andycallahan

© Stephen Barnett

Accenture is expanding its IT technology business consulting services in the Middle East by buying a majority stake in Saudi Arabia's leading IT services company, Al Faisaliah Business & Technology. The acquisition is part of a strategy by the company to enhance its capabilities in the region. No financial details of the transaction have been disclosed, but Dublin-based Accenture said that the deal is slated to close within 90 days pending customary closing requirements.

They said that strengthening their presence in Saudi Arabia is a priority for the company, and that their focus will be on providing clients with the support they need to meet their business goals. Once the transaction is complete, Accenture plans to leverage Al Faisaliah's enterprise architecture, systems implementation and technology consulting skills with Accenture's management consulting and technology and outsourcing expertise.

© jonny goldstein

VMC is a technology business consulting and outsourcing company that has just celebrated the opening of its new customer care center at Brooks City-Base in South San Antonio, Texas this week. The center consists of 35,000 square-feet of space, making it one of the largest customer care centers owned and operated by the Redmond, Washington based company. VMC plans to hire 600 help-desk positions at the new center, which will provide help for clients on IT-related issues.

The chief operating officer at VMC said that the company found the right combination of location, people, infrastructure, facilities and civic and business environment in San Antonio to create a competitive advantage for their clients and company. A San Antonio city official commented that despite the difficult national economy, San Antonio has continued to see strong strong economic development momentum due to their business friendly climate.

© Danny Choo

According to recent statistics, large US companies like GE are paring their outsourcing of jobs to IT corporate consulting services overseas. GE plans to add more jobs in the US, including 1100 at an IT center just outside of Detroit, a city that has been hit hard by outsourcing.

According to a spokeswoman for GE, the company has come to recognize some of the downsides of IT outsourcing from experience and this ha led them to scale back. The company has lost many of the technical capabilities that made them a success through outsourcing to non-GE employees. Bringing the work back in house allows the company greater leverage in developing programs to respond to fast changing technologies in their core markets. For example, the company has recently been focused on writing cutting edge apps for smartphones.