Europe’s Economic Woes Push Spain’s Everis Deeper into the Americas
November 30th, 2011By Luke Bujarski
Patricia García of Everis Chile
The gloomy economic situation in Europe has not stopped Spain’s Everis from turning obstacles into opportunities, both overseas as well as on the European continent. However, with clear operational and cultural ties to Latin America, Nearshore Americas predicts that this IT consulting and services giant will be making big strategic moves to expand its regional presence here, particularly as it finds the path of least resistance in serving markets in Mexico, Brazil and the US from its Chilean center. We sat down with Patricia García, General Managing Partner with Everis Chile to understand how a Spanish-born player is scaling up, despite Europe’s mounting economic turmoil.
Price War Looming for Guatemala’s Bilingual BPO Market?
September 30th, 2011By Luke Bujarski
“More English, more English, and more English,” exclaimed VP Kapil Rajvanshi from 24/7 Customer during a presentation at this week’s Global Services Summit in Guatemala City. The market here is indeed showing some concerning signs of overheating, as we quickly discovered during talks with the heads of Guatemala’s six BPO families. While saturation and wage inflation is nothing new in Central America, what has Guatemala’s BPO Commission president Herman Lopez deeply worried is the prospect of a race-to-the-bottom price war between the very people put in charge of coordinating a sustainable strategy for the country’s booming BPO cluster.
Region’s Evolution Beats Skepticism
June 13th, 2011
By Eric Hochstein
A few years ago, when I heard people talking about Latin America as an emerging location for call centers and outsourcing delivery operations for companies in the United States, I was extremely skeptical.
At that time, I was working for a Canadian provincial government trying to attract investment to Canada. Central and South American alternatives were rarely considered by companies considering Canada. Sure, the exchange rate between the U.S. and Canada favored the U.S. then (now, the dollars are at par), and there were major concerns about the quality and capabilities of Latin American workforces.
I believed that Latin America had great potential for Spanish-speaking contact centers, perhaps to respond to the expanding needs of the U.S. Hispanic market, but I doubted there was enough bilingual and English-language talent to meet the needs for those types of agents …
Capgemini Eyes Energy, Growth Markets to Ride Urbanization
May 20th, 2011Capgemini SA (CAP) will weigh acquisitions in countries such as Mexico, Turkey, and Russia as it aims to gain from urbanization in the world’s fastest-growing economies.
Those countries may follow current priority China in efforts by Europe’s largest computer-services company to expand in emerging markets, Deputy General Manager Paul Spence said in an interview. Paris-based Capgemini is also expanding in fields such as energy and water management that will be important to fast-urbanizing regions, he said.
“Mexico is very interesting for us, everybody thinks that Turkey will be an important role for us going forward and we don’t have any presence at all, and our energy- and consumer- product clients absolutely want us in Russia,” Spence said. “If we could do one major geography and make it material per year, I’d be quite happy with that.”
Information technology suppliers are looking to new markets and technologies as competition intensifies in …
CB Richard Ellis research director Victor Lopez-Beltran sees interest spiking in Central America
By Robert L. Scheier
Victor Lopez-Beltran is director of Latin America Research for CB Richard Ellis based in Mexico City. Nearshore Americas spoke with Victor recently about real estate, nearshoring trends and the best BPO bargains in the Americas.
Attrition in Indian BPOs Rises to 55%, Study Finds; Cites Competition from Mexico, Canada
April 15th, 2011Attrition rate in Indian BPOs has increased to 55 percent in the last four months mainly due to erratic working hours and perceived lack of long-term career growth in the sector, an industry chamber study has said.
During December 2010-April 2011, the attrition rate in the business process outsourcing (BPOs) has increased to 55 per cent from about 40 per cent in the same period previous year, Assocham study said.
“Although the BPO sector has been popular since the beginning as it has opened up plenty of job opportunities, the high attrition rate has plagued the sector now,” Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat.
Besides, the industry is facing serious challenges like shortage of skilled and educated workers, the study said.
Services offered by the IT/ITes and BPO in the domains of pharmaceuticals and financial services have registered an attrition rate of 60 per cent; in retail and IT sectors …
BPO Certifications to Soon Be Available in Spanish, Other Languages
March 23rd, 2011As more and more Latin American BPO companies enjoy outsourcing opportunities, BPO certifications will soon be available in Spanish. The Human Competence Examination Board of the BPO Certification Institute, Inc. (BCI), after more than a year of intense multi-level debates, finally gave the go ahead to the idea of making BCI certifications available in Spanish, French, Chinese & Arabic languages in the second half of 2011.
Needless to say, with this decision, BCI certifications will now cover nearly 70% of the world’s domestic outsourcing services markets that do not necessarily speak English and converse in the vernaculars based on Spanish, French, Chinese or Arabic. The entire South America and indeed most parts of North America converses in various derivatives of Spanish. BCI’s Spanish-medium certifications, which are expected to hit the marquee in the second quarter of 2011, will provide a powerful impetus to Latin American …
Source: Press Trust of India
BANGALORE — The country’s leading software exporter Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Monday said it has an “optimistic” outlook on demand for outsourcing in the next fiscal year as the “demand pipeline is looking good.”
“What I see on the ground is the spend is increasing and 2011-12 will be a better year for the industry… better for growth,” TCS Chief Executive Officer N Chandrasekaran said in Bangalore.
“Demand is quite robust” and the company is seeing opportunities in banking, financial services, retail, manufacturing, high tech, overall across the board. The type of deals are either related to driving efficiency or driving growth or compliance, he said.
“From the industry point of view the situation we have today compared to the situation we had last year is much much better. Last year, people were not expecting significant growth, people were not really expecting for demand to pick …
India’s Intelenet Global Services Lands in Guatemala
February 23rd, 2011Blackstone-backed Intelenet Global Services is expanding into Guatemala to provide nearshore business process outsourcing to North American clients, the Indian company says.
The new operation will provide multi-lingual support in English, French, and Spanish.
“Guatemala has emerged as an important BPO destination as the local population has a very good understanding of the American culture and the country has an abundance of English-speaking people. It offers a strong blend of multi-lingual skill sets, talent, and a favorable business climate, making it an ideal location to service clients in America,” said Susir Kumar, Managing Director and CEO of Intelenet.
Intelenet delivers business process outsourcing services to Fortune 500 companies in 36 facilities in the UK, United States, Australia, Philippines, Mauritius, Poland and India in industries in a variety of industries, growing from a handful of employees to more than 32,000 …
BPO Market Shows Powerful Rebound in Brazil and Mexico
February 23rd, 2011Expect the growing U.S. recovery to drive a rebound in business process outsourcing, says a new report on the BPO market.
The economic crisis forced many major U.S. outsourcing projects into a holding pattern as companies canceled or delayed decisions. With global growth back, the BPO market is set to exceed $930 billion by 2015, according to Global Industry Analysts in San Jose, Calif.
The fastest growth will be in emerging markets, including Brazil, Russia, India. and China. Latin America, particularly BPO providers in Mexico, will be well positioned thanks to culture and language skills, the report said.
In addition, new emphasis will be placed on “non-voice,” higher value services, such as finance and accounting, business intelligence, and customer relationship management. Utilities and healthcare are likely to lead the rebound, outpacing government and financial services, according to the report.
Management consultancy A.T. Kearney recently raised Mexico on its Global Services Location Index five slots …
