On May 14-16 2013 a large number of attendees arrived at the Amelia Island, Florida to participate in the SIG Global Sourcing Summit. Among the many Senior executives from Fortune/Global 1000 buy-side organizations who attended the event was Making Sense’s CEO Cesar DOnofrio.

As an active member of the Nearshore Executive Alliance Cesar was invited to represent Argentina by leading a workshop entitled “How Latin America is Changing to Become a More Attractive Outsourcing Destination.” Cesar had the honor to share the panel session with Ann Harts, Principal at Hickey & Associates, LLC and Alejandro Camino, VP Marketing and Communications at Softtek.

This 2013 all attendees were able to participate in a great amount of workshops where diverse speakers educated and inspired them. This particular year the SIG event was characterized for being packed with speakers known as thought leaders in technology and innovation who discussed the latest best practices, cost-cutting strategies, innovative processes, and risk-mitigation approaches.

Why is Latin America an attractive Outsourcing Destination?

Latin America, a Nearshore option, has emerged as a favorable destination for Information Technology, Business Process Outsourcing and captive operations. Geographical proximity, similar time zone and cultural affinity have defined the value proposition for Nearshore.

As discussed by DOnofrio, who focused in Argentina as an outsourcing destination during the workshop, some of the reasons to choose Argentina as an outsourcing partner include cultural similarities, timezone, innovation and creativity, bilingual workfoce, abundance of young IT students and graduates, and low levels of workers attrition.

Argentina has a rich international business heritage and a reputation for being the leading ‘European’ country in South America. This cultural affinity and natural timezone alignments are important factors for foreign companies to outsource jobs to its citizens.

However, there is another key factor to take into account when we talk about Latin America as an outsourcing destination. In the last few years governments have worked really hard to leverage their Nearshore advantage by offering incentives and improve the business environment.

In the case of Argentina, Cesar DOnofrio stated that Argentina’s government recognizes the important growth of the country’s IT and software services. The government is working to support this with innovation and technological development incentives that promote investment from domestic and overseas interests. Some of the initiatives the government in Argentina is implementing include:

• Tax exemption of 60% of the total amount of income tax
• Fiscal stability for 10 years as from 2004
• Employer contributions reduced by up to 70%
• Other benefits through software being recognized as an industrial activity

In addition to this Making Sense is an active member of the Chamber of Software and IT Services Companies of Argentina (CESSI), a non profit organization that brings together IT companies dedicated to the production, development, commercialization and implementation of software in Argentina.

Initiatives such as the creation of a permanent observatory for the software and information services industry, also known as “Observatorio Permanente de la Industria del Software y Servicios Informáticos (OPPSI),” the Center for Entrepreneurs (EmpréTic), advising in areas such as financing (FinanTic) and exports (ExporTic) and advertising the sales of IT products and services outside of the country, has turned CESSI into a primary player in this sector’s growth.

In recent years the Argentine technology sector has grown considerably positioning the country as a leading one in this service offerings as well as innovation coming out from Latin America. As a way to promote the exportation even more aggressively, the chamber has recently announced the launch of the ArgenTIna IT, an International Network of IT Businesses.

The proposal includes the opening of new offices in strategic destinations, personalized technical advice, and many other benefits for those looking forward to successfully export its products. Making Sense will be among the IT companies that will have representatives in the new offices located in the United States.

Next Steps in Latin America

Cesar DOnofrio has raised awareness for the Nearshore Model and helped many U.S. companies to discover the potential of the Argentine tech sector. Since it was founded in 2006, Making Sense has dedicated its efforts to offering excellent software strategic services, as means of creating long and lasting relationships between companies and their clients. The company is strongly committed to create applications and products that are enjoyable for users and profitable for partners implementing cutting edge technologies. It is for this reason that before attending the SIG Global Sourcing Summit 2013DOnofrio participated in the SXSW Festival, an inspiring event that fosters innovation, creativity, and interaction.

Although there exists different myths about outsourcing, the reality is that in recent years the Argentine technology sector has grown considerably positioning the country as a leading one in this service offerings as well as innovation coming out from Latin America.

