We all can agree that a software development project needs a solid and skilled team to be fulfilled successfully. There are multiple types of software development processes. It doesn’t matter whether you need a mobile app or a web application for e-commerce purposes; it’s important to ensure that your requirements are met in the best possible way.
However, it is common for small companies and startups to lack the skills and knowledge required for specific projects. If that’s your case and you are in search of in-house or outsourced professionals, we invite you to read through this blog and apply our tips to the projects you’re currently working on. We hope this will help you how to plan and run your projects in an optimal way and will provide you with the knowledge you need to make the best out of your outsourcing efforts.
In this blog, we will outline for you the software development process and some of the top advantages of hiring a good partner to help you with your software development needs.
Software Development Process
Before outlining the multiple benefits of outsourcing your software development, we thought it would be important for you to learn a bit more about how does a successful software development process look like in order for you to know what services to look for while looking for outside partners.
Concept development
If you are planning to disrupt the market with a new product or an innovative service but are not sure where to start and which strategies to use, the first step you need to take is to develop your concept. Before doing anything, you should build a successful project roadmap by defining your development needs and core functionality and discussing competitors and business KPIs. You can always find a partner to work hand-in-hand to define what success looks like for your business and how to get there.
Prototyping
After you figure your idea out, it is essential to see what it looks like in real life. Here is where the ideation of your product development (aka prototyping) comes in handy. You will need to build a minimum value product so you can see what the final product might look like. Try to stick to your concept idea so you can develop the product that corresponds to your vision.
Engineering
Finding skillful coding experts is crucial for any software development project. Why? Because a good developer will ensure that your product has the same look and feel as designed and has been properly tested on a platform of your choice. Try to find engineers that are in tune with the social, cultural, and business trends that might be valuable to your business needs.
Testing
Don’t rush! After your concept is developed and engineered, we recommend you run a testing period to ensure everything is in order and that your product performs as it should. Be sure to find someone that can run manual and automated tests and check every component of your software to eliminate possible issues. A good QA expert will develop a software testing strategy that will work for your business and bring guaranteed results.
Deployment
Now is the time to launch your software! Try to aim for a full-cycle development of custom software, mobile, and web applications along with strategic consulting and project management. We strongly advise you to implement some automation processes and apply top-shelf UI and UX expertise to guarantee comfortable user interface interactions; this will only help you increase the operational efficiency of your enterprise.
Post Release Support
Keep your software, networks, and platforms running smoothly with a partner that can provide you with efficient maintenance, support, and hosting services.
Advantages of Outsourcing Custom Software Development
Once we have identified the Custom Software Development process, it is important to outline some of the advantages of outsourcing talent to help you with your next custom software development project.
Custom development from scratch
If you find the right partner, they will help you develop software solutions from the ground up. An agile engineering team should be able to pick your project up from the moment you’ve got that brilliant idea in your mind and translate it into a fully functional product. Companies like Intersog won’t just help your company make the digital transformation through custom software development but accompany you along the way from start to finish.
Scalable solutions
We know how volatile the startup world can be, and that is why a flexible outsource workforce solution of highly skilled tech talent is a great option to build solutions that can be easily modified and scaled up whenever you want. By bringing outside talent to your team, you can modify and update your existing project to help you meet new business challenges, so you are always ready to tackle them.
Lean Approach
Companies that successfully choose the right software development partner are more likely to be successful and more likely to be able to adapt to any changes in the marketplace. By building a team that is right for you, you can get the advantage of finding and working with excellent candidates who will enhance your company’s culture, help you focus on improving your business, and help you grow to get new customers and expand the user base.
Plus, by finding the right partner, you can get the advantage of a lean approach that will help you think about the startup process, emphasizing the business model and encouraging a process of customer discovery and development to achieve the right market fit for your products.
Are you ready to look for a solid partner to help you craft a digital enterprise solution tailored to your business needs? If you don’t know where to start, contact us. We live and breathe innovation, helping businesses solve their challenges through the latest trends. No matter the size of the company, we offer a wide variety of custom web application development services. Leverage our extensive expertise to turn your web project into an ultimate lead- and profit-generation machine and take advantage of our software development outsourcing for startup advantage. Let’s ride the tech wave and make great things happen.
A good team is one of the key factors that you need for success, however, finding and hiring the best team for tech companies is not an easy task. From web developers and software engineers to designers, the position that you will be recruiting for are complex processes that require serious knowledge and skills, so you’ll need to be sure that the people you are hiring are up to the task.
On that note, the question of where to find these experts becomes a pressing one, considering the increasing need for engineers in the North American market which relies on a continuous influx of professionals to fill its growing number of job demands. Just in the U.S., the tech sector has seen unprecedented growth in recent years, with four tech firms reaching a $1 trillion market cap by the beginning of 2020 — all of which have seen double-digit growth since achieving a 13-digit valuation pre-pandemic, making demand much higher than supply.
On that note, Latin America is a great place to start looking for talent and start building your nearshore team of remote workers. The LatAm region has become one of the main hubs for tech talent and software development becoming the perfect place to look for engineering talent due to its ever-increasing number of tech graduates and new developers.
Nearshore Vs. Offshore & Onshore
In recent years, outsourcing has become an increasingly common practice for a lot of companies. By doing it right, outsourcing developers can be a fantastic way for businesses to improve efficiencies and increase their company’s bottom line.
When it comes to outsourcing, companies may choose to do it onshore (within their own country), nearshore (to a neighboring country or one in the same time zone), or offshore (to a more distant country). While onshore and offshore are always good options, nearshore brings multiple advantages:
First of all, nearshore it’s cost-effective. Hiring engineering talent to help you with specific tasks will definitely be cheaper than hiring in-house. Depending on where you are based, this could mean saving anywhere from 20% to 70% of your budget.
Secondly, nearshore gives you the advantage of expanding your reach to find top talent. Some projects require strong technical expertise and there’s no reason to limit yourself to your local area. Nearshore allows you access to a pool of tech talents in your region, so you can select the best tech talent for your project.
Lastly, nearshoring with a reliable team will give you peace of mind as your tasks will be handled expertly without you having to worry about the management of the project. This will allow you to spend your time and resources on other key important tasks for your area.
Are you still doubting? Here are 5 reasons for you to start considering a nearshore model for your next IT project.
5 Nearshore Advantages
#1 Extended Talent Pool
It is true that not all countries have great IT specialists, and as stated above, the increasing demand of talented developers is a pressing issue. Well, nearshoring has become one of the best answers to that problem. By adopting a nearshore model, companies can broaden their pool of talent by finding a more capable workforce in other regions.
