By Patrick Haller

At the beginning of December, a group of 34 Colombian software designers, mobile app developers and gaming designers participated in an exploratory tour to Silicon Valley – meeting with executives at Google, Facebook, Pixar, Apple and Cisco.

The trip – which was organized by Proexport Colombia – featured several key takeaways, including alternative business management and process approaches, leading-edge ways to market and sell software and the need for Colombians to worry less about certifications and focus more on serving core business needs.

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By Dennis Barker

In the big international competition with India and other low-cost outsourcing destinations, some Nearshore IT providers have been taking their game to the next level (apologies for the sports cliche) by adopting agile software-development methods. And one of the keys to helping teams become skilled agile players is to hire or train good coaches – leaders who are certified scrum masters.

(Scrum is defined by the Scrum Alliance as “an agile framework for completing complex projects.” The term was adapted from rugby – hence the sports cliche – in a 1986 study by Takeuchi and Nonaka that alluded to a team trying to “go the distance as a unit, passing the ball back and forth.”)

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Stefanini responds to increasing demand from large enterprises seeking globalization of IT services 

Stefanini TechTeam ( www.techteam.com ), a global provider of onshore and nearshore IT consulting, integration and development, and outsourcing services, today announced the expansion of its presence in China, adding new service delivery capabilities that address the needs of a growing base of global clients.

The latest step in its continued global expansion, this move is aimed at tapping into the demand for Stefanini TechTeam’s services in China, where the company is already supporting some of the world’s largest global manufacturers.

Over the next three years, Stefanini is expected to invest $3 million in China as part of this expansion, with plans to grow and train a team of 1,000 employees in the region, working out of offices in Shanghai and the northern Chinese city of Jilin.

The additional staff resources – together with the support of existing …

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Guest Post by Steve Mezak 

In the past few weeks, I’ve been watching online discussions around software development trends. Some of it seems like hype: cloud computing takes over the world; mobile phones and tablets (and mobile apps) take over the world. There is some truth about these trends to be sure, but another trend seems more serious. IT departments and companies developing software continue to report a shortage of programming talent in the U.S. capable of using these new technologies and platforms.

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In my last blog post, I looked at some of the reasons why mobile apps have emerged as the next frontier in Nearshore, and are only likely to grow as a dominant market driver in the years to come. One of the reasons I point to is IT consumerization, the trend of information technology gaining adoption with consumers, who in turn bring these devices or software to the business.

In this post, I’d like to delve deeper into this trend, and talk through some of the reasons why I believe it will continue to reshape the IT landscape – and, by extension, the Nearshore market – for the foreseeable future.

At its heart, the concept of IT consumerization means just what it sounds like: consumer devices making their way into IT environments. But the reasons for this – and their implications for Nearshore – bear further exploration.

Certainly one of the …

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Ever wonder what really distinguishes nearshore from offshore?

By Chris Snyder

I like to imagine an IT vendor selling the first screwdriver. “It can also replace the hammer, if you use the head of the screwdriver to hit the head of a nail. You also won’t need a knife for butter anymore because it will replace that as well. Crow bar… gone. Car keys… a thing of the past. A screwdriver will replace them all and you can finally standardize on one platform (the screwdriver) and reduce costs across the toolbox.”

The “right tool” approach to the organizational structure of an agile software development project mitigates cost by using arbitrage to achieve lower costs, while minimizing risks from misuse of resources – like using the screwdriver when you really need a hammer.

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Part II: “Diversify or Die” – is part of code of survival for startups in Costa Rica

By Patrick Haller

In Part II of a series, we take a deeper look at the  startup culture of Costa Rica. Despite bureaucratic hurdles and limited access to capital, there are numerous success stories here.  Getting up and running often requires that firms diversify their services base and figure out a way to become profitable from the start. We talked to four services firms – that managed to thrive in a less-than-nurturing environment.

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Totvs helps get up to $170K in  hands of small-medium businesses

By Filipe Pacheco

Brazil’s key interest rate, determined by the Monetary Policy Committee, is among one of the highest in the world. Popularly known as “taxa Selic,” today it is set at 11.5% a year – but in reality the interest rate paid by business customers can rise much higher than that.

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The investment climate is slowly improving for Mexican IT startups, but is still nowhere near as conducive as in the US. Mexico needs investors who can offer management advice as well as money, and who are comfortable with the risks involved in true “venture” capital. Entrepreneurs must understand they need to deliver results before they start drawing big paychecks.

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By Fernando Labastida

If you are a software developer or managed IT services provider entering the US market, stop talking about CMMI, agile, scrum, lean, .NET, Java, SharePoint, SAP, or any other technical or methodological buzzword.

To really prepare for the US market, to make sure you increase your chances of success, you’ve got to stop talking about the products or services you sell. Instead, talk about the problems you solve. Talk about your story, and how that fits in with your potential customer’s needs, wants and worldview. And talk about how you’re different from all the other CMMI, agile, Microsoft certified, or SAP/Oracle/IBM partners and developers out there.

Buyers and decision-makers don’t care about all the facts and figures you’ll throw at them (well, they do after they decide they like you – they use it to justify a decision they’ve …

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