BPO in Central America is big business, with every country throwing their hat into the ring. But, following an on-the-ground visit, it’s clear that Nicaragua lives and breathes the industry, and it’s impacting the whole country.
Around two years ago, Nicaragua took a hit in US perception following the expulsion of three US officials from the country and a subsequent travel warning. This was a relatively small black mark, but negatively impacted how many view the country in the States.
The truth is, the country is safe, greatly aligned with the US market, and has pioneered some impactful things for BPO in recent years, so definitely deserved an objective look.
Here’s a detailed account of some observations and experiences during the trip.
Arriving in Managua
Flying in over Managua Lake
April 1, 12:45 PM (EDT): This place is hot. During the day, the temperature hits between 86 and 95 degrees, the air is not too dry thanks to nearby Managua Lake, and there is usually a relatively strong wind whistling around – pack light and dress lighter. A shirt is comfortable, but ties and jackets are overkill out here.
The airport is pretty small – which is to be expected for a city of 1 million people – and there can be delays at the immigration. I had to wait in line for an hour as the border guard manually input information from visitor passports and travel documents. Without any extra baggage to collect, you’ll breeze right through, but the baggage claim room looked pretty well-organized too.
Essential Tip: Make sure you have a US$10 bill for the “tourist card” when you arrive, or you’ll have to use the ATM to draw it out, which charges US$1.50 on top of your usual bank fees.
April 1, 14:20 PM (EDT): After a short 35 minute drive, Francis Icabalceta from ProNicaragua, a fantastic host for the whole trip, dropped me off at the Holiday Inn Express Managua, which is reasonably priced between US$80 and US$100 per night, offers comfortable rooms with air con, and includes a modest choice of fruit, juices, baked goods, beans, and eggs for breakfast. There is also a pool and a fitness room to burn off those croissants.
Something that stuck out immediately is how happy and friendly all the staff were – the reception workers, maids, cleaners, and even the security guards all had a genuine smile on their face. It doesn’t feel forced or counterfeit; people show real warmth to visitors.
Easy Sunday in Granada
Main square in Granada, a must-see colonial town in the southeast of Nicaragua
April 1, 15:00 PM (EDT): After getting settled in, Francis and her husband collected me from the hotel and we headed off to Granada, a beautiful colonial town located around 45 minutes southeast of Managua on the shore of Lake Nicaragua, and 100% worth a visit.
We enjoyed some grilled steak and Toña, a popular national lager, at restaurant El Zaguán, which was a little overpriced and full of tourists, but knows how to cook its meat and provides fantastic service.
Quick Observation: Around 90% of the people you’ll meet in customer service will have impeccable English, from waiters and hotel staff, to agents and directors – the accent is almost indistinguishable from a native US English speaker. Sometimes their comprehension is a little off, but it probably didn’t help that this editor has a British accent.
Following that, we grabbed a coffee at Café Las Flores, one of the country’s popular national coffee brands, and took a walk around the modest main square, where people had gathered to play some local music, dance, and just unwind on a lazy Sunday.
Volcanic Experience
Masaya Volcano National Park. Don’t miss the chance to check this rare place out, despite the long wait to get in.
April 1, 19:00 PM (EDT): There was barely any traffic on the drive back to Managua, so we decided to stop at the Masaya Volcano National Park, which was a massive highlight of the visit. The park gives visitors a chance to peer into the crater of an angry, active volcano, providing a glimpse of an intimidating lake of molten lava, as it swirls and heaves in a mesmerizing, fiery dance — a rare phenomenon on Earth as the molten rocks often cools and solidifies within weeks.
Advice for visitors: Expect a wait of around two hours to get into the park. The first hour is all queuing, then you get a chance to visit a museum inside, which has drinks and bathrooms too. After that, expect another long wait before you being given access to the top of the volcano.
Despite the long wait to get in, this experience is not to be missed.
An Introduction to Nicaragua
Maria Margarita Espinosa, Promotion Manager for the services industry at ProNicaragua, and its Executive Director, Carlos Zarruk Castill (center)
April 2, 10:45 AM (EDT): A short drive around the corner from the hotel took us to ProNicaragua’s office for an introductory presentation on the country and on the state of BPO. The agency has done a good job of collecting data from local companies through a series of annual surveys, with 42 of 49 companies participating in their 2016 study – the 2017 data is being prepared for release in the next few months.
