Probably you don't have a clue about what "Uruguay" is or where it is located. Perhaps you heard about it in the news due to its importance in the Global Delivery Model offered by most of the Global IT Companies worldwide. In this post, you will learn more about this "paradise" for getting good software and IT services at low rates.
Uruguay is a small country (3 million people) located in the south cone of Latin America (just in the middle of Argentina and Brasil).
It has lot of cities with amazing beaches over the Atlantic Ocean, attractions for all kinds of public and it is visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the world, every year.
But Uruguay has been the choice of many of the major IT and non IT companies in the world (including Tata Consultancy Services from India and Sabre Holdings from US among hundreds) , to establish their software factories and call centers. This little country is also the largest exporter of software in the region !
But why ?
Well, Uruguay has some privileged advantages over other countries around the world. Here I'm listing the major ones:
- Timezone: Uruguay's geographic location (GMT - 3) is great for doing business with U.S. and Europe. It is aligned with the U.S. east coast, and just a few time zones behind UK. This has been a clear advantage over other countries like India with so many hours of difference.
- Culture: Uruguayan population is composed mostly of immigrants from Europe (Spain, Italy) and has received a lot of influence from US culture over the years. This resulted in a culture very similar to US and Europe. Friendly people everywhere, excellent communication skills, and committed to outperform in their jobs are some of the attractive qualities found by foreign companies.
- Education: Even when it is legally free, the quality of the Software Engineer career (almost 6 years in total) is above the average within the region and other countries around the world (based in my experience working for foreign companies). There are also paid universities (i.e. www.ort.edu.uy) where courses are even more aligned with the latest technology trends (specially Microsoft). As a result, even when there are not so many new Software Engineers \ IT Analysts every year, they do have a deep background not only in DB design and Software Development with different technologies (mainly .NET and Java), but also with Calculus, Physics, Quality and other Software related processes and areas.
- Government support: Exporting Software from Uruguay has no taxes. This is one of the key laws written by our government to encourage the development of this industry.
- Costs: As a direct consequence of the above, Uruguayan rates for resources and facilities are much lower than in other countries. Even when it is not as cheap as India, you get qualified resources for less money. I think this might be one of the main advantages for big IT companies who are trying to minimize their costs.
- Communication: English and French can be learned for free in most of the education centers. Different telecommunications companies provide video conference and VoIP facilities, which allow companies here to have their virtual teams just the same as if they were onsite.
- Others, many other advantages...
All that being said, Uruguay is definitely one of the best choices for outsourcing your software development projects. You will find big and small IT companies established here, some good, some not so good, also with a variety of rates.
Our company is a great example of an IT company based in Uruguay and taking advantage of all the above points for the past 6 years.
I've been working at UruIT forming a group with some of the best .NET developers and architects from Uruguay. We are doing Software Development and Nearshore Outsourcing from Montevideo, with the latest .NET technologies. We are now exploring new areas such as Testing, BPO and Production Support.
We handle several projects for different customers located in U.S., U.K., South America and Uruguay.
If you are interested in exploring opportunities for your company not only to reduce your costs but also to get an outstanding service, just drop me a line or a comment and I'll be more than happy to get back to you with some help.
-- Posted written by Marcelo Lopez. .: UruIT: Global IT Services. R&D