Call Center Industry in Colombia

Call Center Industry in Colombia 2008 1

Colombia was chosen by DIRECTV as one of the options to centralize its Call Center operations, mainly because of the high level of commitment and service attitude and the large supply of students looking for job opportunities to finish their professional careers, which is something that DIRECTV is interested in promoting Colombia: Main reasons why Claudia Martínez B. Customer Service Director DIRECTV COLOMBIA Ltda. Highly qualified and available technical human resources Steven DeLaCastro from Tatum Partners, stated in the article An Atlas of Offshore Outsourcing wrote by Business Week: Colombia probably has the best human resource (Technical) in the region. Competitive Infrastructure Over the last 6 years, the sector accumulated Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) for approximately US$ 2,500 million, mostly focused in infrastructure. Strategic Location Colombia s strategic location in America allows IT companies to have offshore operations with the entire continent. A steady growing sector. Currently there are 16 companies assessed in CMMI at different levels. Out of the nine companies assessed as CMMI 4 and CMMI3, four are working intensely to reach level 5. Shortly 4 companies currently undergoing the assessment process will be certified. Government policies to boost the sector. New free trade zone legislation gives call center services the possibility to pay 15% income taxes. 2

CALL CENTER INDUSTRY IN COLOMBIA 1. Highly qualified and available technical human resources According to the World Competitiveness Yearbook 2007 International Management Development (IMD), availability of this human resource is high compared to other countries in the region. The IMD is an international institution located in Geneva that evaluates every year how competitive the countries are. Through surveys to high executives of major multinational companies located worldwide, and statistical research built competitiveness country rankings in different aspects. In availability of skilled workforce, Colombia leads the ranking (7,2 out of a scale of 10), among Latin American countries evaluated which means that is easy to find high quality human resources, compared with Chile, Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela. Availability of skilled workforce (0= not available; 10= available) Source: The World Competitiveness Yearbook 2007 Since 2003, Colombia graduated more than 4.500 systems engineers, nearly 2.000 electronic and telecommunications engineers, and 440 electrical engineers per year. It places the country in a very competitive position of number of engineers compared with Mexico, Argentina and Chile which are usual offshore countries in Latin America. The number of software companies established in Colombia, are not as much as the countries mentioned before. Availability of well prepared IT professional at affordable wages for foreign software companies is possible in Colombia. 3

Number of engineers graduated in Colombia (2001 2006* First semester) Number of graduates 9.000 8.000 7.000 6.000 5.000 4.000 3.000 2.000 1.000-443 549 585 485 546 2.137 1.982 2.141 287 1.509 1.654 1.426 5.091 4.875 4.914 3.339 3.657 3.461 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006* Professional Systems Engineering Professional Electrical Engineering Professional Elctronic Engineering Source: Ministry of Education Country Number of undergraduates IT Professionals Number of Universities Mexico Chile 3.050 (2005-2006) Systems Eng. 8.546 (2005-2006) Electrical and Electronic Eng. N/A 573 Universities 61 Universities + 42 Professional Institutes= 103 Argentina 3.500 (2006) Systems Eng 104 Universities and Professional Institutes (2006) Colombia 4.914(2005) Systems Eng and Telematics 585 (2005) Electrical Eng 2.141 (2005) Electronic and Telecommunications Eng. 178 Universites and University Institutions(2007) Source: Mexican Labor Observatory of Mexico: http://www.observatoriolaboral.gob.mx/wb/ola/ola_numero_de_egresados_prof Mexican subsecretary of Higher Education: http://ses4.sep.gob.mx/ Argentinian Minister of Education: www.me.gob.ar Ministerio de Educación de Chile Colombian Ministry of Education: http://www.graduadoscolombia.edu.co/html/1732/channel.html 4

Average cost of engineers in Latin America main cities (US$ per year) Lima Bogota Mexico DF Caracas Buenos Aires Rio de Janeiro Santiago de Chile Sao Paulo 12,600 15,100 15,200 15,600 20,400 22,700 22,900 27,700 0 10000 20000 Source: UBS prices and earnings 2006 edition Average cost of workstation in main Latin America Offshore Countries (US$ per year) Fully Loaded Wages p/h Technology and Telco p/h Rent and Occupancy p/h Totals Annual Cost per WKS Argentina $4.55 $1.45 $0.24 $6.24 $ 12,98 Colombia $5.20 $1.45 $0.30 $6.95 $ 14,46 Mexico $6.55 $1.45 $0.28 $8.28 $ 17,22 Costa Rica $7.37 $1.23 $0.52 $9.12 $ 18,97 Brazil $8.25 $1.69 $0.86 $10.80 $ 22,46 Source: Call Center Company Research 2. Competitive Infrastructure Growing investment rates in the sector seek to turn Colombia into one of the most competitive countries in Information Technology and Communication (ITC) in the region. Over the last 6 years, the sector accumulated Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) for approximately US$ 2,500 million, evidenced in the contribution of the sector as a percentage of the national GDP. Most of this investment has focused on infrastructure to support expanding activities in ITC by increasing the telephone and internet networks 5