The agency’s investment promotion manager for the services industry, Maria Margarita Espinosa, and its executive director, Carlos Zarruk Castillo, are both very knowledgeable about how the industry is operating, and it’s obvious from discussing it with these representatives that the country sees the importance of the sector’s impact on economic growth.
April 2, 12:30 PM (EDT): The first corporate meeting was with Manuel Díaz, Site Director at OneLink, which is serving six US clients, one of which is a tech company in the health and fitness space. The company has 1,450 seats and 1,300 agents, 1,000 of which are fully bilingual.
OneLink’s facility boasts loads of staff amenities centered on fitness, such as a running track surrounding the desks, exercise bikes dotted around, a multi-sports area for basketball and football, and even a ball-launching machine for baseball, as well as a games room, a coffee shop modeled after local brands, a small cinema, and a chilling out space – all important attrition killers.
April 2, 14:30 PM (EDT): We then met with Alejandra Medina Cordua, Site Director at SPi CRM, and a previous employee of ProNicaragua. Alejandra pointed out that, despite high ability with those who do speak English, there is a pool of highly educated, under-employed people that don’t have the right level of the language to join the sector – a direct result of academia not supporting it strongly enough.
Furthermore, industry players are not yet dong enough to create a chamber or association for the sector, which is leading to a much more competitive ecosystem as companies continue to ramp. Every company seems to have a desire for this, but no-one is stepping up yet to take responsibility for it.
BPO Prominence and the Caribbean Attraction
April 3, 10:00 AM (EDT): Around the city, there are numerous signs and advertisements aimed at BPO recruitment, and spotting various BPO facilities and logos. The city is pretty small, but BPO is clearly a prominent presence here, and both the government and the settled companies appear to be betting big on its continued growth.
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Sitel, the largest employer in the country with 2,866 workers, and the longest-tenured BPO player since launching in 2008, is one of those prominent figures around the city.
Val VanDegrift, Country Manager & VP Shared Services at Sitel, and one of the country’s tenured BPO gurus.
April 3, 10:30 AM (EDT): Val VanDegrift, Country Manager & VP Shared Services at Sitel, also echoed the challenge of an under-employed labour pool, as well as occasional wide swings in the dollar advantage impacting prices – Nicaragua widely accepts US dollars and companies also pay in dollars, but operational costs can fluctuate when the US exchange rate disfavors the local córdoba.
According to VanDegrift, Sitel’s Nicaragua operations have become a hub for the company’s social media and human resources in the Americas, as well as housing managers and supervisors for work-at-home agents in the US, which shows confidence in the Nicaraguan workforce.
Two resonating themes are a growing Caribbean workforce and an influx of people returning home to Nicaragua from the US. There are not yet any hard statistics or data for those returning home, but OneLink and Sitel reported that 10% and 25%, respectively, of their workforce is from the Caribbean coast, where Creole English is the common language.
April 3, 13:00 PM (EDT): Ibex, on the other hand, said that 35% to 38% of its 640-strong workforce was from the Caribbean, so is leading the charge in attracting those workers, who often relocate to Managua just to find work in the sector.
The company’s offices were a hive of activity, with a fresh recruitment drive pulling in dozens of applicants. Henry Ordoñez, Ibex Country Manager, highlighted that because of the country’s young workforce – 76.1% are under 39 years old – there is a risk that traditional training can be off-putting, and the new generations need hands-on experience with systems and calls to drive better engagement (Henry himself is a Sitel prodigy, joining the company eight years ago and climbing the ladder).
This approach is starting to be applied across the board, with some companies even pioneering new ways to train the next generation of managers and supervisors – we will be covering this innovation in detail in a follow-up article later this month.
April 4, 12:30 PM (EDT): During the last meeting of the week, a pattern became clear: there is a generation of young directors rising from the first agents to join the industry when Sitel arrived. Carlos Medina, Country Manager for Opticall, like Henry, is another Sitel prodigy – mentored by both Val VanDegrift and Manuel Díaz – rising from the agent level to CM in just six years. The two young managers saw Sitel as “a perfect school for the new generation of BPO directors”, enabling local talent to outpace and drive out expats.