If you would like to learn more about what Cesar’s presentation at SIG Global Sourcing Summit 2013 please contact us at hello@makingsense.com

Making Sense recently announced that it assisted COPsync, Inc. operator of the nation’s largest law enforcement real-time, in-vehicle information sharing, communication and data interoperability network, in developing the COPsync911 emergency alert service. The COPsync911 service enables school personnel to instantaneously and silently send emergency alerts directly to local law enforcement officers in their patrol units and local agencies with the mere push of a button.

The service is expected to reduce school emergency response times by 5 to 7 minutes, since the communication directly to the patrol car is instantaneous. The alert is also sent to the cell phones of teachers and administrators at the school, alerting of imminent danger.

If under threat, the service enables school personnel to click an icon to open a real-time connection with the closest law enforcement officers in their patrol units and the 911 dispatch center. School personnel can then use the real-time connection to provide the responding officers specific information about the threat as situation unfolds. Responding officers are also able to view a map of the school’s location and a diagram of the school.

“School violence is of concern to all of us,” said Cesar DOnofrio, Chief Executive Officer of Making Sense. “Making Sense was pleased to contribute its technical expertise to helping COPsync develop the COPsync911 emergency alert service in less than four months.”

“The Making Sense team consists of results oriented, highly qualified professionals who are passionate for delivering quality projects,” said Wade Powell, V.P. Technology for COPsync. “Their contributions to the COPsync911 project proved crucial in delivering this important school safety solution within our timeline and quality goals.”

A number of Texas school districts have already announced adoption of this “one of a kind” emergency alert service, including the PSJA ISD schools in the Texas Valley, Alpine Independent School District and the Cuero ISD.

If we want to create a responsive web design or application, there is an overwhelming amount of wireframing tools to choose from. As many of you know, sketching and wireframing ideas strengthens designs. However, the amount of tools out there may make it difficult for you to sort out the best and most useful ones.

In Making Sense we love giving you our own UX/UI scoop of information and research. From the “Pizza Test” showing how to create apps that adapt to real life, to explaining the Model View “ViewModel” (MVVM) pattern and how it can be implemented in WPF we love broadening the information about IT technologies. It is part of our mission as a company to enhance your User Experience expertise and help guide your choices.

In this occasion we have gathered for you 5 of the best tools for wireframing websites or applications, each of which will offer you a unique set of useful features.

Balsamiq

Easy, simple wireframing

Balsamiq was founded to help people create software that is easy to use. Whether you are a start-up designer or developer, the mockups you find in Balsamiq will help you to easily build great software by allowing you to sketch out your own ideas and iterate over them as many times as you desire.

From building a portfolio to show people what you do for a living, all the way to making wireframes at lighting speed, in Balsamiq you will find a great piece of software.

In addition, Balsamiq is known for its great customer service and support center. They are extremely passionate for what they do, and are always pushing users to obtain the best results.

Key benefits include:

• Fast, geeky and very power-user-friendly
• Simple and fun to use
• Opportunity to iterate in real-time
• Familiar keyboard shortcuts of the Creative Suite tools
• Epic customer service
• UXpin
• Great for Mobile devices

UXpin

Great for mobile devices

UXpin is a great tool for UX designers who are making their first steps into this amazing career. It has been built with a simple and handy toolkit allowing for the creation of designs that will definitely leave you stunned.

More and more people love visiting websites designed specifically for their devices. Today, research indicates that approximately 51% of mobile users are more likely to make purchases from websites designed specifically for their smart phones.

UXpin is perfect for designing in these times where the mobile devices popularity is growing. The responsive breakpoints allow you to create responsive prototypes and wireframes that will look great on all the different kinds of devices and resolutions.

Collaboration and exchanging of ideas are both critical factors in User Experience. UXpin combines tools that allow for teammates, clients & stakeholders to exchange points of view, discuss solutions and examine the design from different perspectives.

