Outsourcing ( 8 mins read ) – Published April 26, 2023

 

Outsourcing to Colombia: Top 10 Reasons Why Hire Developers from Colombia in 2023.

Colombia is a country known for its strategic location, its beautiful places and unique biodiversity, its pampering weather, cultural diversity and friendly people, eccentric food, handmade products and much more.. and yes, also for the development and growth of its information technology industry.

In recent years Colombia has positioned itself as a strategic partner for providing nearshore software services. According to the last IT labor market report, This sector contributes about USD 10 Billions per year to the local economy and generates about 370.000 local jobs.  By the end of 2021 IT services exports reached USD 567 Millions, with a stunning 43 % growth compared to 2020. 

So, what makes Colombia such a hot spot for outsourcing? In this post you’ll learn more about the benefits of working with Colombian tech experts and 10 reasons why hiring in Colombia in 2023 may be your best option.

Large IT Talent Pool	6. Work Ethic
2. Preferred Location to Top Companies	7. Hub for entrepreneurship and Innovation
3. Convenient Rates	8. Strong and Dynamic IT Community
4. Timezone and Proximity to the USA	9. Data Protection and Information security
5. Cultural Fit	10. Government Support

 

 

1. Large IT Talent Pool

In the last few decades Colombia has substantially grown its availability of college degrees to its young population, currently there are 296 higher education institutions and universities and according to the ministry of education statistics about 40% of high school graduates pursue undergraduate studies with an increasing number of people pursuing STEM programs. Not only you can find a lot of IT professionals but also a lot of specialists in diverse technologies like python, javascript, php, react, AWS, GCP, Databases, Data Science and AI among others. 

Many of the IT professionals start working when they are still in college and by the time they finish their studies they already have extensive knowledge and sharpened skills in highly in demand technologies.

 

2. Preferred Location to Top Companies 

Colombia regularly attracts foreign investments, In the last years companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Oracle among others have opened branches in the country located mostly in Bogota and Medellin (the first and second biggest cities in the country) and many other local and multinational IT companies have been operating in the country for many years with local software experts working for fortune 500 companies in almost every industry.

 

3. Convenient Rates

Let’s be honest, one of the main reasons for many companies to outsource their software development projects is cost and this is also one of the advantages of hiring tech experts from Colombia, due to its relatively low cost of living, a Colombia based software engineer cost 2-5 times less than hiring a USA based one, currently the average year salary for a US based developer is about  USD $141,329 compared to USD $25,300 of average year salary of Colombian developers with equivalent skills and experience, which makes it a great deal for many businesses.

So, how much will it cost you to hire your development team in Colombia?, of course it varies depending on the size of your team, and rates vary based on the skills and experience, nevertheless you can check the following table to get a rough idea on costs:

Role	Rate
Business analyst	$50-70
Project manager	$50-$70
Junior engineer	$25-$42
Middle engineer	$35-$66
Senior engineer	$55-$90
Architect	$50-$90
Junior QA	$25-$42
Middle QA	$30-$49
Senior QA	$40-$62
UI/UX designer	$35-$60

Timezone and Proximity to the USA 

 

4. Timezone and Proximity to the US

Software development projects excel in requiring lots of communication and coordination between team members doing the work and also between team members and users and stakeholders for regular synchronization, goals settings and tracking and expectations alignment,  In comparison with Europe and Asia (about 7 hours and 12-14 hours ahead respectively) Colombia excels in having the same time zone of the USA (EST). When hiring in Colombia you’re able to communicate and collaborate with your team during regular business hours which allows you to address common critical project matters on time, avoiding delays and ensuring goal and milestones achievement as planned.

Proximity is also a great plus of hiring in Colombia if you want to eventually meet your team in person, and spend some days collaborating with them on the product, technical challenges or business vision matters, a flight from Miami to Medellin is quite affordable and it is just 3 hours long, even shorter than some US domestic flights.

 

5. Cultural Fit

Colombian people are known for being very friendly and easy to talk to, being a great fit to the US culture. Software development is a highly social activity and it requires open communication and having high levels of collaboration between team members and clients to achieve established goals.

It is also important you can enjoy yourself while communicating and working with your developers, software projects usually last for months to years and talking to your software team should be something you like and look forward to doing as opposed to being an “avoid whenever possible” matter. In software projects and in projects overall the human aspect is critical for the end result. Great products are built by highly motivated individuals in friendly and supporting environments. In these circumstances people tend to work harder and focus on producing results to the best of their abilities.