For instance, Latin America has succeeded to make its mark in the IT field. Latin America is producing big amounts of engineering talent day by day. For example, Mexican universities are nearly producing as many computer sciences graduates as American ones, and outside of education, Mexico and Brazil have a combined workforce of just under three-quarters of a million technology specialists. This makes a good pool of highly qualified and very experienced workers within the reach of companies HR team’s hands. In other words, LATAM is full of attractive candidates to choose from when companies are looking to set up world-class development tech talent networks or to hire individual remote engineering talent.
#2 Shared Time Zone
Most companies that outsource often face logistical challenges when working with firms in different continents, like Asia, due to time zone differences. For example, a recent survey shows that one-third of U.S. companies that outsourced to India considered the 10-hour (or more) time difference to be a big challenge.
On the flip side, nearshore software developers work in a time zone similar to your company. Hiring in a region close enough to your market, enables real-time collaboration at times that work best for all parties to make projects time-efficient and easy to coordinate. In this sense, Latin America represents a great option; while the time difference between America and Asia can exceed 12 hours, the time difference between American companies and countries in South America is usually within 5 hours, which keeps exchanges within the same business day.
#3 Less Cultural and Language Barriers
Communication is key to a project’s success. Therefore, beyond the time difference, nearshoring in countries will foster good communication and enhance your professional relationships due to many cultural similarities. For example, the U.S. is home to more than 41 million native Spanish speakers, plus over 12 million bilingual Spanish speakers, while English is the third most spoken immigrant language in Latin America, with about 5.4 million speakers, compared to the English literacy rate in China that hovers around 1%. This allows American companies nearshoring in Latin America to work easily and efficiently.
Also, the number of consumer and cultural exports from Latinamerican countries to the U.S. helps to build familiarity and solidarity between the two countries, which can only help advance a healthy relationship within the company.
#4 It’s Cost-Effective
Ok, first of all, the money…One of the main reasons American companies turn towards nearshore options for potential hires is lower costs. American tech companies can lower their operational costs by outsourcing their tasks to more affordable candidates in other nearby countries. For example, nearshore outsourcing providers in Latin America and South America boast excellent programmers with hourly rates that are much lower than programmers with the same skills in America. The region costs, although higher on average than countries in Asia and Africa are significantly less than in the Global North, plus the area is within the same time zone and has a relatively similar work culture enabling better collaboration to overall project success.
#5 Similar Laws
Besides the culture and language similarities, hiring a team that is located nearby will most likely provide you with talent more aware of your country’s laws. For example, protecting your intellectual property (IP) is crucial when you are developing any kind of software, however, many IP laws in East European and Asian countries may be less protective than those in nearshore countries, such as Mexico, which has strong IP laws. As a result, you will not land into any legal predicaments that could delay your project’s launch.
If you want to protect your company’s rights while outsourcing, nearshoring is the best option out there as it allows you high control over the law is being applied for your company to be secured.
Why Latin America?
Due to its proximity to the US and Canada and its accessible prices, Latin America has become one of the hottest outsourcing destinations for Northamerican companies. The LATAM region has been changing the perception that outsourcing is risky and is becoming a primal tech provider worldwide, with thriving economies and big pools of competent talents.
Latinamerican nearshore engineers are winning the hearts of American companies and here are a few reasons why:
#1 Language
As crucial as the English language is for American companies, finding foreign partners that are fluent in it might be challenging. However, when it comes to the LatAm region, the numbers might play in your favor. As stated above, nearshoring in countries will allow you to have good communication due to cultural similarities. On that note, the U.S. is home to more than 41 million native Spanish speakers, plus over 12 million bilingual Spanish speakers, while English is the third most spoken immigrant language in South America, with about 5.4 million speakers, compared to the English literacy rate in China that hovers around 1%.
#2 Location
A good location is everything, and being in a timezone that works for the hiring company and enabling real-time collaboration might be the key. But it’s more than geography, Latin America’s stable social environment and its prospects for economic and political development are also decisive factors to become an outsourcing leader.
#3 Working culture
Besides its language and location, the work culture of a country is a crucial factor to become an outsourcing destination. Latin America is full of dedicated and hard-working people ready to meet any company’s expectations.
#4 Young Workforce
A country with a young population ready to pursue a career in tech is as valuable as a gold mine. Latin America is producing big amounts of young engineering talent day by day, making it full of attractive candidates to choose from when companies are looking to set up world-class development tech talent networks or to hire individual remote engineering talent.
From wherever you look at it, nearshore software development can bring your company many advantages such as lower costs, increased efficiency, wider access to specialized skills, resources, and top talent.
Looking towards Latinamerica is a great option for American companies looking for affordable and highly-skilled software developers within the same time zone. Save money without sacrificing on quality, and set yourself up for rapid international expansion without most of the typical struggles associated with it.
Don’t know where to start? Talk to our experts! At Intersog, we have been delivering success across industries for over 15 years, developing web applications customized to each client’s specific requirements by leveraging our extensive expertise and deep technology capabilities.
For some years now (even before Covid-19 hit us, forcing us to adapt to a new reality of working), many companies started following the increasingly common practice of having remote teams. Why? Because remote teams are a great way of cooperating and leveraging skilled specialists. In the case of software development, hiring a remote team of developers and engineers is a great strategy for success.
Now more than ever, companies, big and small, around the globe are leveraging remote work to their advantage by hiring tech talent remotely. Let us tell you why:
It’s Cost-effective: Keeping an office operating is expensive, as simple as that. Without an office, you don’t need to worry about paying rent or any of the necessary services; with a remote team, those expenses no longer fall on your plate. Also, hiring software developers from other countries can be cheaper than hiring within your own country. Depending on where you are based, this could mean saving anywhere from 20% to 70% of your budget.
Top talent at the tip of your fingers: As you might know, some web development projects require strong technical expertise, and there’s no reason to limit yourself to your local area. Hiring remotely allows you access to a pool of tech talents around the world, so you can select the best website developers for your project.
Increased Productivity: Flexibility makes remote workers happier, that’s why working remotely can actually make employees more productive. Working remotely allows your employees to create their own space to concentrate and eliminate distractions. Also, your remote team is free to take more breaks, letting them come back to their work feeling refreshed and therefore making them more efficient and productive.
Now, managing a remote software team is not an easy task and the whole operation of your business depends on its success. Let us give you some tips to succeed and stay on top of your remote management skills.
