Is Costa Rica taking full advantae of Global IT Opportunities ?

Is Costa Rica taking full advantage of Global IT opportunities?

© 2009/2011 Pythian - Confidential

About Roy Salazar

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• IT work experience since year 1999

• BSc in Systems Engineering

• With Pythian since 2011, Before in HP, SYSDE Int. and other national Companies

• Contact

• www.linkedin.com/pub/roy-salazar/66/224/999

• [email protected]/

• About my background

• Oracle Database Consultant (Oracle Core, Goldengate, RAC, Standby, others)

• Delivery Lead / Team Lead

• ITIL Certified

• Technical Consultant, Systems Analyst, Developer (Oracle Forms - Reports & PL/SQL)

© 2012 – Pythian

About Pythian Recognized Leader:• Global industry leader in data infrastructure managed services and

consulting with expertise in Oracle, Oracle Applications, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, big data and systems administration

• Work with over 200 multinational companies such as Forbes.com, Fox Sports, Nordion and Western Union to help manage their complex IT deployments

Expertise:• One of the world’s largest concentrations of dedicated, full-time DBA

expertise. Employ 8 Oracle ACEs/ACE Directors

• Hold 7 Specializations under Oracle Platinum Partner program, including Oracle Exadata, Oracle GoldenGate & Oracle RAC

Global Reach & Scalability:• 24/7/365 global remote support for DBA and consulting, systems

administration, special projects or emergency response

© 2012 – Pythian

About CenfotecThe Cenfotec University is a unique center focused on ICT over Central America, with more than 10 years experience, designing and implementing programs for training and retraining of professionals and conducting research programs in the field of digital technologies.

Cenfotec ranks among the top four institutions of higher education with highest quality in the country in the field of information and communication technologies and the shorter training time

Academic agreements with main Technology vendors like Oracle, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, HP

University rate 100% of employment for students before Graduation or few months after

Contact info: [email protected]


Objective

Use my volunteer day to collaborate with Technology Community in Costa Rica by sharing knowledge and lessons learned during last years of remote work for IT Services, using ITIL with Follow the Sun Model to provide premium Support for US and Canada Clients.

Discuss about opportunities for Costa Rican Talent on IT Industry due to the Follow the Sun Model and potential benefits of working from home for local IT, which should be promoted and implemented much more in Costa Rica local IT Services and even other business

Additionally, share tips for Students to maximize their careers opportunities on the era of Data and Virtualization.

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Costa Rica is strategically positioned for Globalized IT

Industry


Geographic Position

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Geographically Positioned in the middle of the Continent which provide great Accessibility

Few hours away from North America, airport ranked as 3rd best in Latin America runs over 130 flights daily

Timezone affinity, US has Eastern, Mountain and Pacific Timezone, Costa Rica match with Mountain, also 1 or 2 hours difference with EST and PST.

Opposite to India Timezone (IST) which is consolidated on IT outsourcing services. (ideal for Follow the Sun)

Quality and Maturity level increasing by experience, even costs are increasing, Costa Rica is consolidating as IT outsourcing destination (advantage over other Countries in Central America that might be cheaper)

Ranked as one of the most visited and safe International destinations


Languages Spoken

Very High percentage of Professionals know at least basic English

High percentage of Professionals with Advance English Recently many Professionals learning Portuguese Several others languages being studied: Like French,

German, Dutch, Japanese and Mandarin English becoming a standard skill even for local Jobs There is actually higher demand of bilingual

Professionals than available (mostly for specialized Engineers)

More and more Bilingual Schools and High Schools

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Education High quality Universities Several specializations in IT: – Software Engineering / Development (Java, .net,

Visual Basic, Oracle, Mobiles)

– Networking Administration / Telecommunications– Database Administration / Support

– OS Administration / Support (Windows, Linux / Unix)

– Middleware / Web hosting Administration Support

– Others relevant (ie: Project Management) Certifications (Oracle, CISCO, PMI, ITIL, MVP) Experts Courses, ie: Oracle University Workshops,

CISCO Training's, SQL Server training's and many others

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Country Stability

No Army since 1949 Over 120 years of Democracy with Presidential System Ranks as #1 in Latin America security index Ranks as #1 in Latin America in labor-employer relations #55 Best Country for Business per Forbes list

http://www.forbes.com/best-countries-for-business/list/ 90% of energy is renewable One of the most stable governments in the region

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http://www.forbes.com/best-countries-for-business/list/


Relevant Facts to Consider

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Role Definition

Low Cost, but not the lowest

Compared with China or India and also other countries in our region, we are more expensive. Fortunately, high quality Professionals we compensate and keep attractive for investments. So education, specialization and outstanding work is a must to keep improving.

English Spoken, but not full second Language

Even in general High School teach English, at work level not enough Professionals have Advance English skills to work on fully bilingual environments

Other Languages Not all outsourcing opportunities are in English, fortunately some Professionals are already learning other languages

Lack of Professionals for several IT areas

Is a known issue that after arrival of more and more transnationals companies, the demand for IT Professionals is increasing more than the workforce currently available

Infrastructure behind the needs

Is also known issue that Infrastructure, mostly of highways and streets is totally collapsed in the GAM.


