In our 7+ years of serving the industry, Nearshore Americas has covered a truckload of breaking news briefs, riveting exclusives, and hot-off-the-press stories to let our valued readers know what’s going on in the industry. For one reason or another, some news stories prove to be more popular than others and help to drive new conversations, sometimes even months after their initial posting date.
Representing a collective view count of more than 100,000, these top 10 news stories represent our most viewed of all time, revealing exactly what it is so engaging about nearshore, most of which are pretty surprising.
10: What Drove GM to Kill Offshoring Contracts and Bring Work Back to Detroit?
General Motors shocked the outsourcing industry with its announcement to radically cut external IT projects back in 2012. The U.S. auto giant talked of reducing its IT outsourcing to just 10% from the 90% it was operating back then.
In our tenth most popular news story of all time, we dissected the reasons behind the move, probing analysts to find out whether it was political, philosophical, or just part of an overarching business plan.
9: As Mexico’s Commercial Real Estate Soars, Second Tier Cities Attract First-Rate Attention
Two years ago, we reported how Mexico’s commercial real estate industry was experiencing a second wave of growth brought about by the creation of investment trusts, significant changes in regulations, competitive land prices, and new business centers across the country.
The first wave of this growth was experienced in 1994 when the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed, so it took nearly 20 years to reignite the sector. Since the real estate bubble burst, global markets have stated to recover gradually, but the Mexican market has shown, at least to the experts, real signs of growth.
8: Infographic: Uruguay Has Lowest Income Inequality in Latin America
As the disparity between rich and poor continued to widen in many developed countries, including the United States, we reported in 2012 that Latin America is one of the few regions on earth where that gap is closing. Uruguay, in particular, had the lowest level of income inequality in the region at that time.
According to our original infographic, more than 50 million Latin American people joined the ranks of the middle class over the last 15 years. By 2011, Latin America and the Caribbean had more people in the middle class than in poverty for the first time in recorded history. How’s that for a “good news” story?
7: Alorica Acquires West Corporation’s Agent Services Businesses
Representing the first acquisition story on the list, Alorica’s scooping up of several of West Corporation’s agent services businesses was a popular read.
In a deal that cost approximately US$275 million, the 2015 acquisition added 1,500 employees to the BPO provider’s roster in the nearshore region alone, strengthening its market foothold significantly, and paving the way for even more acquisitions in Latin America.
6: Xerox the Big Winner in Royal Caribbean’s Move to Guatemala
In 2013, Royal Caribbean moved its British call center to Guatemala as part of a restructuring program. This led to the company wrapping up a partnership deal with Xerox, which is now running all three of its call centers.
Xerox has made a significant mark on the Caribbean BPO industry, particularly in Jamaica, where it’s workforce is combining low attrition rates with high quality ratings, helping it to become the largest employer in the country.
5: HP Abandons Medellin Global Center and Has No One to Blame But Itself
In 2012, Hewlett-Packard made history by opening its US$14 million global services captive in Medellin, Colombia, with plans to employ 1,000 professionals and position the center as the backbone for HP’s regional back-office, HR, and call center operations.
In the summer of 2015, HP dissolved the project, to the utter dismay of staunch supporters in Medellin and Bogota. According to our sources at the time, the decision to open in Medellin was influenced by behind-the-scenes pressure from Condolezza Rice, the former U.S. Secretary of State, even though key HP executives knew it was a bad move. Our readers clearly enjoy a little controversy.
4: Teleperformance Acquires Aegis USA Inc. for $610 million
Another acquisition story hit the top 10 with French BPO giant Teleperformance acquiring Aegis USA Inc (AUI) in 2014, adding to its coffers US$400 million in revenue and over 19,000 full time employees across 16 contact centers in three countries.
Since then, Teleperformance has continued its growth strategy, particularly in the U.S., where it opened a new contact center in Reno last year, and hired 300 more staff for its Boise, Idaho center in April 2016.
3: Monterrey, Mexico’s Most “Americanized City”, Charts a New Path Away from Violence
In 2014, we reported how, despite falling behind Guadalajara in terms of IT and software development, and suffering a wave of drug-related violence from 2008 to 2011, the city of Monterrey established itself as a multi-faceted industrial hub.
Monterrey is Mexico’s wealthiest city in terms of per capita income. It is also considered to be the most “Americanized” city in the country. Even so, while the city’s main focus had been on materials and biotech, Monterrey’s software sector always left much to be desired, but has since been attempting to accelerate its leadership in this market.
2: UN Report: Nicaragua the Second Safest Country in Latin America
Breaking down a 2013 report from the United Nations’ human development agency, UNDP, we found that Nicaragua was ranked as one of the safest countries in the region, which surprised analysts at the time due to its border with Honduras, which was hit hard by drug-related violence.
In 11 out of the 18 countries included in the report, the homicide rate was higher than 10 per 100,000 inhabitants, which the World Health Organization (WHO) considered to be an epidemic. One in every three Latin Americans reported being a victim of a violent crime in 2012, according to the report.
Nicaragua today is home to such outsourcing providers as Sitel, Convergys, Concentrix, and Accedo Technologies, all of which have recently shown little to no concern over U.S. travel warnings surrounding the presidential elections.
1: IBM Wins Vast Cemex Contract
In what was possibly the most dramatic outsourcing win in Latin America outsourcing history, global services giant IBM secured a stunning seven-year IT and BPO contract from Mexico-based multinational Cemex in 2012.
The IBM-Cemex deal was a recording-breaking contract in the realm of Latin America outsourcing, even surpassing the noteworthy acquisition of Unilever’s finance operations by Capgemini in 2008. It’s for this reason that the story broke Nearshore Americas records too, making it the most popular news story of all time.
Do you remember the impact of these stories on the industry? What are your predictions for recent industry news that will top the charts in the future? Let us know in the comments below.
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