There’s an infrastructure boom in Brazil – the IT kind and the buildings-and-roads kind – thanks to a growing economy and two upcoming major international sporting events. Softtek, the IT and BPO provider, intends to capitalize on this by increasing the services it offers the engineering & construction sector.
Softtek's Ana Dividino: "Work locally, act globally."
The company says it plans to triple its investment in that area during the next five years. Today Softtek has about ten major clients in engineering & construction. According to Ana Dividino, manufacturing manager at Softtek Brasil, this is the right moment to focus on such businesses, due to the preparations for the World Cup and the Olympics, which will affect nearly every aspect of the economy and involve much of the nation.
As the games approach, there will be increased demand for IT solutions as a result of new businesses sprouting up, and in 2014, millions of tourists arriving for the soccer matches. “Considering that, we have invested highly in the development area,” Dividino says. In the near term, 20 new employees must be hired just for that part of the company.
The manufacturing segment currently represents a small portion of the total income of the Brazilian branch of Softtek, but for 2012 the goal is to make that percentage grow considerably, although the company won’t specify just how much. That sector includes services for companies involved in manufacturing, consumer goods, agribusiness, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, steel production, automotive, and engineering & construction.
Engineering & construction represented 10% of the total income for 2011, and the intention is to increase that to 33% of the Brazilian business in 2012.
“Companies in those areas are looking more and more to automation to give support to their fast growth in such a heated market, which generates more competition in this sector,” Dividino says. Outsourcing customers want ERP and CRM, and systems for managing mortgage credit and deliverables – and they want it tied to business intelligence strategies.
Building Beyond Brazil
Softtek’s construction and engineering activities will be focused on the domestic market, but that does not mean those services will be limited to inside the country. “The idea is to work locally with the aim to act globally,” Dividino says. “We start to serve a client in Brazil, and with the success of the projects domestically, we can start to act for the other branches of the same company elsewhere in the world.”
A good example would be Softtek’s relationship with Camargo Corrêa, one of Brazil’s largest construction companies and responsible for projects such as the biggest international airport in the country, in Guarulhos.
As part of an “internationalization” project, Softtek Brasil implemented a unified network to standardize business processes in Carmargo Corrêa’s different branches in Argentina and Angola.
Softtek has operated in Brazil since 1994, and counts about 1,400 employees in the country. It has centers in Belo Horizonte, Brasília, Fortaleza, Rio de Janeiro, São Leopoldo, and São Paulo. Among some of Softtek’s clients in Brazil are banco Mercanil, Banco Bonsucesso, Liquigás, Mendes Júnior, Cadbury, Lupatech, and Sanofi-Aventis.
< Our interview with Joe Gudiño, Softtek’s product marketing manager working out of São Paolo, is here. >
< Nearshore Americas caught up with Softtek founder Blanca Trevino for a video interview. >
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