Follow the Sun IT Model


What is it about ?

Follow-the-sun is a type of global workflow in which tasks are passed over as working shift ends between sites (or teams or individuals) that are in a different time zone

The work and resources are "following the sun" so the progress and availability never stops

It is setup in order to reduce project duration and increase responsiveness. Also for 24/7 better Support

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How it works ?

For example: At the end of the day a systems support team in Silicon Valley (California, US), will pass its work tasks to a support team in Bangalore, India, which, at the end of its day, passes its work to team in Paris, which passes it back to Silicon Valley

Other example: A Company in the US, set an outsourcing Site in Costa Rica for Unix Support, then they also set a Site in Philippines, due to almost opposite timezones, Team in San Jose provides support for 12 hours and then Team in Manila provides supports for the other 12 hours, having high management in the US and full technical teams in the country Sites.

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Sample:

One more example: Headquarters located in Canada, have DBA who ends shift by 5pm est, then a DBA in Australia takes the shift over, around 10pm est a DBA in India starts his day and takes over until his 5pm, then another DBA in London takes the shift, until it is morning again in Canada, when DBA in headquarters office is back to work.

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Escalation path through levels of expertise ITIL best practices framework for IT service management

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ITIL Service Support disciplines that provide flexibility and stability for delivering IT services:

Incident Management Problem Management Change Management Release Management CMDB

ITIL Service Delivery disciplines that support high-quality, cost-effective IT services:

Service Level Management Availability Management Capacity Management Financial Management for IT

Services IT Service Continuity

Management


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FTS Benefits

Clients are assisted by someone with plenty use of his skills during his daytime, rather than someone being wake up during his/her night sleep

Resources don't need to stay after hours Access to global resources at lower costs Leverage skills and experience across all sites (can offer a

business unique skills otherwise unavailable and therefore provide an important competitive advantage)

Creates contingency plan for handling Tech Support facility shutdowns or similar issues (high availability for resources)

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FTS Challenges

Reduced customer contact and engagement (specially for software development this could be an issue)

Information security policies, additional infrastructure is needed to secure access to private networks

Additional complexity and communication overhead associated for new resources start-up

Additional complexity for Management of globalized teams

Support during weekends requires additional efforts, either On-Call Rotations, shifted shifts, overtime payment, others

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Telecommuting / Working From Home


Definition:

Telecommuting is a work arrangement in which the employee works outside the office, often working from home or at a location close to home (including coffee shops, libraries and various other locations)

Rather than traveling to the office, the employee keeps in touch with coworkers and employers online via: chat, telephone, video conferences and email

As of 2012, estimates suggest that about 40% of the working population in the US could work from home.

Having remote employees is not only a way to get things done round the clock (FTS), is also a way to meet the needs of employees with hard-to-find skill, who don’t want to or can’t live near the Office (which can be even in a different country)

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Myth

Reality


Key Benefitsfor employee

Savings: No money spent on Restaurants, Fuel, Wear, Vehicle Maintenance, etc. “Same Salary with less Costs, means more earnings”

Life Quality: No traffic Jam no time wasted driving from home to office, then can sleep, do exercise, personal matters, time with Family, dedicate to hobbies or whatever makes you happy during free time (before and after working shift)

Opportunities from area where living: Not everyone can or want sell the house to move close to the office, not everyone can or want to move to a different City or different Country (away from family & friends) to work for the Company wish to work

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Key Benefitsfor employer

Savings: No need to rent or buy or build an office on every country where need employees (FTS more redundant at less Cost). Also studies confirm more Productivity for employees working from their homes

Redundancy: Less chances to get all employees sick at the same time due to some virus for example. Also in case of combination with FTS, it means resources in a Team won't be on Stat Holiday all at the same time (Different Countries, different Stat Holidays). In case of any kind of disaster, not all resources will get affected and operations can continue.

Opportunities for area where living: Required or desired Expert or Talent is not always on the area or country where Office is located, remote jobs bring the chance to Company to hire the right skilled resources

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Key Challengesfor employee

Isolation, be alone whole day and have not face to face contact with co-workers might not be easy for most people. Opposite to this, work at home with children, wife or others, might cause a big distraction

Bad Behaviors, constant visits to the freezer, sedentary life, less care of hygiene and or any kind of abuses to be at home can harm health and or work relationship

Non-Stop work or Schedule Disorders, there will be always something more to do 24x7, workaholics might face worst scenario and more difficult to stop working. Opposite to this, some people mostly new on this schema, may face lack of achievement at the beginning and hence could lose confidence

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Key Challenges for employer

More Management / Less Supervision, leaders need to adapt and set mind in terms of resource management, non face to face communications are tricky and riskily, so to make effective communication with remote resources is a valuable skill to develop for Team Leads

Security, is one of the main concerns from clients, so there must be a set of strong policies using technology to guarantee secure connections to client environments and even to access confidence information from company itself. Best practices and technology is a must.

