Scio Consulting
www.sciodev.com
Morelia, Michoacan
SaaS, Product Development, Agile methodologies, SCRUM, Java, .NET, C/C++, Eclipse Framework, Business Intelligence
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
Why Nearshore Software Development to Mexico?
Over the years many people have advocated the outsourcing of software development and manufacturing to lower cost countries such as from Japan to China, US to Mexico, Italy to Romania, and so forth. Obviously India and China have made great strides over the last 15 years. India in particular has made a name for itself in software development, application maintenance, and call center management. Those that would oppose such outsourcing, are typically those concerned about their jobs. Clearly they are most directly affected.
I would like to point out the direct and indirect benefits of offshoring software development to a nearby neighbor of the US, Mexico. I think most that consider the opportunity would agree it is easier to manage a relationships with a critical application development partner when they are in the same time zone, and only a 2-4 hr flight away from places like Chicago, Houston, LA, San Jose, etc. Certainly the cultural differences are smaller than those between India and the US.
I suggest we take a more macro look at the practice as a whole by looking beyond a company's decision to expand with a nearshore development partner rather than hiring internally, or elsewhere in the US.
Perhaps some of you reading this are familiar with illegal immigrant issues in the US and the discussions of building a wall between our two countries. You may remember back several years when maquiladoras (or factories) in northern Mexico provided good jobs to Mexicans. More Mexicans in the blue collar labor force were able to get decent jobs producing goods for US customers. Then suddenly China came into the picture and companies that were determined to improve their bottom line, cleverly figured out 1) how to produce widgets in China and 2) then ship them by sea to the US all for less than it costs in Mexico. While personally I find it hard to believe this to be possible given the rising cost of petroleum, I will accept it for now.
But let's back up. Where do these Mexicans now search for work when their local factories pack up and move to China? Thanks to the expansion of Cable and Satellite television, they have the American Dream pumped into their TV sets on a regular basis, so it seems an obvious choice to travel North, across the border.
So now we have an illegal immigration problem because unemployment is up in Mexico and so we pump up our border patrol to deal with illegal crossings, increase our immigration staff to deal with applications, and spend time and money debating the issue in the State and US Senate so we can build a wall or whatever.
Fortunately, it appears that through Mexican government cooperation and exhaustion from traveling to India and China every few weeks to improve coordination for the team, many are now considering acquiring a software development partner in Mexico, thus creating the nearshore software development industry.
Forrester is elaborating on the benefits of this new playing field while even the very adaptable Indian outsourcing companies are setting up shop in Mexican cities.
All good news for Mexicans. Happy to see our neighbors doing well. Hopefully they will enjoy the same epic success as India and China over the coming years.
Adios for now
I would like to point out the direct and indirect benefits of offshoring software development to a nearby neighbor of the US, Mexico. I think most that consider the opportunity would agree it is easier to manage a relationships with a critical application development partner when they are in the same time zone, and only a 2-4 hr flight away from places like Chicago, Houston, LA, San Jose, etc. Certainly the cultural differences are smaller than those between India and the US.
I suggest we take a more macro look at the practice as a whole by looking beyond a company's decision to expand with a nearshore development partner rather than hiring internally, or elsewhere in the US.
Perhaps some of you reading this are familiar with illegal immigrant issues in the US and the discussions of building a wall between our two countries. You may remember back several years when maquiladoras (or factories) in northern Mexico provided good jobs to Mexicans. More Mexicans in the blue collar labor force were able to get decent jobs producing goods for US customers. Then suddenly China came into the picture and companies that were determined to improve their bottom line, cleverly figured out 1) how to produce widgets in China and 2) then ship them by sea to the US all for less than it costs in Mexico. While personally I find it hard to believe this to be possible given the rising cost of petroleum, I will accept it for now.
But let's back up. Where do these Mexicans now search for work when their local factories pack up and move to China? Thanks to the expansion of Cable and Satellite television, they have the American Dream pumped into their TV sets on a regular basis, so it seems an obvious choice to travel North, across the border.
So now we have an illegal immigration problem because unemployment is up in Mexico and so we pump up our border patrol to deal with illegal crossings, increase our immigration staff to deal with applications, and spend time and money debating the issue in the State and US Senate so we can build a wall or whatever.
Fortunately, it appears that through Mexican government cooperation and exhaustion from traveling to India and China every few weeks to improve coordination for the team, many are now considering acquiring a software development partner in Mexico, thus creating the nearshore software development industry.
Forrester is elaborating on the benefits of this new playing field while even the very adaptable Indian outsourcing companies are setting up shop in Mexican cities.
All good news for Mexicans. Happy to see our neighbors doing well. Hopefully they will enjoy the same epic success as India and China over the coming years.
Adios for now
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