Nicaragua’s BPO Sector Attracts Industry Giants

March 4, 2010 - PRLog -- In its efforts to promote Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Nicaragua’s emerging BPO sector, PRONicaragua, the official investment promotion agency of Nicaragua, participated in the 2010 Outsourcing World Summit this February organized by the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP) in Orlando, FL, to discuss new industry trends and highlight industry best practices.

The event brought together the world’s leading outsourcing customers, providers and advisors in a powerful, active and growing global association to exchange thought leadership, share best practices and network to maximize their effectiveness using outsourcing as a management tool.

Nicaragua’s emerging BPO sector is attracting an increasing number of multinational companies seeking to lower operational costs and optimize production performance by outsourcing in Nicaragua. Nicaragua has now become a strong contender among its peers as labor costs in neighboring countries such as Costa Rica and El Salvador have increased.

Aside from competitive labor force costs, the recent improvements in Nicaragua’s data and bandwidth networking infrastructure have been an attractive factor for global organizations. Additionally, the country also offers Contact Center and BPO operations up to 100 percent tax exemption on imported supplies, raw materials, and machinery while operating under the Free Trade Zone Regime. In addition, Nicaragua’s telecom system has almost 4,000 kilometers of a fiber optics backbone whose capillary reach extends to remote areas of the country and guarantees redundancy.

In 2008, Sitel launched operations in Nicaragua, a world leader in the outsourcing of complex business processes worldwide. Sitel’s Nicaragua operation has been one of the “biggest success stories over the last 18 months” for the global BPO and contact center organization, Andrew Kokes, VP of Marketing at Sitel, told Nearshore Americas.

Kokes says the value of Nicaragua became apparent so quickly that the company opened a second facility within the first year, which is a rarity for Sitel. “It’s been a phenomenal experience,” added Kokes, “what made it a tough place to be in the 80s, has changed dramatically… now everyone has come home and they have come back bilingual, and educated.”

PatentVest, a California-based business that does the groundwork for companies seeking patent intelligence, also invested in Nicaragua back in 2006. Chris Marlett, founder of PatentVest, was looking to improve the business retention rate while receiving the high-quality research work he demanded. “To my astonishment, the Nicaraguan team got more data organized in their first three months on the job than the California team did in 12 months”, commented Marlett.

Other major BPO players in Nicaragua include Stream Global Services, which started operations in February 2010 through its recent acquisition of E-Telecare, and Concentrix, which established in early 2009, with the take-over of Intelligent Outsourcing. Currently, there are about 14 companies in Nicaragua’s business process outsourcing industry employing more than 2,000 professionals.