Opticall is also doing some next-level work with telemedicine, training customer service agents to become refractionists – the guys who check your eyesight at an opticians and determine your prescription. These refractionists are consulting with US patients over video calls and even controlling the eye-test machinery remotely with IoT technology. With 78 people in the company doing this, the team is fairly sizable for telemedicine, and is reportedly the only one of its kind in Central America.
Summary
All in all, the experience in Nicaragua was a positive one, and it’s clear that the BPO industry is attractive to the workforce, high-performing, and fast becoming part of the culture. The country is safe, the people are warm and friendly, and the language skills with those who speak English are at one of the highest levels in Nearshore.
Once certain bottlenecks in education are addressed, the country will be able to rely on a larger labor pool that is deeply connected to US culture and language. Customer service is an obvious strength, but more technical skills will need to be developed to offer higher value services.
If you were on the fence about visiting Nicaragua for BPO scouting or just travel, it’s highly recommend you do. Whether you have pre-conceived notions of the country, or go in blind with no expectations, prepare to be impressed by what is happening there.
Date | Fecha: April 5, 2018
Source | Fuente: Nearshore Americas
The Central American nation of Nicaragua is in the spotlight this week after Jack Brooksbank proposed to his long-term girlfriend Princess Eugenie during a holiday there.
Sandwiched between Costa Rica and Honduras, and with both Caribbean and Pacific coasts, Nicaragua is enjoying something of a tourism boom - overnight visits to the country rose by around 25 per cent last year, to almost two million, according to early estimates.
In fact, it was recently named one of Telegraph Travel’s top 20 destinations to visit in 2018. So what’s the big draw?
1. There are private islands
The couple were reportedly staying at Calala Island, an exclusive five-star retreat. It’s a contender for the most expensive resort in the entire country with rates starting from around £1,000 a night.
“Be a willing castaway on this idyllic private island, the first five-star resort in the unspoilt ‘NiCaribbean’,” says our reviewer, Sarah Gilbert. “Perfect for couples, there’s just four rustic-luxe beachfront suites shaded by towering palms. Blissfully remote it may be, but there’s fine dining and first-rate cocktails.”
It’s an hour’s flight from Managua, the Nicaraguan capital, to Bluefields, then around two hours by boat – a spectacular journey past fishing villages, through mangroves and out into open sea.
2. And luxury mountain retreats
Nicaragua’s luxury hotel revolution extends beyond the beach. Nekupe, the country’s first luxury mountain resort, sits in a lush landscape overlooking the evergreen slopes of the Mombacho volcano.
Sarah Gilbert writes: “Boutique, contemporary and stylish, Nekupe was designed to bring the outdoors in, and a feng shui-inspired architect helped create the highest energy flow with the lightest environmental impact.”
3. It’s an enthralling, evocative place
Chris Moss, our Latin America expert, explains: “Nicaragua has a unique cultural dimension, expressed through extraordinary religious fiestas, authentic folk music, thriving agricultural communities and the poems of ‘father of modernismo’ Rubén Darío (as influential as T S Eliot or Borges, yet not known half as well). Arguably the most enthralling ‘sell’, though, is pride and dignity borne of resistance. All over art-loving university town León, walls are spattered with graffiti honouring national heroes. In the capital Managua, dedicated parks and striking monuments keep the memory alive. And, unlike in Cuba, you never feel you’ll choke on clichés.”
4. There’s the coffee
“The cool highlands of northern Nicaragua produce some of the finest shade-grown Arabica in the world,” says Matt Bannerman, writing for Telegraph Travel. “Many producers are now concentrating on quality, introducing organic methods and working with fair-trade organisations. Some are also diversifying into tourism. January is harvest season, when migrant labourers descend on the estates to pick the ripe ‘cherries’ by hand. In May the floración covers the hillsides in white coffee flowers.”
The rum and cigars are pretty good, too.
