Nearshore Americas: Sourcing in Real Time

Nearshore Americas – the only media website dedicated to independent reporting on outsourcing in the Americas. We are foremost a resource for North American corporate buyers evaluating Nearshore sourcing options.

As a longtime business editor and also someone who ran a multi-million dollar unit at a major media company, I have an acute understanding of the need to maintain a competitive edge. Does outsourcing immediately make you more competitive? Absolutely not.
But smart sourcing – where specific functions are identified as non-core and suitable for outside support – has delivered immense value for strategic, forward-thinking corporations of all sizes.
I put “real time” in the headline above for a very simple reason. Customer after customer has told me that the time zone alignment among Western Hemisphere countries tends to provide big advantages when both partners recognize the on-demand benefits of real-time collaboration. That means highly trained MBAs working in lock-step with your teams; it means easily reaching key leadership at your call center, software development or FAO partner; it means knowing you’ll get answers in real time so you can make decisions with more speed and confidence.

The Nearshore community deserves more visibility and Nearshore Americas is an important partner in raising that visibility.

Our reporting, blogs and commentary will hit on four prime targets:

• Substance not superficiality. Anyone who has spent more than 15 minutes researching Nearshore outsourcing knows that physical proximity, cultural familiarity and similar time zones are its most attractive features.  These qualities alone do not automatically translate to high quality service delivery. Our site is dedicated to looking at how these and other factors lead to success. Our goal is to get beyond window dressing and show exactly how customer requirements are met; where delivery gaps exist and what both providers and customers need to do better.
• Voices of those who are using Nearshore services now. We know how much business leaders respect their peers and we will be speaking with them often – getting candid customer views on developing services relationships in Latin America, the Caribbean and Canada.
• Country specific reports and context. The average C-level executive in North America doesn’t typically know detailed information about the business conditions, telecom infrastructure, wage requirements, geopolitical risk and the numbers of trained, professional knowledge workers in the 21 countries of Latin America and our friendly Nearshore neighbor to the north, Canada. We’re hoping to play a small part in improving on that level of knowledge.
• Voices of providers and country representatives. Establishing trust is one of the most essential elements of developing a productive relationship with an outsourcing provider. We will explore what providers have to offer from a strategic direction and how their knowledge of specific industries can help in delivering high value services to clients.

But perhaps what’s even more important than the list above is service to you – the reader. Your input and participation is essential. The Nearshore community deserves more visibility and Nearshore Americas is an important partner in raising that visibility. We look forward to an exciting ride – so sign up for our newsletter, visit often and tell us what we can do better. We are in a service business too!
– Kirk Laughlin Founder & Editorial Director