Why should software developers consider Colombia as a nearshore / offshore location?

Thanks to low labour costs and a large pool of young and motivated talent, Colombia offers one of the best conditions for international software developers in Latin America. Granted, other countries like India, Ukraine or the Philippines offer the same benefits and have been actively promoting their locations for much longer. However, Colombia beats them in 2 key aspects:

1. Geographic location: Colombia lies in the Eastern time zone, ideal if your clients are based at or near the U.S. East Coast and further west. Daily, there are many direct flights between Colombia and the major cities in the US. Short flight times – 3.5 hours from Miami, 6 hours from New York – make Colombia an ideal nearshore location for software developers from North America and for European companies looking to serve the US market from within the same time zone. And as it lies halfway between the US and the southern tip of the continent, Colombia is also ideally located to serve as regional hub in Latin America.
2. Cultural proximity: Colombia shares a deep cultural affinity with the United States of America, based on its history, culture and, in many aspects, its modern worldview. Plus, most Colombians have relatives in the US who connect both countries even stronger and make a continuous cultural exchange part of Colombia’s reality. And, as the country’s economy keeps growing, many young US-born Colombians who are well educated and bilingual decide to move back to Colombia and join the workforce to take advantage of Colombia’s promising future.

Colombia is also an interesting market in itself: it is the fourth largest economy in the region (after Brazil, Mexico and Argentina), has the third largest population (approx. 46 million) and the fastest growing domestic demand for digital services in Latin America.

And Colombia’s government is committed to help position Colombia as the main technology hub in Latin America. A stable economic policy, reliable investor protection and newly established tax benefits for the Orange Economy contribute in attracting foreign direct investment.

One of the most recent examples that made waves is Amazon: the online retail giant chose Colombia over Chile and Argentina to open its South American customer service center in the capital Bogotá.

Meanwhile, Colombia’s second biggest city Medellín was chosen by the World Economic Forum to host Latin America’s first Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution that will advance research on topics such as blockchain, the Internet of Things (IoT), drones and precision medicine.

According to the IDC (International Data Corporation), the Colombian software & IT industry has doubled its sales over the past 7 years and, in 2017, reached USD 9.5bn with Hardware making up 56.5% of sales, IT Services 32.2% and Software 11.4%.

Strong internal demand is being generated especially by the manufacturing, public, financial and agricultural sectors. Additionally, an increasing number of foreign companies are choosing Colombia for the development of their software services (nearshore / offshore concepts). As companies in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector, software and IT companies are being attracted by the advanced infrastructure, a large pool of young talent, moderate salary levels and a quality of life in cities such as Medellín that helps attract talent from other countries as well.

Ongresso has been assisting international software and BPO companies for years in accessing Colombia’s talent pool and successfully establishing their nearshore / offshore presence in Colombia. Contact our CEO Daniel Breitenmoser at colombia@ongresso.com to find out how you can benefit from our services!