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Nearshoring is a mainstay of business’ operations, but the outcome of this venture largely depends on selecting a reliable vendor. Essentially, your provider of nearshore services in Latin America should have relevant expertise and access to a local tech talent pool to build a nearshore team that caters to your business goals. In this post, we will walk you through the steps to select a seasoned nearshoring provider in Latin America. 

Define deliverables

Typically businesses reach out to providers of outsourcing nearshore in “Latina Amèrica” when they lack expertise in hiring nearshore developers. This approach suggests that your provider is responsible for sourcing talent, while your role is to provide context and direction to set up your nearshore unit for success.

With that in mind, before you start looking for providers of nearshore development in Latin America, it’s recommended to outline and document a set of deliverables, which will help you stay on the right track during the lifetime of your venture. 

Having a set of documented deliverables will give you an understanding of the technologies you’re going to use and the skills you need to add with the help of a provider of nearshore software development in Latin America. Other important things you need to define are timelines for each deliverable, budget, and success metrics so you can hit your milestones on time and within budget. Your partner will use this document to source the needed talent, whereas you will use it to compare achieved milestones against your planned ones. 

When the provider looks for developers, they need a context of your project to attract the right kind of talent. That’s why it’s important to go over your deliverables with your potential provider(s) of nearshore software development in Latin America so that they have a clear picture of your goals and staff needs and provide you with suitable developers.

Select location for your nearshore Latin American unit

When it comes to nearshoring, choosing the most optimal hosting country is essential. Below, we covered everything you need to take into account when selecting the location of the provider of nearshore services in Latin America. 

Hourly rates of software developers: Nearshoring has always been synonymous with cost-saving, which allows you to select a location suitable for your budget rates. Latin America is a mixed bag when it comes to developers’ rates: Accelerance shows that the prices for nearshore product development in Latin America vary from $28-$105 per hour, excluding fees and taxes associated with the vendor’s services. It means that you can choose between the least expensive options, such as Mexico, Colombia, and Peru as well as dive into Brazil, Argentina, and Chile where hourly rates are typically higher. 

Talent availability: Not only does nearshore development in Latin America let businesses trim costs but it also allows them access to a variety of skillsets. Latin America boasts countries with thousands of software engineers, which lends itself to a more vast and diverse talent pool than you may have locally. For example, Brazil boasts over 500,000 software engineers available for nearshoring, thus partnering with a vendor of nearshore/outsourcing in Latin America can potentially bring you thousands of skilled candidates. 

Tech expertise: Another crucial thing to take into account is the maturity of the labor market. A robust technology infrastructure of Latin America allows engineers to draw experience from working at ambitious tech companies, refining their knowledge to further provide their clients with the needed expertise. For example, Brazilian software developers are seasoned in the fields of Fintech, E-commerce, Data Analytics platforms, and Edtech, given the number of Brazilian startups that have emerged in these areas. 

Pick potential vendors of nearshoring in Latin America

This step is probably the most difficult one in your nearshore software development in Latin America journey. You will analyze tons of companies before you wind up with a list of potentially suitable vendors. To make things easier for you, we’ve gathered several indicators of a reliable provider that can help you separate the wheat from the chaff. So, a reliable vendor of nearshore/outsourcing in Latin America should display the following:

• Verified client testimonials and success stories;
• A newly updated Careers page with recently posted vacancies;
• Recent blog posts;
• Presence on LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social media;
• Relevant contact information, including phones and geographic location of the office(s);
• Professional photos of the office, team, and corporate videos.

That being said, when selecting a vendor of nearshore development in Latin America, don’t rush to judge the book by its cover. The most impressive websites don’t necessarily mean the quality of services – it’s best to make a final decision to cooperate based on personal communication.

Narrow down to several providers

If you’ve made it to this step – congrats! You’re about to partner with a provider of nearshore services in Latin America. Only one thing left: to review potential partners’ portfolios, paying attention to what types of companies they have worked with in regards to the domains and sizes. After that, you’ll hopefully end up with two or three candidates. It’s also important to define the model of cooperation the providers offer and choose the most suitable one for you. 

Typically, the vendor of nearshore development in Latin America takes up projects within the following models:

• Staff augmentation: Adding skills you lack on your existing team;
• Dedicated team: Forming a full-fledged software development team tailored to your needs;
• Turn-key nearshore product development in Latin America: An approach where the vendor develops software using their internal staff.

Your chosen vendor can offer one of several models, and your task is to choose one that fits your business in the best way. 

Interview your chosen companies

Now it’s time to plan kick-off calls with your potential providers of nearshoring in Latin America. At this stage, you may want to be especially vigilant not to miss any red flags that may signal problems in the future. For example, the inconsistencies between the words and actions, opaque processes of hiring talent, lack of communication or attention, neglecting your needs – all of these aren’t the best start for the long-term cooperation you may be hoping for. On the other hand, if solid communication and transparent processes are in place, choose a provider with whom you have more common ground in terms of values and vision.

Be a part of the process

The role of the client at this stage is to participate extensively in the formation of their nearshore team in Latin America, helping a vendor build a sustainable team based on your vision. At this step, you may want to discuss your project and deliverables in more detail to ensure a better understanding of what type of talent you need to add. Here’re the main stages of building a team: 

• Initial meeting: Going over your deliverables and the structure of your future nearshore unit with your vendor to evaluate their capability to build the team you need.
• Candidate search: The vendor puts their HR departments to the task of finding candidates for your nearshore unit in Latin America.
• Internal screening: Suitable candidates will undergo a set of tech and soft skills interviews on the side of the vendor.
• Client interview(s): Candidates who are deemed suitable by the vendor will be invited to participate in interviews with the client and their team.

To guarantee you a stable team, seasoned providers of nearshore development in Latin America have all of these stages in place. That way, you’ll have the benefit of scaling with people you’ve personally handpicked and approved. 

Nearshore development in Latin America with nCube

We at nCube let you build a team of developers in Latin America, following the set of steps we’ve described above. Moreover, with our approach, you can manage your nearshore unit in Latin America personally. The team will communicate with and report directly to you as well as adapt to your workflows and engineering practices. That way, we can be your partner in nearshore Agile development in Latin America if you are an advocate of this methodology.

On our side, nCube we’ll cover all the bases when it comes to team retention, providing such services as team formation, employee well-being and bonus packages, remote IT infrastructure, HR and tax support, and more. 

Let’s connect and discuss how we can help you with your nearshoring/outsourcing in Latin America strategy.