Achieving In-Person Office Work Balance: A Key to Nearshoring 3.0 Success

Nearshoring information technology and business processes from Mexico has been in existence for twenty-five plus years. Many point to Softtek’s first US-based client in 1997 as to when the Nearshoring industry was born. Directionally, we could say the next few years were “Nearshore 1.0” where the more mature India Outsourcing market was tailored to Mexican talent, time zone, and US customer requirements of that era.


As other players and US-based customers entered the Nearshore market in the latter part of the 2000’s the industry moved into a “2.0” evolution characterized by larger and more diverse outsourcing contracts, standardized ways of working, increased talent levels from the Mexico side, and increased maturity by US technology managers of how best to use Mexico Nearshore services in their global resourcing architectures.


Even as outsourcing, nearshoring, and other forms of remote work continued to mature in the 2010’s, the 2020 global pandemic propelled service providers and customers alike into a next phase, a “Nearshore 3.0.” All of the sudden not going into any office, traveling on any public transit, and other pandemic repercussions forced many deeper into the remote model to get work done. This 3.0 continues to increase many of Nearshoring’s fundamental client benefits such as overall access to talent, access to hard-to-find skill sets, more competition and lower costs, and employees can receive more work-life flexibility and increased salaries and benefits.


But 3.0 has also introduced some challenges for Mexico Nearshoring such as lack of cultural identification and bonding with team members. Being a culture where family is important, lack of this familial aspect at work can be a negative and lead to such as lack of motivation and dedication to the job at hand, and eventually higher turnover.
At Technology Sales & Advisory, LLC (“TSA”), we believe that for Nearshoring from Mexico, remote has tipped the scale too far. Having “re-launched” TSA in 2023 from Ensenada, Baja California, we are excited to take a leading role in re-balancing the scale towards more in-person collaboration, relationship building and a sense of purpose and community.

Ensenada coffee shop; TSA team members building relationships and collaborating on best practices

Don’t get us wrong, remote work within Nearshoring has many advantages for clients and team members and 3.0 plus future Nearshoring evolutions are here to stay. But we think there is an opportunity for newer companies like TSA to offer something a bit different in software and process outsourcing. Some approaches we’re implementing right now are “Squad Leaders” by technology and location who are charged with creating culture and strong inter-team relationships which refers to a positive and effective collaboration and communication between different teams within an organization. It implies that the teams work well together, share information, support each other, and collaborate seamlessly to achieve common goals. A strong inter-team dynamic fosters synergy, enhances productivity, and promotes a cohesive working environment.


Other TSA focus areas include renewed local University relationships and programs, and investment programs in the regions our offices are in, for example in Baja helping improve the Tijuana to San Diego border crossing through technology.


What are TSA’s strengths and expertise? We specialize in Mexico, product development, systems integration and process outsourcing. We invest in our people and communities, which in turn improves our delivery and ultimately increases our customers’ success.


We hope you enjoyed our current take on remote work as part of Nearshoring, thank you so much for reading along!


Are you an engineer or business manager looking for new challenges? Are you a US-based company looking for the next generation of Mexican professional services partners? Please get in touch through our website here.