Ads by TechWords

See your link here
Receive the latest technology news and information.
CareerMail
Computerworld Daily News (First Look and Wrap-Up)
Computerworld Blogs Newsletter
The Weekly Top 10
Cloud Computing
View all newsletters




Privacy Policy
 

Brazil

It's a sleeping giant with a tradition of high-quality software.

September 15, 2003 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - Brazil is well known for the bossa nova, string bikinis and Amazon forests. Less well known is that, by many measures, it's one of the world's major countries. It ranks fifth in both geographic size and population (180 million people) and has the world's eighth-largest economy.
That said, it generally isn't on the radar screen of IT departments thinking of outsourcing. "I don't know anyone going to Brazil [for IT outsourcing]," says Michael Janssen, an outsourcing consultant at Everest Group in Dallas.
This isn't all that surprising given Brazil's perceived limitations as an outsourcing venue. Peter Bendor-Samuel, CEO of Everest Group, says Brazil has a number of shortcomings compared with other offshore centers. Among those are higher costs than outsourcing giant India (he says Brazil has a 30% advantage over the U.S. vs. India's 50%), a longer distance from the U.S. than neighbors Canada and Mexico, and a smaller pool of educated English speakers than, say, India or Canada.
But Brazil isn't out of the running. Thiago Maia, executive vice president at IT outsourcing vendor Vetta Technologies Ltd. in Belo Horizonte, Brazil's third-biggest city, cites a number of the country's strengths: time zone (depending on the season, Rio de Janeiro is just one or three hours later than New York, since one's on daylight-saving time while the other's on standard time), a culture more similar to the U.S.'s than India's is, an expanding software industry and an oversupply of IT professionals.
Ben Goertzel, CEO of Biomind LLC, a bioinformatics company in Silver Spring, Md., outsources software engineering, software design, project management, artificial intelligence R&D, and system and database administration to Vetta. He says Brazil's advantages include a good knowledge of computer science among IT professionals, a tradition of high-quality software engineering and the relatively short flight time to Brazil from the U.S. East Coast, making it feasible to hold in-person meetings several times a year.
He also likes the way Brazilians approach development. "[They] tend to stick a lot closer to the software development and project management processes that are taught in universities," Goertzel says. "Everyone in the U.S. knows what these 'correct practices' are, but American software teams tend to make a lot more shortcuts. Brazilian developers are a lot less likely to produce undocumented or poorly documented code."
Goertzel says he has to provide Brazilians with explicit requirements and specifications, which takes him more time upfront, but "the end result is more robust software and less time spent on the later phases of the product cycle."
Infrastructure can be an issue, since much of Brazil is very poor. Major cities have reliable electricity and phone service, but Internet connectivity is slower and more expensive than in the U.S. Goertzel likens Brazil's Internet infrastructure to that of the U.S. about five years ago.
Horowitz is a freelance writer in Salt Lake City. Contact him at alan@ahorowitz.com.

Special Report

Offshore Buyer's Guide
Stories in this report:

Read more about outsourcing in Computerworld's Outsourcing Knowledge Center.



Jump to comments

Additional Resources

Microsoft
Here are some of the key reasons why you would want to run Unified Access Gateway with DirectAccess.
Microsoft
Review how one energy firm tightened protection and simplified IT work using business-ready security solutions.
Sybase
In this white paper, IDC analyzes the role of next-generation mobile enterprise platforms as organizations seek a more strategic deployment of mobile solutions.

Learn the important issues you must consider before starting your next mobility initiative. Get your mobility white paper from IDC now, compliments of Sybase.

White Papers & Webcasts

The Workday User Experience Video
Watch Workday's Creative Director, Scott Lietzke, discuss the business-centered design philosophy at Workday.

Business Process Framework Demo
Learn about Configurable Business Processes and Calculated Fields. Watch Now!

Manager Experience Demo
Go beyond self-service solutions to perform more effectively. Watch Now.


IT Jobs