Why the Americas are a Fruitful Ecosystem for Software Exports

A million companies have faced great challenges as they entered the COVID-19 pandemic and many of them found themselves having to make extremely tough decisions by letting employees go or even deciding to go out of business. However, this wasn’t the case for every company. The Financial Times recently released an article ranking America’s fastest-growing companies — and when you take a look at the list, you can see most of them are in the tech industry. All these companies have something in common, and that is having the resilience and strength to emerge from a crisis in good health.

But why these and not others? Here are four reasons why companies in the Americas grew expeditiously during the pandemic:

1- The Remote Work Era

2020 drastically changed the way we work and the way we think about a job or company forever. According to some statistics, this new work culture is only going to grow and by 2028, 73% of all departments are expected to have remote workers. A lot of companies are now prone to hiring more remote talent, and this is shifting the way in which we think of work, and even what qualities we look for in a company.

However, the IT industry has been a part of this statistic for a while now. The IT industry is home to one of the areas with the highest numbers of remote workers: where 10% of the entire global workforce in IT works remotely.

2- The Digital Transformation

This was one of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic where it was crucial to find more technically talented collaborators. As a result, companies started looking for this talent elsewhere. That is one of the major reasons why Uruguay shined during the pandemic: with its thriving tech scene, leading the way as one of the global leaders in software exports in per capita terms, and even being one of the first countries chosen by the U.S. to pilot contact tracing technology after developing an app for COVID-19 within a week.

3- Cultural Proximity

Partnering up with a company located in another continent can be tricky. It is crucial to have strong HR and Communications teams to understand all the different cultures, and to build bridges between collaborators all around the world. A company that is looking to hire remote talent will pay attention to the traditions, culture, and labor customs of every country their team is located in. Countries such as Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia have very similar work values when put side by side to the U.S., and are very adaptable to fit the different work cultures they face when working with United States-based companies.

4- Slight Time Differences

Time together is a crucial aspect to any company. When working with remote teams — especially if you are working with Agile methodologies that require excellent communication and very synchronized iterations — it is extremely important to be at least within the same time of day as one another. It is not a maintainable relationship, in the long run, to have meetings late at night because that is the only time that we can meet with our coworkers and can sync with one another. The ideal situation would be to contain all the meetings and work within each team’s working hours.

These are some of the main reasons why companies in the Americas are growing expeditiously. Uruguay is one of the top countries that has had the most growth and the most software exports in per capita terms. There are various IT software development companies in Uruguay working with some of the top U.S. companies in the Healthcare, FinTech, Entertainment, and Education industries. One of those companies is Moove It– a software development company. Some of their previously satisfied clients are Disney Streaming Services, Hulu, Shopify, Lendup, Vooks, Exo, Prescribe Wellness, Tabula Rasa, Remedy Health, and many more.

The Uruguayan company has not only stood out by being a part of the FT ranking for the America’s fastest-growing companies, but is also certified as a Great Place to Work in Uruguay.

According to Ariel Ludueña, co-founder and CEO of Moove It, “the future of the tech industry looks extremely bright– especially in countries like Uruguay where they have been preparing their workforce for this type of challenge for years now.”

In a world where everything is changing, digital transformation and top-notch custom software solutions present themselves as some of the keys for evolution in the tech industry.