Information Center

Internet costs (VoIP)

Source: Julio Herrera, Navega Commercial Manager, March 2009 (Prices in US$)

English speaking population

Honduras has the largest English speaking population in Central America (412 Bilingual Schools), almost 100% more than the rest of Central American countries. There are 57 bilingual schools only in San Pedro Sula, the following chart shows a list of the bilingual schools in San Pedro Sula.

Offshore / Near shore outsourcing: Honduras, the rising star!

Offshore outsourcing requires choosing a partner to deliver your IT support from a country outside of your primary region. Offshore outsourcing has been equated with lower support costs, but that only tells part of the story. Companies choose offshore outsourcers for the same reasons they consider outsourcing in general: to focus on their core business, to improve scale, to deliver more services, as well as to achieve cost savings. And there are more shores than just India…Near shore outsourcing is very similar to offshore outsourcing, except that the outsourcing firms generally are located in close proximity with a corporation's border. In the case of the United States, this generally means Canada, Mexico or Central America.The objective is to capture the lower prices afforded by these countries while still maintaining a close geographical relationship. Because travel times are minimized, some companies feel that near shore partners are easier to manage and evaluate: based on this, Honduras makes a perfect choice!

World Demand for IT Talent: Offshore and Nearshore ITO and BPO

Global sourcing has become a key competitive necessity for major organizations. While a number of factors affect the cost savings potential of any given global sourcing arrangement, the availability and the cost of labor are among the most important.Trend analysis in contact center, BPO and IT industries, show that the demand for skilled graduates in business, technology and social sciences is intensifying. Throughout the next decade, the U.S., Europe, Japan, China and India will face a shortfall of 32 million technically specialized professionals. Latin America is ready to confront this challenge.

Outsourcing in Latin America

Latin America, a hot spot and the new India

According to a recent study developed by A.T.Kearney, Latin America has clearly become a hot story. Latin America has gained momentum in the offshoring and near-shoring discussion primarily due to its language capabilities and low costs.Many Latin American countries, such as Honduras, can cater to both Spanish and English speaking customers at costs comparable to those offered in traditional offshore destinations such as India and the Philippines. Latin America is also appealing due to its proximity to the United States, similar time zones, cultural affinity and availability of workers.Companies have been outsourcing a host of functions to countries there in recent years, ranging from IT maintenance, software development and operations support to business process outsourcing (BPO), shared service centers and call centers.Latin America has become the world’s next outsourcing hotspot due to the region’s unique ability to offer dynamic, multilingual contact center services for a wide range of global markets.

This region will continue to both rival, as well as complement, India’s own world-famous BPO industry. A growing number of companies will turn to the Latin American region, whether they are U.S. companies looking for locations in close proximity and time zone, similar business culture and English speaking / bilingual workforce; Spanish companies looking for economical and skilled Spanish language skills; or local or global companies looking to service domestic or regional consumers.For companies in North America and Europe the interest in Latin America is twofold, as they view it as an alternative destination for English based services as well as a location to serve their large Spanish-speaking clientele and business processes.

With 40 million Hispanics and growing, the United States has the second largest population of Spanish speakers in the Americas. As this group continues to gather economic strength, it is drawing increased attention from corporate America.Many multinational companies have expanded and are now better positioned to grow their global footprint by settling in Latin America, with Honduras as the future development spot. The future holds a strong Latin American BPO industry built on the foundation of highly skilled workers, well-established business culture, exceptional customer service and affordable contact center services. In years to come, we can expect that India and Latin America will form two giant pillars upon which the majority of the BPO industry will be built.