Key benefits include:

• Simple & fun to use
• Easy integration with mobile devices
• Real time collaboration
• Innovative wireframe editor
• Upload UX & project files
• Design, edit & chat

Solidify

Easy to use, UX prototyping tool

Solidify is a perfect tool to prototype interface screens for user testing feedback across devices. It lets you create clickable prototypes from wireframe, sketches or mockup. It also gives designers the possibility to validate users flows on any type of device by performing user tests in person or on your testers to get useful feedback in almost no time.

In addition, Solidify makes it easy for you to test your prototypes as if you were using them on any desktop, phone or tablet. Also, if you are looking to send users a prototype to test their understanding of direct flows, this tool is perfect for you!

Key benefits include:

• Validate Interactions
• Test concepts Early
• Conduct a User Test
• Get Unbiased Results

Mockingbird

Wireframes on the go

Mockingbird is an online tool you will never want to stop using! If you need to create, link together, preview, and share mockups of your website or application this is the best tool for you!

With the use of Mockingbird you will also be able to do brainstorming and build your designs with the collaboration of all your team. It also eliminates the back and forth madness with your clients since it makes wireframing frictionless, freeing you to try new ideas and iterate rapidly before settling on a design that works.

Key benefits include:

• Fast Mockup creation
• Easiness to make links
• Collaborative tool
• Exportation to PDF & PNG
• Fully web based
• Grid & columns

Wireframe.CC

Crisp, clear & clutter-free environment wireframes

Wireframe.CC will help you create elements of wireframe by drawing a rectangle and selecting the stencil type that will be inserted there. As simple as dragging your mouse across a canvas and selecting an option from a pop-up menu, you can edit anything you want just by double-clicking on it.

One of the key benefits of using Wireframe.CC is the sustitution of countless toolbars and icons for a clutter free environment. Instead of having your great ideas “all over the place,” with the use of this tool you will be able to easily focus on your own ideas and sketch them before they fade away. In addition, its very limited palette of options (color palette & number of stencils) help for your original idea not to be lost in unnecessary decorations and fancy styles.

Last but not least, in Wireframe.cc each wireframe you save gets a unique URL you can bookmark or share. You will be able to resume working on your design any time in the future. Every element of your wireframe can be edited or even transformed into something else.

Key benefits include:

• Click and drag to draw
• Crisp & Clear palette
• Easy to share & modify
• Clutter-free environment
• Smart suggestions

Furthermore, there are tons of other wireframing apps available and they can probably be of your interest. Please be aware that not all the tools listed above may offer the specific functionality you may need for your project since many of them are rather basic. However, each one listed is totally worth exploring to see if it fits your requirements.

Don’t forget to visit our Blog for the latest news about UX/UI from our developers. Also, obtain more useful information on how Making Sense high performance team of developers can assist your company to save money, develop applications in record time, and build a loyal base of customers.

We hope you have found our post useful and consider using some of the wireframing tools listed above in the near future. Many of them look rather simple, but you will be surprised how much they can help you! Tell us, are you using any of them? We love your feedback!

Over a year ago Making Sense wanted to complement its first product for online marketers, Doppler, an email marketing tool, with a landing page creation platform.

With developers in Buenos Aires, Mar del Plata, Tandil and Tucuman, Argentina, as well as support and operational personnel in San Antonio and Austin, Texas Lander was finally created.

The new tool was a fully-functional, self-contained, landing page platform that enabled online marketers to create their own landing pages with drag and drop simplicity.

As a software development company with a team of highly qualified professionals Making Sense continues assisting lots of professionals to send successful Email Marketing campaigns and creating beautiful and effective landing pages in minutes.

The creation of Lander was an enriching process. Take a moment to read our new Case Study and learn more about the creation of this powerful tool offering amazing features and advocated to user experience.

Hands in action

As we all know a good idea always needs lots of brainstorming and that is exactly what our CEO Cesar DOnofrio, CPO Nacho Caldentey and Chief Ideation Officer, Jonathan Baldovino did back in 2010.

Their idea was to drive targeted online conversions and create a new landing-page offering marketing professionals an easy-to-use, powerful tool for their online campaigns.

