Industry Forum Details Brazil's IT Economy to International CIOs

SAO PAULO and RIO DE JANEIRO, June 1 /PRNewswire/ -- The Brasscom Global IT Forum, one of the largest IT industry forums in Latin America, will be hosting more than 50 global enterprise leaders, analysts and investors on June 8 – June 10 in the Brazilian cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.  Organized by the Brazilian Association of Information Technology and Communication Companies (Brasscom), the forum will be co-located with the Gartner Outsourcing Summit 2010 - Latin America. It will showcase Brazil's IT infrastructure and how the nation has emerged as a prime locale for offshore IT and outsourcing services.

Confirmed panelists and presentations on the agenda include:

• Panel discussions with Julia Santos, head of Worldwide Strategic Outsourcing of Johnson & Johnson, and Jairo Avritchir, IT site director for Dell's Brazilian operations
• Outsourcing success stories presented by Ribeiro Neto, engineering director of Google
• Insights on Brazil's IT and foreign investment opportunities from Gartner, IDC, Forrester, and The Economist Intelligence Unit
• A guided tour of the nation's premier technology parks, universities and Brazilian IT companies.

"The goal of the IT Forum is to reinforce Brazil as a strategic IT powerhouse to a new generation of business investors," said Antonio Gil, President of Brasscom.  "Attendees will get a firsthand look at Brazil's strengths in software and IT services right from the source."

Brazil has the eighth largest domestic market in the world for IT and business process outsourcing (BPO) services, generating a total IT spend of $60 billion in 2008. The nation is investing $273 billion back into its infrastructure to facilitate innovation and IT growth. It currently operates one of the most sophisticated financial systems in the world, handling intra-bank transactions in real-time for 514 million credit and debit cards, and employs over 1.7 million IT professionals.

The Brasscom Global IT Forum is part of the IT export and investment promotions project – a joint initiative by Brasscom; the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil); the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade; and the Ministry of Science and Technology, with support from the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES).

For more information: www.gartner-brasscom.com

About Brasscom:

The Brazilian Association of Information Technology and Communication Companies (Brasscom) represents the main IT-BPO companies, both Brazilian and international, which account for 70% of Brazil's gross domestic product (GDP) in the sector, as well as research centers, universities and institutional partners. Founded in 2004, Brasscom works to position Brazil amongst the world's three leading strategic IT-BPO centers. To this end, it seeks to align public policies with the private sector and local and international markets, as well as to encourage cooperation with employees and the associations that represent them.

Members of Brasscom: Accenture, Algar, Atos Origin, B2B Magazine, BRQ, BSI, BT, Cast, C.E.S.A.R, Ci&T, Cisco, CPM Braxis, CTI, HP Enterprise Services, GFT, Google, GPTI, HSBC Global Technology, Hughes, IBM, INPE, Intel, Itautec, Lenovo, Microsoft, Politec, Resource, Serasa Experian, Softtek, Stefanini IT Solutions, Tata Consultancy Services, TIVIT, TOTVS, Ubik IT Solutions, UFPE, UNESP, Unicamp, UNISYS e UOL.

About Gartner:

Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world's leading information technology research and advisory company. Gartner delivers the technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, Gartner is the indispensable partner to approximately 60,000 clients in 10,000 distinct organizations. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, Gartner works with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A., and has approximately 4,300 associates, including approximately 1,200 research analysts and consultants serving clients in 80 countries. For more information, visit www.gartner.com.

About Apex-Brasil:

The Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency's (Apex-Brasil) mission comprehends a series of endeavours which include the promotion of exports of Brazilian products and services to foreign countries, the development of the internationalization of Brazilian companies and undertakings focused on attracting foreign investment into the country.  

The Agency seeks to increase the number of Brazilian exporting companies and to add value to the list of Brazilian exported products. On the other hand, the Agency also strives to consolidate the country's presence in traditional markets and to open new markets for the Brazilian products.

In projects carried out with entities of different business sectors (such as Associations, Institutions, Labour Unions, etc), Apex-Brasil organizes trade missions of foreign buyers to Brazil and visits of foreign opinion makers and journalists specialized in different industries and services. In addition to that, Apex-Brasil carries out prospective trade missions, as well as business missions focused on priority markets for Brazilian exports. Business round-ups with importers and support to the participation of Brazilian companies in large world trade fairs are also included in the Agency's field of action.

SOURCE Brasscom