5. The rainforest
Visitors will find lush rainforests aflutter with butterflies, birds and monkeys. Nicaragua has an impressive 675 species of bird, 1071 types of fish, 203 mammals, 198 reptiles and 71 amphibians. It’s paradise for animal lovers, basically.
Date | Fecha: Januar 23, 2018
Source: The Telegraph
The Swiss company Frutco de las Americas SA, the Nicaraguan subsidiary, Chimaco SA, and the Coen business group of Nicaragua, are making an initial investment of US $ 7.3 million to produce and process passion fruit and then export it to the international market.
The estimated total investment for the next two years will be US $20 million. Frutco de las Americas SA group will invest US $11 million to cover the cost of a processing plant (which has an estimated cost of US $4.5 million), finance an organic plantation (US $ 1.5 million), a guava plantation (US $500 thousand), conduct training and have a demonstration plot of passion fruit (US $650 thousand), and purchase land (US $ 2 million). Meanwhile the Coen group will invest US $9 million.
Alvaro Baltodano, presidential delegate for the Investments, stated that the planting of 18 hectares of passion fruit was an agro-industrial investment that would innovate and transform Nicaraguan agriculture. "We are looking at different agroindustrial initiatives and we are working with some groups that have pineapple plantings in Costa Rica. They are visiting Nicaragua and believe in the possibility of planting pineapple in the Caribbean with the same objective: getting the product processed, which would be a leap for our agriculture and agro-industry," said Baltodano.
This experimental farm is expected to produce the plants that small and medium producers demand and to plant 1,000 hectares of passion fruit. The group of investors will plant about 250 hectares.
Processing plant in July
He also said that they would start constructing the processing plant in July and that they expected it would start operation in the beginning of 2019. The demand for this fruit will require increasing the planted area.
Juan Fernando Ramírez, the general manager of Chimaco SA, said that they would generate around 1,500 jobs, 120 in the factory and the rest in the agricultural farms.
Ramirez said that the company would have the capacity to process 30,000 tons of passion fruit and 8,000 tons of banana puree, which will be exported to Europe and the United States (80%), and other countries such as Japan (20%).
Good land and manpower
Claudia Lauener, president of Chimaco SA, said that Nicaragua had good lands and an excellent qualified labor.
"Nicaragua is a safe country and an ideal site for foreign investment," said Lauener, who was optimistic about having invested in the country and having found partners who know about agriculture.
Renzo Coen, the representative of the Coen group in Chinandega, said that they were committed to continue investing in Nicaragua.
"The cultivation of passion fruit is an alternative for producers. It has great benefits, leaving the traditional crops and venturing into non-traditional crops opens markets. This has a strong potential for Nicaragua's future," said Coen, who assured that Nicaraguan products have the quality demanded by the international market.
Date | Fecha: March 22, 2018
Source: Fresh Plaza
Nicaragua es uno de los países con menor inversión española en Latinoamérica, pese a las oportunidades que ofrece su mercado. Es una situación que Madrid y Managua quieren cambiar, según han indicado la secretaria de Estado de Comercio española, María Luisa Poncela, y el embajador nicaragüense, Carlos Midence. FCC, Acciona y Iberia han protagonizado las últimas operaciones de firmas españolas en un país en el que infraestructuras, renovables y turismo se erigen como áreas de interés.
En una reciente jornada organizada por la embajada de Nicaragua y la Cámara de Comercio de Madrid, Poncela alentó a las firmas a invertir en un país “con gran potencial de crecimiento y estabilidad económica” y en el que la inversión externa ya supone el 7% del PIB. En el evento, al que acudieron 60 empresas interesadas en las oportunidades que brinda el país, Midence detalló los planes de inversión en infraestructura, agroindustria, tecnología, telecos, pesca, energía renovable, agua-saneamiento y turismo, contenidos en el programa del Gobierno Ortega ‘Proyectos de Desarrollo para Potenciar la Inversión 2017-21’.
