Majority of Brazilian IT/BPO Exports Go to the US

The United States is Brazil’s main client when it comes to exportation of IT and BPO services, according to data from the research firm IDC and a new study done by Brasscom. The report also reveals that US -based multinational companies in Brazil are in the top ranks of exporters, with IBM, Accenture, and HP being the three biggest revenue earners — followed by homegrown success stories Stefanini, T-Systems, and Ci&T. Last year Brazilian IT and BPO companies exported US$ 2.4 billion worth of services, a figure projected to grow by 11% this year. After the U.S., Brazil IT providers’ biggest customers are in Latin America, followed by Europe.

While Brazil’s overall ICT market had revenue of US$165.7 billion in 2010, Brazil’s IT/BPO sector contributed US$85 billion to that total. The country is the eighth biggest domestic technology market in the world. For a bit of global perspective: Worldwide, IT/BPO services produced US$1.4 trillion in revenues in 2010, according to AT Kearney. Outsourcing services accounted for US$769 billion.

Brazil’s IT export revenue derives mostly from services like development, maintenance and support, body shop, integration and consulting, and infrastructure management. The financial industry is a large client, not surprising considering Brazil’s expertise in that domain. Manufacturing, telecommunications, mining, and oil/gas are also major consumers of Brazilian IT and BPO services.

One big thing customers continue to turn to Brazil for is Cobol development. There are a lot of major companies that still use this language-that-will-never-die, plus there’s a significant financial industry operating in Brazil for which Cobol, “the business language,” is essential. The country also has one of the world’s largest Java communities, and there’s a major contingent of SAP solution developers.

“In-house IT,” in which a company or government agency develops its own solutions or systems (to manage operations, for example) is responsible for 46.4% (or US$39.5 billion) of the domestic industry. Hardware (servers, storage, peripherals, network equipment) makes up about 23% (US$19.8 billion) of the market, followed by services (15.6%), software (only 6.3%), and BPO (2.8%).

The new research finds the Brazilian IT market to be the second largest of emerging nations, with China first.

“Brazil has the capacity . . . to double the industry’s revenues and become one of the world’s top five centers for IT by 2022,” write Brasscom officials Antonio Gil and Rogerio Oliveira in the introduction to the new report.

Ranking of IT-BPO exporters in Brazil (by total revenue)

1. IBM

2. Accenture

3. HP/EDS

4. Stefanini

5. T-Systems

6. Ci&T

7. CPM Braxis

8. DTS

9. BRQ

10. GFT

11. Tivit

12. Deloitte

13. TOTVS

14. Softtek

15. Tata Consultancy

16. CSC

17. Sonda Procwork

18. Grupo ASSA

19. HCL

20. AtosOrigin

21. Cast

22. Unisys

23. Resource

24. Politec

25. Satyam

26. Neoris

27. Bull

28. Lógica

29. Algar

30. Oged

Source: Brasscom, IDC

This article appeared originally on Sourcing Brazil