From the outside it looks like the home of a powerful Diving family, but inside it's a company where computers are scattered among game rooms, a jacuzzi and a corner for employees to do meditation. Fifteen minutes away is another company that has colored lights and mirror balls in the entrance hallway, like in a bowling alley. This is how the 450 software companies in Uruguay strive to resemble as little as possible a traditional industry, which in their case moves 1.82% of the country's GDP. Or, in fact, they are trying to retain workers in the face of a shortage of personnel.
Nicolás Jodal, one of Uruguay's technology gurus, says that a software developer's workplace should be "more like a painter's atelier than a traditional office. But beyond theories about how to unleash creativity or improve productivity, anything goes in this booming industry to retain talent. The sector has about 12,700 employees and needs to add 500 new ones a year to leverage the industry's expected growth over the next decade, according to a publication this week in Uruguay XXI. That's why turning to foreign labor is an increasingly widespread option.
It didn't take much convincing for Carloluis Rodríguez. In Cuba, where he was born 26 years ago, he earned US$15 a month and in Uruguay he was offered more than US$2,000. The conversations to recruit him began two years ago, after a friend recommended his name to the owners of the company UruIT. It was a selection by phone and mail. Checking the electronic mailbox from Havana cost Carloluis more than the 14 megabytes of Internet that the university gave him monthly. The company advanced him money to pay for his ticket to Montevideo and helped him take the first steps in his search for a residence. Later, an Uruguayan girlfriend aggiornó him to stop accompanying all meals with rice and to change the sauce for the cumbia cheta.
Carloluis, who is so named because his father wanted to give him three names and as they did not let him he had to put the first two together, is one of the more than 200 Cubans who came to work in Uruguay in the last three years. Together they are the largest group of foreigners in the software industry, representing 28% of the immigrants working in the sector, according to the Uruguay XXI report. And although they are not the first nationality mentioned by Uruguayan employers, business owners recognize that the islanders have a "solid background.
Only in UruIT, a company of 60 employees, there are four Cubans. The economic situation and the need for professional development, says Carloluis, are the determining factors for opting for the Uruguayan industry. An engineer with two years of experience earns at least US$ 1,800, and "from there up, regardless of the company," explains Marcelo López, one of UruIT's partners.
The "zero unemployment" in the sector for more than five years and the growth of turnover at an average of 25% each year, is fertile ground for salaries to continue booming. Sales surveyed by the Uruguayan Chamber of Information Technology (CUTI) exceed US$1.045 billion, and are equivalent to US$814 million if the state-owned Antel is excluded.
In an increasingly technological world, says Andrea Mendaro, general manager of CUTI, "the outlook is for growth". Since 2008, software exports have exceeded US$200 million and reached US$300 million in 2013. By 2020 it is estimated to reach US$ 1 billion, according to the Ministry of Labor.
But all is not rosy. Uruguay has been displaced as the largest per capita exporter of software in the region. Chile and Costa Rica are vying for that position, although "measurements vary and there are services (such as games) that are sometimes not measured," says Jodal. That is to say: "It could be that the rest have grown more, or that Uruguay stopped selling licenses to focus on uses, such as the Pedidos Ya platform.
The weight of exports makes it have "less impact on this industry" the economic slowdown that the country is going through. Information technologies accounted for 23% of non-traditional services exports last year. Conversely, those who are feeling the blow are the companies that work for the domestic market. The sale of computer services fell 11% in the first quarter of 2016, reported the Chamber of Commerce.
"Today the sale of products is being more profitable than the services, the problem is to get a selling idea," explains Mendaro about the trend and what companies are doing to alleviate the partial cut of the market.
Uru what?
The fame of Luis Suárez, Edinson Cavani and the image of José Mujica were a boost for the software industry, says Javier Peña, an economic advisor to the Chamber of Commerce. Without intending to, the soccer players and the former president "contributed to making Uruguay known, and that saves us from having to spend 10 minutes explaining what the country is like. But it's not enough. According to the economist, "we need to impose the country brand more to compete more strongly against Costa Rica, Colombia and Chile, the main contenders.
Those who have come to invest in the Uruguayan software industry did so attracted, above all, by the legal confidence that gives the country and macroeconomic stability, concludes the foreign investment survey of Uruguay XXI. The multinational Globant, present in 11 countries, chose Uruguay because "there is good talent and it is a possibility of expansion," explains Matías Boix, one of its technical directors.
The free trade zone regime is not necessarily an incentive for this sector. "Uruguayan companies don't care because they are exempt from paying income tax on software exports," says Mendaro. According to the latest data published by the DGI, the state waived US$15 million in 2013 for this concept.
But no matter how many incentives there are, says the manager of CUTI, there are other obstacles that hinder the development of more business. The first is "inefficient air connectivity. Going to visit a client in India involves too many hours and connections, which ends up canceling the project or setting up an office there. The second, and main one, is that "students start working before graduating and it becomes very difficult to get more resources".
In the last five years "we have interviewed more than 5,000 potential workers; I think we have saturated the offer," says Marcelo Lopez. He even recognizes that in the industry there are cases of resignations by text message, or within two days due to high competition. And this also applies to foreigners.
Carloluis has been offered "several jobs" in the year and a half he has been living here. His friend, the one who recommended him, has already been taken by another company. According to this week's report by Uruguay XXI, 83% of the businessmen surveyed would like to bring in talent from abroad. And 54% of the companies already have employees of other nationalities in their staff.
For the time being, there is a strategic solution that some CUTI partners are proposing: to try to get women in technology to match the number of men. Today the ratio in the industry is seven to three, and this is even worse in management positions.
Among the 2,800 profiles with IT knowledge that the siteGallito.com has, only 18% are women. Increasing this percentage is one of the challenges, according to the dean of the Faculty of Engineering of UdelaR, María Simon. But beyond gender, "in the short term should double" the number of graduates to meet market needs.
Engineers, as well as data specialists and app developers, will have 744,000 new jobs worldwide by 2020, says the latest report from the World Economic Forum. In Uruguay, one engineer is trained every 8,000 inhabitants. In Chile, one engineer is trained every 4,500. In South Korea, the most emblematic and "unattainable" example, it is one every 625.
Today, enrollment in UdelaR is growing and already exceeds 7,000 enrolled students, although the number of graduates is around 270 engineers. Of these, 37% studied computer science and 18% electronics, the two engineering careers closest to the demand of the software market.
"There is a difference between UdelaR students, more solid in hard sciences, and students from private universities more associated with business tools," explains Javier Minhondo, another Uruguayan who is a reference in Globant and defender of the potential that this industry has for "a small country like ours".
With the same positive outlook, Jodal points out that Uruguay has the opportunity to bet "on the novelties that are happening in the world, such as the arrival of the internet of things". So far, the local industry has excelled in software for banks and the financial system, gaming, agriculture, logistics, and, increasingly, for health.
To capture those opportunities, you have to think about what the next step is. In that respect, "the software industry is like fashion," Jodal concludes. "You have to know what you're going to use next season.
Source: Portal El País
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