ABSTRACT
In late March of 2007, A.T. Kearney’s Global Services Location Index showed Brazil advancing five spots from its position in 2005 in the general ranking of countries offering offshore outsourcing, reaching the fifth position after India, China, Malaysia and Thailand. The study, as well as many other similar items that have started to
appear with increasing frequency in newly published research from other IT-consulting firms such as Gartner and Forrester showing the growth of Brazil as one of the most competitive outsourcing destinations, is welcome news to Brazilian IT companies and Brazilian export promotion organizations. Since early 2004, several interested sectors in the Brazilian economy have worked in tandem to put the Brazilian IT industry on the global map. Even though Brazil is one of the 10 largest IT markets in the world, worth approximately $15 billion a year, it exports a relatively small percentage, especially when compared with India, which exports nearly 75% of its IT production. The effort to boost the Brazilian IT sector as an exporter has received ample encouragement from the Brazilian government, through Brazil’s export promotion agency, APEX Brasil. It is widely recognized by all players in the Brazilian IT sector that to
achieve significant export growth, the Brazilian IT industry would have to gain recognition as a capable producer of IT services and products outside of Brazil, specifically in the USA, the world’s largest consumer of IT products. Before 2004, Brazil was hardly ever identified in industry research and analyst reports as an up and coming outsourcing destination. In fact, countries with much less-developed IT industries than Brazil’s, such as Ukraine, Costa Rica and Vietnam, were frequently mentioned as the emerging IT outsourcing destinations by well-known industry analysts, whereas Brazil was largely ignored. This reflected a clear image problem. To begin to change this perspective, APEX Brasil launched in 2004
what initially was a 3-year effort focused on the dissemination of Brazil IT services and products and of Brazilian IT companies as better suited partners for US companies seeking differentiated service closer to home. Having identified the Gartner Group as a key opinion-making institu-
tion, both for its industry analysts as well as for their myriad IT trade shows, APEX decided to participate in the Gartner ITxpo in October 2004, in Orlando. APEX also chose to work with several Brazilian companies that were already established in the US market to develop an action plan
Brazilian companies not yet selling their services to the USA. A key point of interest: Brazilian IT companies that worked in the USA at that time were also hurt by the lack of knowledge about the country’s IT industry abroad, and about the lack of knowledge about Brazil in more general terms. As one executive said, at each sales meeting, the company had to expend a significant amount of time explaining that Brazil did indeed have an IT industry, cutting down on the time he had for selling his product. The initiative would also work as a uniform tool for companies developing business in the USA, creating a common strategy, using each other’s efforts to leverage overall sales, transforming individual guerilla sales pitches into a coordinated market-conquering war. Working with several IT Clusters throughout Brazil, individual IT com-
panies and the Brazil Information Center, a non-profit trade organization based in the USA that promotes Brazil to American opinion makers and consumers, APEX Brasil, started brand development – using the term Brazil IT both as a noun and as a verb, as in ‘Brazil it!’, and consistently disseminating the competitiveness and areas of excellence of Brazil’s IT industry, as well as the competitive advantages Brazil holds over other leading outsourcing destinations. A new logo for Brazil IT was created, and the brand trademarked
in the USA. The tools used for dissemination were video, Internet – www.brazil-it.com, traditional print media and consistent trade show participation. The message was focused on a few key points such as Brazil’s strong domestic IT market, cultural and business environment similarities to the USA, geographical proximity and time zone compatibility, geopolitical stability and the creative power differential of Brazilian IT engineers when compared with IT engineers in other parts of the world. Areas of excellence such as Brazil’s banking system, healthcare and e-gov were chosen as focus points to show a degree of world class quality and adaptability. Rather than selling itself as another potential India – where companies have thrived in wholesale outsourcing services, Brazil IT meant to differentiate Brazilian IT service and software developers as ‘value aggregators’ in a different league, providing services with business expertise capable of developing and implementing creative, ‘out of the box’ solutions. Brazil IT’s inaugural participation at a large trade show in the USA
happened at the Gartner ITxpo in 2004, bringing nearly 30 Brazilian IT companies to the First Timer pavilion. The participation was so successful from the companies’ point of view – measured by new contacts made and interest from Gartner Symposium participants – that the group returned in 2005 with a much larger presence, as Market Place Sponsors, bringing to the event an institutional space to promote knowledge about Brazil IT as well as five individual booths occupied by individual Brazilian IT companies – some with an established presence in the USA and others still considering whether the time was right to enter the American market.