At its beginning Lander original features included functional layouts, A/B testing, Email Marketing and CRM integration. However, to better fit its customer usability needs and achieve an excellent User Experience Lander added Mobile Version, Google Analytics, Integration, Welcome Email,Confirmation Pages making the tool more effective for its users.

Let’s take a moment and look in detail to some of Lander Key features:

• Drag and drop editor to easily design a new landing page without the need to rely on Photoshop, CSS or HTML
• Ready to-go templates for marketers who are in a hurry and need a base to start from
• A/B split testing, with the ability to launch up to three different versions of a landing page to compare and choose the most effective combination of conversion elements
• A dashboard for marketers to easily track visitors and conversions, and A/B split test results.
• Tool Integration where marketers can easily integrate 3rd party tools, such as email marketing and CRM.

Lander keeps growing

Although Lander is a great tool, the team behind it keeps working hard to create New features, more integrations and new landing page templates.

In the near future, Lander will also be launching its own Agency Model. This program will be a great option for those clients who use Lander everyday and are required to manage multiple accounts.

For news and updates on Lander don’t forget to visit Lander’s blog where you will find updated news and be able to register for new webinars!

What are you waiting for? Sign Up Free Today!

Obtain more useful information on how Making Sense used the best cutting edge technologies to build an easy- to- use, powerful tool! Take a look at our Case Study and learn how Making Sense’s high performance team of developers can develop an application for your company.

The 50 most influential executives in Latin America IT and BPO service have been finally chosen! Today, we are congratulating the achievements of fifty hardworking and passionate entrepreneurs. The 2013 Nearshore Americas’ Power 50 Ranking Nomination has been recently published bringing to light the spark and inspiration that powers the Nearshore business community.

It was a  five-month nomination and review process. The criteria for evaluation this year, outlined on the nomination page, included the candidate’s record of personal achievement, commitment to raising industry standards and also the level of engagement the person has shown in driving visibility and thought leadership in the evolving Nearshore community.

Our CEO Cesar DOnofrio has been chosen for second consecutive time as one of the most influential executives on the Americas outsourcing scene today. According to the Latin America outsourcing authority all fifty candidates “demonstrate the real character of this emerging, chaotic and scrappy young industry.”

For the past 18 years Cesar has dedicated his time to create cloud computing and business intelligence services. As a co-founder and CEO of Making Sense since 2006, a consulting company specialized in providing enjoyable and profitable applications, Cesar has become an outsourcing leader. Through its dual headquarters in San Antonio, TX and Bs As, Argentina Making Sense provides services to some of the biggest U.S. companies such as AMD, Dell, Microsoft, Best Buy and Advantage Rent-A-Car. As of today, Making Sense, a company that started with only 4 employees has grown to welcome nearly 120 employees who emphasize creativity with a focus on UI design. Every day, DOnofrio and his team work together from the two opposite sides of the Americas helping change the image of nearshoring from a conventional to a modern one.

Aside of his dedication to creating IT services, Cesar’s enjoys giving back to his community and promoting corporate social responsibility. It is for this reason that he actively provides insights in conferences, events and to the press. In March and April of 2012 for example, he was a panelist at several events at SIG and at the Nearshore Nexus in New York. He is currently scheduled to be a panelist at the SIG 2013.

As a true leader of outsourcing Cesar has helped organize the 2011 conference Argentina’s IT services in the US where he discussed the importance of Latin America’s IT industry, and shared marketing tips on how to enter the U.S. market. At present, he works closely with the Argentine government to promote Argentina ITO capabilities.

To advance nearshoring Cesar contacted the Argentine Ministry of External Relations and Culture, in partnership with Argentine Chamber of Software to carry an outsourcing mission involving Argentina and the U.S. He is also among the entrepreneurs who has successfully helped Argentina Software become stronger by adopting the Agile software development methodology.

The hardest challenges on Cesar’s career have turned him into the exemplar outsourcing leader that he is today.

Our CEO Cesar DOnofrio and CPO Nacho Caldentey participated and networked in the most innovative and creative event of the year as part of  the Argentine Booth from March 8 to March 17.

