Costa Rica Call Center Blog

Houston Airport System Development Corporation (HASDC), the fourth largest airport system in the US and recently appointed to be the administrator of the San Jose airport for the next 25 years, is on negotiations with a regional airline to make the San Jose airport into a major hub.

The airport construction is 4 weeks ahead of schedule and is rolling out a new information system that will enable the Government to know on real time, the number of passengers passing

The information was confirmed Jeffrey Scheferman, president of HASDC and his partner, José Renato de Camargo, from the Brazilian company Andrade Gutierrez Grants (AGC).

According Scheferman, the San Jose airport will also serve to facilitate connections from Costa Rica to other destinations.

On the continent Panama is a hub for COPA Airlines, El Salvador is a hub for TACA and Houston, Texas is the hub for Continental.

In two weeks the airport will be connected to the Civil Aviation Technical Council, allowing government entities to have information in “real time” of passengers entering and leaving the country.  Scheferman said that in this way, the government would know every day how much people spend.

This will help HASDC to identify opportunities to open new direct routes from US or elsewhere, said Camargo.

Now, the airport serves 2 million passengers a year, but the consortium aims to attract more direct routes and hub.

Source: La Nacion

In the first year of a combined Caribbean and Central American Countries of the Future ­competition, Puerto Rico marginally grasped first place as the top three countries, including Costa Rica (ranked second) and the Dominican Republic (ranked third).

Puerto Rico achieved not only the top ranking overall, but also the top ranking in the category of business friendliness. The country has the largest number of companies involved in high-tech manufacturing, high-tech services, and knowledge-based sectors in comparison with the rest of the Caribbean and Central American region.

Costa Rica performed consistently well across most categories, ranking in the top five in the areas of economic potential, quality of life, business friendliness, human resources and FDI strategy.

Dominican Republic was perceived to have the best FDI strategy. The Dominican Republic Export and Investment Centre, lists the country’s free-trade zones as a key incentive to foreign investors. Costa Rica and Panama were ranked second and third, respectively, in the category of best FDI strategy.

Source: FDI Magazine

• Company will provide service to Telecom companies in the U.S.
• Will hire 400 people to begin operation in the first quarter of next year

The company originally from Denver, Colorado, plans to receive calls for technical support and sales, activation of new telephone services and queries in accounts payable.

“We are looking for experienced staff in customer care, but also have positions for people who have little or no experience,” said Mary Beth Loesch, Corporate Vice President of the company.

Expansion. The call center in Costa Rica will be the second Star Tek has outside of the US and Canada where it has 19 offices in different cities.

In January, the company began its expansion in Manila, Philippines, with a center where 1,000 people work.

Loesch said Costa Rica was picked to continue to grow because they found the required human resources and English skills in addition to a good business climate.

Vanessa Gibson, director at Cinde, said that the arrival of the company reassures the leading position of Costa Rica in the Contact Center industry.

Source: La Nacion & Denver Business Journal

Zagada Institute comprehensive and independent analysis on the region’s seven markets indicates:

• Central America domestic and internationally focused agents positions has doubled from 21,000 in 2006 to to 42,000 in 2008, to exceed 80,000 by 2010
• Centers have grown from 164 to 274 between 2006 to 2008
• Costa Rica has now bypassed Panama to become the number one segment from a jobs and total end-to-end service perspective.
• Guatemala has become the number one growth market showing a 450% improvement over the last 24 months
• Over 600,000 students are now attending the regions 206 universities and institutions with over 125,000 graduating each year.
• Avaya dominates the region and with the purchase of Nortel’s Enterprise unit has positioned itself into monopoly-like status

An estimated 96% of existing agents and BPO workers are bilingual and continue to be a critical high-end niche in providing the customer care and back office needs of U.S. companies. The ever-expanding U.S. Hispanic American market is on track to exceed 50 million with over US$1 trillion in spending power by 2012 and U.S. customers are reporting relatively high levels of satisfaction. These twin factors are pushing demand for the region.

“Despite the Nearshore perception of unrest due to the political challenges in Honduras, at its core the region is pushing all the right buttons with respective states deepening their bilingual output, a healthy mix of local and international vendor firms are growing profits by serving clients well, and demand is expanding from U.S. buy-side companies,” said Philip Peters, CEO of Zagada Markets.

