South America” because of the number of top-notch colleges and universities located in the city, Bogotá impressed Convergys with its large bilingual talent pool and advanced telecommunications and transportation infrastructure. Choosing the location for its latest foray into Latin America, Convergys has outfitted a facility located in one of Bogotá’s top commercial areas with the latest tools in contact center technology. Convergys is hiring for all levels of talent, including management, support staff and skilled contact center agents to …
Exclusive: HP Expansion in Medellin Boosts Colombia as Services Hub
February 14th, 2011Andrew Lewis, Senior Strategic Locations Manager, discusses HP’s plans for its newest Nearshore captive
EAFIT University: HP's temporary location in Medellin
By Dennis Barker
HP has never been known as a company that makes quick and rash decisions. It’s the organization that in 1976 rejected a proposal by a junior employee named Steve Wozniak to build and market the microcomputer he’d designed. The Woz went on to engineer the ubiquitous Apple II, and it would be 1980 before Hewlett-Packard would announce a PC.
So, when HP decides to build a global services hub in Medellin, Colombia, that ought to tell us a little something about HP, and a lot about Medellin. The company has had a significant presence in Colombia for many years, mainly running call center and sales-support work in Bogota. But the new center in Medellin represents a bigger investment in the country and the Nearshore region, and it sends the message that the talent and infrastructure to serve global clientele is here.
Will Colombia Join the OECD? President Santos Wants In to Elite LatAm Club with Chile and Mexico
February 10th, 2011Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos recently submitted his country’s application to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In an e-mail interview, Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, discussed the prospect of Colombia’s OECD membership.
WPR: What are the benefits and responsibilities of OECD membership?
Michael Shifter: The OECD is a privileged club: In Latin America, only Chile and Mexico are currently members. Membership is a measure of a certain level of economic development and a commitment to sound policies and good-governance practices. OECD members are expected to make important policy decisions in accordance with the highest standards and to coordinate economic approaches among themselves. Membership is symbolically significant and conveys a strong message to the world that serious institutional-reform efforts are underway.
WPR: What is the likelihood that Colombia will gain membership?
Shifter: Though it is hard to know with any certainty, …
Senator Says US Must Ratify Free Trade With Panama and Colombia, or Risk Losing More Jobs
February 9th, 2011The top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said failure to ratify free-trade accords with key allies Panama and Colombia would further cede market share to countries including China, costing U.S. jobs.
In a letter to congressional colleagues, Senator Richard Lugar said the U.S. is losing its place as the “preferred and logical trading partner” for South America. Canada, which signed its own free trade accord with Colombia last year, could soon replace the U.S. as the country’s main supplier of wheat and machinery, the Indiana Republican added. Unilateral trade preferences for Colombia expire this month.
“The FTAs are increasingly considered by Panamanians and Colombians as a crucible in the bilateral relationships,” Lugar said in the letter dated Feb. 8, which followed a trip by a staff member to both countries. “They serve as a symbolic litmus test …
Latin America Startups: How Three Sourcing Entrepreneurs Crossed the Chasm
January 27th, 2011
Cesar Gon of Ci&T: “We had to be profitable or we wouldn’t survive"
By Tarun George
Ever since our Red Hot Startups contest last year, Nearshore Americas has kept a close eye on the gradual increase of tech innovation coming out of Latin America. Unlike Silicon Valley – where angel investors, tech talent and other vital ingredients to nurture startups are abundantly available - Latin America is not widely known as a paradise for tech entrepreneurs. (Just ask Oscar Arias who recently condemned the region for failing to stimulate an entrepreneurial environment.)
But there is no doubt that there are lots of success stories about company founders finding the courage and capital to turn their vision into reality. We selected three founders of IT/call center outsourcing firms – in Argentina, Colombia and Brazil – to find out how they crossed the infamous ‘chasm’ between failure and prosperity.