Tip 1: It’s all about communication
Good communication is crucial in any team, without it hardly any project can be successful. Maintaining excellent communication within your company is even more important. Being located remotely throughout different regions can pose big communication challenges, for example, it can be difficult to schedule meetings and work with people in different time zones. Here are some tips for you to maintain outstanding communication with your whole team, regardless of where they are based:
- Make sure to have an effective schedule, organized workflow, and that your team stays up-to-date with everything. Try to find the best time for team meetings and stick to a solid communication plan.
- Be present at the meetings, we know sometimes remote meetings are hard to attend but pay as much attention as you can and make sure everyone is engaged and focused. It will also help if you make the meetings short and to the point.
- Make the meetings participative – even if everything goes perfectly well, everyone should be ready to participate.
- Build a solid rapport with every team member. You need to communicate with them clearly and make sure that both your in-house team and your remote teams are on the same page.
Tip 2: Take advantage of your tools
If it wasn’t for technology, remote work wouldn’t be possible. Tools and applications haven’t just made our work life easier, but they help our teams be more productive and organized. Using the right management and communication tools will help you efficiently structure your workflow.
Far from helping you organize and manage your team, the right tools can assist you in creating the right work culture and engaging the people in your team.
Here’s are some useful tools for you to use (if you are not using them already):
- Slack for team collaboration. It’s an excellent platform to create various channels and dedicated spaces where your team can collaborate and communicate with each other.
- Zoom for video conferencing. This video-conferencing application can be used to collaborate with your team members; it allows up to 10,000 participants.
- InVision for design and prototyping. InVision centralizes your entire workflow so you can collaborate at every stage of your process.
- GitHub for software development. t’s a free code hosting platform for team collaboration and version control.
- Trello for project management. It allows you to create different boards for various projects and use lists and cards to manage tasks.
- Google Drive for documents and spreadsheet collaboration. Developers frequently use G-Drive to share and store documents on the cloud without having to worry about backup and physical storage.
Tip 3: Build a healthy work culture
Apart from simple tools, there are also other things that keep the remote teams together. Without a traditional in-house working environment (with coffee breaks, conference room meetings, happy hours or lunch), you need to create other spaces and procedures in other to build a good work culture based on shared values and a sense of responsibility.
It’s highly unlikely that if you gather random people from around the globe in a virtual environment, they will immediately start producing outstanding work. To make it happen, you need processes. A process-oriented approach to managing a remote team is crucial for your project.
Remote employees often feel isolated as they work without having direct interaction with their colleagues. We recommend you encourage continuous integration and knowledge sharing, and prioritize communication to allow an agile development methodology with your remote teams. Here are three helpful actions you can apply to your management skills in order to improve a healthy work culture within your team, while improving productivity.
- Avoid micromanagement: Give your employees the freedom to do what they do best, that’s why you hire them. Communicate clearly your project goals and let go of the outcome.
- Focus on long-term goals: Instead of tracking every step of the project, focus on long-term goals to increase productivity. Give your remote workers a problem instead of a solutions, they will be more creative.
- Reduce busywork: Automate everything that can be automated and make sure that your team has fun working working for you. Encourage your workers to find solutions and organize their work on their own, trying to avoid routinary tasks as possible.
Tip 4: Work around Time Zones
If you succeed in not micromanaging, you are already on the other side of good management skills. Good remote developers tend to be independent and self-organized by nature, so they will surely appreciate you giving them freedom to organize their time. However, what happens when your remote software team is located throughout different time zones?
Don’t be scared about different time zones, with good organization and management skills, they won’t become an obstacle, rather an advantage for your projects. If you have a remote in close timezones, overlapping hours when you and your team are available, also known as “golden hours” will be a great asset for your team’s organization. Try to squeeze as many meetings as posible to those times for instant communication.
If your time zones are extremely separated and golden hours are not something you can achieve, then you can use the different working hours to your advantage. If your developers are ahead of your time zone, use this as an opportunity to review their work the same day and immediately assess and coordinate the next steps. On the other hand, if you are ahead of your developers’ area, this gives you the opportunity to prepare everything your team needs in order to complete the tasks.
Tip 5: Reward your team
As a team lead, your developers look up to you, so make sure you continuously provide feedback to your whole team. It’s important that you find the right balance between positive and negative feedback, however be sure to let your good employees know they are doing a great job whenever its necesary. This will not only encourage your team to perform better but it will keep them competitive in terms of individual performance.
Don’t forget to give your team compliments and to explain them what exactly you like about the course of the project. The more you praise your team, the better output you will get from them. Be sure to give constructive feedback and don’t forget to send them small presents to show your appreciation (like t-shirts, mugs, and badges with your company logo on them).
Summing up
If you learn to manage remote teams, you will gain incredible perks. Remember that the quality of work is never determined by a geographical location, and a properly managed team can do wonders for your projects. Don’t be afraid of extending your engineering team with highly skilled global talent. At Intersog we can help you, by providing you a flexible nearshore workforce solution of highly skilled tech talent, tailored to your company’s needs.
The New Normal: Remote Operations
The Covid-19 pandemic barely started 2 years ago, although it feels like there was a whole different world before and after social distancing became a necessity. Now, with the cases dropping and things going back to how they used to be, it’s clear that traditional ways of operating are a thing of the past. Remote became the new normal, and companies around the world had a pleasant surprise: remote operations are not only possible, but they also come with plenty of advantages.
According to Gartner, through 2023, 40% of organizations will blend virtual and physical experiences, leading to increased workforce productivity and customer reach. So let’s get something clear, the workplaces of the future will evolve in response to the pandemic regardless of whether they are service offices or automobile manufacturing plants; a next normal where employees, contractors, business partners, and customers will be remote from each other.
What are “anywhere operations”?
Anywhere operation is an organizational model that allows IT companies to fully operate remotely while supporting customer service, enabling employees, and managing the deployment of products/services from anywhere in the world.
Anywhere operations, also known as “remote operations”, create decentralized models, enabling better business flexibility and access to a broader talent pool. This means that companies can perform at the same scale and with the same effectiveness across a wide range of roles and responsibilities, regardless of their geographic location.
A successful anywhere operations strategy should be people-centric and location-independent. This is possible thanks to cloud technology and a decentralized infrastructure independent of one location, server, firewall, etc. And while it is undoubtedly a functional model for some businesses, it presents limitations for many organizations, especially IT companies. This is where anywhere operations come in to solve the management limitations of work from home. It can be considered as the next step of working from home. The anywhere operations model utilizes new management solutions and a decentralized infrastructure to allow IT companies to be genuinely independent of physical location.
Anywhere Operations Vs Remote Work
Work from home allows companies to continue operations without the need for employees to be at the office. And even if this sounds a lot as the anywhere operations model, this last one goes beyond. Therefore it’s important to fully understand the differences between these two models to successfully implement an anywhere operations strategy.
