According to the “FDI Contries of the Future” classification, performed by the FDI Intelligence (a research unit from the Financial Times),  Costa Rica is the best country for foreign investment in Central America and the Caribbean region. Our solid value proposition and the atraction of over 227 new investment projects between 2003 and 2010 has placed Costa Rica in this rank. The study includes 31 countries in the region.

Costa Rica was also placed second in the human resource category and second in the economic potential, friendly business environment and best investment attraction strategy.

Thanks to strategic alliances with the Costa Rican Chamber of Technology (CAMTIC) and the External Commerce Promotion Agency (Procomer), EX2 OutCoding has been chosen to participate in the Outsource2LAC. This international Summit that will take place in Uruguay, will gather industry stakeholders in Latin America with participating companies from around the globe. The goal of the summit is to create a space for industry stakeholders to showcase their capabilities to the global market and identify the necessary steps the region must take to enable long term growth and development in the industry.

This event is hosted by the BID (Banco Interamericano de Desarollo), the organism that is sponsoring EX2 OutCoding to participate in the event.

We´ll keep you posted in our Outsource2LAC

The development of a product or service might be described as a solution to satisfy a determined need presented by a particular customer. Let’s take for example “an accessible price”, “easy to carry”, “easy to clean” and “has great performance”. These are customer perceptions. They describe how they evaluate products available according to the product or service’s capacity to satisfy their needs[1].

Generally, in conversations with customers plenty of their needs are discovered. These may be categorized as:

• Primary needs: What the customer supposes he will receive.
• Announced needs: What the customer expresses he wants.
• Stimulant needs: Those needs that if satisfied, would generate great satisfaction for the consumer.

To manage properly the identified customer needs, these must be structured in hierarchies. Primary needs are usually the ones that set the product’s strategic path. Secondary needs are elaborated from the primary needs and indicate more specifically what can be done to satisfy the corresponding strategic primary need[2].

In most cases, secondary needs can generate very detailed tertiary needs, which will be used by the design team to generate solutions for the identified secondary needs.

Identifying and capturing customer’s needs and perceptions is known as the Voice Of the Customer. Characterizing them is only the first step, being this the prime matter necessary for feeding the design methodologies that will be applied in the organization for the creation/renovation of a product or service.

---

[1] GONZÁLEZ, V; TAMAYO, F.  2001.  La administración de las quejas como capital de las empresas.  Transferencia. 14(55).

[2] SANTA CRUZ, J; TAMAYO, F.  2004. De la voz del cliente a la lealtad del cliente: Un caso exitoso de la aplicación de QFD en la Industria Mexicana de calzado.  Asociación Latinoamericana de QFD.

Your near shore outsourcing center in Costa Rica sends lots of love to our customers and friends around the world!

Lots of blessings!

View the pictures here!

During the last centuries, scientific and technologic growth have been the predominant dynamic element of economic and social history of mankind, generating what is known as a knowledge based economy [1].

Today’s economy is different than that of the XX century, in which knowledge constitutes the main production input, and where information and communication technologies are instruments for the transmition of information and coding of knowledge.  Nowadays, developed economies are based in the abilities of all sectors (citizens, government, academy, private sector, etc.) to manipulate and transmit information to all human activities [2].

On an economic level, countries compete through different strategies. Low income countries compete in offering low prices; mid-income level countries compete by offering quality in their products and services, and developed countries compete in innovation.  Innovation is considered the master key for businesses’ success, whether it is an agricultural, manufacturer or services company, and thus for an economy’s maintained growth [3].

Developing nations, such as Costa Rica, face the great challenge of moving quickly towards a developed state, distinguished by an innovative economy framed by the development of a knowledge based economy.

In Costa Rica, the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector is made up of 600 enterprises, of which 350 offer direct services, 150 are development centers, 50 offer enabled services and 35 are component manufacturers. This classification is based in the offered products and services [4]:

• Components: This classification includes enterprises with design, manufacturing, assembly, ICT hardware sales (for PC, phones, networking devices, etc.).
• Software Products: Enterprises dedicated to development and commercialization of standardized software applications, designed for a specific sector, organizations or individuals.
• Direct ICT services: This sector includes enterprises that give consultant services, trainings, customized software development, systems integration, or any service related to the implementation or maintenance of information systems.
• Services enabled by ICT: Such enterprises offer services that are not directly related to the regular direct ICT services, but they are delivered through networks and computers.