We are thankful and feel honored for our invitation to participate in such enriching event by the “Subsecretary of Investment Development and Commercial Promotion” and the “Exportar Foundation” (both part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cults), together with the MICA (National Direction of Cultural Industries).

“It was an honor to represent Argentina at the 2013 SXSW event from the Argentine Pavilion” said Cesar DOnofrio. “It was the first year Argentina had its own institutional stand to be used to exhibit its products and plan future business meetings by the participating companies. I personally believe we are on the right path to introducing innovative and creative Argentine software firms to potential customers in the U.S.”

Although the company attended the festival before, this particular year at it was very special for Making Sense since the IT company presented its most important digital marketing products: Doppler an Email Marketing tool that allows you to create, send, analyze & optimize your Email Marketing campaigns in a very simple, fast and effective way, and Lander that allows the creation of landing pages in minutes.”

The Interactive SXSW is known by many as the incubator of cutting-edge technologies and digital creativity. This 2013 the section featured five days of compelling presentations from the brightest minds in emerging technology, scores of exciting networking events hosted by industry leaders.

In recent years the SXSW Interactive has become one of the best places to experience a preview of the innovations the world of technology is about to bring. It is known worldwide as an inspiring festival unfolding to visitors the best startup ideas.

Premier destination for discovery!

Our CEO Cesar DOnofrio and CPO Nacho Caldentey had the unique opportunity to choose from many different sessions, and network with bright entrepreneurs and leaders of IT companies. They visited the Trade Show which is the heart of the converging industries at SXSW and for four days immersed themselves into the world of the media, technology, creators and consumers visiting the booth of exhibitors.

They picked up their badges at 11am on Thursday March 7th and around 6PM that day hopped on the shuttle to join the Startup Crawl stopping by some of the best Austin Tech. companies. Some of them included Mass Relevance, mobi, and HomeAway where they had beverages, participated in different activities and in an unmatched way networked with other peers, growing professionally by exchanging new business ideas.

Some of the best digital works, video games and innovative ideas that truly got the attention of Cesar and Nacho included the 3M Hologram girl, 3D printers and the Proverbial Wallet that gives people a financial sense at the point of purchase by un-abstracting virtual assets.

They both agreed that this year at SXSW was filled with lots of new and amazing experiences. From being able to go beyond science fiction and experiencing new imaginative ideas in real time with everyone, to making tangible the hard evolution of the Lynx A camera that allows to do motion capture of a person in 3D, making video games and other animations look a lot like real life, they saw it all!

Some Brilliant SXSW Keynotes

The festival was also very inspiring! According to Cesar and Nacho attending different keynotes made their ideas to shift from “what if”? to “Innovation is absolutely necessary in our time.” Some of the keynotes they attended included the ones given by Elon Musk of SpaceX, Tina Roth Eisenberg, often referred to as “swissmiss”, and the former Vice President Al Gore.

“Elon Musk’s keynotes were particularly inspiring” said Cesar DOnofrio. “His commitment and hope that humanity may someday be able to leave the planet and make it to Mars is truly motivating. He is thinking today about how to help humanity survive in case within the next 500 million to a billion years the Earth’s overheats and becomes inhabitable. Musk is an example of someone who looks into the future and embraces great innovative ideas.”

Nacho Caldentey on the other hand stated the keynote given by swissmiss gave him a refreshing perspective that anyone can have great ideas and make them come true. According to Nacho, the famous designer inspired everyone to pursue their dreams while speaking out her 11 rules and values she lives by, both in her professional and personal life. Nacho also found Al Gore keynote very inspiring since the former Vice President used his experience researching climate change, and global policy to transmit his audience a tentative forecast of the future.

Also, as many of you know the Interactive SXSW is the world known space for launching lots and lots of new apps. Cesar and Nacho did not want to skip the opportunity to share with you the ones they found to be really innovative. They pointed out the take app which reinvents how you take photos. The iPhone camera app takes photos as you traditionally might with your smartphone camera, but then goes a step further to turn those pictures into unique, shareable videos clips, complete with a soundtrack. Cesar also remarked the presence of the Square register almost everywhere at the SXSW 2013. A device that enables businesses to quickly accept credit card payments with a card reader on a smartphone.

