10/24/2008 09h36
Brazil becomes one of British Logicas main destinations
Valor Econômico 10/24/2008
When we think about the world competition map for the technology of information (IT) services, two regions come to mind: the United States - the country of origin of most giants of the sector, like IBM and Hewlett-Packard (HP) - and India, which, in recent years, has been able to consolidate itself as a world reference in the production of on-demand software for foreign companies. British Andy Green knows this situation well, but his attention is set on different points of the globe. The first one is Europe, the original market of Logica, the IT service company he started to manage in January of this year. The second one is divided between two destinations: India, for already known reasons, and Brazil. The London-headquartered company is far from being small: last year, it reached sales of 3.073 billion pounds sterling, with a 54% increase compared to the previous year. The net profit reached168.1 million pounds sterling, the equivalent of a leap of almost 89% compared to 2006. This income, however, is strongly concentrated in Europe: 95% of all sales of the company in 2007 were made in the continent's countries. At first sight, one option to look for new sources of income outside Europe would be the United States, but Logica intends to stay far from a direct dispute for this market. This would mean elbowing much bigger companies that already have an established relationship with their big clients. In the USA, the activity will be concentrated on support to users of other nationalities that have business in the American market, says Green. With Europe taken and the USA out of question, it is natural that the attention goes to emerging markets. With the decision of investing in Brazil and in India, Logica not only wants to have access to markets that grow quickly, but also to identify opportunities to set basis to export services. In Brazil, the company's contracting rhythm has accelerated in the last months, mainly since February, when the company installed the headquarters of its regional subsidiary, Lógica América do Sul, in São Paulo. "Since then, we have hired nearly 200 people", says American Fermim Fautsch, who heads the company in the region. "As the team today has 500 professionals, this means that almost half the employees have been in the company for less than one year." In addition to the central Office in São Paulo, Lógica has a data center in Mogi das Cruzes, in the interior of the State. In Brazil, one of the segments in which the company sees more opportunities is public utility services, like energy. As for the possibility of using the country as a base to export services for clients of the European market, Green says that the Brazilian professionals offer many of the requirements necessary for the task, including technical availability and language, but it is necessary to examine the matter with care. The challenge is to make that a possible decision like this does not affect the growth of the operation for the country's own clients, affirms the Portuguese João Baptista, he himself newly-arrived in the company.
