2021 may well be the year for your business to leap across borders, making use of opportunities presenting themselves in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, while also cutting your running costs in order to protect your enterprise in this precarious time. Outsourcing involves the use of workers outside the country in which your business headquarters is located in order to carry out tasks that can be done more efficiently and for lower costs. The past year has highlighted the need to be careful with income and money in general due to the significant decrease in economic activities in the majority of sectors, bringing outsourcing to the forefront of business owners’ minds. Latin America is well known for its outsourcing potential, and specifically Panama, where there is close geographical proximity with the United States as well as other Latin American nations, elevating the profile of the nation. Perhaps you have found yourself looking for ways to save some money, and in this article, we will demonstrate the benefits of outsourcing this year in order to take your business to the next level.
Why Panama?
Situated in Central America, Panama is a rather nearer outsourcing option for companies in the United States when compared to other common choices such as China or India, immediately placing it as a country of interest due to the smaller time zone differences. In fact, it is on Eastern Standard Time (EST), making communications with US cities in the same time zone as easy as is possible! The location also makes the level of English proficiency very high too, presenting a bilingual workforce and therefore another pull factor to the nation. If you are more concerned as to the skill of the workers in Panama, the fact that over 80% are involved in service industries, and the general population has a 93% literacy rate, demonstrates that outsourcing here would benefit your company extensively.
Industry example: Software outsourcing
One industry with big opportunities for outsourcing in Latin America is software, and Panama is no exception. Only Asia has a bigger software outsourcing sector, and with Panama presenting itself as highly technologically advanced in comparison with other nations in the region, it should immediately shoot to the top of your watchlist, especially when combined with the fact that because the government want foreign businesses operating within their borders, the ease of doing business in Panama is much greater than in other countries across the globe. Although Panama had a difficult ride during the COVID-19 pandemic, experiencing economic contraction of 17.9% in 2020, investment opportunities arising this year contribute to healthy growth predictions, displaying clear potential for rebound in the nation and identifying it as a good location for outsourcing software services in 2021.
Benefits
Having already mentioned the government’s willingness to facilitate foreign business operations, it seems fitting to introduce the benefits that take Panama above and beyond other nations in the region as well as across the globe. In terms of the companies the service is being outsourced to, they are typically extremely experienced, meaning upon contracting them, the service you receive will already be honed to a fine art and there will be no dip in the quality of the attention your clients are used to receiving.
As well as this, employing local people in the country you outsource to provides a new dimension to your business model, opening a new pathway to cross-border operations as they have the best first-hand knowledge of market conditions and the ways businesses run in their home nation.
Finally, and arguably the main reason for outsourcing, is money. The running costs of a Panamanian third party taking control of operations is much lower than employing and training members of staff to undertake roles they are not necessarily used to, saving money and also increasing the amount of work that can be done by members of staff in the country of origin!
So, if you think Panama may be the breath of fresh air your business needs in order to cut costs and receive a fantastic third-party outsourcing service, get in touch with us today! At Creimerman we are used to helping businesspeople from all over the world to expand across borders and grow their businesses, and we would love to work with you to make you the next.