With more expositors, more attendees and more innovation than ever the SXSW Interactive 2013 was beyond everyone’s expectations. Making Sense team can’t wait to be there next year representing Argentina and taking in all the inspiration, creativity and professional growth the festival has to offer.

Check out our experience at SXSW 2013 in some pictures:

This 2013 all attendees were able to participate in a showcase featuring the top technology conferences in Georgia where diverse speakers inspired and educated them. This particular year the GTS was characterized for speakers known as real leaders in technology and innovation including Bob Metcalfe, the inventor of Ethernet, Matt Quinlan, CTO of Google, and the recognizable Ray Kurzweil who is director of engineering at Google and has received the 1999 National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the nation’s highest honor in technology. Companies that drew especially large crowds of attendees included Merlin Mobility and Parkmobile.

Cesar and Rob met with the executives from each top company to learn more about current .Net, mobile and Augmented Reality innovation. They also met Tino J. Mantella, president of the Technology Association of Georgia, which hosts the conference, and learned about the demand for application developers and FTE hiring recruitment cycles of up to six months. He also cited logistics as one of the areas where Georgia leads the nation’s technology pack, along with mobility, financial technology, information security and health information technology.

They also had a chance to meet and talk with best selling author and member of the Inventor Hall of Fame, Ray Kurzweil who took a moment and looked at the history of innovation analyzing technological breakthroughs.

Bob Metcalfe on the other hand, the inventor of ethernet, focused on energy and how it is part of the innovation. He also remarked that these days the Internet is adjusting the balance of education, obligating universities to reform they curricula and respond to the new technology tendencies.

TAG’s Conference Highlights

This year the Georgia Technology Summit unfolded to the world that entrepreneurship is transforming innovation and growing strong in Atlanta and all around the world. Cesar DOnofrio for example, has been advocated to raise awareness for the Nearshore Model and helped many U.S. companies to discover the potential of the Argentine tech sector.

Since it was founded in 2006, Making Sense has dedicated its efforts to offering excellent software strategic services, as means of creating long and lasting relationships between companies and their clients. The company is strongly committed to create applications that are enjoyable for users and profitable for partners implementing cutting edge technologies. It is for this reason that before attending the Georgia conference DOnofrio participated in the SXSW Festival, an inspiring event that fosters innovation, creativity, and interaction.

According to what Mantella stated at the conference tech companies have announced that they will invest $2.7 billion into Georgia over the next five years in headquarters, research, data and production facilities, generating an incredible amount of new job openings. Looking at this statistics we can conclude that Georgia’s tech sector continues to grow together with its economy.

It was a very enriching experience for Making Sense to look at glace at the world’s innovation landscape. Georgia is no doubt continuing its rise as an international hub for logistics and technology and we can’t wait to to attend next year conference!

Take advantage of information about what is happening today in the Georgia Technology Sector visiting 2013 State of the Industry: Technology in Georgia Report. Also, If you would like to learn more about what Rob or Cesar learned about Application Development hiring, Mobile development or Augmented reality please contact us at hello@makingsense.com

Are you interested in developing Cloud Apps? Do your professionals need an easy-to-use, powerful tool for their online campaigns? We can help!  Get first hand testimonials on how our customers have saved money, developed applications in record time visiting the Case Studies Section of our Website.

The past March 14th the Chamber of Software and IT Services Companies of Argentina (CESSI) announced the launching of the ArgenTIna IT, an International Network of IT Businesses in which Making Sense will take part.

As many of you know Making Sense is an IT company strongly committed to raise market awareness of the Argentine software sector as an outsourcing destination. It is an active member of the Chamber of Software and IT Services Companies of Argentina (CESSI), a non profit organization that brings together IT companies dedicated to the production, development, commercialization and implementation of software in Argentina is opening new offices abroad.

