Drawing on Regional Strengths for a Robust Delivery

Q: GlobalLogic just entered the Mexican market. What market indicators is GlobalLogic responding to and why?

A: What makes Mexico different from other countries in Latin America is the role its automotive industry plays in the country. We are seeing a spike in demand for software creation, mostly for digital solutions to advance companies’ objectives toward the digital transformation. The COVID-19 pandemic showed that it was perfectly feasible to create software from remote locations, effectively changing the way companies think about sourcing or outsourcing their software development processes. 

Software development requires a great deal of proximity to the client— especially in terms of time zones because direct in-room or virtual room collaboration is key, even mandatory for what we do. These prerequisites make Mexico an ideal location for these services, allowing it to combine real-time collaboration despite having a team distributed across several countries in Latin America. This way, Mexico becomes a middle ground, allowing access to different talent pools across the Americas. 

Q: What short-term objectives will be guiding GlobalLogic’s market entry in Mexico and Latin America?

A: Our main objective is to invest in talent development. We landed in Mexico because of its large pool of engineers and designers but what we do is highly specific. We follow strict practices related to software, engineering, cybersecurity, agile methodology and design methodology to build software. In short, our goal is to develop the talent in the region in accordance with our preferred best practices and standards. We aim to hire 1,000 engineers in our first three years in the market and we will support that process with intensive training on a quarterly basis. 

Our second objective is to become a nearshore location for our customers in the US and Canada. While we had been working through distributed work models for many years, the geographic proximity to clients is a key value for us. It is much easier to jump on a plane to where our client is located than to other countries in Latin America. 

The third objective is to have a strong presence in Latin America and across industry sectors, including finance, technology, retail, telecommunications and media. Mexico is an interesting market for our services and we want to help industry leaders develop their mission-critical products. 

Q: GlobalLogic has expressed ambitions to triple its engineering team in two years. How does its recent inauguration of two engineering centers factor into this strategy?

A: We need a geographic center of gravity for talent. This will allow us to take a more practical approach during in-person training activities and during the entire hiring process, serving also as a point of settlement for our management team. We understand the talent market as a whole, not only in the cities where we are, so the goal is for our engineering centers to attract talent and become a geographic point of reference for activities. 

Q: GlobalLogic was recently purchased by Hitachi. How has this impacted or altered GlogalLogic’s strategic roadmap?

A: Hitachi’s acquisition came at a very good moment. GlobalLogic has been growing steadily for the last 10 years into the global leader of software design and engineering it is now, employing over 27,000 engineers worldwide. To continue growing and investing in innovation, we required the support that Hitachi was willing to put on the table. It has been an incredible partner in our expansion ambitions, supporting the scouting of companies for inorganic expansion in Latin America. 

While Mexico is a central priority for GlobalLogic, we consider Latin America a unified delivery region in terms of strategy, instead of viewing each country as a separate market. Each country has its nuances, fortes, macroeconomic conditions and history of technology market development, which incentivized the generation of specialized talent to support it. For example, Mexico is ideal for sourcing retail and automotive software developers, while Ecuador’s talent pool is more focused on software for financial services. Ultimately, our ambition is to become a regional player capable of leaning into these strengths for a more robust delivery strategy.  

Q: In the last two years, Mexico emerged as a competitive technology hub. What role does GlobalLogics want to play in this transformation?

A: Latin America has been a powerhouse of digital innovation for many years, giving way to the successful growth and establishment of globally competitive companies across industries from retail to identity management systems. In the last 10 years, the region successfully consolidated itself as a software development hub with the potential to create and export globally. Across the region, countries have the technical capabilities, creativity, education, system, history and initiative to become innovation centers in the years to come.

GlobalLogic LATAM, a Hitachi Group company, is a full-life-cycle product development services leader that combines chip-to-cloud software engineering expertise and vertical industry experience to help customers design, build and deliver next-generation products and digital experiences.