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In this research we were able to
build up a list of 53 different
types of teleservices that are being
offered from the four countries,
among which those that can be
found are related with information
technologies; design, consulting,
administration, translations, engineering,
call center, research and
development, and sales, the most
common.
2Who would we sell them to?
Or who could be interested in
teleservices from our region?
Results on the local and foreign
companies’ intention to buy teleservices
turned out to be quite encouraging.
Out of 350 companies that answered
the survey, 5% currently hire teleservices
in LAC, but 65% show an
intention to buy teleservices in the
following two years.
3Could this way of working
decrease emigration driven
by the lack of opportunities?
This question is closely related to
the next one. However, it matters to
bare in mind that what is exported
through the sale of teleservices is
the knowledge of the citizens of
one country while not implying the
physical transfer of the service provider.
4Does is produce sources of
work?
The majority of autonomous teleworkers
have to create their own
jobs, but those who export are
clearly the ones who have found
new sources of work.
Although it would be interesting to
interview both parties in a contract
or an export to assess whether the
created job in one place jeopardized
another or, on the contrary,
it helped fill a rarely satisfied position,
among other several reasons,
momentarily we will only focus on
the data collected through our research.
From over 1605 current teleworkers
that answered the survey the largest
exporters are Costa Rica with
39 percent and Argentina with 25
percent.
Costa Rica is also the case with
most migrating teleworkers (30%).
Teleworkers working independently
represent between 30 and 50% of
the total respondents.
5Does it allow greater social
and labor inclusion?
The number of diverse teleservices
that we found teleworkers are offering,
create a great perspective
for inclusion. Among them we
found teleservices of diverse complexity
that embrace a variety of
service providers. Even though
the majority are professionals, we
found that in countries where telework
has had more dissemination
and seniority, such as in Argentina,
the interest has extended to tertiary
levels of education. This would allow
that a greater number of people
were incorporated into the teleservices
market in the future.
Etis-Lac drew out three analysis
corresponding to three subuniverses.
These were teleworkers with
physical disabilities, teleworkers
descendants of native tribes and
teleworkers by gender.
In summary there are no limitations
if there is the knowledge, there are
the technologies and there is the interest
in this way of working. Technologies
do not discriminate per se,
the problem will be to deal with the
asymmetries in the access to ICTs
so that telework reaches those who
need it and/or want it.
6Why aren’t Call Centers
decentralized?
Since globalization and the devaluation
process undergone by
our currency in the year 2001, Argentina
started a maturation process
and experienced a growth in
off-shore operations for it can now
be spoken of a decentralization of
operations toward places where operational
costs are lower.
For these reasons, and within this
new context we incorporated a
fieldwork experience, crossingover
a series of technological, human
and organizational variables,
that even though do not allow
generalizations neither allow a sole
conclusion.
The fieldwork experience in ABSA,
faced as main obstacle the external
technological support. This was the
most considerable source of restriction
and not the personnel as it can
usually be seen in different papers
on telework.
From a management perspective it
should be pointed out that the need
of operating a change process in the
mind of the supervisor and being
able to operate from a management
style based on trust is in order. This
is a new challenge to be explored,
specially if we are speaking of the
call and contact center industry,
where we hope this study can help
make decisions for change.
7Are there any obstacles for
exports at a small scale?
We found that obstacles to teleservices
exports can be, in general,
to put a price on them, even
though no obstacles were detected
for those wishing to legally export
their services through this way of
working.
The four countries under examination
show asymmetries in their
progression in terms of legislation
that can facilitate the provision of
cross-border services.
Since these are cross-border services,
it is important to take initiatives
toward legal adaptation through
international cooperation in order
to face the changes presented by
the advancement of ICTs, so to allow
that those offering services independently
or as an autonomous
worker counted with the legal tools
that make possible the relationship
among the involved parties to be
normal in all jurisdictions.