As businesses look to scale their efficiency the global market for nearshore and offshore outsourcing continues to grow. While many people link India and Asia as the main outsourcing hubs there is a real momentum shift happening in Central America particularly in Nicaragua as a new outsourcing marketplace that offers many benefits.
However, choosing the right outsourcing partner is always the same process – whether it’s China, Nicaragua or India as the main labor target.
Today, we are talking with Matt Reeser, a thought leader in the outsourcing industry in Nicaragua – who is helping us pinpoint the main qualities of a great outsourcing partner.
So, what are the key qualities of a solid outsourcing partner?
1. Skipping A Language Barrier
Ideally, English-speaking countries make the perfect outsourcing markets. This is mostly because of the language barrier that many outsourcing buyers want to avoid regardless of the cost of labor in a specific country.
Aside from communication, English-speaking countries make great outsourcing markets because of the constant workflow and the additional groups of professionals that are available (for example customer service, data entry, phones sales and healthcare reps etc.)
2. Time Zone (Similarities)
Hiring an outsourcing partner sometimes requires the presence of real-time tasks, operations and day-to-day reporting. With needs like these an outsourcing country that is hours ahead – or behind – the time zone in the outsourcing buyer’s country can create a major issue.
That is why some outsource vendors like Tri Source International have started shifting their operations to Central America. Having the same time zone as their clients results in better and more organized workflow, communication and results.
3. Skills And Expertise
Every outsourcing partner should have the right labor force to execute all of the requirements by the client buyer. Although this seems like a no-brainer, there is actually a great deal of countries where the talent pool is below the expectations or standards of the industry.
This is another reason why more and more outsourcing buyershave started shifting their efforts to Central America and Nicaragua. As our speaker Matt Reeser says:
“Nicaragua has a large talent pool that ranges from Tier 1 to Tier 3 level talent which are fully capable of handling just about all front and back office tasks. The main reason for this is the investment in education and the numerous programs that are run by the country, all focused on making Nicaragua the first and foremost outsourcing destination in the world.”
4. Outsourcing Companies Instead Of Freelancers
According to Matt Reeser, “In a world full of freelancers, finding a motivated and long-term oriented outsourcing provider is really hard. And this is where the company approach steps in. In today’s world there are more and more outsourcing providers than ever before and each of them is mutually responsible for providing professional, reliable and long-term services that take outsourcing to the next level.”
If there is one thing we can conclude from all of these ideas in the end it is that the pool of talent is evolving. With that the outsourcing marketplace is growing, especially to countries that exactly match the needs of the outsourcing buyers and are able to respond to them effectively and with agile solutions.
