While it is certainly feasible to work with nearshore software developers from multiple countries, it is often advantageous to focus on a single country. This is especially true if you are considering setting up your own subsidiary company in that country. Subsidiaries can reduce costs compared to traditional staff augmentation or contracting models and make it easier to comply with country-specific regulations.
That’s why AgilityFeat offers a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model, in addition to our traditional staff augmentation model. A previous post, Exploring the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) Model: A Strategic Approach to Building Your Development Team, is a great introduction to that offering.
Today, however, I’m going to focus on why you might want to choose Colombia as your destination country.
Considerations when choosing a nearshore location in Latin America (or anywhere else)
In general, there are a few factors you should keep in mind when choosing a country to base your Latin American software development office:
- Access to a strong technical community
- Geographic proximity
- Cultural and Legal Affinity
- Economic and Political Stability
Why Colombia Rises to the Top
In all of these areas, Colombia rises to the top for US companies. Let’s explore each in more detail.
One of the largest tech communities in LatAm
With a total population over 50 million people, Colombia has an incredibly strong technical community. The cities of Bogotá and Medellín both have vibrant tech communities which you can tap into. Office space is reasonably priced, co-working spaces are readily available, and there are cultures of in-person, remote, and hybrid work.
Major universities such as the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Universidad de Medellín, Universidad de los Andes, and more, all provide excellent technical training.
Many large US companies maintain technical offices in Colombia, such as Accenture, AWS, CapGemini, Google, HubSpot, Microsoft, and more.
Bogotá and Medellín both regularly host technology conferences around topics such as Python, Kubernetes, DevOps, Javascript, and AWS.
Geographic proximity
While Brazil and Argentina may boast large populations and diverse technical talent, flights of 12 hours make them harder to reach for in-person visits. Additionally, their time zones make for minimal overlap with the West Coast of the US.
Colombia offers another large South American technical talent pool, but with the geographical convenience of Central America. Located near Panamá at the northern tip of South America, Colombia is just a five-hour flight from major cities like Washington, DC, and even closer to Miami. It shares a time zone with much of Central America, aligning with Eastern US time for half the year and being one hour behind for the rest.
This geographic and timezone compatibility makes it easy for companies anywhere in the continental US to work with a team in Colombia. Large overlaps in working hours makes it easy to schedule meetings at any time of day, and the convenient travel makes it easy for staff to visit each other in either the US or Colombia. US travelers to Colombia may enter for short periods of time on a tourist visa without any paperwork.
In short, geographical proximity provides greater opportunity for team collaboration and communication, which directly translates to cost savings and shorter project timelines.
Cultural Affinity
We all know that company culture plays a large role in a team’s success, and so it’s important to pay attention to the different cultural styles when introducing an office from another country into the mix. That’s not to say there is a single good or bad definition of culture, simply that the closer in culture two parts of a company are, the more easily they will collaborate.
Latin America has a business culture that is more similar to the US than many parts of the world. In many Asian countries for example, the culture is very hierarchical, and so workers may be timid about speaking up to their bosses when something is going wrong. A high performing team relies on having team members who will speak up when they have suggestions for improvement, and so this cultural similarity between the US and Latin America is very important.
Legal Affinity
Labor law in Colombia is more complex than in the US, generally offering more benefits and vacation time to employees. However, this is balanced by the lower salary levels in Colombia compared to the US. While the overall savings for a US company are still substantial, it’s important to pay extra attention to the employment laws. This is an area that our team will help simplify for you via our staff augmentation or Build-Operate-Transfer models.
Colombia is also business friendly for foreigners. Unlike some countries in Latin America and globally, Colombian law allows for foreign owners of Colombian entities without requiring special visas or a local Colombian owner. This makes the process of establishing your own software development subsidiary in Bogotá or Medellín more feasible, without requiring a local business partner or moving your US staff to Colombia.
Economic and Political Stability
Modern Colombia has changed dramatically since the dark years of violence and narcoterrorism. This is evidenced by the growth of the tech community in cities like Medellín and Bogotá and the number of international companies that have grown their hiring in those cities over the last decade. Medellín in particular is seen as one of the most promising tech hubs in Latin America.
Colombia also has reached a level of political stability in recent decades, including peaceful transfers of power between opposing political movements. As in any country, a change of political party means that there can be corresponding changes in labor law, but this is simply another reason to work with our network of experts instead of trying to go it alone.
We live in a world that seems very unstable at times. Political upheaval, economic crises, and pandemics have all contributed to a global feeling that nothing is certain anymore. We have seen that not even the US is immune from economic or political crises.
In fact, this global feeling of political instability is exactly why you should consider a geographically diverse team. Even if you already do some outsourcing of software development in other regions, Latin America is a very attractive location for a dependable regional team that offers cost benefits as well as stability and diversification.
Working with AgilityFeat in Colombia
Management of software development teams is hard, and doing it globally offers many benefits but also complications that are daunting initially. AgilityFeat is a US based company that has been working across Latin America since 2010, and we have a wealth of experience in software development in Latin America for US clients. We can greatly reduce your learning curve, lower your expenses, and manage the whole process for you.
Our promise at AgilityFeat is to make it simple for you. By letting us handle all aspects of recruiting, staffing, and payments, your combined team is able to focus on building great applications.
We can begin working with you in a traditional staff augmentation mode, where you pay for your team on a monthly basis and without a long term commitment. This is a great way to explore the tech market in Colombia. When you’re ready to go the next step and set up your own formal software development office in Colombia, our Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model will greatly simplify the process. We will establish your operations in Colombia, operate it for you until you are ready, and seamlessly transfer it to become a subsidiary of your own company (or not, if you choose.)
Contact us today for a free assessment. We’ll provide an in-depth analysis of how to get your software development office established in Colombia, or any of the other countries where we work!