Even is we might consider remote work as a sub-set of anywhere operations, anywhere operations it’s a larger universe comprising of processes and procedures where technology-driven solutions are crucial to handle a decentralized work infrastructure, grating both employees and customers access to information, regardless of their location.
On that note, anywhere operations allow teams secure remote access that enables them to collaborate and work effectively as if they were on-premises. While remote work is just a mechanism of workers performing their tasks in a remote location, anywhere operations require a full deployment of processes and tools to make employees’ work easier and as collaborative as possible.
Finally, one of the biggest differences between remote operations and remote work is that anywhere operations goes beyond the workforce to embrace customers. While Remote work just focuses on the company’s personnel, anywhere operations also take the customer into play; customers, allowing them to be part of the organization and collaborate with it.
Benefits of Anywhere Operations
Thanks to the constant development of new technologies and software, the world of IT and tech companies advance faster than any other industry. As stated before, Remote is here to stay. According to Forrester the number of remote workers at the end of 2021 was 3x pre-pandemic levels and 74% of professionals expect remote work to become standard.
This presents CTOs with the challenge of staying up to date with new advancements to support the company’s growth while managing the high costs of upgrading and maintaining an IT infrastructure. Anywhere Operations can enhance companies’s performance, by reducing costs of aging hardware, improving employee and customer experience, and giving companies access to a broad talent pool of experts ready to join the team.
Let’s take a closer look at these benefits:
Customer Support
Anywhere operations are not just for employees. It also allows companies to offer better customer experiences. One example of this is customer service.
Providing the best customer service has always been a challenge. Every year the quality standard gets higher, and customers get used to that. If there is no advancement in a company’s customer service, then they get left behind no matter how good the product is.
In fact, 33% of Americans report they will consider switching companies after a single instance of poor service. With that in mind, it’s not difficult to understand why $62 billion are lost annually by U.S. companies due to poor customer service.
Anywhere operations allow companies to solve this issue by giving them the capability to employ workers in different time zones. Thanks to the decentralized infrastructure, workers can collaborate and share information as if they were in an office together and offer quick customer service at any time. Now customers don’t have to wait until the next day to get a solution for their problems.
Collaboration and productivity
The COVID-19 pandemic rushed companies into a work-from-home modality, however many of them didn’t adapt well to this change. Mainly because of remote work tools and because they knew that eventually, they would go back to the office, they thought of work from home as a temporary solution as these tools have limitations.
Well, these limitations can be solved by anywhere operations. This model lets employees access company data and systems at any moment from any device, boosting collaboration and productivity. In addition, anywhere operations empower employees by allowing them to work in their own schedule while achieving the company goals. It’s not surprising that 77% of telecommuters report being more productive than in an office.
Secure remote access
Secure remote access means that people in an organization can access any relevant data from any device at any moment from anywhere in the world with protection protocols against cyber threats. Some examples of cybersecurity strategies that work with anywhere operations are multifactor and password-less authentication, Zero Trust Network Access, and Secure Access Service Edge.
Having secure remote access is a priority for any remote work, and cloud infrastructure is the only way to achieve it.
Disaster recovery
Another thing that secure remote access helps with is disaster recovery (DR). Many external factors can impede a business from running properly. Factors like natural disasters or even the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced many unprepared companies to change into a work-from-home modality, Resulting in disruption of business.
With an anywhere operations model with a proper cloud infrastructure in place, a DR plan becomes simpler. Since physical factors don’t affect and everything is remotely accessible, businesses can continue operating smoothly.
Automation
Another benefit of anywhere operations is that its decentralized cloud infrastructure allows the automation of various processes. Companies worldwide are automating as many processes as possible because they have figured out that employees spend a lot of time on repetitive manual tasks.
These tasks can become frustrating and even lead to human errors. Automation eliminates that factor. A company can automate transactions, approvals, and workflows, among other processes, to free employees from manual tasks that only waste time. In addition, companies are also able to automate product and service deployment. Automation in combination with AI is a great tool to let your employees spend their time solving complex issues instead of doing mundane tasks.
Cost efficiency
Migrating from the current system to a cloud-based, anywhere operations model can seem like an expensive project. However, in the short and long term, it is cost-effective.
What really is expensive is hardware. The costs of upgrading and maintaining an aging IT infrastructure are much more expensive. Now add the fact that as the IT equipment ages, its performance drops considerably. This is due to the fact that software is based on current technology, giving hardware a short lifespan. Since you don’t have to worry about these costs, anywhere operations end up being a lower-cost alternative.
Talent
One of the biggest limitations for businesses that are not using an anywhere operations model is talent acquisition. For a person to be hired, they don’t only need the proper qualifications, but they also need to live in the same city as the office. This fact reduces the talent pool significantly.
While this might sound like a problem work from home solves, it still has limitations compared to anywhere operations. Oftentimes, a work-from-home role still requires that the employee is near the office for many reasons. With anywhere operations, workers should be able to literally be anywhere and still be able to access relevant information for their work.
Companies that apply this strategy successfully have no geographical limitations for hiring. They can focus on building the right team and not worry about relocation or sponsorships. A great way for organizations to handle talent acquisition once they are free of geographical limitations is through nearshore staff augmentation.
At Intersog we help you overcome the tech talent shortage in the tech industry. We provide you a flexible nearshore workforce solution of highly skilled tech talent. We have 16 years of experience extending engineering and development teams with highly skilled global tech talent through nearshore staff augmentation solutions.
Finding and hiring the best web developers is not an easy task; for starters, the whole digital representation of your business depends on the quality of their performance. That is why you need a team of professional web developers who’d be able to create a website or a web application that reflects your vision and brand identity. Software engineering tasks are complex processes that require serious knowledge and skills on the developers’ part, so you’ll need to be sure that the people you hire are up to the task.
On that note, the question of where to find freelance web developers or even full-time web developers becomes a pressing one. Well, Latin America is a great place to start looking for talent and start building your team of remote software engineers.
Advantages of Hiring remote
Simply put, outsourcing is the business practice of contracting with an outside party to take care of certain tasks instead of hiring new employees or assigning them to your existing staff. Outsourcing can be a great means for a company to improve efficiencies and lower web development costs. Let us tell you why:
It’s Cost-effective: Hiring freelance web developers will be cheaper than hiring your own development team. According to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), outsourcing can help companies reduce an average of 15 percent of their costs. Also, outsourcing gives you access to a broader talent pool, so you don’t need to trade quality for the price.
Top talent at the tip of your fingers: As you might know, some web development projects require substantial technical expertise, and there’s no reason to limit yourself to your local area. Web outsourcing allows you access to a pool of tech talents worldwide, so you can select the best website developers for your project.