In recent years the Argentine technology sector has grown considerably positioning the country as a leading one in this service offerings as well as innovation coming out from Latin America. As a way to promote the exportation even more aggressively, the chamber has recently announced the launch of the ArgenTIna IT, an International Network of IT Businesses.

Today, Making Sense is an IT company in the Argentine tech sector currently outsourcing to the U.S. Its CEO Cesar DOnofrio has been working in partnership with the Argentine Ministry of External Relations and Culture (Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto), the Chamber of Software and IT Services Companies of Argentina (CESSI) and Polo IT, and a non-profit association of Buenos Aires-based software firms.

The efforts of the company, which is determined to offer the latest tendencies in the market and has several partners around the world, has not escaped the notice of the CESSI and on March 14th Making Sense was invited to attend the launch event of the ArgenTIna IT.

Objectives of the ArgenTIna IT

According to what the CESSI announced in the launch of the ArgenTIna IT, the decision of internationalizing its platform was based on facilitating the insertion and consolidation of Argentine software companies in the most attractive world markets.

The members of the non profit organization explained that the new international platform will be exclusive for CESSI active members together with poles and clusters already associated. The proposal includes the opening of new offices in strategic destinations, personalized technical advice, and many other benefits for those looking forward to successfully export its products. Making Sense will be among the IT companies that will have representatives in the new offices located in the United States!

The objectives of settling new offices abroad include:

• The insertion and positioning of the Argentine software companies in each of the the new destinations.
• The introduction of the Argentine software products abroad capturing new international business opportunities.
• The establishment of joint ventures partnerships to give valuable advice to the Argentine software companies around the world.

In a recent interview José María Louzao Andrade, president of CESSI announced that 2012 was an excellent year for the Software services in Latin America. According to the chamber, there was an increment on the sector between a 10% and a 13%, and its respective exportations had an increment of a 13%. Andrade also made reference to the European exportations which declined from a 35% to a 7% generating an increment in the Latin American market.

When talking about the benefits of the software services in Latin America Andrade remarked, “These are countries that today can offer low price in commodities, have favorable balance of payments and invest a lot of money in technologies.” He also stated that “exportations to the United States have reached a historical record of a 50%.”

Making Sense’s CEO Cesar DOnofrio also made reference to the software market in Latin America and said “Many U.S. companies have discovered the Argentine tech sector and have hired technology outsourcing providers, such as Making Sense and others. However, the number of Argentinean technology companies that have successfully entered the U.S., is still reduced considering the broader U.S. business market.” He also remarked that “Making Sense feels honored to work in partnership with the non profit organization CESSI representing Argentine Software companies abroad and is strongly committed to continue working to introduce software services firms as well as Independent Software Vendors from Argentina to local business associations and companies.”

Cesar DOnofrio, CEO of Making Sense announced today that he will be traveling to Atlanta, Georgia to participate in the Georgia Technology Summit (GTS).

In recent years the Argentine technology sector has grown considerably positioning the country as a leading one in this service offerings as well as innovation coming out from Latin America.

Today, Making Sense is one of the leading IT companies in the Argentine tech sector currently outsourcing to the U.S. The company is strongly committed to raise market awareness of the Argentine software sector as an outsourcing destination, and to introduce Argentine software firms to potential customers in the U.S.

This is the second consecutive year that Making Sense participates in such prestigious event. The Georgia Technology Summit highly contributes to the growth of United States companies by promoting the fastest-growing tech clusters in the state while gathering together entrepreneurs, C-level executives, technology professionals and academia.

Since it was founded in 2006, Making Sense has dedicated its efforts to offering excellent software strategic services, as means of creating long and lasting relationships between companies and their clients. The company is strongly committed to create applications that are enjoyable for users and profitable for partners always implementing cutting edge technologies.

About the event

The Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) who is organizing the Georgia Technology Summit  is devoted to create public awareness on the fastest tech clusters including health IT, information security, financial technology, logistics and communication services. It also brings the technology community together through events, initiative programs and networking opportunities.

