Accenture strengthens its business in Brazil
Valor Econômico 09/01/10
One of the largest business consulting in the world, Accenture has a special interest in two economic activities in Brazil: energy and agribusiness. The American company decided to make of the country its center of global reference in these fields. To carry out the plan, it is installing specialized centers for the development of business processes and systems of information technology (IT) dedicated to customers in both sectors.Installation of the centers is not the only investment that Accenture are doing to increase its participation in the country. The plan is to open two new offices in the South and Northeast regions, giving more geographical coverage to the company, which now has six regional offices in the country, besides a software factory and a center of shared services. The power unit is already in operation in Rio de Janeiro, with approximately 400 employees. As regards the agribusiness center, it will start operating within two months and will probably be installed in São Paulo. The value of investments is not disclosed.
Brazil is part of a list of six countries that have received special attention from the company in recent years, says Jo Deblaere (pronounced "iô deblér") executive responsible for Accenture's operations worldwide. In the list of priority markets, called Bric +2, are also Russia, India, China, Korea and Mexico. "We are investing to improve the business cycles and accelerate the expansion of these markets", said the executive, in his first visit to the country since taking office, almost a year ago.
In Brazil, Accenture expects that the strengthening of the operation has a double benefit. The idea is to take advantage of both the growing opportunities in consulting and outsourcing within the country, as to help Brazilian companies that are betting on the internationalization of their activities. "These companies require many services and products we offer because of our presence in 52 countries", says Roger Ingold, chairman of Accenture in Brazil. According to the executive, there are about 80 companies that are in the midst of an internationalization process today. And the trend is that the number grow at a fast pace in coming years.
The operation of Accenture in Brazil currently has 7.5 thousand professionals. According to Ingold, there are 350 new hires per month and 800 open positions in the boards of the company. With the expansion to the South and Northeast, the executive hopes to take advantage of local talent to ease the bottleneck of manpower. Accenture's revenue in Brazil is growing above 30% in the last two years, according to Ingold. According to experts consulted by Valor, the sales of the consultancy exceeds R$ 1 billion (US$ 571.4 million) in the country.