and submarine cables among others. Consequently the sector s income for 2006 is estimated in US$ 7,216 million. Growth 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 III Q 2007 AGGREGATED GDP (%) 2.26 4.01 4.96 4.74 6.95 6.74 Telecommunications and mail (%) 3.82 2.86 4.10 3.42 16.65 15.23 Contribution to the GDP 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 III Q 2007 Telecommunications GDG/Total GDP (%) 2.68 2.65 2.63 2.6 2.83 3.02 Source: DANE (National Statistic Department) Income in the Telecommunications Sector 2002 2006(p) US$ Million Dollars 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Source: CRT 3,272 4,047 5,369 6,115 7,216 1322 528 551 1442 1749 571 882 560 1587 1737 2052 442 288 2328 3050 144 255 358 367 496 726 897 1114 1242 1331 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Others Added value Mobile tel Long distance Local Tel Investments in infrastructure have expanded the coverage of voice and data networks having a direct impact on the increase of Internet subscribers and users. For 2007, the country held third place in the number of Internet users in South America and the fifth one in coverage in Latin America. Furthermore considering the growth indexes, clearly Colombia may quickly become a leader in the region in terms of coverage to Internet access. 6

Internet Penetration in South America (June 2007) Suriname 0.1 French Guyana 0.1 Guyana 0.2 Paraguay 0.3 Bolivia 0.6 Uruguay 1.1 Ecuador 1.5 Venezuela 5.3 Chile 7 Peru 7.3 Colombia 10.1 Argentina 16 Brazil 42.6 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 Source: Internet World Stats Indexes of Internet penetration in Latin American countries to June 2007 Latin America Source: Internet World Stats Population Internet usage (Penetration) % Users Use Growth (2000-2007) Chile 16,284,741 7,035,000 43.2% 7.6 % 300.3% Argentina 40,301,927 16,000,000 39.7% 17.4 % 540.0% Uruguay 3,460,607 1,100,000 31.8% 1.2% 197.3% Peru 28,674,757 7,324,300 25.5% 8.0% 193.0% Colombia 44,379,598 10,097,000 22.8% 11.0% 1,050.0% Brazil 190,010,647 42,600,000 22.4% 46.3% 752.0% Mexico 106,457,446 22,700,000 21.3% 87.3% 736.9% Guyana 769,095 160 20.8% 0.2% 5,233.3% French Guyana 204,932 42 20.5% 0.0% 2,000.0% Costa Rica 4,504,013 922,5 20.5% 3.5% 269.0% Venezuela 26,023,528 5,297,798 20.4% 5.8% 457.7% Belize 312,233 38 12.2% 0.1% 153.3% Ecuador 13,755,680 1,549,000 11.3% 1.7% 760.6% El Salvador 6,672,218 637.1 9.5% 2.5% 1,492.8% Panama 3,172,537 300 9.5% 1.2% 566.7% Guatemala 13,110,745 1,000,000 7.6% 3.8% 1,438.5% Suriname 470,784 32 6.8% 0.0% 173.5% Bolivia 9,119,152 580 6.4% 0.6% 383.3% Paraguay 6,669,086 260 3.9% 0.3% 1,200.0% Honduras 6,827,496 260 3.8% 1.0% 550.0% Nicaragua 5,701,141 140 2.5% 0.5% 180.0% Average 17.3% The Cisco Wide Band Barometer is an initiative to measure the development of high speed internet services in Latin America and to stimulate growth of the number of accesses to this service in the continent. According to the indicator, Colombia has 7

