Outsourcing to Costa Rica

As I was listening to Baker & McKenzie's recent Webcast about global sourcing to Costa Rica, I kept thinking to myself, "There are a dozen ways I could use staff in Costa Rica to run a better business up here in the US."

The country is on the Central time zone. They have a high quality, well educated labor pool. Staff retention rates are high. People have a great work ethic (to the point of typically working 48 hours a week). It's a three to five hour flight from Dallas, Chicago or Miami. For November 2006, they're planning a second fiber optic cable to the US, from Puntarenas to California, to provide redundancy to the two cables connecting Florida with Puerto Limon. They have a vigorous free trade zone "regime." There are 319 direct flights to and from the US weekly.

Plus, plenty of companies have already set up captive operations or contracted with service providers, so this isn't exactly pioneering work to head south. Organizations that have gone the captive route include: P&G, Intel, LL Bean, Cisco, Motorola, Equifax and Dole. Major service providers include: Avantica Technologies, PeopleSupport, Exactus, Aura Interactiva, IBM, HP and Sykes. These companies are handling software development and design, software migration and testing, Web work and call center operations from Costa Rica.

And the salaries are, of course, enticing, if you're the one paying:

According to Pilar Madrigal, who runs the New York office of CINDE, the investment promotion agency for Costa Rica, fully loaded salaries look like this:

Bilingual senior agent, $14,000
Bilingual junior agent, $9,000
Spanish senior agent, $8,000/
Bilingual tech support call center agent, $11,000
Financial senior analyst, $14,000
HR senior analyst $17,000

At those rates, I could practically outsource my own work and take another job. (Plus, I'd have the advantage of being able to handle bilingual writing too.)

The law firm that hosted this Webcast will be making it available in archive form soon.

Here's where you'll find it:

http://www.bakernet.com/BakerNet/Resources/Webinars/default.htm

Scroll to the bottom of the list for "Outsourcing" Webinars.

Here's the calendar for upcoming events:

http://www.bakernet.com/BakerNet/Events/Events+by+Date/Destination+Costa+Rica.htm