To Save Money, Brazilian Companies Turn to Indian and Eastern European Programmers

01/12/2015 - 09h15

Unhappy with the lack of programmers who sought to create apps for his company, Mariano Camargo, 32, decided to look for help in a more distant location: he hired a company in India.

Founder of tourism social network Whisgo, Camargo says the project was 30% cheaper than if it had been done in Brazil, but communication and differences in cultures and time zones generated problems, which caused a four-month delay.

"Their work is very professional, but my feeling is that it works like an assembly line, which follows specific steps in a certain order. We usually thing of one part, take a break, do something else and then go back to the beginning with another idea."

Camargo is not alone among the start-ups (new technology companies) that cross borders in attempt to compensate for the difficulty of hiring technology professionals on a budget.

Lalabee, which offers electronic point and pension obligation services to those with housekeepers, has projects in India and Ukraine.

Marcos Machuca, 44, president of the company, says the main part of the platform is made in-house, where there are eight employees. To save money, complementary items, like apps, are made by professionals in other countries.

While the hourly rate for the development of a project in Brazil is between US$ 34 and US$ 38, the same project runs between US$ 15 and US$ 25 per hour, he says.

"Until he gets an investor, an entrepreneur has to front the costs of a start-up and show that the app works. So he either does everything on his own or he outsources, because it is very expensive to hire programmers."

Looking for professionals outside of the country can make companies more competitive, but caution is needed, says Cláudio Carvajal, coordinator at the university FIAP.

The majority outsources only what is complementary to the business and not what is most important to the company. This prevents service providers from copying apps and bringing them to other clients, he says.

SELECTION

The most common means to find professionals in other countries are platforms for hiring freelancers, which allow you to see the candidate's reputation and then know how much time that professional dedicates to the job, says Guilherme Junqueira, executive manager of ABStartups (Brazilian Association of Startups).

According to Junqueira, the success of such a project is based on the critical fact that the company is clear about the results needed from the programs from the start, and that this is communicated properly.

It is common that there are difficulties in understanding needs, especially because of a lack of fluency in English, he says.

In the case of Precifica, a company that develops comparison and automatic price adjustment tools for virtual stores, the choice of professionals from one of these sites is only finalized after tests and interviews.

Ricardo Ramos, 32, president of the company, says the job opening was announced in October on a freelancers website called oDesk. He received 40 applications.

Of the candidates, six moved forward to the next step, which sought to verify the commitment of the professional and his or her technical capacity. At the end of the process, the company hired one professional in the United States and one in Bulgaria.

The country will also have programmers from Properati, from property listings on the internet.

The company has most of its programmers in Argentina, the company's country of origin, but one professional was hired in Bulgaria to build and organize the team that will develop the apps, says Renato Orfaly, 45, director of Properati in Brazil.

The Eastern European region is chosen by entrepreneurs for harboring highly skilled professionals who do not charge as much as those in cutting-edge countries, like the United States and Israel, says ABStartups's Junqueira.

Translated by JILL LANGLOIS

Read the article in the original language

	Danilo Verpa/Folhapress
	Lalabee offers electronic point and pension obligation services to those with housekeepers and has projects in India and Ukraine