09/25/2008 08h57
IBM invests to expand production in Brazil
Valor Econômico - 09/25/2008
International Business Machines (IBM) is going to increase its production equipment in Brazil. The company will inject US$ 2 million in new lines of production in order to bring its data storage pieces of equipment to the country. The production will be concentrated in the city of Sorocaba, in the interior of the state of São Paulo, in the manufacturing park of Flextronics, a company specialized in outsourced production. The initiative should generate 100 new jobs. IBM already produced some pieces of equipment for storage in the country, but until now the models were destined only to big companies. Now, the target is the small and mid-sized ones, operations that have at least ten servers. The entry price of the products will be around US$ 5 thousand. According to André Luiz Bonacossa, manager of the storage area of IBM Brazil, the local production of the equipment shall reduce the cost of the product, which is currently imported, by 10%. To facilitate access to the storage technology, IBM will offer financing lines to the companies. From US$ 10 thousand one, it is possible to choose a leasing under pre- or post-fixed rates. It is also possible to use funds of the Finame, the financing line for machines and equipment offered by the BNDES. "The clients need to see that the company not only is present in the country, but is also investing in it and it is part of the business", says Andrew Monshaw, IBM world manager of storage products. According to Monshaw, who came to the country exclusively for the announcement, the initial production should reach 500 machines per month, a volume almost 50% superior to the amount of equipment that IBM was importing until now. "Besides the local production, very soon we should open solutions centers in São Paulo, where the client will be able to see and test the technology first hand". Besides the storage products, IBM's production in the country already includes equipment such as servers and mainframes, the large-sized machines used to manage the resources of a computer network.
