Mexico has been a nearshore option for many years. With the implementation of NAFTA, the close physical proximity of an educated population — on top of lower wages — resulted in Mexico becoming an appealing location for business process outsourcing (BPO). Over the years, the market has matured and made Mexico attractive for higher level nearshore business.
Here are 5 reasons why you should consider choosing Mexico as your nearshore services provider.
1. Mexico knows English
Mexico’s close proximity to the United States means that a large segment of the workforce is conversant in English and familiar with the expectations of the modern workplace. Mexicans who are educated in areas relevant to advanced manufacturing, high technology, and engineering are often required to pass English-language exams as a condition for graduation.
More than 16 million Mexicans speak English, and an even higher percentage of those in the business and white-collar work environment speak English fluently.
2. Mexico can deliver global standards
Despite Mexico’s young demographic, it still has a more formal culture than the United States does. However, this is not a form of dissembling: Mexican communication, though polite, is frank and to the point. This is a critical distinction with some Asian cultures in which a “yes” is the preferred answer no matter the concern — often leading to delays, confusion, and even failure.
Proof of how the Mexican worker can deliver to global standards can be seen in the manufacturing sector, which is experiencing solid growth, largely due to its ability to deliver high-quality goods to time-sensitive supply chains serving global markets.
3. Mexico and the U.S. have similar time-zones
Mexico City and many other key locations in the country — including the tech hubs of Guadalajara and Monterrey — sit in the U.S. Central time zone. Other regions fall into Mountain and Pacific time.
In 1996, Mexico also adopted daylight savings time to remain tied to the United States schedule as the two nations were increasing their economic connections. The exact start and end of daylight savings can vary between the two countries, but the beginning and conclusion is always within a few weeks.
4. Mexico has engineers and a big labor demographic
Since 2012, Mexico has been graduating on average 130,000 engineers and technicians a year from universities and specialized high schools, more than Canada, Germany, or even Brazil, which has nearly twice the population of Mexico.
Mexico’s labor force is growing at an annual rate of 2.4%. The country’s population is young compared to both developed and developing nations, with a higher concentration of working-age people between 16 and 65. The total median age for Mexico is 26, compared to 37 in the United States. Millennials are Mexico’s largest demographic, making up 34% of the population. This represents an emergent, techsavvy workforce: There are 15.6 million Millennial internet users between the ages of 15 and 34 in Mexico.
Mexico has a working population of 82.3 million compared to a working population of 214.3 million in the United States. That means that Mexico, with 38.4% of the working population of the United States and a much smaller domestic market, is graduating significant numbers of young workers who are available for employment in nearshore work.
5. Mexico has a growing IT market
The strength in Mexico’s IT market is being driven by a number of factors. Enterprise spending is accelerating, due in part to strengthening business sentiment and a more competitive regulatory environment. There is also a more robust telecommunications infrastructure, which is allowing enterprise application spending to grow in concert with the wider availability of software-as-a-service and infrastructure cloud services.
Mexico’s internal IT market is an important indicator of the country’s business competitiveness and the digital literacy of its population.
When considering an outsourcing engagement, numerous criteria must align. Inevitably, customers are looking for a partner that is well situated in regions and can deliver to the highest service levels.
The advantages of Mexico when compared to offshore options is striking. IT outsourcing services can be delivered from well-established locations such as Monterrey and Mexico City, two highly cultured cities with solid ICT infrastructures. The time-zones align perfectly with the United States. The cultures are similar. Language depth allows for multiple points of contact, and employees are fully background-checked and loyal, with low turnover. As well — and this is critical in today’s world — Mexico provides full IP information security protection via NAFTA and other accords and can work within the context of regulated U.S. industries.
Mexico is a secure and reliable IT outsourcing option that is only hours away. Contact us to learn about the nearshore services that DYCSI can provide you and your business.