Focus on your company: Outsourcing with a reliable team will give you peace of mind as your tasks are being handled expertly without worrying about the project’s management. Your role will be centered around giving back feedback and approvals, allowing you to spend your time and resources on key important tasks such as marketing and sales efforts.
When it comes to outsourcing, companies may choose to do it onshore (within their own country), nearshore (to a neighboring country or one in the same time zone), or offshore (to a more distant country). While onshore is always a good option, the best way to outsource web development is nearshore and offshore.
Why outsource developers in LATAM?
Due to its proximity to Northamerica and its accessible prices, Latin America has become one of the favorite outsourcing destinations for US-based companies. The LATAM region has slowly but steadily become one of the primal providers of tech talent worldwide, with its thriving economies, steady political contexts, and big pools of development talents.The number of developers is projected to rise to 28.7 million in 2024, and Latin America is one of the regions that will grow the most regarding programmers and developers, even growing faster than North America.
Here are some reasons why Latinamerica is becoming the new queen bee of web development outsourcing solutions:
Young workforce: The region is full of a young population ready to take on new challenges. Also, young people bring fresh perspectives, enthusiasm, and energy, making them more flexible and creative potential workers. Plus, they are by excellence tech-savvy, and therefore excellent web development candidates.
Proximity: First of all, Latinamerican countries are within (if not in the same) timezones as the US and Canada. This allows real-time collaboration and eases project development and communications. Also, Latinamerican countries share several similarities with the U.S, and the work culture is close enough for companies to feel comfortable working with remote developers within the region. Plus, most students in LatAm learn English from a very early age; English is the third most spoken immigrant language in South America, with about 5.4 million speakers.
Costs: Another advantage of outsourcing Latinamerica development talent is the cost efficiency for American and Canadian companies. The average wage from top talent in the region will vary, but depending on where you are outsourcing your talent from, this could mean saving anywhere from 20% to 70% of your budget.
3 Tips for hiring remote developers in LATAM
Now, there are some things to keep in mind when you begin your quest to find the best remote developer out there in the market. Here are some useful tips we have found useful:
Define Your Web Development Project
Before you even start choosing a remote developer, you need to understand what your project is. Examine your business requirements and understand exactly what you need to develop. First of all, you need to understand what the final product is going to be like and be clear about the goals you want to achieve.
Secondly, it’s important for you to list the required features you need for your development project. It might be hard to put the finger on all the features you want to have in your final product, but you have to at least have a rough outline of what it is going to be like. That way, you will know what kinds of technologies are going to be used in the development process, which is critical for choosing the right talent.
Finally, be sure to plan your budget as thoroughly as possible. How much money are you willing to spend on your development project? Even if prices in Latin America are lower, the cost of developing software might vary, depending on the country.
Choose Carefully Your Potential Vendors
Once you have all of your goals figured out, you can start making up the list of potential vendors for your project. With clear requirements for your project, you will know how to choose the right talent. Here are some things to consider:
Experience: You would not want to trust your project to newbies, and so you should probably look for someone in the region that’s been working in web design and development for years.
Expertise: True, years of experience are not the sole identifier of a great software development partner. You would also want to check out their portfolio to see what kinds of projects they’ve been working on. This will give you a clear picture of what they are capable of.
Reputation: Trust other people. Check out rating websites to see what kind of reputation the vendor has. See what other people say about that developer and their projects.
Location: If you have already decided to hire remotely in Latinamerica, there are a few countries you would want to look at. Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico are great options to start looking for web developers.
Ask the Right Questions
Once you’ve narrowed down your list of possible vendors, you can approach them and start asking the questions. At this point, you need to know exactly what kinds of questions to ask and what kinds of answers you would want to hear. Here’s a list of good questions to ask:
How do you ensure code quality?
A good vendor always has Quality Assurance experts on board. These are the people who run tests and check the software for any possible bugs and flaws. Their work allows the developers to improve the quality of the product on the go.
How do you ensure meeting deadlines?
The vendor has to guarantee timely delivery of the product. Usually, good planning and project management make it possible to meet deadlines.
How do you minimize software security risks?
The vendor might offer secure-by-design solutions. They would equip your software with all the necessary security measures like firewalls.
How do you report your work?
Usually, the developers split the project into sprints and provide the reports at the end of each sprint.
How long will you support the product?
A good vendor will support the product for as long as you need that support.
From wherever you look at it, outsourcing web development in Latinamerica can bring your company many advantages such as lower costs, increased efficiency, wider access to specialized skills, resources, and top talent. Now it’s time for you to decide the best country to outsource web development according to your business needs. Don’t know where to start? Talk to our experts! At Intersog, we have been delivering success across industries for over 15 years, developing web applications customized to each client’s specific requirements by leveraging our extensive expertise and deep technology capabilities.
In recent years, outsourcing has become an increasingly common practice for a lot of companies. By doing it right, outsourcing developers can be a fantastic way for businesses to improve efficiencies and increase their company’s bottom line, and this applies to services such as web development. Why?
First of all, nearshore software, it’s cost-effective. Hiring freelance web developers will definitely be cheaper than hiring your own development team. Depending on where you are based, this could mean saving anywhere from 20% to 70% of your budget.
Secondly, nearshore gives you the advantage of expanding your reach to find top talent. Some web development projects require strong technical expertise and there’s no reason to limit yourself to your local area. Nearshore allows you access to a pool of tech talents around the world, so you can select the best tech talent for your project.
Lastly, outsourcing with a reliable team will give you peace of mind as your tasks will be handled expertly without you having to worry about the management of the project. This will allow you to spend your time and resources on other key important tasks for your area.
Now, the golden ticket question: Where to find the best nearshore developers? Well, believe it or not, the answer to your prayers is just around the corner: Latin America.
Where to find the best nearshore software developers in LATAM
When it comes to outsourcing, companies may choose to do it onshore (within their own country), nearshore (to a neighboring country or one in the same time zone), or offshore (to a more distant country). While onshore is always a good option, the best way to outsource web development is nearshore and offshore.
Advantages of nearshore talent in LATAM
Due to its proximity to the US and Canada and its accessible prices, Latin America has become one of the hottest outsourcing destinations for Northamerican companies. The LATAM region has been changing the perception that outsourcing is risky and is becoming a primal tech provider worldwide, with thriving economies and big pools of competent talents.
