• BPO company Aegis opens a 900-seat call center in Costa Rica. The new facility is located in the Rohrmoser section of San Jose and it will be a blend of additional capacity and reduced costs, the statement said.
• CSC announced it signed a three-year business process services contract with AMERISAFE, Inc. Under the agreement, CSC will provide business process outsourcing (BPO) services to manage and automate legal expenditures for AMERISAFE using Legal Bill Analyzer, a component of CSC’s Legal Solutions Suite, strengthening transparency in legal matter planning and communication with outside counsel.CSC’s customized BPO offering for AMERISAFE includes a range of services, such as bill review, resolution, reporting, invoice management and Web hosting support. The agreement provides a low-risk approach to transforming operations and controlling costs, and encourages constructive collaboration between AMERISAFE and law firms.
• Information Services Group (ISG) (NASDAQ: III), a technology insights, market intelligence and advisory services company, today announced winners of the 2012 Australia New Zealand (ANZ) Paragon Awards, which recognise leadership and best practices in sourcing and service management. The ANZ Paragon Awards celebrate and promote organisations and relationships within the sourcing community that have demonstrated high performance leadership and best practices in the sourcing and service management fields.

  The 2012 ANZ Paragon Award winners are:
  Best Sourcing Relationship in Business Process Outsourcing Award: Russell Investments and Mahindra Satyam

  Best Sourcing Relationship in IT Outsourcing Award: Westpac and IBM
  Service Provider Innovation Excellence Award: Wipro, for the introduction and implementation of innovative services for the University of Canberra

• Global Legal Solutions Provider Earns Top 100 Call Center Contest for Second Consecutive Year. ARAG®, a global provider of legal solutions, announced today it has been named to the Top 20 in the Top 100 Call Center Contest by BenchMark Portal. This is the second consecutive year ARAG has made the list. BenchmarkPortal is internationally recognized as the premier research and education organization for customer contact best practices. Each year the organization features a Top 100 Call Centers Contest for centers located in North America.

Written by Matt Hambor, Consultant for Costa Rica BPO Near shore Global

In a world where the word “outsourcing” generally brings to mind Asian destinations like India and the Philippines, more and more companies in North America are realising the benefits of endeavouring to keep their outsourcing business a little closer to home.

Prior to the global economic crisis, Costa Rica enjoyed stable economic growth. The economy contracted 1.6% in 2009. While the traditional agricultural exports of bananas, coffee, sugar, and beef are still the backbone of commodity export trade, a variety of industrial and specialised agricultural products have broadened export trade in recent years. High value added goods and services, including microchips, have further bolstered exports. Tourism continues to bring in foreign exchange, as Costa Rica’s impressive biodiversity makes it a key destination for ecotourism. Foreign investors remain attracted by the country’s political stability and relatively high education levels, as well as the fiscal incentives offered in the free-trade zones; and Costa Rica has attracted one of the highest levels of foreign direct investment per capita in Latin America. Spanish is the official language however English is widely spoken and understood.

The Republic of Costa Rica boasts one of Central America’s most stable governments with a longstanding democracy and solid infrastructure.  It has also successfully avoided the violent uprisings that have plagued much of Latin America throughout recent history.  With a 95% literacy rate and a young, highly educated population, Costa Rica is quickly proving promising as an up-and-coming key source for companies seeking sustainable and commonly bilingual business support.  It is not widely known that 40 % of the US population speaks Spanish and American corporations are quickly realising the benefits of outsourcing to centres with employees fluent in both English and Spanish.

Commonly referred to as ‘near-shore’ outsourcing, the practice of outsourcing closer to home is gaining popularity as companies in the United States and Canada realise the benefits of Costa Rica’s shared time zones and a closer geographic location. Because of this, businesses are able to reach their BPO centre contacts during regular business hours and avoid both the financial and time costs of traveling to Asia.

By the same token, the close proximity gives BPO centres in Costa Rica another competitive edge over BPO centres located overseas, allowing them to maintain closer relationships with their nearby clients.

A vocal supporter of free trade, Costa Rica offers many attractive and enticing tax benefits to companies that invest in the growth of the local economy.  Low operating costs in Costa Rica help clients achieve success at costs 30-40% lower than main land USA.  Because the local government is eager to transform its primary economic dependence on agriculture by attracting international businesses focused on engineering and technology, Costa Rica is quickly proving a credible business investment and BPO powerhouse for companies in North America and around the globe.

Matt Nambor can be contacted directly at nearshoreglobal@gmail.com