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Brazil’s IT Outsourcing Future Hangs on a Key Question: Can Dilma Deliver?

January 24th, 2011
dilma 01 234x300 Brazils IT Outsourcing Future Hangs on a Key Question: Can Dilma Deliver? “My government will strongly support scientific and technological development” – Dilma

Currency rise, burdensome taxes and labor supply are formidable obstacles for new president

By Edileuza Soares

President-elect Dilma Rousseff and her team have stated that tax reductions, investment in innovation, and training of skilled labor are priorities of the new government. Whether those promises are upheld remains to be seen, but the Brazilian outsourcing sector is hopeful. At a time when Latin America professional services are more and more in demand, will Rousseff help or hurt Brazil’s chances for greater market share?

A representative of the Worker’s Party (PT), Dilma  was elected with 56 million votes in the second phase of the election, beating the Social Democratic Party of Brazil (PSDB) candidate Jose Serra. She takes on her new role with the challenge of leading the largest economy in Latin America, the second largest in the Americas after the US, with the eighth-largest GDP in the world.

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Slideshow: 13 Useful Things You Probably Never Knew About Brazil

October 19th, 2010

NEARSHORE SLIDESHOW 791x10241 Slideshow: 13 Useful Things You Probably Never Knew About Brazil By Dennis Barker.

Brazil is a nation on a mission.

The country, with the fifth largest population in the world,  is generating major momentum in the global trade and technology arena. The country’s domestic IT market is the eighth largest in the world and over 100,000 technology professionals join the nation’s workforce every year.

The rising influence of Brazil as a trading and exporting partner also brings with it a host of reasons to better understand the country’s unique culture.

If you’re hungry for more data, insight and knowledge about Brazil – then scroll on and click below – learn about cybercrime, soccer fanaticism, exports, Giselle, Teddy Roosevelt’s strange ride on an Amazonian river and a lot more!
GO TO SLIDESHOW: CLICK HERE

brazil shopping 1 Slideshow: 13 Useful Things You Probably Never Knew About Brazil

A TECH HUNGRY POPULATION

IT spending in Brazil will reach $114 billion in 2012, and Brazil's share of IT services will hit $13 billion, according to projections by Gartner and other analyst firms. Like the country's economy (the eighth largest in the world), the IT sector keeps cooking. Brazilians — there are approximately 192 million — own about 72 million computer terminals, which is expected to double by 2014.

brazil rd hothouse Slideshow: 13 Useful Things You Probably Never Knew About Brazil

IT'S AN R&D HOTHOUSE

Brazil was responsible for 60% of all investments in research and development in Latin America, according to data from the Interamerican Development Bank. "In terms of availability of instruments to encourage innovation, Brazil probably has more than any other country in Latin America," the IDB says. One of those instruments is economic subsidies. This year, Brazil is investing 1.5% of GDP on R&D. The country has also strengthened its protections of intellectual property.

brazil agile 2 Slideshow: 13 Useful Things You Probably Never Knew About Brazil

SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS: AGILE BY DESIGN

When you talk to a software company that has outsourced development work to Brazil or partnered with an indigenous developer, you will often hear that they liked the fact the Brazilian team used agile methodologies. In a recent study on the effects of time-zone proximity and the Brazilian IT industry, the authors said every software team they visited was either using or moving to the agile approach.

brazil ITshortage emptydesk Slideshow: 13 Useful Things You Probably Never Knew About Brazil

FACING A SHORTAGE OF IT WORKERS

Brazil employs 1.7 million people in IT. The government wants IT services exports to grow to $5 billion by 2012. Top that with two massive events — the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, requiring more IT talent. According to Brasscom, 220,000 pros are being prepared to enter the market. Is it enough?: “Brazil has a deficit of approximately 350,000 qualified IT professionals, just to address the immediate domestic demand alone,” says Robert Janssen, CEO, Outsource Brazil.

