SilverDisc Chile: Living and Working in Santiago

I am Paul Saffery, managing Director of SilverDisc Chile. This story is about the origin of the SilverDisc Chile operation and explains what it is like to live and work in this part of the world.

My first encounter with SilverDisc happened back in May 1997, when I was looking for employment in the UK. I was in my early 30s and had lived all my life in Chile until then. SilverDisc was working with an old friend of mine at HarperCollins.  As a result, I met Eric Barfield, one of SilverDisc's founders, and we could tell straight away we both had similar mindsets when it comes to software development: robust, slick, efficient software practices, maximising reusability and automation. Eric helped me to get established in the UK and find employment at a software house in Derby, where I worked for three years.

In October 2000, SilverDisc invited me to do some contract work for them. The task was to convert a software prototype, called Search Mechanics, into a commercially viable piece of code based on some software patents developed by Alan Perkins, another SilverDisc founder. Search Mechanics was launched at SES 2001 in London and San Francisco and has since become part of SilverDisc’s internal toolset, used for the benefit of SilverDisc’s SEO clients.

In 2001, as I was having a family, I decided to return to my roots, in Chile, where I worked for nearly two years for a government agency, until October 2003, when Eric and Alan decided to grow the business and invited me to found the technology division in Santiago.

Why Santiago?

Santiago is a vibrant city with a population of over 6 million. It was founded in 1541 by Spanish conqueror Pedro de Valdivia, in a valley in the central region of Chile. Santiago is surrounded by spectacular mountains, some peaks reaching almost 5,500 m (around 18,000 ft), and thriving ski resorts, which are about one hour's drive from the SilverDisc office. We have Mediterranean weather, with five months of very warm temperatures and usually clear skies between November and March – the only downside is the winter smog!

The fact that Santiago is 7,248 miles from London, and the quickest flights between the two cities take around 17 hours, is not an issue with today's communications. SilverDisc uses screen sharing technology, instant messaging and VOIP services to communicate effectively between our two offices. Being in timezone -4 is also an advantage, as it means that the Santiago office is open, on average, another four hours after the UK offices close. This allows the group as a whole to have a working day that is four hours longer than our competitors, offering excellent coverage to our clients. Timezone -4 also allows us to interact effectively with our clients on the East coast of the US, a country with more than 37m native Spanish speakers.

The Santiago Team

The Santiago team is dedicated to the development, configuration and usage of software and systems that are common across our whole client base: PPC bid management using APIs, reporting, issue tracking, lead handling, email systems, SEO and website analysis software, portals, The Answerbank (SilverDisc’s own social networking site), plus a few strategic highly specialised software modules for some of our key clients.

SilverDisc's office is on the top floor of this modern building at the centre of the Las Condes borough.

As the IT Director, I manage both the Santiago and UK IT teams. The UK team is dedicated to front end development, where a fluent and efficient communication with our clients, in their timezone and in English, is key. The team in the UK interact with content developers, clients, sales force and account managers.