The Central America Nearshore market, however, also faces strategic challenges as the market expands. These include the need to further vigorously expand its bilingual-ready population to meet timely U.S. corporate buy-side demand, the importance of expanding physical contact center and BPO office capacity, and the need to strengthening its middle management core as the region’s vendors grow their service delivery complexity.

Source: Zagada Institute

• Half of the growth on employment at the Costa Rican Free Trade Zones comes from the Service Sector
• Service companies employ 21,700 jobs
• The companies do software, payroll, financial analysis and technical support, among others
• Sector sales grew 56% in 2008, while goods dropped

Every day, 21,700 workers of such companies solve technical problems, make online advertising and software, analyze finances and do payrolls to their own parent company or for large corporations worldwide.

They represent 41% of the 52,700 jobs under the Free Trade Zone.

In addition to services in the Free Trade Zones host a wide variety of manufacturing ranging from microprocessors, medical devices, and agro-chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

Between 2004 and 2008 the number of jobs in services increased from 6,985 to 21,700 (211% more), according to the report “Balance of Free Trade Zones for Costa Rica”, released yesterday by Procomer.

Last year alone service companies created 5,000 new jobs.

The boom in employment in the sector is explained by many multinationals which got started in the late 90’s when Sykes, Western Union, Procter & Gamble set up operations and has been growing faster.

In the year 2,000 there were 5 companies providing services from the country, today are 112 (including 28 managers of parks).

The companies within the Free Trade Zones alone, exported $917 million in 2008, $330 million (56%) increase over the 2007.

In contrast sales of goods from manufacturing companies fell by $84 million (2%) over the $ 5.067 million generated in 2007.

“The country is very attractive for companies to reduce costs efficiently without lowering quality and efficiency and in some cases, increase their productivity,” said Gabriela Llobet, director Cinde.

Llobet added that being very competitive in a period of economic uncertainty is critical because it attracts more companies to come here or expand their businesses.

“From now until the end of the year, we will see greater investment from companies that already operate in the country, moving operations here from other countries looking for more productivity,” said Llobet.

The service companies in the country provide outsourcing services to other companies or support their own corporation (captive operations).

Advantages to the country. Within the Free Trade Zone, service workers are paid an average monthly salary of $ 1,125.

This salary is the highest within the system compared to the salaries paid by manufacturing firms ($830), medical ($704), the agro-industry ($566) and textiles ($434).

“This is a worker who speaks English and has a university degree or higher technical skills,” said Llobet.

These service multinationals also provide the highest valued added to the local economy.

In 2008 the contribution was $696 million in wages, social taxes, local purchases of goods and services and the Procomer tax (the figure includes the remaining $34 million for tax exemptions received by companies).

The accumulated investment services companies is $814 million between 2004 and 2008, surpassed only by the companies of machinery and electrical equipment ($829 million).

Source: La Nacion

By Simon Briscoe in London
Published: July 4 2009 05:04 | Last updated: July 4 2009 05:04

Costa Rica, the country of fewer than 5m people sandwiched between Panama and Nicaragua, tops a new global ranking for combining a happy and long life with limited environmental degradation.

The country blends beautiful countryside, a great diversity of species and has long since got rid of its army. The merger of its energy and environment ministries has reversed deforestation and helped it produce 99 per cent of its energy from renewable sources. It has also scored highly, relative to other developing countries, in surveys of poverty, press freedom and democracy.

The Happy Planet Index, “Why good lives don’t have to cost the earth”, published on Saturday by the UK-based new economics foundation, combines measures of life expectancy, happiness and ecological footprint to assess the sustainability of growth in 143 countries.

That the top 10 in the list of “greenest and happiest” nations is dominated by Latin America might raise a few eyebrows, as the region is better known in the western imagination for its slums, inequality and coups. Zimbabwe languishes at the bottom along with a dozen other south, east and central African countries.

But the Latin Americans score highly, the report suggests, due to non-material aspirations and strong social capital among friends and relatives. The grim performance of the developed world might also prompt some westerners to cast doubt over the value of the report. Among the rich nations, the highest placed country is the Netherlands – but it manages only 43rd.

