Forrester: Brazil IT has enough work in Brazil
Posted by By Mark Hillary at 14 March, at 06 : 17 AM Print
As part of the our comment series on US president Barack Obama’s visit to Brazil at the end of this week, IT Decisions spoke to one of the most high profile IT analysts in the world, John McCarthy, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research.
McCarthy is a big fan of Brazil and has been visiting for over twenty years from his base in Cambridge, Massachusetts, but when asked why so much American IT work goes to India compared to Brazil, he was direct.
“There is more business going to India by a factor of a thousand, because all the IT resources in Brazil are focused on the local market,” he said.
“When you go to suppliers like Stefanini and CPM Braxis (now part of Capgemini), they will talk about their exports, but if you ask for the details then it is really just a few hundred people focused on the export market,” McCarthy added.
The analyst said that a major problem for Brazilian exports is the strength of its currency, the Real. When plotted against the US dollar over the past decade, it becomes clear that life has become much harder for exporters.
“I was in Brazil last June and I met one company head who said to me that he has just given up doing exports because they can’t compete – the currency has gone against them so much,” he said.
McCarthy emphasised the chequered Brazilian economic history.
“Brazil historically has always been a relatively closed economy, that’s why companies like IBM have been manufacturing there for years. It’s a vibrant market, but largely self-sufficient,” he added.
“Now there is strong growth and it’s likely that one of these local technology firms will become a global player, but to succeed they need to really focus and they can’t compete on just general purpose IT services, they need to build a platform.”
However, it’s not all doom and gloom. McCarthy mentioned one Brazilian technology firm that is getting noticed.
“CI&T is doing about 40% export work, but I don’t think anyone else in the market is in double digits – most of the other players are doing something like 4 or 5%,” he said.
“But every Tom, Dick, and Harry multinational is coming to Brazil – they are all trying to do business in the market, so the IT firms have a lot of local business just serving all this activity.”
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IT Decisions says
McCarthy’s comments are direct and don’t swerve from the truth. Brazil cannot compete with lower-cost economies and to think that any Brazilian tech firm will succeed with an all-services-at-a-low-cost business model is just a dream.
But he does concede that the more innovative firms can export, and even the larger players are exporting some services, no matter how insignificant those exports are when compared to their local business.
His main point about Brazilian IT firms finding a niche platform should be heeded. There are several world-leading industries in Brazil with local technology players supporting those firms. To play the long game, those business-rich IT skills needed to be packaged as a product and exported to the world.
Click here to hear John McCarthy’s preview of the Obama visit to Brazil.
Photo by Chaval licensed under Creative Commons
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Forrester: Brazil IT has enough work in Brazil | IT Decisions | Media Brasil, 2 years ago
[...] more from the original source: Forrester: Brazil IT has enough work in Brazil | IT Decisions :brazil, cambridge, comunicação, massachusetts, Mídia, result, twenty-years, [...]
Forrester: Brazil IT has enough work in Brazil | IT Decisions | Media Brasil, 2 years ago
[...] Read the original: Forrester: Brazil IT has enough work in Brazil | IT Decisions [...]
Forrester: Brazil IT has enough work in Brazil | IT Decisions | Mídia Global, 2 years ago
[...] Go here to read the rest: Forrester: Brazil IT has enough work in Brazil | IT Decisions [...]
Paulo Camara, 2 years ago
RT @ciandt: John McCarthy of @forrester says Ci&T is doing 40% export work; other Brazilian firms closer to 4-5% http://bit.ly/fzkDnY
IT Decisions, 2 years ago
@forrester views on Brazil IT industry http://bit.ly/g0lfK4
Mark Hillary, 2 years ago
RT @itdecs: @forrester views on Brazil IT industry http://bit.ly/g0lfK4
Leonardo Mattiazzi, 2 years ago
Nice interview with Mark Hillary and John McCarthy – unbiased, very honest. Make sure you listen to the audio http://bit.ly/fzkDnY
IT Decisions, 2 years ago
Brazil has enough IT work going on in Brazil anyway… http://bit.ly/g0lfK4
Mark Hillary, 2 years ago
RT @itdecs: Brazil has enough IT work going on in Brazil anyway… http://bit.ly/g0lfK4
ChristineFerrusiRoss, 2 years ago
John McCarthy "1 of th most high profile IT analysts in th world" @analyzeit_ Brazil IT has enough work in Brazil http://t.co/BLUTw4M via @Z
Giacomo Cesareo, 2 years ago
RT @ciandt: John McCarthy of @forrester says Ci&T is doing 40% export work; other Brazilian firms closer to 4-5% http://bit.ly/fzkDnY
Chris Detzel, 2 years ago
RT @itdecs: Forrester: Brazil IT has enough work in Brazil #itdecs http://bit.ly/dVLpjE #EntArch #IT
Mark Hillary, 2 years ago
RT @cdetzel: RT @itdecs: Forrester: Brazil IT has enough work in Brazil #itdecs http://bit.ly/dVLpjE #EntArch #IT
CI&T leaders explain what international really means | IT Decisions, 2 years ago
[...] by By Mark Hillary at 4 April, at 19 : 23 PM Print A couple of weeks ago, IT Decisions published an interview with John McCarthy of analyst firm Forrester, where he singled out Brazilian IT services group CI&T as one of the few local companies here [...]
Terry Boyland, 2 years ago
Excuse the self propoganda but CPQi has been exporting IB Tech from Brazil since inception in 2008. More than 40% of our revenues come from international work and the client list includes major names such as Citibank, Rabobank, Reuters, HSBC and many others. The secret is specialization
Ci&T News, Blogs | Ci&T» Blog Archive » Ci&T Singled out by High Profile IT Analyst For Achievement in Exports, 2 years ago
[...] here to read the IT Decisions March article and to read the April article and view the accompanying [...]
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[...] “Brazilians are much more creative, perhaps because of the years of financial adversity we have been through and the fact we have been down the road of drastically reducing costs, while dealing with competition. This inevitably makes people become a lot more creative.” [...]