Evolving a Nearshore BPO Model To Handle ‘Disruption’

The nearshore outsourcing sector’s traditional cost savings over US, Canadian and Western European options and Latin America’s cultural affinity for the US continue to provide incentives to outsource, but a changing business environment offers nearshore players the opportunity to leverage additional potential value sources for clients. Alsbridge Managing Director Bill Huber outlines how automation and SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) are creating new opportunities for nearshore providers.

In this second in our Nearshore Café podcast series, Huber explains the needed changes for nearshore providers to really capitalize on the evolving environment, highlighting the need to invest in specific industry domain expertise, while still ensuring that they deliver on their core strengths.

An industry or company that remains complacent will find itself increasingly at risk because of the disruptive models that are emerging across sectors, Huber said. Latin America’s significant advantages in terms of softer skills allow nearshore providers to offer greater opportunities to improve customer stickiness.

Automation will increasingly allow nearshore destinations to compete with traditionally cheaper locations such as Asia, but widespread adoption of automation has not yet matured in Latin America. For Huber, the next 24 months will see significant shifts in approaches to and perspectives on automation, and companies that successfully leverage these tools while remaining true to their core strengths are likely to benefit.