The UK languishes midway down the table – 74th, behind Germany, Italy and France but ahead of Japan and Ireland. The US fares particularly poorly, in 114th place. The western countries have long life expectancy and people are reasonably happy, but the countries suffer in the rankings due to their ecological footprint, reflecting high levels of consumption.

The challenge for the west, the report says, is not to keep increasing incomes but to aim for more meaningful lives and stronger social ties. That might be a leap too far in the near term but the index is released when policymakers are exploring broader measures of progress rather than a desire to boost growth. French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s “Commission on the measurement of economic performance and social progress” is due to report soon.

Critics of such measures and summary indices say they are based on arbitrary data and calculations but most welcome their contribution to the policy debate.

“HPI is one of the several attempts to go ‘beyond GDP’ and to bring attention to important aspects of our life,” Enrico Giovannini, chief statistician at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, said. But, he added, “It is impossible to capture in a single indicator the complexity of our society.”

Source: The Financial Times Limited 2009

“Our experience in the country has been positive in the quality of service”

Amazon, a leader in Internet sales, expects to expand its operations to Costa Rica at the end of the year hiring 100 more people for customer service.

Patty Smith, Director of Corporate Communications for the company, confirmed the information from the firm’s headquarters in Washington State, United States.

According to Smith, the reason to expand its operations in Costa Rica is due to the good performance of its first customer center in Latin America, which operates in the free zone UltraLAG in Heredia.

“We will grow as our requirements demand, and we will do so at a pace that allows us to ensure that quality standards remain a positive experience for the customer. Therefore, at this time, Amazon Costa Rica has approximately 200 employees and expect to have 100 by the end of 2009″ confirmed Smith in an email.

“Our experience has been very positive, especially as regards the quality of service. Amazon aims to be the largest company focused on customer care, and Costa Rica has proven to have quality people who can provide the proper customer service” added the spokeswoman.

The good news of the new 100 does not come alone. Smith added the company plans to hire in its global operations, temporary jobs for the holiday season this year.

“For the dates of holidays between October and December, we will be offering temporary opportunities for those who want to earn extra money for Christmas or the end of the school year (…) Amazon is one of the few companies that offer this option, where we give full training for a period of two to three months” said the executive.

Even Smith did not rule out that the company considers full time employment to those who “have shown a high performance for that period and would like to remain in the company.”

Amazon began operations here last October and according to Smith, the home has a capacity to house 700 employees.

Smith explained that in terms of attracting investment, Costa Rica offers a high level of education and Costa Ricans have a “natural inclination” towards a culture of service.

“Part of the feature of Amazon is to be open to new concepts and ideas, especially if these benefits directly to the customer. If the headquarters in Costa Rica continues to experience high testing to the client, then there will be more opportunities for growth as far as the market allows” she said.

Source: La Nacion

Five companies need to hire 600 people who have a high level of English and immediate availability.

They are Stream, AEGIS, Amadeus, ICT Group and ACE. These companies operate in Heredia and are focused on outsourcing of financial, technical support, billing, human resources and telemarketing, among other services.

According to Gabriela Llobet, director CINDE (the national agency for attracting foreign investment), the new jobs are available because of the good times the services sector in Costa Rica is experiencing.

“It is definitely very good news for the country that in times of crisis there are opportunities for growth for these companies (both organic and new business) because of the credibility and competitiveness of the country and because the companies located here are highly productive and have a skilled workforce” said.

According to CINDE, more than 20 companies of this type are installed in the country.
Labor supply. Lisbeth Thomas of Stream, reported that they need 350 people because of expansion of its services: 150 for one in English and another 200 for a bilingual (English-Spanish).

The company was established in the country three years ago and has a payroll of 1,000 people at its office located in the Americas FTZ, in Heredia. Some of the benefits offered to those interested in joining Stream are subsidies on food and transportation.

Adriana Porras from ICT Group, said the company, which began operations here in 2006 with 10 people – looking for between 150 and 200 people to work in the area of customer service. Porras said that ICT Group provides stability, good wages and opportunities for internal growth.

Felipe Cardona from AEGIS, said the multinational, which in 2008 bought People Support-need about 20 people working in the area of customer service. This group will join the more than 100 people the company hired in April (90) and May (20) and working in Ultra Park in Heredia. The company specializes in outsourcing of sales and collections.