Latinamerican nearshore developers are winning the hearts of American companies and here are a few reasons why:
Language: As crucial as the English language is for American companies, finding foreign partners that are fluent in it might be challenging. However, when it comes to the LatAm region, the numbers might play in your favor. The U.S. is home to more than 41 million native Spanish speakers, plus over 12 million bilingual Spanish speakers, while English is the third most spoken immigrant language in South America, with about 5.4 million speakers, compared to the English literacy rate in China that hovers around 1%.
Location: A good location is everything, and being in a timezone that works for the hiring company and enabling real-time collaboration might be the key. But it’s more than geography, Latin America’s stable social environment and its prospects of economic and political development are also decisive factors to become an outsourcing leader.
Working culture: Besides its language and location, the work culture of a country is a crucial factor to become an outsourcing destination. Latin America is full of dedicated and hard-working people ready to meet any company’s expectations.
Young Workforce: A country with a young population ready to pursue a career in tech is as valuable as a gold mine. Latin America is producing big amounts of young engineering talent day by day, making it full of attractive candidates to choose from when companies are looking to set up world-class development tech talent networks or to hire individual remote engineering talent.
Your best allies
Talent from countries in South America is experiencing increased interest from companies all over the world. But, which are the best countries to outsource IT within the region?
Argentina
Argentina is one of the best options to outsource IT talent, as it offers cost-effective software solutions with a large pool of industry experts within a pretty convenient time zone and almost cero cultural barriers.
Argentina has the highest level of English in the region, so it’s easy to find software development talent proficient in English.
Another plus comes from the country’s economic development and its cost-effective prices.
The International Monetary Fund predicted that Argentina’s gross domestic product would grow by 7.5 percent in 2021 and by 2.5 percent in 2022, which shows the stable growth and optimistic economic climate of the country. Plus, ever since the devaluation of their currency in 2002, the Argentinean software development market became very cost-competitive.
Lastly, the government understands the importance of IT outsourcing and recently has launched several initiatives to support the industry’s growth and attract more international companies.
Chile
Chile has one of the most business-friendly environments and advanced infrastructure facilities in the Latinamerican region, so.it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the country aims to be a key supplier of IT and software development services to the western market.
Although it still needs a small push to broader its availability of highly-skilled professionals to compete with markets like China and India, the country’s BPO and IT industry is thriving and provides high-quality services to local and global clients.
One of the greatest advantages of Chile is its high-quality workforce. As of 2021, the literacy rate in Chile is 96.4% — higher than the Latin American average of 93.9%. The country also has a thoroughly developed telecom infrastructure, counting the highest broadband and mobile telephony penetration rates in the south American region.
Finally, by staying on top of digital innovations, the Chilean outsourcing companies are well-equipped to handle projects of any scale and size, on top of their affordable prices. Chilean software developers are known for their solid programming skills and consistently rank in various coding competitions, making software development one of the most outsourced services to Chile.
Colombia
Thanks to all the hiring and investment benefit from the government to attract foreign IT leading companies worldwide, Colombia has earned the status of the software development outsourcing hotspot in South America.
Plus, with one of the oldest democracies in Latin America, Colombia’s economy is among the strongest in Latin America, ranking as the fourth largest and making it a stable and reliable region for companies looking to outsource IT services.
Lastly, its world-class infrastructure makes Colombia a solid option when it comes to outsourcing IT engineering talent.
Mexico
The Aztec country has slowly risen as an outsourcing destination when it comes to Information Technology (IT) and Human Resources (HR) and similar to Canada, its strong IT education has become one of the best assets the country has when it comes to outsourcing web developers. Mexican universities are nearly producing as many computer sciences graduates as American ones, making Mexico a good pool of highly qualified and very experienced web app developers at the reach of companies’ hands.
Plus, language and cultural proximity with the U.S. makes it a great choice for American companies looking to hire nearshore freelancers. The number of consumer and cultural exports from countries like Mexico to the U.S. helps to build familiarity and solidarity between the two countries, which can only help advance to a healthy relationship within the company.
Looking towards South America is a great choice for American companies looking for affordable and highly-skilled software developers within the same time zone. Save money without sacrificing on quality, and set yourself up for rapid international expansion without most of the typical struggles associated with it.
Whereas before the COVID-19 pandemic you could be forgiven for thinking remote work was a distant possibility, to ignore its prevalence now would be naive. It has become a reality for many companies in the tech and IT industry, which has seen a sharp increase in hybrid work models that cater to employees who work from home.
Even though the trend of remote work was starting to pick up before the world was turned upside down, it has now been forced upon a lot of businesses, many of whom weren’t equipped for this change.
To avoid becoming another business that goes under as a result of a failure to adapt to changing times, we strongly recommend that you adopt a remote hiring strategy going forward. That way, you can snap up the best talent in the tech industry, limited though it may be, and push forward to new heights.
Why Remote Work is the Future
It won’t surprise you to learn that remote work really kicked into gear following the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020. In fact, according to a recent worldwide study carried out by Statista, 56% of workers had only been working remotely for less than a year.
What was once a luxury for workers has now become the norm, and this doesn’t just apply to the tech and IT industry. However, this is an industry that has likely been most impacted, due to the nature of the work. If 100% of the work can be done using a personal computer, then why not reduce overhead costs and encourage remote work throughout your organization?
Of course, there are issues with the remote work model.
The primary obstacle for many companies is that employees might not be equipped with everything they need to kickstart their careers from home. Turning a traditional 9-5 workplace into a digital hub isn’t an easy transition for everyone to make, which begs the question, how do you fill open vacancies while also offering the remote or hybrid work model?
To answer this, we’d invite you to expand your horizons, and rather than looking internally within the organization avert your attention to external sources.
The Benefits of Offshore Teams
If you’re not familiar with offshoring, it’s all about hiring teams from abroad to streamline the hiring process easier and save company resources.
You could stand to gain a lot from looking abroad to fill open positions.
Here are some of the most compelling reasons to consider hiring remote offshore teams to plug gaps in your company:
Fill Talent Gaps
The tech talent you’re looking for might not always be available domestically, especially considering that we’re in the midst of an IT talent shortage that’s been looming for several years now.
Plus, the tech talent that does exist within the US can command high salaries for this exact reason.
So how can offshoring help?
By focusing your sights on foreign talent markets, you can secure top talent with reasonable salaries, so it’s a win-win scenario.
Boost Profits
What’s one of the best reasons to consider offshoring?
To improve your company’s bottom line.
As we just mentioned, by searching for talent abroad you can save money on lower salaries.
The other profit-boosting benefit comes with working with an offshore partner. When you work with an offshore team, they will usually take care of most of the costs you’d typically associate with the hiring process so you can save money on that front too.
Scale
Scaling your business is no easy feat.
It becomes more complicated the more employees you take on and can take much longer than you initially anticipated.