Midence concretó que Nicaragua prevé obtener una inversión extranjera global superior a 1.500 millones de dólares en 2018 (1.400 millones en 2017), y que está especialmente interesada en más presencia española. Hoy están en el país unas 60 compañías (9 transnacionales), entre ellas Iberia, FCC, Acciona, Telefónica, Repsol, Mapfre, Barceló, Inditex, ACS-Cobra, Adolfo Domínguez, Isolux, Gas Natural, Global Exchange, Mango y Nueva Pescanova, que generan más de 17.000 empleos directos e indirectos. España es el quinto inversor en Nicaragua, con 1.100 millones de stock y en 2017, Managua firmó a través de ProNicaragua un acuerdo con el ICEX para fomentar la inversión. España es también el tercer emisor de remesas familiares a Nicaragua tras EEUU y Costa Rica, un capítulo clave para la economía del país y que el banco central prevé que aumenten a 1.424 millones en 2018 (+3,5%).
El embajador expresó el deseo de que Nicaragua se convierta en puerta de entrada de la inversión exterior en Centroamérica y Latam, rol por ahora lejano para los expertos, pese a que el país tiene altas tasas de crecimiento y en 2018 será el tercer mercado regional con mayor avance del PIB (5%), tras el 4,8% de 2017, y una inflación limitada al 5%-6%, Y es que por ahora, los ‘tigres’ subregionales, Panamá y Costa Rica, se llevan el grueso de la inversión en Centroamérica y Nicaragua se ve superada también por otros vecinos como Guatemala. Entre las ventajas competitivas para insuflar más interés inversor Midence citó uno de los salarios más competitivos del área, incentivos fiscales, las leyes de Admisión, Zonas Francas y Asociación Público-Privada, la seguridad y el que el país es único en contar con un modelo de dialogo-consenso Gobierno-sector privado. Tras Panamá, Nicaragua es, según el BID, el segundo país centroamericano con mayor asignación a inversión: el 27,81%.
En los últimos meses, tres compañías españolas han quebrado la aparente apatía empresarial por crecer en Nicaragua con la comunicación de nuevos planes. Iberia anunció en enero una ruta Madrid-Managua que empezará a operar el 1 de octubre, en una decisión que se juzga potenciará tanto el turismo como los intercambios. La ruta ofrecerá tres vuelos semanales y permitirá alrededor de 90.000 asientos anuales. Midence, que agradeció la confianza de Iberia en un país que el año pasado fue visitado por 13.300 españoles (tercer país europeo) resaltó el interés de Managua tanto en elevar el turismo europeo (7% del total) como en fomenta la inversión de las firmas españolas del sector.
El pasado marzo, Acciona Agua fue seleccionada para construir plantas de tratamiento de agua potable en Rivas y El Rama por 22,4 millones. Las potabilizadoras, con financiación del BEI, forman parte del Programa Integral Sectorial. Acciona Agua opera en Nicaragua desde 2015. Otro de los últimos movimientos lo protagonizó en diciembre FCC, al adjudicarse el concurso del Ministerio de Transportes para mejorar la carretera Los Chinamos-El Ayote (32 millones). FCC Construcción tiene ya una amplia cartera en Nicaragua, en la que destacan las vías El Guayacán-Jinotega y Malpaisillo-San Isidro. En renovables, donde ya opera Gamesa, hay gran potencial, como muestran recientes inversiones: Biomasa Investment, anunció en 2016 150 millones para convertir 12 vertederos en fuentes generadoras de energía limpia. Ese mismo 2016 Inditex desembarcó con Zara, Pull&Bear, Bershka y Stradivarius.
Nicaragua lamenta que aunque el 75% de las firmas españolas con intereses en Latam prevé elevar este 2018 la inversión en la región, según el último ‘Panorama de la inversión Española en Iberoamérica’, su mercado sigue siendo el que menos capital atrae. Para los expertos, Nicaragua quizá aún no proyecta la seguridad jurídica que las compañías buscan y su mercado es pequeño y más adecuado para inversiones de nicho que estratégicas.
Date | Fecha: 5 de abril, 2018
Source | Fuente: Capital Madrid
Nicaragua y Honduras tendrán los crecimientos económicos más altos de Centroamérica "Nicaragua es la punta de lanza para atraer inversión en Centroamérica", dijo Paulo C. de León Sandoval, director de Central American Business Intelligence (CABI). Gracias a su bajo déficit fiscal, el país tiene más oportunidades de inversión. Nicaragua podría crecer 4,3% en 2018 y Honduras crecería 3,9% este año.
