With General Motors having announced the fourth location of its IT Innovation Center in Chandler, Arizona, the automaker has completed the announcement of all the four locations for its recently-developed internal IT strategy that will create 4,000 high-tech jobs in the United States. But why did GM choose to locate its four innovation centers in Austin, Texas; Roswell, Georgia; Warren, Michigan; and Chandler, Arizona?
The automaker started by examining the IT talent-rich areas around the country that also offer a strong community, lower cost of living, and a high-tech industry presence.
“Operating four IT Innovation centers geographically dispersed across the U.S. allows us to offer employment opportunities to hundreds of thousands of IT professionals, over 75 percent located within a 500-mile radius of any one of the centers,” said General Motors CIO Randy Mott.
Ready access to IT students was another consideration: four out of five students majoring in IT at higher education institutions in each state are within a three-hour drive from a GM IT innovation center, and the four centers combined have access to more than 7,000 students at more than 150 colleges and universities majoring in information technology-related fields. To attract graduates, General Motors will focus its recruitment efforts on up to a dozen key universities within each of the four geographic regions.
As for the employees that GM is looking to hire, the automaker is interested in skilled IT professionals with a range of capabilities, including software development, database administration, and system analysis. Employees at the four centers will support all aspects of GM’s business and IT needs, including web technologies, end-user applications and systems, dealer systems, factory systems, and vehicle technology.
The GM Authority Take
In deciding where to place the four IT innovation centers that will play a crucial role in its business going forward, The General didn’t blindly throw darts at a map… instead, it selected the four areas in a logical and strategic approach.
Of note, the 4,000 new jobs being created nationally as a result of GM’s IT initiative are significantly higher than the 104 workers being laid off at GM’s Flint Engine plant in Michigan, an event that seems to have (some) people up in arms.
Comments
It also doesn’t hurt that Phoenix is the least likely place in the US to experience a natural disaster that would put IT offline.
How are future veichles planned is it through customer surveys or just guesswork? I ask because from time to time manufatures will launch say a MPV/coupe 🙁 or a exectutive hatchback 🙁 and I often wonder yuk who has asked them to build that.