Nicaragua's BPO Sector
Attracts Industry Giants
In its efforts to promote Foreign Direct
Investment (FDI) in Nicaragua's emerging BPO
sector, PRONicaragua, the official
investment promotion agency of Nicaragua,
participated in the 2010 Outsourcing World
Summit this February organized by the
International Association of Outsourcing
Professionals (IAOP) in Orlando, FL, to
discuss new industry trends and highlight
industry best practices.
The event brought together the world's
leading outsourcing customers, providers and
advisors in a powerful, active and growing
global association to exchange thought
leadership, share best practices and network
to maximize their effectiveness using
outsourcing as a management tool.
Nicaragua's emerging BPO sector is
attracting an increasing number of
multinational companies seeking to lower
operational costs and optimize production
performance by outsourcing in Nicaragua.
Nicaragua has now become a strong contender
among its peers as labor costs in
neighboring countries such as Costa Rica and
El Salvador have increased.
Aside from competitive labor force costs,
the recent improvements in Nicaragua's data
and bandwidth networking infrastructure have
been an attractive factor for global
organizations. Additionally, the country
also offers Contact Center and BPO
operations up to 100 percent tax exemption
on imported supplies, raw materials, and
machinery while operating under the Free
Trade Zone Regime. In addition, Nicaragua's
telecom system has almost 4,000 kilometers
of a fiber optics backbone whose capillary
reach extends to remote areas of the country
and guarantees redundancy.
In 2008, Sitel launched operations in
Nicaragua, a world leader in the outsourcing
of complex business processes worldwide.
Sitel's Nicaragua operation has been one of
the "biggest success stories over the last
18 months" for the global BPO and contact
center organization, Andrew Kokes, VP of
Marketing at Sitel, told Nearshore Americas.
Kokes says the value of Nicaragua became
apparent so quickly that the company opened
a second facility within the first year,
which is a rarity for Sitel. "It's been a
phenomenal experience," added Kokes, "what
made it a tough place to be in the 80s, has
changed dramatically... now everyone has
come home and they have come back bilingual,
and educated."
PatentVest, a California-based business that
does the groundwork for companies seeking
patent intelligence, also invested in
Nicaragua back in 2006. Chris Marlett,
founder of PatentVest, was looking to
improve the business retention rate while
receiving the high-quality research work he
demanded. "To my astonishment, the
Nicaraguan team got more data organized in
their first three months on the job than the
California team did in 12 months", commented
Marlett.
Other major BPO players in Nicaragua include
Stream Global Services, which started
operations in February 2010 through its
recent merger with E-Telecare, and
Concentrix, which established in early 2009,
with the take-over of Intelligent
Outsourcing. Currently, there are about 14
companies in Nicaragua's business process
outsourcing industry employing more than
2,000 professionals. |
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