De León Sandoval dijo esta mañana en Managua que si bien Centroamérica es una región abierta al mundo, aún depende de los Estados Unidos, país del que proyecta un importante crecimiento, debido a las políticas económicas que impulsa el presidente Donald Trump.
“Nuestro socio principal (EE.UU) está pasando por un buen momento”, dijo el funcionario, al tiempo que enumeró las recientes reformas que ha impulsado Trump. Mencionó la reforma tributaria de Trump, así como la reforma rural, y el plan de infraestructura anunciado recientemente por el mandatario estadounidense. “Trump no es político tradicional, sabe lo que le interesa a los empresarios”, añadió el funcionario.
Sobre la reforma fiscal aprobada recientemente en el Congreso de Estados Unidos el director de CABI dijo: “El que ofrezca menos impuestos tendrá más inversión, hay que bajar los impuestos corporativos, hay que abaratar los costos tributarios de las empresas. (…) Tenemos que aprender mucho de la oferta de los Estados Unidos”.
De León expuso esta mañana en un foro organizado por el Consejo Superior de la Empresa Privada (Cosep), llamado Oportunidades económicas y de negocios en Centroamérica 2018, en el que analizó las realidades económicas de los países centroamericanos y proyectó un escenario positivo para los países de la región. El director de CABI señaló que una de las fortalezas de Nicaragua es el bajo déficit fiscal, pues cree que “mientras el Gobierno esté ordenado hay más inversión”.
De León también asegura que el país se ve “bien en el tema de oportunidades de negocios”, sin embargo visualiza que el riesgo que tiene Nicaragua es competir con México. “El riesgo de Nicaragua es que tiene que competir con México, incluso muchos empresarios guatemaltecos que estaban viniéndose a Nicaragua hoy se están yendo a México, por una sencilla razón: el tipo de cambio está depreciado, pues ir a comprar activos a México está muy barato”, analizó.
A su criterio, México ofrece una infraestructura de primer mundo y conectividad global en temas de aeropuertos por lo que la “competencia de Nicaragua hoy es México, en atracción de inversiones”. “No es un riesgo interno sino es riesgo que un competidor está atrayendo ese tipo de inversión con el que competía Nicaragua”, agregó.
El funcionario también proyectó que el principal riesgos para la región, no es Estados Unidos, sino el peso mexicano. “Tenemos evidencias que el impacto del peso mexicano está llegando a El Salvador y Honduras, ya tenemos impacto en Guatemala”, añadió.
El director de CABI es ingeniero industrial y catedrático guatemalteco sobre macro economía y micro economía, además es experto en análisis económico de mercados emergentes y administración de fondos de inversión.
De León realizó un diagnóstico sobre la realidad del sector forestal en cinco países de América Latina para Rain Forest Alliance.
Date | Fecha: 15 de febrero, 2018
Source | Fuente: Estrategia & Negocios
El Banco Centroamericano de Integración Económica (BCIE) otorgó una línea de crédito por 84 millones de dólares a Lafise Bancentro para atender a distintos sectores económicos.
Esta línea de préstamo permitirá a este banco “atender la alta demanda de financiamiento para los sectores de la educación, la construcción y para la atención de pequeñas y medianas empresas que presenten proyectos de eficiencia energética con componentes socioambientales”, informó Lafise Bancentro mediante un comunicado.
Edda Meléndez, gerente país del BCIE, afirmó que los sectores antes mencionados han mostrado un ritmo constante de crecimiento en los últimos años y son prioritarios en el país. Meléndez indicó que con este financiamiento también se atenderá el sector vivienda.
Alejandro Ramírez, gerente general de Lafise Bancentro, dijo: “Con estos fondos queremos acompañar a aquellos emprendedores que con mucha visión han creado negocios que satisfacen diferentes demandas y necesidades de la población”.
El año pasado reportó en crédito a nivel nacional 164,739 millones de córdobas, según cifras publicadas por el Banco Central de Nicaragua. Esto representó un crecimiento de 13.8 por ciento con relación al 2016.
Date | Fecha: 14 de marzo, 2018
Source | Fuente: La Prensa