gear grinding2 Slideshow: 13 Useful Things You Probably Never Knew About Brazil

120 DAYS TO OFFICIALLY START A BUSINESS

You might think a country that takes off for a week during Carnival - the going might be easy. But according to a study by the World Bank, Brazil ranks #129 out of 178 countries when it comes to “ease of doing business”. The Bank says it takes 120 days to start up, compared to 61.7 days in the rest of LatAm. Much of the not-easy part relates to rigid labor law, particularly those relating to restrictions on overtime, penalties for termination without cause, and the “13th month syndrome.”

brazil curitiba smartcity b Slideshow: 13 Useful Things You Probably Never Knew About Brazil

THE 3RD-SMARTEST CITY IN THE WORLD

Sao Paulo and Rio get most of the attention when it comes to IT services, but travel south and you'll come to a smaller city that some say is an outsourcer's dream — and a really smart place. Curitiba is gaining momentum as an IT/BPO hub, thanks in part to its Technopark – regions in the city that integrate and interconnect universities, IT companies, and R&D institutions. The municipal government offers incentives for larger companies to locate here, including reduced taxes.

brazil twitter flag bkgrnd Slideshow: 13 Useful Things You Probably Never Knew About Brazil

BRAZILIANS RULE TWITTER

Stand back, guy married to Demi Moore. The most active users of Twitter are in Brazil, at least on a per-country basis. In a recent comScore Media Metrix study of Twitter's market penetration, Brazil and Indonesia were neck and neck, with about 20% of their populations using the service. Nearshore neighbors also in the top 10: Venezuela, at 19% penetration; and both Mexico and Chile slightly more than 13%.

workresz Slideshow: 13 Useful Things You Probably Never Knew About Brazil

BRAZILIANS ARE WORKING WHEN YOU'RE WORKING

Brazil has “time zone overlap” with nearly all its IT export clients. There's only a two-hour difference between New York and the main Brazilian cities (and London has a three-hour difference). This overlap helps facilitate “deep synchronous communications” between collaborators, according to a recent study out of American University. It also may help Brazilian providers to acquire more lucrative “unstructured tasks/projects,” the study says.

brazil diningc Slideshow: 13 Useful Things You Probably Never Knew About Brazil

DO NOT MESS WITH LUNCH TIME AND SOCCER

Despite that “time zone overlap,” remote clients cannot always pick up the phone and immediately talk to their colleagues in Brazil. That's because Brazilians tend to take longer lunches than Americans: as long as 2 hours, while the American custom is 30 minutes or eating at one's desk. Brazilians, more social, also prefer to take lunch as a group. According to one study, American clients “get flustered” when they call Brazil and no one from the team is at their workstation.

brazil crime Slideshow: 13 Useful Things You Probably Never Knew About Brazil

IN THE BIG LEAGUES OF INTERNET CRIME

Brazil ranked number 3 overall in malicious Internet-based activity in 2009 — and number 1 in attacks by spam zombies — according to Symantec. Brazil was third in both location of malicious activity and origin of malicious activity, experts say. "Brazil has been a major source of successful malicious code that steals banking information, and some very successful malicious code that has originated from Brazil remains active.”

brazil TRoosevelt Slideshow: 13 Useful Things You Probably Never Knew About Brazil

THEODORE ROOSEVELT ALMOST DIED THERE

In 1914, Roosevelt went on a mission to explore the perilous River of Doubt, an Amazon tributary in Brazil's northwestern territory. T.R. and crew traveled the snaky river in dugout canoes. They lost boats in the whitewater rapids, and lost men to drowning and murder. Roosevelt became so famished and sick with a fever of 105°, he could hardly move. He admitted later that on this trip he'd never felt so close to “leaving my bones behind.”

gisele export Slideshow: 13 Useful Things You Probably Never Knew About Brazil

EXPORTING MORE THAN COFFEE AND BEEF

Fifty years ago Brazilian innovators changed the sound of music. Samba and cumbia infiltrated jazz, and then bossa nova became hot with the release of “The Girl from Ipanema." The world was introduced to singer Astrud Gilberto, who personified: very sultry but very cool. Her descendants include Oscar-nominated actress Sônia Braga, best known to international audiences for heating up the film “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” and supermodel Giselle Bundchen.

