Version: 2008

May 17, 2006 3:54 PM PDT

Mexico wants your software work

  • 23 comments
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Mexico may not have as many engineers as India or China, but the country's a lot closer to the United States than either of them.

And the benefits of proximity add up, says Eduardo Ruiz Esparza Flores, president of CANIETI, a Mexican IT trade group working with the Mexican government to promote the country as an outsourcing destination. He is also CEO of RFID Native, which builds radio-frequency identification systems.

"There are over 300 flights a day" between the U.S. and Mexico, Flores noted during an interview at the Gartner Symposium ITxpo. Bandwidth costs on software projects also add up, so the closer your programmers are to corporate headquarters, the better.

"We are looking for complex and network-needed projects with high response requirements," he said.

The language barrier is easily hurdled, according to Flores, and in many areas, U.S. executives can stay in the U.S. and commute down to work.

Three years ago, the Mexican government launched a program, called Prosoft, to promote the country's tech industry. The goal is to increase the size of the Mexican IT industry to $15 billion annually by 2013. Two weeks ago, the government launched an advertising and recruiting campaign for Prosoft.

Mexico, however, isn't cheap compared with the larger Asian nations when it comes to outsourcing. Mexico's contract-manufacturing industry was hit hard when China ramped up as a manufacturing powerhouse.

Still, Mexican labor is cheaper than American labor. Newly minted Mexican engineers make around $1,200 a month, Flores said, about a third of what young engineers earn in the U.S. Intel has about 1,000 employees in Mexico, he added. Freescale also has development operations.

Technology also remains a popular subject with students in the country. Mexico has around 400,000 students studying IT-related subjects in universities and technical schools. Roughly 60,000 of them graduate from these programs annually. The Monterrey Institute of Technology, which used Massachusetts Institute of Technology as its model, remains the country's premier technical university.

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Mexico, outsourcing, government, U.S., China

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K?
by sanjayb May 18, 2006 4:48 AM PDT
K?
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Message has been deleted.
by baswwe May 18, 2006 7:41 AM PDT
It's Obvious
by MikeDson May 18, 2006 8:57 AM PDT
Mexico is KNOWN for it's tecnhological prowess.
(that' a joke).

Man, Mexico's obviously on some PR campaign here, I see Business Week recently ran an unbelievably idiot, unresearched article buying the story that Mexico is producing far more qualified engineers than the U.S.
Reply to this comment
read well before you post
by rigman2k May 18, 2006 12:50 PM PDT
If you're referring to this article... http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_21/b3985070.htm?campaign_id=search

then your reading & comprehension skills definitely need improving. That article is stating that "Currently, 451,000 Mexican students are enrolled in full-time undergraduate programs, vs. just over 370,000 in the U.S." Which is a fact. It's not stating whether the engineers are "far more qualified" or not than their U.S. counterparts. The article seems objective, nothing stated there is such a big secret to those who have been following development in Mexico and in Latin America, so stop bashing what you obviously no nothing about.
The Globalization Pie
by b2bhandshake May 18, 2006 9:33 AM PDT
This is perhaps what some call 'nearshoring' Canadians tried sourcing work from the US. East-europenas are trying to source work from Western Europe.....while of course Indians, Chinese and Asians are sourcing from everywhere.

Bottomline: The pie is only getting bigger and not being split; at least not yet.

- Mohan [Author: "Offshoring IT Services : A Framework for Managing Outsourced Projects" http://www.offshoringmanagement.com/theBook.htm ]
Reply to this comment
Nothing new
by chinqualero May 18, 2006 9:51 AM PDT
This should not be new news. Mexico for a while now has been breeding a lot of engineers to compete globally and one way, strengthen the relationship with it's neighboor to the north. Mexico, however has the problem of modernizing it's infrastructure. Due to this issue, many educated Mexicans are underemployed due to the lack of foreign investment in Mexico compared to China and India. Ofcourse, wages is huge factor in this, it cost more U.S. dollars to pay wages in Mexico than in China or India.
Reply to this comment
,,,,and I want my country back.....
by Jim Hubbard May 18, 2006 10:14 AM PDT
So, let's make a deal. We outsource even more to Mexico....and you stop crossing the border illegally?

