News of GPI Consultancy
Since the year 2000, GPI Consultancy organizes full-day and half-day seminars on offshore sourcing and offshore outsourcing. We also organize offshore ICT/BPO-missions on a regular basis, and to various countries.
New article: ‘Cultural differences when dealing with North Koreans’ (April 2024)
A large number of Americans and Europeans have been involved in collaboration projects with North Koreans, even though the geopolitical situation and the different political systems create complicated challenges. Compared with the past, many books and articles are now available about the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and they cover a wide range of issues. However, one topic is often missing: the cultural differences when communicating with North Koreans.
The cultural divide with the DPRK is vast. Many professionals dealing with this country are relatively new to the topic of culture or lack situational awareness. As soon as the borders re-open, foreigners will have again intensive personal communication with North Koreans, and it will be important for them to find ways to create common ground between the different cultures and ideologies. Since there is limited information available about this topic, I am currently writing the article 'Cultural differences when dealing with North Koreans'. It will be published in April 2024 and the introduction is already available (suggestions for input are welcome).
Webinar 'IT cooperation with Turkey' (May 24, 2023)
More and more companies are considering to conduct IT projects in nearshore countries, or to hire foreign IT staff there themselves. We therefore organized another webinar on May 24, 2023. Speakers Rinus Visser, Mert Şükrü Tezel and Ümit Doğan discussed the laws and regulations surrounding nearshoring, covering topics such as Intellectual Property, trade regulations, taxes and more. With a special focus on Turkey as a potential nearshore outsourcing destination. A YouTube video of the webinar is available.
Webinar 'IT cooperation with Turkey' (January 25, 2023)
Turkey provides interesting opportunities for the Dutch (and Western-European) IT sector. The Dutch IT labor market has been very tight for many years and the outlook for 2023 is not much better. Because of the difficulty in recruiting experienced staff, it makes sense to look across the border. Highly trained specialists are available in Turkey, and companies such as Philips, Booking.com and ASML have already brought over hundreds of Turkish developers. It is also possible to engage Turkish software developers remotely. And because the local labor costs are lower there than in the Netherlands, there are opportunities for cost savings as well. However, Turkey is not yet known as a ‘nearshore’ destination. For this reason, we plan to organize a webinar on this topic on Wednesday, January 25 (from 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM CET). During this online event, Ümit Doğan, Paul Tjia and Ünsal Sığrı will discuss the benefits of nearshoring, conducting IT projects remotely, and the status of the IT sector in Turkey. A YouTube video of the webinar is available.
New project related to the promotion of the Egyptian IT Outsourcing sector (2021 - 2025)
Starting in 2021, the Dutch CBI (Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries) will conduct a project to contribute to a sustainable IT Outsourcing sector in Egypt. The project aims to address the root causes of the constraints in the sector, and also looks at why market systems aren’t working and why the sector (or more specifically the market itself) is not providing the solutions yet or not yet effectively. CBI is continuously developing its methodologies regarding project development and implementation and will focus more and more on bringing about systemic changes in sectors in order to set in motion a transformation towards more sustainable and inclusive sectors. In this respect the Market System Development (MSD)-approach was chosen as an interesting approach for future CBI project development and implementation. The project at hand in this respect is one of the pilots project to test the opportunities, possible benefits and possible limitations of the MSD approach for future CBI project development and implementation. Information about the project is available.
Opportunities on the EU markets for offshore IT outsourcing (online presentation, 2020)
The interest for IT outsourcing is growing in Western Europe,. However, for ICT servcies providers, finding clients is not easy. Many marketing efforts are required to gain entry into a foreign market. These are some of the topics covered in an online presentation, especially for participants from Egypt.
Study tour to North Korea (19-28 May 2019)
Are you interested in learning about the political and economic developments in North Korea? Exploring business opportunities? Then you are welcome to join our upcoming study tour from 19-28 May. The program has a general character and includes various visits in Pyongyang. We will also travel south to Kaesong and the DeMilitarized Zone at Panmunjom. During the tour, there will be options for formal and informal discussions with Koreans. For an overview, see the program. There will also be a separate press mission in April (for journalists only).
Business and Investment Opportunities in Palestine (The Hague, 28 June 2018)
Offshore ICT outsourcing to Palestine (both Westbank and Gaza) will be one of the topics of the seminar “Business and Investment Opportunities in Palestine”. For this occasion, the CEO of the Palestinian Investment Promotion Agency (PIPA), the Minister’s Advisor of the Palestinian Ministry of National Economy and the Chairman of the Dutch-Palestinian Joint Business Council will travel to the Netherlands. Representatives from the Dutch private sector and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will share their thoughts and experience. The event will will be co-hosted by the Netherlands-Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Business Council and the Palestinian Mission to the Netherlands; see the program.