However, with offshoring, you keep costs down which should free up funds to roll out the next stage of your expansion plan.
Another key benefit offshoring provides for scaling is how quickly you can onboard new employees, which accelerates the process and makes it easy to expand your business to new shores.
Perhaps best of all, you won’t have to assume any extra admin tasks, since your offshore partner will do the heavy lifting on your behalf.
Expand Your Horizons
Even with access to offshore talent in the global talent market, the solution to your hiring issues may be closer than you think.
What if the answer was in a neighboring country rather than another continent?
Hiring a nearshore team based in a nearby country can be advantageous for a host of reasons. First, there’s timezone compatibility, which means that the domestic workforce won’t need to bend over backward to maintain communication with new employees from distant countries.
There are also cultural similarities to consider since there’s far less risk of encountering cultural clashes when your remote teams are based in a neighboring country.
For US-based tech companies, it isn’t uncommon to look north of the border to Canada or even to Latin America for establishing a talented nearshore team. Here are some of the main reasons why the latter has become such a popular choice for nearshore hiring:
Why Latin America?
Latin America has emerged as a hotbed of tech talent in recent years, with several big tech startups making it out of the region.
The main reasons for the popularity of the region for nearshore hires include widespread access to the internet, growth in eCommerce, and the prevalence of urban life.
Whereas in the past, Latin America was a region with low internet connectivity, these days it’s estimated that around 73% of the population can access the internet. As such, there’s been a rise in digital opportunities and many South American citizens are technologically literate and picking up a number of useful digital skills.
In tandem with the rising numbers of people with access to the internet, Latin America also now has the infrastructure to allow this. City life is becoming more and more popular in the region, which means more workers have the tools they need to work remotely and on board with tech companies.
Why US companies are hiring IT talent in nearshore locations: the how-to
How to find the best nearshore IT talent
So, you’ve made the decision to seek out nearshore tech talent to grow your business, but you’re not sure how to go about it.
You’re not alone, it’s easy to rush the process and make a quick hire but difficult to find the right talent for the job. Unless you know what the best practices are for finding top nearshore engineering talent.
Conduct In-Person Interviews
One of the best things you can do to ensure success when hiring nearshore talent is to have someone from your company fly out to the country in question to conduct face-to-face meetings with the prospects.
Employees in senior positions such as project managers will need to interact with the nearshore team on a regular basis, so why not have them be directly involved in the hiring process to ensure a smooth transition?
Understand the Talent’s Motivations
It can be a good idea to scope out the talent pool in the nearshore destination and gather information about what activities they enjoy and what their ambitions are.
The younger prospects might be more motivated by the potential for travel, so you could push this aspect of the job if applicable. Older prospects on the other hand might be more interested in what the health benefits of the role are, so that could be another angle to take.
Work with a Nearshore Partner
It’s no secret that the nearshore recruitment process can be challenging.
Even when there isn’t much distance between where you’re based and where the potential prospects are, there’s a lot of logistics to consider and this can incur a lot of unnecessary costs.
The hiring process can also break down at any stage if you don’t thoroughly vet the prospects and have a funnel in place.
So why not outsource your worries to a nearshore partner who will have much more experience finding and onboarding nearshore tech talent?
Going beyond: expanding to other LATAM countries
Many LATAM countries are rapidly growing in popularity as nearshore destinations, it isn’t just Mexico.
One of the main reasons for this isn’t due to a rise in tech talent or cheap labor costs but the negligible time difference.
Just like with Canada, LATAM countries offer an enticing prospect which is a similar time zone to the US. If you want all of your teams to work together in perfect harmony then you need to know that they can communicate with each other at all times.
There’s also the cultural similarity, which we discussed earlier, that makes LATAM countries a great choice for nearshore outsourcing. You’ll find more similarities than differences in this regard, which ensures there aren’t unexpected hiccups down the line.
Perhaps what’s most encouraging though is how venture capital funding has flooded Latin America in the past few years, hitting an all-time peak back in 2019, pre-COVID. This influx of investment goes to show that the tech market in the region is booming, and that before long it should become a hotspot for some of the best tech talent.
The reasons for this are hard to pinpoint, but it could be in part due to the phenomena in which there’s a max exodus of highly skilled tech workers from a large company. The most notable example of this is PayPal, which saw many of its employees go on to create some of the biggest tech companies such as Yelp, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
In Latin America, there are similar examples of this happening, with Groupon Latin America and Linio being prime examples. The ‘Groupon Mafia’ as it’s now known in some corners, led to the development of several other notable companies.
The best time to expand your business through a nearshore partner
As they often say, ‘there’s no time like the present’.
As you’ll now know, the tech talent shortage is here to stay, so there’s no use in holding onto the hope that there’ll be a change in that situation any time soon.
So rather than waiting for something to change, now is as good a time as any to be proactive and seek out the top tech talent you need from nearshore destinations.
If you’re unsure how to navigate the nearshore tech talent opportunities, then establishing a working relationship with a nearshore partner could be your best move. All it takes is a list of the number of employees you’re looking to hire, as well as other basic information, and the rest will be out of your hands.
Working with a nearshore partner can change the ‘one day’ to today, and bring a wealth of top IT talent to your company in no time.
You could save money without sacrificing on quality, and set yourself up for rapid international expansion without most of the typical struggles associated with it. Tap into the global talent pool without jumping through hoops and setting up elaborate funnels which can end up being time and resource sinks.
Why US companies are hiring IT talent in nearshore locations: the benefits
Operations benefits of working with a nearshore IT partner
The nearshore business model is a shining example of how US companies can adapt to the tech talent crisis, holding on to top talent without overextending resources or committing to hiring employees in vastly different time zones and cultures.
In fact, these are the two biggest reasons to consider working with a nearshore IT partner on an operational level.
Time zone compatibility
While in some cases it might work out cheaper to look to Asia for outsourcing, there’s one significant issue this brings up that cannot be avoided, and that is the time zone difference.
In some instances, you could argue that having a time zone difference benefits the company, as it allows you to work around the clock 24/7 and provide continuous IT and software development services to your clients.
While that may be true, it’s hard to keep your business running like a well-oiled machine if a significant percentage of your employees operate on a completely different time schedule. Communication becomes tricky, which can make coordinating on projects and deadlines a real headache.
Cultural fit
While you may wonder what culture has to do with the work environment, you’d be surprised at how much of an impact it can have.
When you outsource work to teams from distant countries, you may find that there’s somewhat of a culture clash.
This can manifest in the simple things.