brazil christ Slideshow: 13 Useful Things You Probably Never Knew About Brazil

PS: OTHER FACTOIDS

• A popular rumor: Brazil has more Java programmers than any other country. Also large numbers of Cobol programmers from the mainframe era. • More than 210 public tech schools will open in 2010. • Most downloaded iPhone app last year: Sygic Mobile Brazil, the first GPS app with maps/ Portuguese voice. • The only authentic monarch in SouthAmerica: Brazil prince Dom João Henrique Maria Gabriel Gonzaga de Orleans e Bragança, whose family once ruled Portugal before fleeing from Napoleon.

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The Light Shines Bright on Brazil IT

June 1st, 2010

SAO PAULO and RIO DE JANEIRO, June 1 /PRNewswire/ — The Brasscom Global IT Forum, one of the largest IT industry forums in Latin America, will be hosting more than 50 global enterprise leaders, analysts and investors on June 8 – June 10 in the Brazilian cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

Organized by the Brazilian Association of Information Technology and Communication Companies (Brasscom), the forum will be co-located with the Gartner Outsourcing Summit 2010 – Latin America. It will showcase Brazil’s IT infrastructure and how the nation has emerged as a prime locale for offshore IT and outsourcing services.

Confirmed panelists and presentations on the agenda include:

Panel discussions with Julia Santos, head of Worldwide Strategic Outsourcing of Johnson & Johnson, and Jairo Avritchir, IT site director for Dell’s Brazilian operations
Outsourcing success stories presented by Ribeiro Neto, engineering director of Google
Insights on Brazil’s IT and foreign investment opportunities …

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Infosys Opens its First Delivery Center in Brazil

December 15th, 2009

SOURCE: THAINDIAN.COM

Infosys Technologies Tuesday said it has opened a development centre in Brazil to service clients in that South American country as well as Brazilian subsidiaries of global customers. The company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Infosys Tecnologia Do Brasil, is located in Belo Horizonte, the third largest metropolitan area in Brazil after Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Infosys said in a statement.

This is the third development centre of Infosys in Latin America. It has two centres in Mexico.

“The company has been investing and strengthening its position in Latin America to expand its footprint in the region and also to leverage the near shore advantage of similar time zones for global clients,” the statement said.

Infosys chief executive and managing director S. Gopalakrishnan described Brazil as the largest IT and BPO services market in Latin America, with the eighth highest IT and BPO services spend in the world.

“The growth forecasts …

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Blogging Live Brazil ITO-BPO: New Delivery Models, Tax Burdens and Competing with India Inc.

November 10th, 2009

The US-Brazil IT-BPO Summit (sponsored by the Brazil-American Chamber of Commerce) kicked off this morning at the W Hotel in Midtown, Manhattan

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US-Brazil ITO-BPO Summit Comes to New York City on Tuesday

November 8th, 2009

The Brazilian Association of Information Technology and Communication Companies (Brasscom) invites you to attend the US- Brazil IT-BPO Conference, organized in partnership with Apex-Brazil – the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency and the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce of NY.

The summit will focus on Brazil’s rise as an economic powerhouse with growth projections tied closely to ICT advances and government investments in education, infrastructure and technology. The combination of market maturity, political stability, cultural affinity and highly qualified professional result in Brazil being able to offer outstanding opportunities for business development at a competitive cost.

When: November, 10, 2009 8:00 am – 2:00pm

Where: W Hotel, 541 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY

About the Event: The Brazilian IT-BPO market is among the strongest and most mature in the world, having evolved in size, coverage and complexity over the past few decades. Brazil’s cultural affinity to the U.S. and overall market strength …

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Blogging Live at Two Key Sourcing Events in NYC

November 4th, 2009

Nearshore Americas will be actively covering two major conferences this week in New York City – the US-Brazil ITO BPO Summit at the W Hotel on Tuesday and the Global Sourcing Forum and Expo on Wednesday and Thursday. This is a great chance to connect and share feedback and ideas about our growing online brand.

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