 

6. Work Ethics

Colombia professionals are very dedicated, passionate, hard working and goal oriented people. When you hire developers from Colombia and accurately share your vision on what it is that you want to accomplish, you can count on them, they will commit to making their best effort to deliver your project and help you achieve your vision.

Developers from Colombia also possess a strong collaboration and teamwork orientation, they work together to solve complex technical challenges, they teach and share their knowledge and help others grow and move forward, this is important to make sure new developers ramp up quickly and start making contributions to the rest of the team and to the project as a whole as soon as possible which maximizes your ROI. 

 

7. Hub for entrepreneurship and Innovation

Entrepreneurship and innovation has become critical for economic growth, employment and wealth creation in countries around the world. Colombia is not an exception. In recent years many Colombian startups in different industries have been born and succeeded. That’s the case of Rappi, founded in 2015 in Bogota and after 7 years it became a unicorn, reaching a stunning USD 1 Billion valuation.

But that’s not the only success story, there are plenty of other successful startups  operating in industries including retail, fintech, edtech, transport, ecommerce and others, some of these startups are Laika, Merqueo, Platzi, HackU, Morado, Bold, Addi, Habi, La Haus, Doc-Doc, Picap, Asiste, Cluve, OnTop, KeepUp, Porter Metrics, WeKall, among others.

In recent years, Andrew NG, An AI worldwide renown expert has chosen Medellin to open a hub of his AI Venture, AI Fund, relying on local software experts and AI experts to implement initiatives that have the potential to disrupt entire industries.

This startup and innovation bloom have been enabled by Colombia’s thriving tech workforce, entrepreneurial and innovation community, investor collaboration and supporting government environment.

 

8. Strong and Dynamic IT Community

Colombia is also the place for many tech congresses, summits and conferences that continuously brings together hundreds of experts in innovation, software development, cloud technologies, data engineering, data science, AI, block chain, among others. A couple of these events happening in 2023 are Andicom and Webcongress besides other IT-applied industries events which are unique opportunities for making new professional and business connections.

There are also plenty of events runned by big technology providers such as Amazon AWS, Google, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle and others. In these events latest technologies and trends are shared and attendees usually have access to brand new products, training and resources which often can make a difference in their companies and projects .

There are also plenty of independent meetups in different cities around almost every technology and trend that have the participation of dozens of self motivated tech professionals, entrepreneurs and enthusiasts sharing their knowledge and experiences and doing hands-on practical demonstrations on trendy and hot technologies and industry matters.

 

9. Data Protection and Information security

As mentioned, there are plenty of local and international companies hiring Colombian companies to develop software products that are worth from several tens of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars, this is possible due to Colombia’s strong intellectual property protection policies. 

Colombia has signed international conventions created towards intellectual property protection, some of these are:

• Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works of 1886
•  WIPO Copyright Treaty, signed in Geneva in 1996
• Inter-American Convention on Copyright in Literary, Scientific and Artistic Works, signed in Washington in 1946.
• Universal Convention on Copyright, signed in Geneva in 1952 and revised in Paris in 1971, to which Colombia adhered by means of Law 48 of 1975.

Besides all these It’s also a common practice for Colombian companies to sign NDAs and also request employees and contractors sign NDAs to protect business ideas of customers, so if privacy is important to you, you’re in good hands.

 

10. Government Support

Currently Colombia has free trade agreements with the United States, the European Union, Mexico, the Northern Triangle of Central America (Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras), the Caribbean Community (Caricom), the Andean Community (CAN), the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), Chile, Canada, EFTA (Switzerland and Liechtenstein) among others.

The government institution Proexport contributes to the sustainable growth of the country through the promotion of non-mining energy exports, international tourism and foreign investment, the entity identifies and monitors business opportunities that are generated for Colombia in foreign markets and supports businesses that start their process of internationalization or who have export experience to reach more markets with new products and services.

 

Wrapping up

In Summary, a large pool of exceptional IT experts, timezone and cultural fit, geographical proximity, competent rates, and a thriving innovation and entrepreneurial environment with extensive government support make Colombia a great and convenient option to hire your software development team in 2023.

 

Thanks for reading! 

 

Published on April 26, 2023