Smart Hiring, Not everyone is cut out to be a home worker, employers should recruit carefully and look for very self-motivated people and with very Professional attitudes.

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“The World of Work has changed from one in which everyone sits in the same building, to one in which many sit remotely but share the same values and culture”. Megan M Biro


Opportunity & Possibility to hire Professionals across the whole territory in Costa Rica


Why no WFH option in Costa Rica ?

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Why no WFH option to IT Costa Rica?

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Relevant Facts to Consider

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Role Definition

Follow the Sun model combined with Working from Home works very well around the world

If it works for Employees, Employers and Clients around the whole World, it must work locally here in Costa Rica across Provinces. There is no reason to keep Collapsing more and more the GAM (plus pollution, stress on traffic jams, etc)

Government already aware of benefits and already started the Telecommute Program.

http://www.hacienda.go.cr/centro/datos/Articulo/El%20teletrabajo%20en%20Costa%20Rica.pdf

http://www.gobiernofacil.go.cr/e-

gob/gobiernodigital/teletrabajoinfo.html

http://www.mintic.gov.co/portal/604/w3-article-4496.html

Less than 2% Working from Home

While at least 25% could be doing it

http://www.elfinancierocr.com/negocios/teletrabajo-Ernest_-

_Young-empresas-Gobierno_digital_0_452354808.html

Next Step ? Start hiring people on this model, not only give the option as a benefit for current employees


Era of Data, why now a days everything is about data?


Data is extremely important:

You go to the Bank, they create you as Client in their system, it will track your transactions or your loan payments and you won't accept any data, cause it will mean real Money missed, there is no chances for mistakes in your records, never ever

Your Company Inventory, Payroll, Employees Info, Accounting, Business Critical Information, not a single piece can suddenly disappear or be lost

You commit to buy in online store, that record of Item paid can not get lost, they can not just say they lost the information about the sale

Servers, Operating Systems, Application Software and mainly Databases exists because of Data, because data needs to be stored, processed and accessed (more recently also get filtered, computed, analyzed, etc)

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Data is a precious thing and will last longer than the systems themselves. Tim Berners Lee


Social Media Data for Marketing (likes, shares, comments, tweets and re-tweets makes free Publicity)

Social Media Data for Recruiting (Talent Acquisition Hunters are looking for the Person behind a Resume)

Social Media Data for Sales (Social Media Analysts are finding the best Customers, Predicting Customers behavior, Managing the Social Networking)

Social Media Data to make Lending Decisions (certain types of credit products, which fit your personality, could be marketed specifically to you)

Many Business are taking advantage by having: +website, ++Social Networking, +++Big Social Data

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Big Data, Big Infrastructures, Big Support required


Development Career path for Costa Rican Students


Tips and Hints

Young students who have time, if they could know their Career goal in advance, could use that golden time to prepare to be Future Guru's in their Profession

Public Sector needs mainly Tittles, Master’s Degree or higher is a great plus for employees earnings and grow opportunities (Highly educated people might have better chances in Government Positions)

Private Sector needs true experience, here the “know how” and wide knowledge is very valuable and equivalent to High Degrees (ie: Small Companies usually need Professionals able to do little bit of everything)

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Tips and Hints

Transnationals needs strong language skills and or specialized profiles, also fast learning and easy adapt to their own standards and procedures. Experience is equivalent to Studies. (They need all kind of people, including Technical skills, Soft skills and Personality)

Public Sector needs mainly Tittles, Master’s Degree or higher is a great plus for employees earnings and grow opportunities (Highly educated people might have better chances in Government Positions)

International Jobs need Certifications on specific areas or technologies, Certifications as DBA, SA, PM, Network Admin, ITIL. (They need very strong and specialized resources, the deepest one knows or gets expertise on specific technology, the better chances will have to succeed)

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Some known Certifications on Information and Communications Technology

Oracle: OCA, OCP, OCM Microsoft: MCSA, MCSE, MCM CISCO: CCNA, CCNP, CCIE PMI: CAPM, PMP UNIX / LINUX: CSE, CSA (several names regarding if HP,

IBM, Redhat, etc) ITIL

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Your are the next

Use Virtual Machines for self learning and practice, keep an eye on latest or new features of your technology

Don't wait to be trained, try to train your self in advance Use skype, join.me, webex, google hangouts, get used to

remote interaction Don't be afraid to take “Virtual Training's”, remote

education is also present and is great opportunity too, either on local Universities or foreign ones

Subscribe to Magazines, websites, pages in Social Media for the Technology you like, there are interesting news, articles, blogs, free seminars and more available

Learn also about Open Source and emerging technologies, that could be a valuable plus on your profile.

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© 2012 – Pythian

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Is Costa Rica taking full advantae of Global IT Opportunities ?

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