Alsbridge Names Next Top 10 Latin American Cities for Outsourcing

Ten Emerging Cities Take the Spotlight from Sao Paolo, Santiago and Buenos Aires

Alsbridge, the award winning outsourcing, offshoring and shared services advisory firm, announced today its Next Top Ten list for outsourcing locations in Latin America.   After the major centers of Sao Paolo, Santiago and Buenos Aires, Alsbridge research has identified ten up-and-coming locations among the areas being evaluated.  The cities emerging as hot spots in Latin America are San Jose (Costa Rica), Managua (Nicaragua) Monterrey (Mexico), Panama City (Panama) Bogotá (Colombia), Montevideo (Uruguay), Guatemala City (Guatemala), Brasília (Brazil), Juarez (Mexico) and Curitiba (Brazil).

The criteria for selecting the cities was based on several factors including population, accessibility, education of the workforce and success of existing companies that have businesses in these cities. A more detailed report on each city, along with commentary including accessibility, educational institutions and existing outsourcing companies may be viewed here:

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“Latin America has two major advantages over all other outsourcing locations – time zone and travel time.  While it takes 18 hours to reach Mumbai from Dallas, I can be in Guatemala City in only four hours,” says Ben Trowbridge, Alsbridge CEO.  “Call centers and business functions requiring work to be completed during US business hours lend themselves to a working location in this hemisphere.”

Many of the leading outsourcing companies are already making moves to establish a presence in these emerging locations.  Infosys and Wipro have operations in Monterey, Mexico while TCS is operating in Montevideo, Uruguay.  Dell and EDS are in Panama City.  All of the cities listed have shown the ability to attract major global corporations and outsourcing providers.

“The Global 50 brands have already established a presence in the traditional offshore locations, whether through an outsourcing provider or their own shared captive centers,” says Trowbridge.  “Now we are seeing a request by these companies for a diversification strategy.  They want to know what’s next and we believe there are emerging cities across the globe that qualify based on the quality of the workforce and low cost of living.”

According to an Alsbridge survey of information technology outsourcing buyers, Latin America is low in the list of preferred locations.  Respondents identified Costa Rica (5%), Brazil (8%), Argentina (8%) and Mexico (13%), yet India (64%) and China (25%) dominated the list. 

“Typically, those going to Latin America today have a need for Spanish language support or they have saturation in other offshore locations and are experimenting with new locations,” says Trowbridge.  “Companies must perform extensive research and due diligence based on their unique situation in order to make the smartest location choice.”

Alsbridge research previously identified the next top ten emerging cities in India and China.  Companies should be mindful of their location and carefully engage outside assistance from focused consulting experts such as Alsbridge prior to making any location decision. Future reports will include Eastern Europe, Africa and the United States.  For these studies and additional research on outsourcing and offshoring, visit outsourcingleadership.com.

About Alsbridge:

Alsbridge is the award winning global advisory firm, providing unbiased advice and assistance on outsourcing, shared services and offshoring.  Alsbridge consultants bring extensive vertical industry expertise and a practical knowledge of all areas within information technology and business process outsourcing.  The firm's proven methodology incorporates proprietary collaborative sessions, bringing together executive teams from both the client and the provider in an environment that fosters collaboration.  Alsbridge supports its recommendations and assistance through significant investments in proprietary benchmarking and ongoing research within the industry.  For more information, visit http://www.alsbridge.com/.