GM To Open Second IT Innovation Center, This Time In Warren, Michigan

General Motors has announced an IT Innovation Center in Warren, Michigan — the second of four planned facilities in the United States. The new facility, which is the result of a $130 million renovations, joins its counterpart in Austin, Texas announced last month.

The Innovation Centers will play an important role in GM’s newfound IT business strategy, creating and delivering IT services with new capabilities such as improving company performance, decreasing the cost of ongoing operations, and ultimately increasing the level of innovation brought to GM customers in the form of new products and services.

To support the new IT-focused strategy, The General expects to hire up to 1,500 high-tech employees over the next several years across its four planned IT tech centers in the U.S.. In the past, roughly 90 percent of GM’s IT functions have been carried out by outside contractors who didn’t work directly for GM, and of the 10 percent that did, 75 percent supported the business but only 25 percent worked to add new capabilities. As part of the IT Transformation, the automaker is looking to reverse these numbers over the next three years by in-sourcing IT work and growing the innovation side of the operations.

To bring the Innovation Centers to life, GM will hire software developers, project and database managers, as well as business analysts. It is recruiting recent college grads and experienced professionals for the positions at U.S. college campuses this fall and is participating in local job fairs with a focus on IT professionals.

“We’re currently seeking the next generation of game-changers to help us usher in a new age of automotive innovation at GM,” said GM Chief Information Officer Randy Mott.

Those interested in finding more information and applying to any of these positions are instructed to visit GM’s careers website.

The GM Authority Take

The battle plan is set. Now, it’s time for GM to execute… and kick the competition to the curb. We expect to see the fruits of the IT transformation by mid-decade, but expect the efforts to pay off significantly in the long run.