Ci&T plans international expansion
Valor Econômico
In 1995, when they decided to found the Ci&T, a company specialized in software and information technology services (IT), César Gon, Fernando Matt and Bruno Guiçardi had two clear goals in mind: be a global company and achieve earnings of R$ 100 million (US$ 58.8 million). Today, the three men, who met each other in the course of computer engineering at the University of Campinas (Unicamp), can consider one of the goals outlined at the time as complete. In 2010, the company exceeded for the first time the mark of two digits registering earnings of R$ 101.4 million (US$ 57.6 million), representing growth of 42%. The company also increased its client portfolio in 92%, going from 50 to 96 global customers.
Ci&T now focuses its attention on the international expansion of its operations, strategy pointed by Gon, CEO of the company, as the only alternative for the growth of the Brazilian IT companies. Under such view, Gon says they will open two more offices in the United States, this half, and a new software development lab. In such case, although the place has not yet been set, the option will be for a region where Ci&T still has no operations. Besides the units in Philadelphia and London, there is a unit in Tokyo, Ci&T Pacific, joint-venture with the Japanese Rococo. With an initial investment of US$ 1 million in 2009, the operation caters to six customers in Japan and it involves a software development center in Ningbo, China.
In 2010, the structure of Ci&T abroad was responsible for 35% of the earnings of the company, says Gon. Of the total, 88% originated in the USA, 7% in Europe and 5% in Asia. Despite the uncertainty as regards the possible economic impacts of the recent incidents in Japan, the Executive said that, at a first moment, the production of Ci&T Pacific was not affected and it keeps the perspective of a more representative share in the external earnings in 2011. In that regard, Gon says the company is investing US$ 500 thousand in Ci&T Pacific, whose goal for the year is to double the size of the operation, including the productive capacity of the Chinese laboratory, which operates with 50 professionals.
According to the Executive, the forecast for 2011 is to achieve total earnings of R$ 130 million (US$ 76.5 million) and keep the level of 35% of income generated abroad. He said they will continue exploring the potential of the Brazilian market, where the operation is mainly in the segments of the media, finance, industry, retail and construction. For the local market, Ci&T plans to increase its offer, today focused on the development of custom-made business applications for each client. The idea, according to Gon, is to bring Brazil products and services that are offered by the company in the United States. "We will focus on cloud computing [remote processing of information], internet applications and games for social networks", says the Executive. For him, it is a tendency that corporate offers develop to an approach more focused on the end user.