Sitel Q&A Part 1: Nicaragua Labor Unions in the Pro-Labor World of Daniel Ortega
December 22nd, 2010
Sitel's Vance: "A lot of Ortega’s former colleagues when he was in power under the Sandinistas are now adopters of capitalism and free-market enterprise"
By Tarun George
Nicaragua is attracting intense attention as a sourcing target because of its complete lack of labor union activity in the call center space. BPO players like Sitel have been merrily expanding in the country, having opened their third center in Managua in late November to service the US market.
Nearshore Americas caught up with Mel Vance, Sitel’s Senior VP – Central America, to find out why labor unions are not visible and whether the concerns of many US firms’ over President Daniel Ortega are justified.
Kannan Q&A: New US Visa Laws Will Not Affect Indian Outsourcers
December 9th, 2010
Kannan: "We always hear a lot of noise every time the economy takes a nosedive"
24/7 Customer CEO on Indian sourcing backlash, and plans for expansion of the new Nicaragua delivery center
“The way this is getting framed is that India is the root cause for the economic recession and is somehow being blamed for America’s 20-year credit party. What is actually going on is an abundance of highly intellectual labor no longer constrained by borders.”
That was a comment made to the Washington Post in early November by PV Kannan, CEO of 24/7 Customer. We caught up with him last week to ask what the visa law backlash looks like in the US. Kannan explains how the Indian players are remaining profitable by simply adjusting their delivery models, and also about 24/7’s plans to expand in Nicaragua.
Wikileaks on Nicaragua: Ortega Financed by Chavez Drug Money?
December 7th, 2010Serious accusations of Sandinista corruption, alleged campaign donations from drug traffickers and worrisome anti-democratic tendencies by President Daniel Ortega are the focus of a series of newly leaked WikiLeak cables published Monday in Spanish daily El País.
The leaked U.S. State Department cables, allegedly written by U.S. ambassadors in 2006, 2008 and 2010, detail the worrisome decline of democracy in Nicaragua under President Ortega, who is described in the missives as a power-hungry, unscrupulous and unstable leader.
But ultimately, the cables might prove to be more embarrassing to the U.S. government than to Ortega, who’s already heard it all before.
“Daniel is too thick-skinned to be affected by this; he’s been around politics for too long,” said Francisco Aguirre, opposition lawmaker and former Nicaraguan Ambassador to Washington, D.C. “Ortega has got to be thinking, is this the worst you can do?”
It might …
Sitel Lands in Nicaragua: New Delivery Center Ready By 2011
November 22nd, 2010Sitel, a leading global business process outsourcing (BPO) provider, today announced that it is opening an additional call center in Managua, Nicaragua to serve English and Spanish-speaking U.S. consumers. The 21,000-square foot facility adds more than 450 seats to Sitel’s established agent base in Nicaragua and will bring its total employee count in that country to nearly 3,000. The facility will be ready for occupancy in December 2010 and Sitel expects the center to receive its first call in Q1 2011.
Sitel first entered Nicaragua in 2008 to provide customer and tech support for Fortune 1,000 companies in wireless, consumer electronics, media services, banking and other financial product lines.
“Latin America, and Nicaragua in particular, has really come into its own as a call center hot spot due to the region’s unique ability to offer culturally aligned, multilingual …
Central America Needs a Strong and Unified Voice
October 20th, 2010How is Central America going to compete on the global outsourcing stage with Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe or rising China? PRONicaragua is teaming up with several country promotion groups to build a united front. Javier Chamorro, Executive Director of PRONicaragua, explains. (During a recent New York City conference in connection with the United Nations on poverty reduction.)
What’s Behind the Sudden Departure of Stream CEO Scott Murray?
August 20th, 2010
Was it Scott Murray’s brash and hard-charging style that led to his sudden departure as top boss at Stream Global Services this week? We may never know the real answer, but there are plenty of surprised looks on the faces of those who work at Stream or do business with the global call center and CRM giant, based outside of Boston. The announcement went out early today that Murray is being replaced by Kathryn Marinello, the former CEO at Ceridian, a major payroll and HR outsourcing firm.
Murray is certainly not leaving under a cloud like Mark Hurd did during his sudden resignation at HP just a few weeks ago, but the news does come as somewhat of a shock for an executive who returned to Stream to command a growth-first strategy that seemed to directly reflect the aggressive style of Murray himself. There are two clues that lead us to believe that Murray was removed – rather than him leaving by choice.
Nicaragua Becomes Site of Second Facility for 24/7 in Latin America
August 3rd, 2010
Nicaragua, Monday, August 2, 2010: 24/7 Customer, the global leader in predictive interaction solutions, announced the launch of its contact center in Managua, Nicaragua. The company set up its tenth center world-wide, to deliver voice based inbound customer support service. Located in Accedo Technology Park, it currently employs nearly 150 people with plans to ramp up to 1000 people in the next 12-18 months.
P V Kannan, Co-founder and CEO of 24/7 Customer Inc said: “The opening of the new delivery center in Managua is an integral part of our global expansion plan and emphasizes our focus in the ‘Americas’ (Latin & Central America). Nicaragua as a country has displayed great potential to be the next preferred outsourcing destination in the contact center industry. We are amongst the first to set up operations here. The positive response from our clients to this region as a preferred near shore destination has been …
Building a Better Plan to Sustain Nearshoring
July 15th, 2010
"Nearshore destinations must ensure they have a steady supply of human resources to meet demand" Capgemini's Steve Rudderham
By Steve Rudderham
Nearshoring is gaining more interest and higher levels of global respectability among companies looking for long-term sustainable benefits, as they strive to remain competitive in an increasingly crowded global business environment.Offshoring is no longer the only option for companies seeking a highly skilled workforce, with a cost advantage.
Indeed, Gartner finds that interest in Latin America as an outsourcing destination has increased dramatically over the past years, making it the second most-popular region after South Asia. One of the biggest questions facing the Nearshoring community is: What can we do – together – to sustain the momentum?
PRONicaragua Boss Doesn’t Duck Questions on Ortega
July 6th, 2010
Javier Chamorro, the man at the helm of PRONicaragua (and #33 on our Power 50 Ranking) is part of a new generation of Nicaraguans looking to reshape the perceptions of the country to fit the year 2010.
A steady tide of multinational organizations have shown up in Nicaragua over the last few years, with many raving about the quality of the workforce. But the fact that Daniel Ortega is still the man in charge causes many potential investors to stop in the tracks. But, according to Chamorro, Ortega has been a money magnet, drawing billions in investment over the last several years.
Argentina, Guatemala and Nicaragua Show Up as Top “Undiscovered” Sourcing Destinations
April 20th, 2010First of all, let’s be clear: India will remain part of your outsourcing strategy and that is despite increasing complaints about rising costs and diminishing work quality, said Stephanie Moore, former Forrester Outsourcing analyst and chief strategist for UST Global, a global IT outsourcer. The reason? No other nation has the massive skilled labor availability that India has and that is that. But the hunt is on for alternative sites and every outsourcer is trolling for new destinations. The surprise is there are so many new to the game. Where to go beyond India, China, the Philippines, and Brazil ― the obvious ABI locales? There are plenty of choices.
Kenya – “A location with outstanding promise,” said Rahul Singh, a principal of outsourcing advisory firm Pace Harmon. Three new fiber optic cables have gone into Kenya in the past year and, suddenly, …