What do you say?
Reply to this comment
back to the topic please...
by chinqualero May 18, 2006 10:45 AM PDT
funny, how you automatically assume I crossed the border illegally. Please lets not assume things like that or offend each other. ;-)

My fellow American, you and I can not control outsourcing directly. Why? Capitalism. One important aspect of capitalism is shareholder wealth. Because Americas top elite want to continue to get richer, they will do ALL and everything they can do to run a business at the least cost to their pockets. Therefore outsourcing is actually supported by Americas elite and our own American government. Unfortunately, those who are not part of those shareholders, they do not have a say in this. This is where our own government and corporations screw us Americans and only contribute to the pure capitalistic approach, "the rich get richer and the poorer get poorer."

Therefore, lets not blame Mexico, China, and India just because they are competing globally for jobs.
The problem is here at home, where we are allowing outsourcing.
View reply
Mixing Oranges with Apples
by Dead Soulman May 18, 2006 10:46 AM PDT
The people that are more likely to cross the border illegally are not Engineers and/or highly educated. Although there are some that may have ran out of options in their towns, and took the risk. But, a large number of them are from small towns and come here for low-skill jobs.

Unfortunately, the ones to blame for such an astonishing influx are the local employers. IF they were to stop hiring illegal workers, they would not come to your town. Simple as that. Supply and demand.

There are better, and more effective ways, to address your concerns. But, sarcastic bigotry is not the best.
View reply
Countries Like "MEXICO" and "BRAZIL"...
by Captain_Spock May 18, 2006 10:26 AM PDT
... have a lot going for them with regards to outsourcing opportunities not only by these countries being a lot closer to the United States than either India or China but because of the presence of the largest development financial institution in the hemisphere - The Inter-American Development Bank ( http://www.iadb.org ) which can provide "business development financing" in these countries quite easily; and, this is what will happen, as the "skills set" of the Latin American and Caribbean IT Workers increase because of the almost similar "time zones" shared with North America there is likely to be an increase in near-shoring activites between the countries of the "AMERICAS" operating as a SINGLE ECONOMIC BLOC showing its exhaust systems to IT Workers in India and China with regards to outsourcing activities!
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seems like a fair request..
by Jon_Paal May 18, 2006 11:12 AM PDT
Mexico wants more professional work outsourced to them from the US While they dump their unemployed across the border to the US.

Sounds like a great deal for Mexico .....
Reply to this comment
Since "Mexico wants more professional....
by Captain_Spock May 18, 2006 12:07 PM PDT
... work outsourced to them"; what examples can they provide that they are ready "today" to provide the "level", "quality" and "speed" of services required by US companies wishing to outsource IT Services to Mexico!
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LOL
by rigman2k May 18, 2006 6:46 PM PDT
I say no. Here's an even better deal...

Why don't you return the territories that you STOLD from us 150 years ago, and problem solved!

Jeez, you'd think that while Dubya is building a wall to keep Mexicans out, he can build another one to keep American jobs in?
Reply to this comment
Better idea....
by Jim Hubbard May 19, 2006 5:12 PM PDT
Why don;t we just annex Mexico. With all of the jobs and money we're sending there....and all of the illegals we're supporting here....it's only fair that we get to ebjoy the country we're supporting.

Maybe then we could get some of the taxt money that is not being paid now.....
View reply
You can have the land back.....
by Jim Hubbard May 22, 2006 3:10 AM PDT
....if you'll take your people too.
Mexico Works to Bar Non-Natives From Jobs
by Jim Hubbard May 22, 2006 2:59 AM PDT
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060521/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_limiting_immigrants
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