By Michael Blankman
In my recent article, we concluded that the most important aspect of managing remotely is building a strong and trusting relationship. Creating a partnership that doesn’t rely solely on the contract for the outsourcer to get performance security. The partnership is critical because once operations are outsourced, real influence over daily management will and should be limited, or why outsource at all? The partnership needs to be based on respecting each other’s expertise, ensuring roles and responsibilities are clearly defined and that the underlying business model justifying the decision to outsource is protected.
By Kevin Church
Latin America has received lots of buzz in recent years as a preferred location for shared services operations. An educated and affordable labor pool, business friendly climate, and the necessary infrastructure all make Nearshoring a very attractive option. At the same time, companies establishing new shared services centers have migrated directly to process-centric structures to maximize the benefits of their service-delivery model. One such process model, Purchase-to-Pay (P2P), can provide significant benefits to organizations if an integrated process is established and the appropriate technology is in place to support it. As such, the collaborative workforce and the high rate of technology adoption in Latin America make it an extremely attractive market for P2P solutions.
By Luke Bujarski
Distinguishing between domestic and export driven business is becoming increasingly important to vendors operating in LatAm. How are Brazilian banks outsourcing their back office? Why is Mexico’s manufacturing industry rebounding and what technology solutions are producers looking for? Is Colombia’s telecoms market the next big opportunity? Likewise, multinational enterprises will be looking for those service providers best suited to support their specific industry, as they invest in these oft complex markets.
By Kenneth Hess
No one wants for a relationship to fail but sometimes you have to quit on one that isn’t working. How do you know when to say, “When?”
Relationships are difficult. Band members have creative differences, teammates have ego problems and marriage partners have irreconcilable differences. Likewise, vendors and clients in business-to-business relationships experience all of the pains of band members, teammates and marriage partners. Maintaining a positive relationship is challenging when everything goes well but adding in technological differences, language barriers and time zone disparities has the effect of widening the gap between client and vendor.
New Survey Claims US Clients Prefer Farshore to Nearshore
April 10th, 2012By Robert L. Scheier
A recent study out of Duke University shows that American companies still prefer India, China and the Philippines to the Latin American Nearshore for IT infrastructure and application development and maintenance (ADM). The percentage of finance and accounting work done in Latin America rose from 10 percent in 2009 to 16 percent in 2011, with application development and maintenance (ADM) work rising from seven to 12 percent in the same period, according to the International Offshoring Research Network Project at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business.
By Heather Littlejohns
Companies seeking to locate new outsourced or shared services centers to offshore or near shore locations typically focus their exploration on factors such as price, local government support and incentives, cultural affinity with the target market, unemployment rates, labor pool, language skills, etc. But are companies really taking the necessary time to explore, assess and discuss their own points of differentiation as they are perceived by the local population?
Customers Make Clear that Outsourcing is About Adding Value
April 4th, 2012
By Robert L. Scheier
As the global economy improves, customers are looking to outsourcers to not only save money, but to drive growth, improve quality and drive innovation.
Those were among the key themes from two days prowling the corridors and break-outs at the Sourcing Interest Group (SIG) spring summit. Speaker after speaker, whether the topic was procurement, category management or macroeconomic trends, described how their employers are trying to use outsourcers not “just” to save money but to make a more strategic contribution.
By Luke Bujarski
The next-generation of outsourcers could soon be relocating to a place most of us only hear about after the news of some high-profile tax scandal hits the morning papers. With only 55,000 inhabitants, it doesn’t take long to realize that the Cayman Islands will never be Latin America’s BPO workhorse. Yet, this has not stopped real estate group Cayman City Enterprise from working with the local authority to build out a 50-acre business park catering to, among other niche industries, outsourced services firms.
When Managing Remotely, Relationship Is The Key
March 23rd, 2012
By Michael Blankman
Decisions to outsource critical functions are never easy and there is a lot of internal inertia to overcome, but it is often hard to ignore the numbers. Outsourced relationships will always require a substantial remote management component. Successful remote management is not possible if the relationship isn’t sound. It is the difference between a glossy presentation and the real world.
The Real Reasons Why it is So Hard to Find IT Talent in Brazil
March 20th, 2012
By Filipe Pacheco
The lack of qualified professionals is usually cited as one of the main pain points for IT employers in Brazil – especially foreign players arriving to the country eager to exploit the country’s expansive domestic market. As a direct consequence, competition for talent is intensifying and employers are becoming more savvy around the methods they use to attract and keep talent.
