Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between Nearshore and Offshore?

Nearshore – Use of providers in a different country or region, but with similar time zones, culture and/or language skills (e.g. Canada for the United States)

Offshore – Use of providers in more distant locations with different time zones, culture and language skills (e.g. India, China, Philippines, etc.)

What are the TAOS procedures for client confidentiality, physical security and intellectual property protection?

TAOS has a comprehensive set of procedures that range from Non-disclosure Agreement (NDA) and Confidentiality agreements signed with all employees to our secure facilities, strong access protocol to the development center with badge-restricted control to all company areas.

As stated in our MSA, our customers own their IP. Brazil, as signatory of LAFTA, is in full compliance with US intellectual property regulations.

What are the impacts of political and social stability with nearshore in comparison to offshore?

Recent studies have shown that most companies used political stability in their outsourcing decisions. With risk of wars within the India region and political tensions in China, most companies either diversify their outsourcing or withdraw completely to a more politically stable and safer environment to eliminate sudden impacts to their projects or business. On the contrary, recent studies have indicated the growth of Brazil's economy has hit an all-time high and continues to build stronger relationships with United States. With Brazil having political and social stability, you are assured your project and business functions cannot be affected by uncontrollable and unforeseen circumstances.

What is the typical working schedule and what is the time difference between your Atlanta office and Brazil office?

Our’ working schedule is from 8:00 A.M. to 5: 30 P.M. EST, Monday through Friday. We are willing to adjust the schedule by one hour (more/less) depending on the project particularities. Our Curitiba, Brazil office is 2 hours ahead of the Atlanta office, which is in the Eastern Standard Time Zone.

How does TAOS ensure project success in terms of schedule, cost containment and quality?

Independently of the model used to develop a project, MTA (Monitor, Track and Adjust) is performed at TAOS in a similar way.

A standard set of metrics exist to measure the project, but it can be adjusted depending on the project nuances:

  • Real Effort vs. Estimated Effort
  • Real Progress vs. Estimated
  • Progress Report/Weekly Project Status Reports
  • Daily Scrum Meetings during critical stages of the project
  • Customer Project Portal that provides current project status
  • Issue tracking (quantity, severity, criticality)(available on Customer Project Portal)
  • Defects / Unit
  • Daily reports of completed tasks and weekly schedule reports for upcoming tasks within the project

    • How is communication and collaboration managed?

    TAOS has a “client-centric” approach with permanent and direct interaction in English throughout all levels of the company. So when speaking with our project managers, QA, architects or members of the executive management team, no translators or onsite facilitators are ever needed.

    What is the attrition rate at TAOS?

    The attrition rate is low at TAOS, 5% to 7% for the last 12 months. Most of the people that started with the company are still working for TAOS and we pay special attention to retain talent.

    Among the retention strategies we have:

  • Competitive compensation packages based on performance.
  • Open, flexible and fun environment.
  • Project Managers that manage people in projects and not projects with resources.
  • One-on-one sessions at least once a month between the employees and their Project Manager.
  • Frequent one-on-one sessions between senior management and the engineers.
  • Telecommuting options
  • Career path defined to grow with the company.
  • Additional responsibilities for key senior employees providing mentoring to junior employees.
  • Training opportunities.

    • How does contracting TAOS work?

    All contracts with US companies are made through our TAOS incorporated in Georgia. A standard Master Services Agreement and specific Statements of Work are used to define the business relationship and the scope of work.

    What are the cost benefits of selecting TAOS as a nearshore provider instead of an offshore provider?

    Although nearshore rates tend to be little higher than offshore rates, the overall cost of nearshore engagement with TAOS is equivalent or less than offshore (India & China for instance) when the measurement of the expenditures is made with a holistic view using the TCE (Total Cost of Engagement). The TCE is an approach that evaluates the total expenditures of outsourcing projects.

    In addition to the hourly rates of engineering talent, you need to consider the cost of additional management overhead, travel costs, the painful cost of staff turnover, and a certain amount of productivity loss due to the distance and degraded communications. Most of these costs are directly related to the separation in time between teams.