DBA invests US$16mn in software export factory

Brazilian software developer DBA Engenharia will invest 45mn reais (US$16mn) over the next five years in a software export factory inaugurated Tuesday, DBA chief executive Danilo Meth told BNamericas. The new factory, called the Offshore Delivery Center (ODC), should boost exports from just over US$1mn this year to US$20mn in 2004, Meth said. This will in turn help boost revenues to 270mn reais in 2004, up 50% from 180mn reais expected this year and 148mn reais in 2002. ODC will manufacture enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer care (CRM) and billing platforms for the European financial, telecoms, industrial, and energy sectors, he said. It is located within the Rio de Janeiro federal university, UFRJ, which will feed talent directly into the factory and has the advantage of being located close to Rio's international airport. The company picked Europe as its focus for exports because it already has offices in Germany, Meth said, adding that DBA's engineers will install solutions on site in Europe. The US market could be included in the future, he said. The company plans to rely on its cultural affinity with Europeans as a competitive advantage over international competitors such as India, which has built a solid image as software outsourcer in recent years, Meth said. India exported some US$10bn a year in software in 2002, compared to US$100mn exported by Brazil. To fend of competition from other Brazilian companies, DBA aims to secure by year-end Brazil's first Level 3 certification under the capability maturity model (CMM) of the US' Software Engineering Institute (SEI), Meth said. It also wants to be the first Brazilian company to hold the SEI's new certificate, called IT-enabled sourcing capability model (ISCM), he said.