Amadeus – which provides services to travel agencies, hotels, rent-a-cars and cruises, among others, seeks to four people working in the technical part. Recently, the company hired 16 for the service.

John Cotter said that Amadeus offers competitive salaries, annual bonus according to performance, health insurance, international and even a special room for recreation. Currently has more than 30 employees in Oficentro Madonna in Pavas since its installation in 1998.

ACE is looking for people to do collections in United States. Ricardo Esquivel, did not specify the number of people involved, but said that every month “looking for people with a very high level in English”.

Source: La Nacion

What’s working and not working in Costa Rica: A Collective Q/A

The Services Summit is built around corporate speed-dating

Over 300 attendees make up this year’s Services Summit. What’s striking is there is literally no drop off – people are sticking around for the full conference.

The valuable part to blogging from a buyer/seller (corporate speed dating) event from a business journalist’s perspective is you have deeper conversations with a focused group of individuals. Unlike a conference with on-stage speakers and panels, this type of event seems to enable you to self-direct your own line of inquiry and test market your opinions.

Here are the key topics I’ve been driving and the collective responses (drawn from about two dozen in-depth conversations throughout the summit):

Question: How does Costa Rica rate among other nearshore nations?

Answer: Costa Rica is not a lowest-cost provider. The nation’s services industry continues on an upward trajectory toward higher levels of quality, specialization and niche professional capabilities. The services sector is intentionally designed to be dynamic and the nation’s education system is in fact set up to align to business requirements now and for the next generation of market demand.

Question: What is the hottest service sector right now?

Answer: CAD and architectural design is getting a lot of attention and the software development sector is filled with companies with a hard-core focus on differentiation and value-added service. Medical tourism, product development and patent and intellectual property research are doing well also.

Question: Costa Rica is increased looked at as a “hub” for nearshore outsourcing. What exactly does that mean?

Answer: Costa Rica is absolutely a shining light in the Nearshore region. The hub concept is starting to take shape in two ways – regional leadership (dozens of service provider companies from around the nearshore region participated in the Service Summit) and through an “aggregator” role – where business flows from client to the Costa Rica provider which manages the project/ relationship and selectively sources to other locations such at Panama and Colombia, based on need.

(My view: There continues to be a need for the Nearshore nations to come together more collectively as a block which will accelerate global awareness of the unique strengths of this region. Many observers expect CAFTA to enable some of that cooperation. Yet, to be honest, there is definitely a sense of competitiveness among the Nearshore Lions (Costa Rica and Mexico) and the Tigers (Jamaica, Colombia, Guatemala, Puerto Rico and Barbados). There is more talk of cooperation than real action.

Question: Where are Costa Rica professional services providers struggling?

Answer: Without question the weakest point for many of the providers in Costa Rica (the vast majority of them have under 50 employees) is sales and marketing. These companies generally need help developing targeted marketing campaigns and messaging that highlights their core value proposition. Reaching the US buyer is a top issue – since (at risk of oversimplification) the practice of Nearshore outsourcing is invisible to many US clients. PROCOMER is identified by many providers as a key facilitator of awareness-building in the buyer audience

Source: Caribbean CRM Central

Posted by Bob Evans on Jun 1, 2009 02:55 PM

The list, built around concerns over terrorism, pollution, and geopolitical tensions, includes cities from a range of countries that could otherwise constitute a round-the-world tourism dream: Thailand, Jamaica, South Africa, Brazil, India, Israel, the Philippines, and Colombia. Read on to see if your company’s global outsourcing map matches up with this list of the world’s 10 riskiest locations for outsourcing.

Here are the top 10 as ranked by Brown & Wilson, authors of the annual “Black Book of Outsourcing”:

1. Bogota, Colombia
2. Bangkok, Thailand
3. Johannesburg, South Africa
4. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
5. Kingston, Jamaica
6. Delhi/Noida/Gurgaon (NCR), India
7. Manila, Philippines
8. Rio do Janeiro, Brazil
9. Mumbai, India
10. Jerusalem, Israel

Bogota took the dreaded top spot for a handful of reasons, according to an article in India Times

Does Bogota Deserve it?

Source: InformationWeek