It is important to hightlight that the ICT sector enterprises are classified in the K group called “real estate, managerial activities and of rent”; in addition, the group “services” can be considered an industrial sector since it refers to the service industry. This peculiarity in its definition causes a certain invisibility of the ICT sector that makes difficult its characterization and measurement on a national level.

---

[1] MONGE, R & HEWITT, J.  2006.  Los Costarricenses en la economía basada en el conocimiento: Infraestructura, destrezas, uso y acceso a las TICs. 1 ed. San José, C.R.

[2] MONGE, R & HEWITT, J.  2004. Tecnologías de la información y las comunicaciones (TICs) y el futuro desarrollo de Costa Rica: el desafío de la exclusión. San José, C. R.

[3] MIPYME.  2005. Desarrollo de la MIPYME, políticas de apoyo y CAFTA.  FUNDES.

[4] CAMTIC.  2008.  IT Sector.

We would like to point out some other advantages about working with a near shore team over having an offshore group of developers. In this opportunity we would like to emphasize about two main facts that make all the difference when outsourcing a project.

One of them is the cultural affinity we have to the United States. By the nearness to the United States, Costa Rica has been greatly influenced by this country in many ways such as in entertainment and lifestyle, among others. USA is one of Costa Rica´s largest commercial business partner, and due to years of dealing with our fellow American friends, we have learned and taken a lot from their business ways. The business culture in the US, is a pretty open one, based in good communication. For example, it takes some time to adjust to new teams, clients and partners, which is the importance of maintaining an always fluent communication from the start. This helps keeping the relationship as fluent as possible.

The second one is the measured rise of productivity. The rates per hour in offshore reams are lower than those of near shore teams, however, there is a notorious rise of productivity by near shore teams that lowers the total costs of outsourcing to near shore locations over offshore ones.

Here is an example of this: If we take 5 outsourced resources doing .Net development; 1 team lead, 1 senior developer, 2 mid level developers and 1 junior developer. Such a team could at best reach 60% productivity as compared to the company’s internal team in an Offshore model but could achieve as high as 90% productivity in a near shore model, due to the facts we have stated before such as time zone, proximity, ease of communication and cultural affinity.

From a resource rate perspective, the blended rate for same 5 developers in India will cost about $18 to $22 per hour while the same resources in Costa Rica would cost about $22 to $26. To get the effective cost, we multiply the India´s rate $18-$22 by 100 and then divide it by the productivity rate (60). We do the same procedure with the cost of the resources in Costa Rica. The results show India´s effective cost is $30 to 40 per hour, while in Costa Rica it is $24.5 to 29 per hour. We can conclude this way how the effective cost in Costa Rica is 18% to 27% lower than India.

EX2 OutCoding helps businesses in the United States obtain the resources they need to expand their revenue, lower their costs and accomplish their goals and IT needs. We go through a recruiting process that ensures we are hiring the person that best matches the profile that is being needed.

In EX2 OutCoding the recruiting process goes as follows: When a requisition is placed by the client and EX2 OutCoding first makes sure to have the best profile description of the resources needed. One the requisition is clear, EX2 OutCoding turns to different sources to search for candidates:

• Existent EX2 OutCoding database
• Local job marketplaces
• Internal Referral Program (we to turn to our current employees for references).

Once we´ve gathered several resumes, we go through a screening process to select the candidates that best match the profile the client is looking for. Interviews are performed on the best candidates to make sure they have excellent technical and communication skills, and their aptitude, rate and availability adjusts to the client´s requisition. Once we narrowed our options down to the three or four best matches, the resumes are sent to the client. If desired by our clients, EX2 OutCoding can coordinate phone interviews with the candidates. This way they are involved in the recruiting process and can select the candidate they feel more comfortable with.

Once the resources are in house, we work to maintain a high retention rate, create a motivating, innovative work environment.

To read more about the teams we could help build, go to: http://www.outcoding.com/dedicated_teams.php