{"id":4696,"date":"2009-03-14T11:09:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-14T11:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/projects\/horsesforsources\/guatemala-bananas-green-tomatoes-and-bpo\/"},"modified":"2009-03-14T11:09:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-14T11:09:00","slug":"guatemala-bananas-green-tomatoes-and-bpo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsesforsources.com\/guatemala-bananas-green-tomatoes-and-bpo\/","title":{"rendered":"Guatemala: Bananas, Green Tomatoes… and BPO"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Antigua-Guatemala\"<\/a> We’ve been <\/strong><\/em>debating the opportunities<\/strong><\/em><\/a>\u00a0for Latin American countries to take on BPO work for a while now, and spending a few days in <\/strong><\/em>Guatemala<\/strong><\/em><\/a>\u00a0has confirmed – beyond doubt – the potential of the region.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

I had the pleasure of visiting Capgemini’s facility, which is quickly ramping up customer-facing F&A work for Coca-Cola Enterprises<\/a>\u00a0(which we picked up on here<\/a>).\u00a0 I am going to write more about this engagement in due course, but the hybrid nearshore\/offshore operating model for\u00a0Finance and Accounting and Procurement\u00a0is showing strong signs of being the way forward for the industry.\u00a0 This is also the case for many global strategic sourcing, supply management\u00a0and HR\u00a0BPO engagements.\u00a0For example, Coca-Cola Enterprises is sourcing neashore work to Capgemini’s centers in Guatemala and Krakow, and using its Chennai operation to support these centers with non-customer facing processes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Guatemala’s population\u00a0itself is\u00a0only 13.7m people, with 40% based in urban areas,\u00a0however, it is\u00a0the largest Central American hub with strong potential to source activities to neighboring countries, such as El Salvador and Nicaragua (see graph below) to compliment serices and keep costs low.\u00a0 What impressed me most meeting many operations agents and managers was the easy-to-understand English intonation, the obsession with process, the youthful energy and the discipline.\u00a0<\/p>\n


\nOne of the major delivery centers has already made Six Sigma yellow-belt certification as a stipulation for employment among all its agents, and puts many on the green and black-belt courses on the job.\u00a0 The challenge for US onshore centers<\/a> in the future is not only to compete on cost, but also on quality.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Key sourcing facts about Guat:<\/strong><\/p>\n