Making Sense is also committed to public awareness of the IT Sector and has participated in many events that foster innovation, creativity, and interaction such as the SXSW, the GTS, and the Argentine Trade Mission to Austin, Houston and Atlanta

In last years the entrepreneur Cesar DOnofrio has been advocated to raise awareness on the Nearshore Model and helped many U.S. companies to discover the potential of the Argentine tech sector. He has been working in partnership with the Argentine Ministry of External Relations and Culture (Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto), the Chamber of Software and IT Services Companies of Argentina (CESSI) and Polo IT, a non-profit association of Buenos Aires-based software firms.

The leader in the global delivery of IT technology Cesar DOnofrio made reference to the participation of Making Sense in the Georgia Technology Summit and said “As a company that is constantly renewing its essence, offering high quality services and maintaining its unique spirit of passion and dedication attending the Georgia Technology Summit is a Must.”

Not so long ago in Making Sense we had the opportunity to create a mobile application. This application was developed not only for a big company, but also was going to be presented at the 2012 Microsoft BUILD Conference with Rackspace. In this particular post, I will write about achieving an outstanding User Experience when creating applications. However, if you wish to obtain more information on our presentation with Rackspace at Microsoft BUILD you can find it in Making Sense’s blog or the Rackspace one.

Despite of my busy schedule and some other difficulties, I still was lucky enough to participate in the development of this mobile application. At the beginning of the project, we obtained the requirements and analyzed the Rackspace systems in order to have a better idea of the work we had to perform. Also, we carried a meeting where we discussed scope, design, and user experience. Our CEO Cesar DOnofrio was part of the meeting and shared with us his opinion about the importance of the user experience by stating:

“You must imagine the user of the application as someone who is at his house, holding a pizza in one hand, and using the application in his tablet on the other one. If it isn’t easy for him to use one hand and quickly realize what he needs to do, then we failed”

The Pizza example stayed on my mind for quite a long time. I am sure all of you have some sort of experience mixing pizza and tactile devices. In many cases, in an attempt to avoid getting dirty, we end up using a single hand to eat. The other hand is usually busy while holding the device and trying to navigate it. Also, although we should all have a kitchen table to eat, many people end up eating with a single hand while placing their devices on their knees, feet, chairs, and many other similar objects.

If I am eating, watching TV or talking to someone, I don’t want an application to stop me from eating to make me think. What I really want to see are big red signs with skulls if something is not working properly or big and easy to read signs to know that everything is going okay. I want to enjoy big buttons that give me a clear idea of what happens if I press on them.

It is also important for the application to give you the possibility of making quick decisions that simplify your life. As we all already know, thinking can take a few minutes and requires to make an effort. Imagine that it is three o’clock in the morning and you get an email that requires you to make an important decision. This decision could mean the opportunity to save your company or to lose it (yes, this is the way system administration works). Would you rather concentrate and evaluate the options, or would you prefer for options to be clear and communicative?

It is important to develop applications that are easy to use. An app that is not user friendly or has a poor design drive users to make mistakes. After a bad experience with an application, a user may never return to it again or may even switch to a different one. Those people like us, who sell applications, take this issue as a very important one.

There are many people who have been able to develop applications that are fun to use and even addictive. There are many examples of this you can probably recall among applications you have already used in the past. Why did people choose those applications instead of other ones? Answers can certainly vary, but all of them count. I am sure you probably remember the trail against the Microsoft Corporation because of their pre-installation of Internet Explorer on Windows. Why was a trial like this worth if every person had indeed the opportunity to install the internet browser of their choice? The answer is that most people didn’t want to go through the inconvenience of choosing a specific browser, downloading it, and installing it. On the other hand, Microsoft claimed that it was simply to make internet user’s life easier, and the complainants claimed that the American multinational was trying to gain more customers with these actions. What do you think?

After all, the “pizza test” is convincing. Were you able to eat pizza and play Angry Birds? I was. Were you able to eat pizza and edit an excel document? I was. Were you able to write an entire article in a blog? I wasn’t.

Can you eat pizza and manage servers in Rackspace? Yes, and it was lots of fun!