Software Outsourcing To Colombia

To those in the know, Colombia is truly Latin America’s diamond in the rough.  Difficult episodes of drug-related violence kept Colombia under the business radar for a couple of decades, yet the country has now conquered its recent past, achieving levels of safety in 2011 comparable to those it had in 1984.  Statistically, the country’s cities are now comparably as safe as Sao Paulo or Buenos Aires, and safer than most cities in major Latin American countries such as Mexico or Venezuela.

Many are surprised to learn that Colombia, with 46 million people, is the second largest Spanish speaking country in the world, and the third largest in population within Latin America.  It is also distinct in that it boasts seven major cities of over 1 million residents – contrasting with most countries in the region, who usually concentrate their population in a single urban area. This fact has an important impact in the availability of talent, as well as the number of top level universities and higher education institutions that exist in the country.  Colombia, with roughly a third of the population of Mexico, boasts more universities.

Colombia’s economic stability is outstanding.  The country is the only large economy in Latin America never to have defaulted on its debt, and displays the second smallest historical inflation rate, after Chile (with the exception that Colombia has never suffered from hyperinflation).  Contrary to the troubles of many European nations, Colombia’s debt rating was promoted last year, emphasizing the strength of its internal economy, which will allow the country to grow a healthy 5.5% in 2011, despite the economic crisis (the nation has been the second fastest growing in Latin America over the last 10 years).  When adjusted by Purchasing Power Parity, Colombia is the 28th economy in the world (larger than Sweden, Singapore or Hong Kong).  Such solid macroeconomic indicators led HSBC to name it as one of the CIVET countries – those medium sized economies with the highest growth prospects over the next 10 years.  (CIVET, the name for a cat native to South East Asia, stands for Colombia, Indonesia,Vietnam, Egypt and Thailand).

From an IT perspective, Colombia has the largest amount of CMMi level 5 companies in the region, and boasts a workforce of more than 72,000 ICT professionals.  Labor force availability is ample, with the country graduating 6,000 to 8,000 fresh engineers per year, with more than half having an adequate to excellent command of the English language. Colombia’s stronghold in engineering talent led Gartner to identify Colombia as one of the top 30 countries for offshore services worldwide since 2010.

From a nearshoring perspective the country it is geographically privileged, sharing US Central and Eastern time zones, with a 2 or 3 hour difference with Pacific time (depending on whether daylight savings is active or not).  Furthermore, the country is easily reachable by plane, with flights taking 5 hours from New York, 3 from Miami and roughly 8 from San Francisco (the latter requires a layover). More than 193 different flights arrive into Colombia from different US cities every week.

Culturally, Colombia is very similar to North America.  People are open and friendly, and are straightforward to express their opinions.  They work hard and do not mind having to work late or over the weekend.  And in contrast to several other Latin America countries, Colombians have a positive opinion of Americans and Canadians, and like doing business with, as well as travelling to, the US and Canada.

Finally, Colombia has recently signed a Free Trade Agreement with the US and Canada, motivating large technology players to establish a base in the country to serve Latin America, as is the case of HP, which recently started a software services center planned for 3,000 people in Medellin, after reviewing more than 16 different cities in the region.  To most readers, this completely counters their image of Colombia.  But Accelerance has visited Colombia, and invite you to see for yourself!

The Accelerance Global Partner Network members from Colombia have been thoroughly screened and vetted. These AGPN members have a good command of English and have agreed with Accelerance’s recommended terms for intellectual property protection.

Colombia Partner #1

Global Partner Information

A nearshore Latin American-based company with development centers in Colombia, Mexico and Spain and US business offices in Charlotte, NC and Dallas, TX. Known worldwide for the adoption of global best practices as demonstrated by being the only Latin American company to be assessed at SW – CMM level 5 (2002), 1st Latin company and 8th company globally assessed at CMMi5 (2003 and re assessed in 2007). Winner of the 2006 IEEE/SEI Software Process Achievement Award, the most prestigious software process award in the world. ISO 9001 certified. In process of certification in 27001 for Information and Data Security. Company-wide use of Six Sigma quality management methods. Leverages both proximity and time zone alignment to collaborate tightly with clients while transitioning resources seamlessly on and nearshore when needed.

Colombia Partner #1 commits itself to operate in the range of the best in the world in terms of quality and productivity, from low cost countries in Latin America.

For fixed price projects, Colombia Partner #1 uses an Agile RUP framework taking practices from XP and Scrum but leveraging Six Sigma and our software engineering processes to deliver system-dependent (not person) results that are extremely reliable, on schedule and budget and guaranteed to fulfill expected needs and functionality.

For ongoing projects driven by client requirements and priorities, Colombia Partner #1 deploys pure Agile approaches.

Technologies include but not limited to Java (JEE, JME, JSE), .Net (C#,VB.Net), C++, Oracle, PB, VB, LAMP, PHP, AJAX, HTML, XML, Coldfusion, Lotus Notes, FLEX, Sharepoint, Web Services, SOA. Databases MS SQL, Oracle, MySql, DB2.

expertise

TECHNOLOGIES
Agile Android Apple iPhone Business Intelligence Cloud Computing Drupal Flash / Flex Java Joomla Linux C/C++ Microsoft .NET Mobile Apps Oracle PHP & MySQL SAP SharePoint Software Testing/QA Web Design Services

INDUSTRIES
Automotive Data Security / Encryption Digital Marketing Education Energy Enterprise Applications Financial Services Government Health Care Insurance Manufacturing / Logistics Non-Profit Retail / eCommerce Small Business Software Products Telecom Transportation

RAMP-UP YOUR SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT QUICKLY AND SAFELY