The talent shortage in the Information Technologies sector keeps raising new challenges to the companies in the business. They’re constantly looking for new ways to attract talent and to be able to complete their projects in time. In an increasingly globally connected world, nearshoring services arise as a way to help organizations to get in contact with the best professionals in the market, wherever they are.
In the last several years, we’ve seen a rise in the IT Nearshoring activities of european countries that look for skilled IT workers that have attractive labour costs and are not only geographical but also culturally close. This becomes possible due to globalization, similar time zones and easier travel and communications between countries. Portugal arises as one of the top destinations for large companies to locate their services. But with all novelties, some doubts come up and consequently, myths.
1 . Lower quality services
The truth is that what we can’t really see and thus control, frightens us. A lot of companies tend to distrust other countries education systems for the simple reason that it’s different from theirs. So, it’s normal they look suspicious about the professionals that are trained in other parts of the world. However, a lot of the IT engineers hired through nearshore services are some of the best professionals in the market since the clients can usually pay more for that talent than the companies in the original country, leading to a win-win situation. Furthermore, Portugal, for example, has some of the best universities in the world, as featured in various rankings.
2 . Language barrier
Sometimes, when we travel to other countries, we might get a little bit worried about the fact that natives might not understand our english. This also happens with some organizations that want to extend their teams to other countries through the nearshore process. Multilingual capabilities are one of the most important aspects of any professional in the area. Fortunately, in Portugal, you’ll find more fluent English speakers than in any other southern European country, since the portuguese people are always willing to learn and communicate in different languages.
3 . Cultural differences
Cultural differences between nations exist and they need to be accounted for. People simply look at the same things differently according to the culture they’ve grown up in. So, the compatibility between cultures is a key factor in the success of any international relationship and something that usually some companies fear. On the other side, since the nearshore process is usually set between nearby countries, there aren’t that many differences. Portugal is known for its compatibility with EU nations, some countries in Africa, Latin America and the USA.
4 . Insufficient communication
One of the biggest fears of any company that wants to have a remote team set in another country relates to the lack of constant tracking of the teams’ work. If the managers can’t see what the team is doing, they will distrust them more easily. However, today there’s a lot of new technologies that help establishing the contact between the team and the client. Today’s IT professionals are also equipped with various technological tools that enable them to work remotely very easily. Besides, the companies that provide nearshore services to their clients (such as Dellent!) also schedule regular follow-ups with the teams, helping them getting the work done in time.
5 . Slower response time
Along with the fear of not having sufficient communication with the professionals, some clients also fear that the remote teams will slow down the development of the project. Nevertheless, today there’s a lot of platforms that can help managers track the performance of their teams, such as Slack, allowing them to use less time in unnecessary meetings, thus speeding up the development of the projects.
Although there’s a lot of myths attached to the establishment of a nearshore partnership, it’s usually a fairly simple process that requires, above all, a lot of trust between professionals and companies. In an evermore global market, IT nearshore arises as the future of work having many benefits for companies and IT engineers: the first, having easy access to the top talents in the world; the second, having the opportunity to work for the best companies in the globe.