839,189 wide band connections for a 2% coverage, which remains low. But it has the highest growth rate of the countries in the region measured by the barometer. By 2010, estimates indicate that Colombia will have 3.5 million wide band connections. Country Number of wide band connections Growth (Jan 07 Jun 07 Coverage Brazil 8,100,000 30.50% 3.50% Mexico 4,804,282 N/A 4.40% Argentina 2,058,109 29% 5.30% Chile 1,200,570 33% 7.40% Colombia 839,189 93% 2.00% Peru 564,658 79% 2.10% Source: Cisco Barometer, II semester 2007 For the period between 2008 and 2010, US$ 4,000 million will arrive to the country to be invested in telecommunications. The most interesting investments will focus on developing state of art network infrastructures to provide converging systems on Internet platforms. Hopefully this will enable the data and internet share to reach 40% of the total income for telecommunication companies in 5 years. Today this income accounts for a 17% share. 3. Strategic Location Same time zone with United States and Latin America and shorter flight distances are valuable facts IT customer. Colombia shares the same time zone with United States eastern coast, and time difference with western coast is only 3 hours. Colombia is a natural hub in the Americas. Flight hours are considerably shorter than other countries of Latin America. Los Ángeles New York Miami Houston Ciudad de Santiago de Buenos Madrid México Chile Aires -3 hours Same Hour Same Hour -1 Hour -1 Hour +2 Hours +2 Hours +6 Hours Flight hours Los Ángeles Miami New York Houston Madrid Mexico City Bogotá 8.30 H 3.40 H 6.00 H 5.15 H 10.22 H 4.25 H Lima 8.35 H 5.30 H 7.47 H 6.30 H 11.30 H 5.45 H Buenos Aires 15.00 H 9.15 H 14.50 H 10.30 H 12.15 H 9.25 H Mexico City 4.00 H 3.00 H 4.35 H 6.00 H 10.15 H - Santiago 11.30 H 8.45 H 10.50 H 12.25 H 12.55 H 8.30 H 8

4. A steady growing sector. Many multinational call center companies, believed in Colombia and Colombia s offshore market is growing Latin America has shown important progress in Offshore services, and especially Colombia has progressed greatly in Call Centers and in the software projects. According to the Colombian Association of Call Centers the largest Call Centers in the country belong to the association- with sales representing 80% of the total sales in the industry, estimated invoicing for 2007 totalized US$ 306 million with exports representing approximately 14% of the total amount invoiced. In total there were 21,289 positions and 40,636 agents presenting significant growth over the last years. Call Center Invoicing 2003 2010 (Estimated). Figures in US$ Millions of US$ 1000 900 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 901,1 680,1 476,1 390 220,6 146 94,6 115,7 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Source:Colombian Association of Call Centers; Calculations: Proexport Number of Call Center agents 2003 2010 (Estimated). 100.000 90.000 80.000 70.000 60.000 50.000 40.000 30.000 20.000 10.000-92.193 70.162 53.396 41.179 32.451 22.848 17.262 13.628 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Source Colombian Association of Call Centers; Calculations: Proexport 9

Atento, the largest Call Center operator in Latin America, has its headquarters in Colombia, with 4,600 positions, 6,900 agents and four offices in the country. In 2008 five new Spanish Call Centers are expected to begin operations, and by 2010 there will be 100,000 agents. In November last year the 14 call centers belonging to the association employed 40,636 people, a figure contrasting with the 32,451 in 2006 and even more with 22,848 in 2005. 5. Government policies to boost the sector: Competitive framework has been developed by the government for the sector promotion. a. VAT exemption for service exports: Granted to services provided in Colombia. b. Best Free Trade Zone regime in Latin America i. 15% nominal income tax, may reach 7% real, considering different deductions which may be applicable ii. No customs levies are caused or payable (VAT and TARIFF) for products, machinery, raw material and input arriving from any country in the world to the Free Trade Zone iii. VAT exemption for raw material, input and end products sold from Colombia to industrial users of the FTZ iv. Exports from the FTZ to third countries benefit from international trade agreements signed by Colombia v. Machinery coming from abroad directly related to the operation of the business doesn t cause customs levies c. In order to promote new investments and the expansion of existing ones, the Government provides investors with the option to sign a Legal Stability Contract, securing the conditions that are key to the investment, for a period between 3 to 20 years. Also, the country is taking steps to improve its level of bilingualism. Goals Improve English skills of primary and secondary education level students Improve communication skills and teaching methodology of English teachers. Goals and perspectives for 2010 30% of eleventh-graders with intermediate English level skills 45% of teachers with intermediate English level skills 55% of the teachers reach intermediate-advanced English level skills Goals and perspectives for 2019 100% of eleventh-graders with intermediate English level skills 100% of teachers with intermediateadvanced English level skills 10

Improve the level of performance for those pursuing a degree in languages (future teachers) Source: Ministry of National Education, SENA 25% of students with advanced English level skills 75% of students with intermediateadvanced English level skills 100% of new undergraduates with advanced English level skills 11