By the end of May, U.S. cities are slowly reopening after months of quarantine. Yet, with the continuous spreading of the coronavirus, many companies are in no hurry to rush the employees back to the office and have decided to maintain the remote-work option.
When the coronavirus pandemic struck, the remote workforce has become vital for most companies. Yet, many companies may not have the right resource to implement the practice since it's not the core of the business. In particular times like this, more and more companies are seeking out support from firms like Intertec International to help in this regard.
Intertec International (the following abbreviated as Intertec) has served as an engineering and IT outsourcing firm that provides support in the aerospace industry and rapid application development services. Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, the company has expanded all across the United States since it founded 18 years ago. The company has also established a long-term partnership with several known companies such as Microsoft, Oracle, and Pasona.
What makes Intertec unique is that they have a nearshore technology center in Costa Rica, which is appealing to U.S. businesses since its location aligns with the U.S. time zone.
"A lot of competitors that have an offshore model locates in India, Vietnam, or other parts of Asia," explained executive vice president and partner of Intertec Mark McLoud, "but the problem with that model is that there's a time zone gap."
With its geographic position, Intertec's agents in Costa Rica can easily match up with customers in Eastern or Central time. Beyond that, with advantages such as well English-speaking skills, understanding of the U.S. business structure, and cost-effective labor rate make Costa Rica more of an ideal location to settle.
In recent years, more companies moved down to Costa Rica, which caused a burden on the availability of skillsets. Because of that, Intertec began scouting for another region that has quality resources, cost advantage, and broader supply of talents by the end of 2019. In March 2020, Intertec opened its second overseas technology center in Medellin, Colombia.
Coronavirus pandemic and the future of the IT industry
Despite being an expert in the IT industry, Intertec also faced some headwinds due to the crisis. Yet, this does not stop Intertec from growing its new business pipeline.
With people locked down and industries halted, the COVID-19 crisis has forced the nation to adapt to a new normal in a short time. Companies have to adjust to a remote workforce as an effort to keeping social distance while getting work done. However, many companies didn't know how to establish processes, policies, tools, and procedures on how to work from home.
"We have a whole playbook in our product," McLoud said. Intertec has long been ready to help its customers to get through COVID-19 by teaching and coaching them on how to implement a remote-working platform.
And with businesses slowly opening up, McLoud said he thinks that the demand in outsourcing IT functions may go up as companies would want to update and modernize its tools, processes, and applications.
"I think [the IT industry] is going to [have a] strong future going forward," said McLoud when speaking about the IT industry after COVID-19, "companies are going to see that they had a lot of risks associated with their current business processes."
Although the IT industry has a promising future, McLoud pointed out that there is a shortage of talent for specific software developers in the IT world. To meet the demand for the thriving future McLoud sees in the IT field, McLoud said it starts with education.
Whether it's to meet the demand when there is a shortage of talent or to adopt new technology trends, Intertec continuously educates its employees to fulfill the needs of the market. Some of the examples include the early adoption program, in which the company brings in fresh talents and provides them training on business processes and technical tools; and the greenhouse program, where the company will bring in an expert in a specific area to train the employees and create their resource.
McLoud emphasized that Intertec puts a lot of effort into the quality services they provide to their customers. At Intertec, there is a practice leader for each technology, whether it be Java, Microsoft, or QA products. Practice leaders would make sure that the technical skills are certified and that the staff is keeping up with the newest technology trends so they won't have gaps.
"Not only does Intertec do the career pathing for [the employees]," McLoud said, "but we also expect that they are going to put in the effort to keep their skills up to speed."
Published on Kigyo Gaikyo July 2020
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