Leverage Nearshore Talent in Mexico With a Digital Transformation Partner

 

Across companies and industries, there is often a disconnect between what a digital transformation initiative promises and the results that the business experiences.

Take Gartner’s survey of Boards of directors. There is almost universal consensus on the importance of digital transformation, with 89% of the board directors claiming that digital is an inherent part of all business growth strategies. However, when it comes to execution, only 35% claim that they have achieved or are on track to realize their digital transformation goals.

 

Shared Barriers to Transformation Implementation

It’s a similar story whether you look at specific industries or keep your focus more general. For example, research carried out by McKinsey in the banking and insurance sector reported a similar percentage (30%) of successful implementations when compared to the general survey cited above.

The fact is, this isn’t an industry-specific problem. It could be a tire company that wants to develop custom software to optimize inventory across store locations or a travel company with a web application. Then again, it may be a company that requires an app to distribute content and sell subscriptions. Regardless of the business, the barriers to digital transformation success are similar across all contexts.

 

The Elements of Success

But how are successful companies overcoming these problems? A separate McKinsey report focused on capturing a digital transformation’s full value outlines three key elements. When zeroing in on the companies that are successful, they found that they all: 

1. Set ambitious digital transformation and customer engagement goals.
2. Are better able to manage their tech talent. 
3. Build proprietary software that is more suited to their business context.

 

The Importance of a Digital Transformation Partner

This is where a digital transformation partner becomes a strategic advantage. They take the time to understand your own company’s needs and then work with you to develop the most appropriate software.

 

Roadmaps to Digital Transformation Success

A digital transformation initiative should never be based on a vague idea to innovate. Instead, it’s about addressing a specific problem or adding functionalities that provide demonstrable value. 

An experienced transformation partner will sit down with you from the beginning to take a solution-oriented approach to explore the best options for your business. This isn’t just about the technology itself. As the Boston Consulting Group says, the “first commandment of transformations” is that they’re “cost effective, incremental, and sustainable.”

For this reason, a digital transformation partner takes into account everything from the development processes and resource practices to ensure the project’s end-to-end needs are met. 

In other words, it’s not only about the technology but the quality of the entire roadmap to give the best chances of implementation success. Transformation partners help develop that strategic roadmap.

 

Managing Talent: Moving From Strategy to Implementation 

There’s an interesting Forbes article on the 12 reasons that digital transformation initiatives fail. Aside from point number 7 (lack of control over external vendors), the rest of the 12 points can be grouped into one failing: human oversight. 

Some of these oversights are at the C-level, such as poor strategy or slow decision-making processes. However, a substantial number of them are directly related to human resource management. 

They cite loss of talent, poor training, mismanagement of agile teams, distraction by the minutia, and lack of awareness within the organization as reasons for failure. Note that none of these common barriers to success are due to the technology being subpar. When working with a digital transformation partner, there are two ways to overcome these challenges – software outsourcing or staff augmentation.

 

Staff augmentation vs software outsourcing

We’ve gone into detail about staff augmentation vs software outsourcing before, but the general idea is the level of support required. Staff augmentation allows companies with limited resources or capabilities to supplement the skills or talent that is lacking internally, while retaining primary control over the project.

Software outsourcing is a more hands-off approach, where everything from the strategy to development to implementation is taken care of by the transformation partner. Any key decisions are made alongside the client company – as well as frequent project updates – but the project delivery is carried out by an external provider. 

No one method is better than another, it depends on your specific needs, goals, resources, and work preference. That said, whatever approach a company takes, there’s one issue that always plays a deciding factor. How do I develop software in the most cost-effective way possible?

 

Nearshore software development in Mexico

At Asymm, we specialize in nearshore software development, which draws on talent from countries that are physically located nearby. It offers many of the same benefits as offshore outsourcing, while mitigating certain risks. As we’re a software company based in California, we draw all our talent from Mexico.

We’ve spoken before about nearshore software development in Mexico, going into detail about the risks, collaborative processes, data security, cultural issues, and other relevant aspects.

However, the main reason we want to address it in this post is due to the benefits it offers when developing proprietary software. As we mentioned, McKinsey considers proprietary software that’s suited to a particular business to be an element of success. 

When companies adopt software that isn’t suited to their context, it often comes down to the costs associated with developing proprietary software. As we explore in our post on evaluating nearshore destinations, Mexico offers access to fully tailored software solutions at a more accessible price.

 

Digital Transformation Success in Diverse Contexts 

The value of having your own, tailored proprietary software can’t be overstated. When you move away from using out-of-the-box platforms or solutions, you have complete control over the technology for your context. 

At Asymm, we’re proud of our track record in delivering unique products and tech stacks for clients in various industries. The flexibility of our approach allows us to tailor the solution to each organization.

 

Custom Software Development for NOW Insurance

Take, for example, our work with NOW Insurance, which provides liability coverage for medical professionals and practitioners. The startup required help in large scale features for the NOW platform and needed technical product development support to bring them to life.

With support from Asymm, NOW is able to write high volumes of professional liability policies. They can do this while maintaining low overheads, consistent underwriting guidelines, and fair pricing structures.

 

Upgrading Software for YoungArts

Now let's compare it with our work for YoungArts, a non-profit based in Miami, Florida. YoungArts specializes in supporting artists through sponsorship, mentorship, and financial opportunities.

As part of this, YoungArts launched an application called “Post” to support the growing community of thousands of artists. It features job posts, blog articles, news updates, and other resources. Maintaining an application for so many users is a challenge, so Asymm helped to upgrade the platform’s front-end and make future development easier. 

These two cases couldn’t be more diverse in terms of sectors and industries, but they had key aspects in common. They required a proprietary software solution and the support of a digital transformation partner that was able to offer the talent, expertise, and project management capabilities to make it a success.

 

Looking for the right digital transformation partner?

A digital transformation partner gives you the best chance of ensuring your software performs as it should. At Asymm, our proven expertise combined with our approach to nearshore software development in Mexico, allows us to offer an unrivaled service experience. 

If you’d like to find out more, reach out to us for a call. We will look at your project, establishing your goals, requirements, and current access to resources to establish if we’re the right transformation partner for you.