The arrival of multinational computing and IT companies to Argentina began in 1993 when EDS installed its
The arrival of multinational computing and IT companies to Argentina began in 1993 when EDS installed its offices in Buenos Aires. How has been the evolution of this?
The arrival of multinational computing and IT companies to Argentina began in 1993 when EDS installed its offices in Buenos Aires. EDS is a company from Texas (US) that leads the market of IT services in business solutions. The company operates in 50 countries and currently in Argentina it holds 1,650 employees among the three centers it has in the country: Buenos Aires, Rosario, and Córdoba.
From Córdoba the company does software maintenance and develops new Java and .NET projects. 70% of the operations done there comes from clients in Europe or US. In return Córdoba province agreed to pay 7.5% of the salaries for five years, half of the costs of the construction of a building of 4000 m2 and exempt EDS from taxes for ten years.
By the end of 2005, Intel and Córdoba signed an intention letter that established the bases for the creation of a Software Development Center , comparable to those already established in China and Russia. The next year Intel opened its Center. Also Intel and the local government signed an agreement that gave birth to the “Argentina Software development center”. This was a long term commitment that established the hiring of professionals, scholarships to academic excellence and activities to benefit the community and the TICs industry.
Skyes one of the main contact centers in US bought the local Apex America , beginning with the landing of multinational capitals in the country to offer exportation services from Argentina to the world.
One year later, Google installed in Argentina a center comparable to other buildings the company has in Brazil, Ireland and US. The reason for Google’s arrival was the Argentinean remarkable talent. This was a competitive advantage over other countries.
The adaptability to other cultures, the availability of bilingual human resources (people that speak English, Italian or German) and even the idiosyncrasies of the provinces were a hook to catch this capitals.
The
mexican Sofftek, the french Capgemini and the indian Tata
were some of the many companies that chose to put one foot in Argentina to continue developing their business.
Also, there was an important movement among the already installed companies: IBM had an aggressive growth in all the areas. It currently has 8.600 employees distributed in 7 buildings. Much of its activity is intended to serve international customers, to provide services from Argentina to the world.
Something similar happened in SAP. The global delivery center operating in the country reports directly to India as business line. It is also a center of telephone support and special services.
In 2010 the employment demand was incremented in a 13.5 %. This was traduced in 7000 jobs.
Regardless of all these positive aspects exposed above there are also some voices of concern about how the region is prepared to face this challenge:
“Despite being considered one of the top destinations for outsourcing, Argentina must make the effort to transcend the current model and evolve to offer products and services with high added value”, said Carlos Rolandelli, vice president of the Chamber of Software and Computer Services (CESSI). The opinion is shared by the bulk of the sector, which is an alarming lack of availability of resources, just when they are facing a new threshold of growth.
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