Switching service providers is nearly always a situation fraught with challenges, so selecting a new provider that has an effective transition methodology is crucial. Avantica Technologies, a service provider in Costa Rica, is known not only for its software development expertise but also for the way it builds collaborative relationships with its clients and for its strategy for ensuring cultural fit. I talked with Luis Enrique Corrales, Avantica’s Regional Sales Director, about these issues. 

Q: How do you help your clients get off to a good start with your company when transitioning out of a difficult situation where an existing provider may not be very cooperative in the switching process?  

Corrales: We have a set of items we need per type of project and establish what they have against this list. But sometimes the circumstances present challenges that we have to work through. An example is a relationship that went sour between one of our clients and its former service provider. Because their relationship ended negatively, when we were selected to take over, we had to deal with no versioning of their source code and ended up having to put the house in order and rewrite the code. 

We have a set of methodologies that we use when we establish a relationship with a new client, regardless of whether they are switching from a farshore provider to a nearshore provider or from in-house services to a service provider. 

Some of our clients already have their own methodologies for the way they like to work with outsourcing providers. In some cases, we collaborate with our client and put together a hybrid methodology. We definitely adjust to whatever they wish. 

Q: So this is a very flexible methodology. 

Corrales: Yes, and it’s a major factor in some of our clients’ decisions to work with us. For example, we have some clients that want to keep the leadership and knowledge for their software projects in house. We use a hybrid methodology that meets their objectives. 

Q: I’ve spoken with an Avantica client and learned that your company builds a collaborative environment with your clients sometimes within weeks, even if the software development team is partly in Costa Rica and partly onshore in the USA. That’s something that many outsourcing relationships don’t achieve for many months. What’s your secret?  

Corrales:  The methodology covers not only the transition but also the type of communication and relationship that our client wants to have. Also, our work dynamics and project management procedures facilitate smooth communication that ensures both companies are approachable to each other throughout the development process. 

We establish a communication structure at a kickoff meeting with our client, our project management office, and the team working on the project. Depending on what our client wants, communication may focus on our providing weekly reports, or it may be more direct communication and collaboration with the team. 

Communication is key to success, and it’s more than distance communication technologies such as VoIP, video conferences, virtual conference rooms for meetings. Our software engineers speak fluent English, but effective communication is also more than that. Avantica has cultural alignment with the United States. 

Q: Please describe that alignment. 

Corrales: We hire people who are not afraid to voice their opinion. We have found this is of great value in completing projects and in building a collaborative environment. Our team members are not just “yes” people. 

As an example, for one of our clients, our engineers identified code that the teams had to duplicate multiple times whenever the client had a new requirement. Our engineers proposed a new framework so it would no longer require duplication. 

In another example of collaboration, a client designed a system and sent the design to our engineers to develop the software. Our architects came back to them with a suggested new design that included more ideas. 

When we hire graduates, we put them through “Avantica University” to bring them up to speed on how to work with clients. We explain to our people that our clients appreciate teaming and a partnering approach. This training is definitely a key factor in our success. 

Q: Is this university strategy unusual among your competitors?

Corrales: Yes, it is. Avantica University is part of our company’s career path development. In Costa Rica, we are one of the few companies that provide a career path. We know of a few companies that do this and take care of their employees, but most companies in Costa Rica are not large enough to provide a career path. 

We are the largest service provider in Costa Rica, and we continue to grow. We recently acquired two companies. One is in the Northern region of our country, which allows us to expand on our technology stack, and one is in San Francisco, California, which allows us to provide a mixture of onshore and nearshore services. 

Our training strategy also aligns with our approach of having our employees get to the point where they very much champion the project they are working on and actually see themselves as an extension of our clients. 

Q: With a two-hour difference between New York and Costa Rica, your clients that switch from farshore providers to Avantica lose the advantage of getting work done faster because of an offshore development team working during the night.  

Corrales: Our clients enjoy the two-hour time difference for communication purposes. Some have commented that they find it’s better to work together on a project at the same time because it avoids situations where the engineers working at night in a far-shore location run into issues and are not able to get answers. 

Q: Besides the cultural alignment between Costa Rica and the United States, what other factors have led to your company’s success as a nearshore provider? 

Corrales: With our clients, we’ve identified a few factors. One is our project management office, which is charged with making sure that our projects are on time and on budget. This team also develops the standards that we work with, individualized for each client’s needs. 

Another success factor is our U.S. offices in New York and California. They help put a face on our team in Costa Rica. One of the objectives of our New York office is to nurture and enhance relationships with U.S. clients. Our goal is to establish a rapport with our clients and then go beyond what they expect. 

Luis Enrique Corrales serves as Regional Sales Director for Avantica Technologies’  New York Commercial Office. Luis Enrique has extensive experience in the field of information technology and sales management. Raised in the United States, he attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst where he graduated as a Computer Systems Engineer. At his return to Costa Rica, Luis Enrique complemented his career with a Master’s degree in Computer and Information Systems at the University of Costa Rica. His academic and professional background, charisma, and his knowledge of American culture, make him a great Avantican to lead this subsidiary.

Since 1998, freelance writer Kathleen Goolsby has studied outsourcing relationships’ successes, failures, trends, and best practices. She has interviewed more than 860 executives at buyer and service provider companies and is the author of “Critical Requirements for Building and Sustaining a Successful Outsourcing Relationship,” a chapter in Global Outsourcing Strategies: An International Reference on Effective Outsourcing Relationships (December 2006, Gower Publishing). As a freelancer, she also currently serves as the Senior Writer for Outsourcing Center (whose parent company is sourcing advisory firm, Alsbridge) and has authored dozens of articles as well as white papers. In a past role, she was editor of Outsourcing Venture (a former print publication). You can contact Kathleen at ksgoolsby@gmail.com.

No related posts.