ICT- and BPO-mission to North Korea (17 - 25 September 2018)
In the field of ICT, North Korea offers opportunities for collaboration in several areas, such as software development, production of computer games, mobile games, animation and cartoons, websites, data entry and digitization. Having access to a pool of highly technically skilled labor is a key rationale behind outsourcing to North Korea, and where the rates are low. This type of business cooperation is not subject to UN or EU sanctions. In order to provide information about these ICT-related opportunities, a unique study tour will take place in the autumn of 2018. It will have a rather general and broad character, since it will also cover political, economic and touristic topics. See an example program.
Study tour to North Korea (10-19 April 2018)
Are you interested in learning about the political and economic developments in North Korea? Exploring business opportunities? Then you are welcome to join our upcoming study tour from 10 - 19 April. The program has a general character and includes various visits in Pyongyang. During this period, we can witness the birth anniversary of Kim Il-sung on 15 April, and attend some cultural events, such as the Spring Friendship Art Festival. We will also travel south to Kaesong and the DeMilitarized Zone at Panmunjom. During the tour, there will be options for formal and informal discussions with Koreans. For an overview, see the draft program. There will also be a separate press mission in April (for journalists only).
How can we combine agile with outsourcing to other countries? (Jakarta, Indonesia, 20 March 2018)
Paul Tjia, founder of GPI Consultancy, will give a presentation to the Scrum user group Jakarta. He will talk about the latest developments in the field of offshore sourcing. Various Asian outsourcing destinations will be discussed, including India and Indonesia. Also perspectives on distributed agile will be shared: how can we run 'agile', when (part of) our team is remote" See: How can we combine agile with outsourcing (to other countries)?
Palestine is a relatively unknown, but attractive outsourcing destination. Several American and European organizations are already developing software in Palestine, where labor costs are lower. There are hardly any cultural differences, and a specific advantage is the loyalty within the ICT companies, resulting in a low turnover of staff. This makes outsourcing easier, also for small and medium sized clients. A number of foreign relationships with Palestinian firms started because of Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives, since outsourcing creates jobs in a region with high unemployment. A personal visit to Palestine is the best way to gain information about offshore outsourcing, and you are welcome to take part in our upcoming ICT and BPO-mission to Ramallah, from 10 - 14 December. The trip will take place during the 14th ExpoTech, the annual Palestinian ICT conference & exhibition. A visit to smart-city Rawabi is also possible. There a no registration costs related to this mission. For a number of participants (in case of potential outsourcing clients), accommodation at the Ceasar Hotel in Ramallah will be free of charge. An entrance ticket for the conference, gala dinner and exhibition will be included as well. In addition, meetings with potential business partners in order to discuss options for cooperation will be arranged. See the general program for an overview of the mission.
ITC launches Expression Of Interest for Sri Lankan ITO and BPO companies
The International Trade Centre (ITC) in Geneva is launching a call for Expression Of Interest for Sri Lankan enterprises in the Information Technology Outsourcing and Business Process Outsourcing (ITO & BPO) sectors interested in participating in training on export marketing under the EU – Sri Lanka Trade-Related Assistance project.
The project, funded by the European Union (EU) and being implemented in collaboration with the government of Sri Lanka, aims to increase the trade competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in regional and EU markets. The ITO & BPO sectors are among the priority sectors identified for the project.
Selected SMEs will participate in capacity building training with a view to develop and implement their export marketing plans. All Sri Lankan ITO & BPO SMEs are eligible. The deadline is 15 April 2017; for information, see the call for Expression Of Interest.
New training for ICT companies: “How to market your outsourcing services successfully to European clients?”
The interest for ICT outsourcing is still growing in Western Europe. However, for ICT services providers, finding clients is not easy. Many marketing efforts are required to gain entry into a foreign market. In addition, there is a lot of competition from a lot of countries. And for young or start-up ICT companies, growth in export is even more difficult.
For this reason, companies need to take a long term vision and a strategy, while preparing a sound export marketing plan. These are the topics to be covered in our new three-day training program. The purpose of this training is to support especially young companies and start-up firms by transferring knowledge about strategy and marketing for outsourcing, so that they can successfully market and sell their services to European clients.
The training will not only give a broad overview about export-related topics; the participating companies will also work on their individual Export Marketing Plans. This will be done via a program consisting of a two-day training (Module 1), to be followed by a one-day training (Module 2) at a later period. See the program of our export training on outsourcing for an overview.