Nearshore’s 2012 Outlook: Time for Industry to ‘Stand on Its Own’
January 18th, 2012
By Patrick Haller
With 2012 in full-swing, a critical look at what lies ahead for Nearshoring is in order. With a shaky global economy, and some forecasts calling for a sluggish year in IT and BPO sourcing, this is no time to be complacent. Whether it’s building solid skill sets, creating sufficient scale, matching client’s expectations, managing expansion, or doing business amidst social change and myopic political theater, providers have a lot to confront. We tapped some of the leading experts in the Nearshoring space for their answer to the burning question: What is the single biggest challenge you think the Nearshore outsourcing industry faces in 2012?
Half of Outsourcing Customers Won’t Depend on Current IT Outsourcers to Manage Private Cloud
December 12th, 2011By Bob Scheier
IT outsourcing (ITO) vendors provide everything from application development and testing to remote management of customers’ data centers. As those customers adopt cloud computing (highly virtualized compute, storage and network capacity provided over the Internet) ITO vendors face both strategic threats and opportunities, according to a survey of 489 business executives conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) this spring.
New cloud competitors include IAAS (infrastructure as a service) vendors such as Rackspace, who sell server, network and storage capacity on an “as needed” basis, as well as vendors such as Dell and HP looking to move beyond product sales to higher-margin services.
Mexico Climbs to Sixth Place in Global Outsourcing Ranking
December 7th, 2011Mexico recently rose five spots to become the sixth-ranked country worldwide in A.T. Kearney’s 2011 Global Services Location Index, boosted by depreciation in its currency and “increased nearshoring sentiment in the United States.” Now the highest-ranked Latin American country in the index, wages in Mexico fell 18 percent in dollar terms last year “as it was buffeted by economic headwinds from the United States,” according to A.T. Kearney’s summary of the index.
Hybrid Cloud Starts to Change the Economics of IT Outsourcing
November 10th, 2011Many vendors still have ” significant gaps in cloud delivery platforms and skillsets”
By Dan Berthiaume
Infrastructure delivery based on the cloud has the potential to deliver enterprise-level value and flexibility that could lead to disruptive adoption by IT outsourcing customers. By improving utilization and eliminating excess capacity, Everest Group is among several leading industry groups that advise cloud infrastructure models can deliver significant cost efficiencies, particularly “hybrid” models combining the usage of public and private, dedicated clouds.
Inter-American Development Bank Awards Uruguay Loan for Services
October 28th, 2011
IDB launches first loan program targeted at outsourcing services in LatAm
By Patrick Haller
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will provide a loan of ten million dollars, plus three million dollars that will be contributed by the Uruguayan government, in order to foster further development of the nation’s services sector. The IDB office focused on integration and the trade sector in the Southern Cone is based in Montevideo and this helped to promote the regular and fluid interaction between Uruguayan authorities and the IDB representative, and established a permanent dialogue from the very beginning of the loan process.
Capobianco: Exporting is not the same as selling to internal markets
By Patrick Haller
South America is not a single country. Just like in North America, Asia, Africa and other continents, the cultural dynamics and considerations vary from nation to nation, and within the different regions of each country. Javier Peña Capobianco, General Secretary for the Asociación Latinoamericana de Exportadores de Servicios (ALES), and a lecturer on the subject of International Trade in Services at the Catholic University of Uruguay, helped explain some of the misperceptions and the rise of Latin American countries on the global stage.
Nearshore Americas’ IT and BPO Conference Nearshore Nexus Reveals All-Star Speaker Lineup
December 16th, 2010NEW YORK, Dec 16, 2010 — Nearshore Americas, the premier online source for professional outsourced services decision-makers, has announced an all-star speaker lineup at its Nearshore Nexus Conference, the first executive-level conference dedicated to the rapidly expanding Nearshore business services industry. Nearshore Nexus, taking place April 26, 2011, features Johnson & Johnson, Axis Capital, J. Walter Thompson, Capgemini and other top industry luminaries presenting valuable insights and practical use cases on nearshoring success.
Go to Nearshore Nexus Now to Register. April 26, 2011 at the Jersey City, Hyatt. Qualifying buy-side attendees are invited to attend free of charge.
Nearshore Nexus is the first event in the global outsourcing ecosystem, created to bring together senior technologists, CIOs, global sourcing decision makers, country representatives and select sponsors to explore the “New Axis of Outsourcing.” General session …
Outsourcing Study: What do European Firms Look For in an ITO Partner?
November 27th, 2010Coventry, United Kingdom– IT Sourcing Europe, a UK-based nearshore IT Outsourcing (ITO) market research and advisory firm, announced today the completion of its All-EuropeanITO research 2010. The research was conducted between April and November 2010 and aimed to explore the major trends, challenges and problem solving among the European companies outsourcing their software development (SD) function offshore (at least 2 time zones away from thehomeland), nearshore (no more than 2 time zones away) and/or within own country. As a result, 1,557 companies from eight countries – United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Sweden – took part in IT Sourcing Europe’s study.
The study results show obvious similarities and differences in theways how outsourcing companies from different countries behave in terms of outsourcing destination and vendor selection processes.
According to the study findings, low cost of software development …
ACS Seals IT Services Contract Extension with Hallmark
June 1st, 2010DALLAS, Jun 01, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. (ACS), A Xerox Company /quotes/comstock/13*!xrx/quotes/nls/xrx (XRX 9.20, -0.11, -1.18%) , recently signed a five-year extension of its information technology (IT) agreement to provide infrastructure services to Hallmark Cards, the privately held personal expressions and greeting card giant, celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Financial details of the contract were not disclosed.
As part of the contract extension, ACS will continue to provide information technology infrastructure and associated support for Hallmark’s global operations including:
– …
Google and EA Want Bold and Brave IT Outsourcing Partners
May 14th, 2010By Dennis Barker
“Outsourcing demands input from the right side of the brain. Partners have to fit in culturally, socially, and generationally” – says Jamie McClellan, CIO at JWT, third from left. Speakers at last night’s Times Square “IT Innovations” Conference included (l to r): Mihai Pohontu, VP, Development Services, Electronic Arts; Martin Migoya, CEO at Globant; McClellan, Guilbert Englebienne, CTO at Globant, Patrick Chanezon, Client and Cloud Advocacy Manager at Google; Kevin West, VP of Operations at PRNewswire and Kirk Laughlin, Founder/ Editorial Director at Nearshore Americas.
NEW YORK CITY – IT outsourcing service providers that want to work with major tech companies had better, in the immortal words of James Brown, “get up, get into it, and get involved.”
Representatives from several leading-edge sourcing buyers made it clear at a panel discussion here at the NASDAQ Building in Times Square last night that they’re looking for providers who aren’t just skilled developers but who also know how to engage as real partners in a project. Taking orders and typing code won’t be enough. Oh, and playing video games can also be important.
Risky Behavior Encouraged
Representatives from Google, Electronic Arts, global adverting giant JWT, and PR Newswire—all of them technology talent scouts—emphasized that above all they are looking for people who are innovative.
