Stefanini promotes Nearshore opportunity

SOUTHFIELD, Mich., Feb. 5, 2016 -- With more than 24 years of experience in nearshore development services, Stefanini — a $1B global provider of IT outsourcing, applications management & consulting, and strategic staffing services — suggests proactive methods for maximizing Nearshore initiatives. With a disciplined and mature process, for many clients the nearshore model is much more efficient in achieving higher percentages of work performed at a lower cost location than offshore. Along with improved cost savings, the nearshore model drives a more effective collaboration and improved vendor alignment.

For Nikhil Desai, Practice Manager of Applications at Stefanini North America, companies that look for the best of both worlds in their partnership arrangements – in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, collaboration, and responsiveness – have found the nearshore model to have better responses.

"It is important that clients see Partner (Service Provider) teams as an extension of their organization to drive successful outcomes; real time collaboration and ongoing communication is critical to achieve the same. It is amazing to see how lack of communications in some situations can slow things significantly down, not to mention the impact it has on productivity and quality of services besides creating an environment of mistrust and misunderstanding. Same time-zone nearshore model helps deal with these challenges better than a more traditional offshoring model does," said Mr. Desai.

According to Mr. Desai, the North American market service provider organizations have been delivering Application Management Services (AMS) for over two decades. It's probably the most industrialized and mature of all outsourced IT services in today's market but, ironically, these services have some of the most dissatisfied customers.

"There is a clear disconnect between what services providers deliver and what customers expect. The business perception rarely resonates with IT Service Metrics and 100% SLA achievements, which are usually communicated in 'all-green' dashboards," explains Mr. Desai. According Mr. Desai, providers today ought to be more customer-centric and have models that help them get closer to their customers and deliver transformation outcomes that are aligned to their customer's business strategy. "It is very important that every team member from the Service Provider has this sense of purpose and belonging to meet their customer objectives. I cannot imagine how this can be effectively addressed by a model that is so dispersed in space and time," affirmed Mr. Desai.

Expertise in Nearshore

Stefanini is able to meet clients' immediate needs by ramping up resources in a reduced timeframe. As a global company, Stefanini has dedicated recruitment centers which are able to hire up to 600 new resources per month near each of our larger Nearshore delivery locations across Brazil and Mexico. Stefanini has Global Delivery Centers located in Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, and Chile.

Through its "smart-shore" centers, Stefanini is ready, scalable, and can be adapted to our client-specific needs. Bringing decades of IT outsourcing expertise, Stefanini has more than 250 customers supported and 1,450 projects delivered. The company has 27 delivery centers with over 8,000 professionals in delivery and 170 continuous operations in place.

Latin America opportunities

Nearshore Services, which not very long ago were at a relative premium, compelled US companies to explore India offshoring options. However, in the current scenario, the stronger US dollar and an under-stress Brazilian Real effectively means that the cost arbitrage between Nearshore services out of Brazil and offshore Services from India is rapidly narrowing.

Besides, a slow-down in the Brazilian market effectively also means an abundance of talent at attractive rates. The net result: Organizations can potentially maximize the benefits of Nearshore Services at offshore comparable rates. In some cases like Stefanini, where service providers have a flat structure and optimal loading structure, the cost proposition in the case of Nearshore Services works out much better when compared to the traditional large offshore based players.

About Stefanini

Stefanini is a global IT outsourcing services company with locations in 37 countries across the Americas, Europe, Australia, and Asia. Since 1987, Stefanini has been providing onshore, nearshore and offshore IT services, including application development services, IT infrastructure outsourcing (help desk support and desktop services), systems integration, consulting, and strategic staffing to Fortune 1000 enterprises around the world. Clients benefit from Stefanini's financial stability, sustained year-over-year growth, and zero net debt. The corporate global headquarters is located in Sao Paulo, Brazil with European headquarters in Brussels and North American headquarters in metropolitan Detroit. Further information is available at the company's website, www.stefanini.com.

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