Southworks accelerates on engineering demand

Demand for outsourced software development continues to soar in 2022, as organizations accelerate their digital journeys, while overcoming gaps in their internal tech teams. 

PAC recently caught up with one of the founders of SOUTHWORKS, a company whose origins lie in helping Microsoft with the development of propositions such as .NET and the Azure cloud platform, and is growing at twice the current market rate.

Founded in 2003, SOUTHWORKS now has more than 200 “Southies” in its ranks, with almost 90% in software engineering roles. The majority of its team are based in South America, with its three largest hubs in Argentina, Uruguay and Colombia. 

CTO and co-founder Johnny Halife said that the company started out providing product development support for large tech firms, and leveraged its contacts with Microsoft’s consulting wing in Argentina to build relationships with the giant’s product development teams in Redmond. Halife was the first non-Microsoft employee to write code for Windows. 

SOUTHWORKS looks to differentiate through working on short-burst projects delivered by small, experienced engineering-centric teams that are stripped of any auxiliary business analysts or consultants. It aims to avoid getting bogged down in costly and time-consuming do-overs by getting it right at the requirements phase and working iteratively, building a bridgehead through a proof-of concept and building the pipeline after delivering results. 

The initial focus has been on North America, and its client base includes a number of blue-chip brands including retail giant 7-Eleven, Johnson Controls and Korn Ferry. The company has already surpassed the $30m revenue mark in 2022, and has been growing at a CAGR of 50% over the last five years.    

Looking ahead, the company expects to continue growing at its current trajectory and is looking to grow by doubling down on its core industry sectors (including communications, manufacturing, technology) and expanding its business in Europe and APAC. As SOUTHWORKS extends its global reach, the company’s delivery network may have to evolve to get closer to the customer’s time zones. 

The company has an interesting platform of business, and can be banded with the fast-growing cluster of mid-size specialist development players including BJSS and Endava in Europe, and Kin + Carta and Globant from the other side of the Atlantic. As with all these firms, the trick to SOUTHWORKS’ future success will be to hang on to the aspects of its talent base and culture that have underpinned its rise, while adding the scale to broaden its client relationships. We will follow its progress with interest.