July 10, 2014
Traveling to foreign countries can feel risky when you don’t know the language and the country has a reputation for violence and crime. You should check the US State Department’s travel warnings and alerts for the country you are visiting. For example, while we were visiting the Philippines in May 2014, the US Department of State issued a travel warning for the Philippines, specifically for the island of Mindanao where we were going.
Accelerance visits our new partner companies to certify their expertise in various areas of software development technologies and methodologies. The benefit to you is a better match between your needs and the expertise, location and culture of the partner company we recommend.
Our Newest Partner in the Philippines
We were excited about our new partner in the Philippines and anxious to visit to confirm their abilities to develop web and mobile apps for startups, ISVs and marketing agencies. We spent several days and got to know our new partner’s management team and employees well. During our visit we also got a good sense of the business culture at the partner company too. We even got the chance to do a little sightseeing in the immediate area.
We also encourage you to visit the partner too, especially when selecting your software outsourcing partner is a business critical decision. When you go you’ll have guidance from Accelerance about how to get there, what to do and what to look for. For any international trip, one of your concerns should be safety.
The U.S. Department of State warns U.S. citizens of the risks of travel to the Philippines, in particular to the Sulu Archipelago, the island of Mindanao, and in the southern Sulu Sea area. That’s hundreds of miles away from Davao City where we felt completely safe. To warn Americans about traveling to the huge island of Mindanao is excessive in my opinion. It’s like being warned about traveling to Texas because of violence on the border with Mexico.
We felt completely safe on the street and driving around. There is a significant security presence in Davao City at all hotels and shopping malls. Passing through a metal detector to enter these public places is standard procedure in Mindanao as it is in several other countries we have visited including India.
Accelerance will only certify and recommend partner companies that are expert at what they do and are in a safe location to visit. We visit new partners as part of the certification process to ensure you will be getting a great software development team. And if you visit too, you’ll get the benefit of our travel experience.