Is Costa Rica Taking Full Advantage of Global IT Opportunities

Is Costa Rica taking full advantage
of Global IT opportunities?

© 2009/2011 Pythian - Confidential
About Roy Salazar
2
• 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
• salazar@pythian.com/
• 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 Cenfotec
The 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: macuna@ucenfotec.ac.cr

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.
5

Costa Rica is strategically
positioned for Globalized IT
Industry

Geographic Position
7

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
8

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
9

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
10

Relevant Facts to Consider
11
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
13

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.
14

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.
15


Escalation path through levels of expertise

ITIL best practices framework for IT service management
16

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

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)
18

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
19

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)
21

Myth
Reality

Key Benefits
for 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
28

Key Benefits
for 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
29

Key Challenges
for 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
30

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.
31

“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 ?
34

Why no WFH option to IT Costa Rica?
35

Relevant Facts to Consider
40
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)
42

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
44

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)
50

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)
51

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
52

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.
53

© 2012 – Pythian
Thank you and Q&A
http://www.pythian.com/blog/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Pythian-Group/163902527671
@pythian
http://www.linkedin.com/company/pythian
1-877-PYTHIAN
sales@pythian.com
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