For example, the team might have different ideas about how to brainstorm ideas for a project or how to push a task along the pipeline when it gets stuck. They might even have a tendency to start a little later than is usual in the US or have several breaks throughout the day instead of a single lunch break.
On a bigger scale, there may even be a language barrier to contend with. If you hire a team and later find out that they’re not familiar with US slang and tech jargon, then you may end up spending a lot of time resolving issues with miscommunication.
To streamline interactions between different teams, and ensure your overseas talent is able to integrate seamlessly into your company’s way of doing things, a nearshore IT team is your best bet.
With nearshore teams, you’ll likely find that the culture is at least similar, which will improve communication.
Business benefits of working with a nearshore IT partner
When it comes to the business benefits of working with a nearshore partner, your main concern will be how it can affect your bottom line.
The two main benefits we’d like to investigate in this regard are how working with nearshore teams can both increase the amount of money you save, and increase your potential for global expansion.
Savings
When you’re in the market for new tech talent, one of your most significant criteria will be hiring the best worker for the open position while spending the least amount of money.
When you work with a nearshore IT partner, you can tick off this box and save resources that can be invested in other parts of the business.
How is this possible?
For a start, you’ll mitigate many of the internal costs associated with the vetting and hiring processes that can eat into your company’s finances. For example, the cost of onboarding depending on the position can be high, especially if there’s a lot of software to get to grips with.
There are also overhead expenses to consider if you have to invest in a workspace for the new employee or anything else along those lines.
With a nearshore partner, you outsource a lot of the work and save yourself a lot of the money as the partner takes care of the various money-draining aspects of the process.
Global expansion
Another great reason to work with a nearshore partner is to speed up your company’s rate of expansion into the global market.
If you aren’t sure what the next steps are to building an international business, a nearshore partner can help by setting you up with top talent in nearby countries.
The primary benefit of this is that you can slowly start to adapt to working on an international scale, but while retaining cultural similarities and similar time zones. This means that you won’t have some of the traditional struggles associated with rapid expansion.
Hiring IT talent through a nearshore partner is often a much more secure way to expand, too, since the partner will free up your time by vetting the talent, onboarding them, and getting them up to speed which leaves you to deal with other aspects of the expansion.
Stay tuned for part 3 of this article series.
Why US companies are hiring IT talent in nearshore locations – Part 1: the opportunity
In case you didn’t already know, we’re in the midst of a tech talent crisis.
It isn’t a recent development but an issue that has been threatening to cause shockwaves in the tech industry for several years now.
Fortunately, there are several ways to address the talent shortage, one of which is hiring IT talent abroad. To mitigate time zone-related issues and communication problems, outsourcing to nearshore development teams is becoming a popular strategy among tech firms in the fields of fintech, healthcare, and insurance.
In the US, neighboring countries Canada and Mexico stand out as two of the best nearshore destinations, and in this guide, we’ll explore why that is.
We’ll also talk you through some of the main reasons why US companies are looking to establish nearshore IT talent teams and why you should consider it too.
Facing the tech talent shortage in the United States
IT and product development companies in industries such as fintech, healthcare, and insurance face stiff competition to attract the best talent in the field, and there are some concerning figures emerging to back this up. For example, a global survey carried out by McKinsey & Company showed that 87% of organizations are struggling to hire talent or will be in the next few years.
With no end in sight, companies are seeking alternative options to sourcing the best tech talent.
Why has this become such a crippling issue in the tech industry?
For one, the restrictions on visas introduced by the Trump administration have limited the capacity of US-based companies to hire the best workers from the global talent pool. With all the complications of setting up in the States, it’s no surprise that few are willing to make the leap.
In neighboring Canada, however, the opposite is true: tech talent is flocking to the country, as it welcomes tech talent from all over the world with open arms.
As such, the US’s strict immigration policy has inadvertently driven any tech talent that would have perhaps considered working in the States to instead head north to Canada’s shores.
Another possible reason for the tech talent crisis is the rapid adoption of new technologies, which has taken place across a range of industries. The impact of digital transformation was already notable once companies like Kodak and Blockbuster, who failed to adapt to the changing times, were replaced with online platforms Instagram and Netflix.
As such, the workforce can’t keep up and is lagging behind, which has led to a dramatic shortage of qualified tech workers in the United States.
Mexico and Canada: the nearshore opportunity
It isn’t just Canada that’s become a magnet for tech talent, though, but the US’s other neighbor, Mexico, too.
As such, both countries are prime candidates for outsourcing work to nearshore teams.
Why Mexico?
According to the 2021 Global Services Location Index published by global management consulting firm Kearney, Mexico, alongside other Latin American nations, ranks highly. The Index measures factors such as financial attractiveness and digital resonance, which is a metric scoring the countries based on digital skill sets and outputs of the workforce. Mexico has a strong culture of training talent in various fields, which creates a talent pool that both the US and Canada can tap into to bolster their open tech positions.
Kearney expects that in the long term, trade between the two nations will only increase, in no small part due to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
The USMCA, which was updated during the Trump administration, was first put into place in 2020 to protect US IPs, create a level playing field for American workers, and bring about a healthy trade relationship between Canada, Mexico, and the US.
The growth of tech talent in Mexico and Canada
Both Mexico and Canada have seen a rise in tech talent in recent years, which can be attributed to several factors – some more obvious than others.
Let’s take a look at why the two nations have been able to cultivate more tech talent and why they’re good options for nearshore outsourcing for US-based companies:
Mexico
One of the biggest reasons why Mexico has been able to produce outstanding tech talent over the years is due to its top universities, which rank highly in the whole of Latin America for the subject of computer science.
The University of Guadalajara, the Technology Institute of Sonora, and the Tec Milenio are among these institutions.
In addition, the GDP in Latin America has enjoyed a steady growth rate in the past few years and is set to grow another 5.9% in 2021. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic hit the region hard like so many others, but the recent trend towards growth is encouraging and makes Mexico a potential gold mine for tech talent in the coming years.
Canada
As mentioned earlier, Canada has benefited from the US’s strict immigration policy and visa limitations in recent years, which has led to an overall increase in tech talent north of the border.
The statistics back this up, with one tech talent report demonstrating that the big Canadian cities like Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal are climbing up the rankings in terms of tech talent gained. The CBRE 2021 Scoring Tech Talent report also shows that Toronto occupies the 4th spot of top markets for tech talent and investment.
This is promising news for US companies who are keen to outsource nearshore teams as it shows that Canada is growing its tech talent pools significantly, and has plenty of tech-related opportunities on offer. When a lot of tech talent graduates are heading to Canadian cities instead of sticking around in the US, you have to pay attention, and hiring nearshore talent is one of the best ways to capitalize on this trend.