On November 23rd, a round table on training needs in the information technology (IT) sector was held at the Graduate Center of the Faculty of Economics and Administration (UdelaR), with the participation of Álvaro Lamé - president of the Uruguayan Chamber of Information Technology (Cuti), and Gabriel Budiño - academic coordinator of the Postgraduate Course in Information Systems and IT Business Management.
The relationship between Cuti and the Faculty was formalized in 2012 with the signing of a framework collaboration agreement between the two institutions for the better development of their respective purposes and activities, through specific cooperation programs and projects, such as the development of scholarship and internship systems aimed at providing students of the University with work and professional practice areas within the framework of Cuti's activities, promotion of research and development activities in academic areas of shared interest through joint projects, exchange of scientific and statistical information and the sponsorship and organization of seminars, undergraduate and graduate courses on topics of common interest.
Within the framework of this agreement, and with the aim of expanding the educational offer of the FCEA through proposals that combine elements of administration and information technologies, the postgraduate diploma with specialization in Organizational Information Systems and IT Business Management was created, which in April of next year will begin its fifth generation.
Álvaro Lamé presented the main guidelines of Cuti's 2016-2018 Management Plan to contribute to the development of an Innovative Technological Ecosystem that provides growth opportunities to all industry players.
Currently the Cuti has accumulated almost 30 years of experience and has more than 370 associated companies that export to more than 50 markets (approximately 40% are sales of products and services to the United States, and reach countries as far away as China and Japan).
Both Lamé and Budiño highlighted the current state of the IT industry ecosystem, composed of various public and private actors that converge in the development of the sector. The State and government agencies (MIEM, Antel, Ceibal, ANII, Agesic, Uruguay XXI, Inefop, Ande), technology parks such as Latu and Zonamérica, academia (UdelaR, UTU, UTEC and private universities) and various institutions such as the Chamber of Digital Economy (CEDU), incubators, investment funds and coworking spaces, among others.
The IT sector in Uruguay not only includes companies that provide IT services (development, consulting, testing) and infrastructure, but also horizontally cross different sectors (ERP, HR, BI), support the development of trade (Internet Market, Consumer Market) and through industry verticals drive activities as diverse as medicine, finance, telecommunications, tourism and logistics.
According to preliminary data presented by Álvaro Lamé, in 2015 the total turnover of Cuti's member companies reached US$ 1,068 million with solid growth in the domestic market and exports of almost US$ 300 million.
Lamé recalled that the sector employs 12,000 people, and that it has difficulties to continue growing due to the lack of human resources trained not only in IT, but also people with different knowledge and skills to work in consulting, implementation, project management, sales, training, testing, etc.
Cuti's challenges for the coming years have to do with empowering companies, promoting the development of new technological ventures and the training of entrepreneurs, betting on innovation and internationalization with a business accelerator and active participation in trade missions abroad.
Cuti is also working with the government on instruments to support the financing of the sector, attracting investment and tax benefits for investment in technology, but also to generate a pioneering regulatory framework on issues related to telework, the digital economy and technological innovation.
Through the b_IT program, Cuti expects to manage 4 million dollars from Inefop and 1 million dollars from private companies, for the training of 4 thousand people in the next 4 years with a strong focus on the interior of the country, with the active participation of educational institutions and professionals in the sector that can collaborate in the training process and awareness of young people to turn to IT companies.
Gabriel Budiño recalled that the Faculty of Economics and Administration has been working with the Cuti in several ways. On the one hand, the curriculum of a new degree course was developed together with the Faculty of Engineering for the training of graduates in administration in information systems - combining management and computer science contents.
At the same time, the Postgraduate Program in Information Systems and IT Business Management was launched, which has trained in 4 generations more than 70 professionals (accountants, graduates in administration and economics, computer engineers, systems graduates, and with other undergraduate studies), with a significant participation of women (52%), which was not common in the sector.
In his presentation, Budiño mentioned the need to develop skills that integrate knowledge - both technology and management, support the transformation of ideas into business models, strengthen the growth of companies, and capitalize on the efforts of different actors (Agesic, Uruguay XXI, ANII, Cuti, Cedu, UdelaR) to promote innovation, exports, investment and entrepreneurship.
The postgraduate degree in systems combines IT courses (ERP, BI, Workflow, Security) with management courses (HR, strategic planning, business models, projects, internationalization) and IT visions from other disciplines (contracts, marketing, innovation, ethics).
At the closing of the activity, both Álvaro Lamé and Gabriel Budiño agreed on the important challenges that the development of ICTs will present us in the coming years, and the associated opportunities for countries like ours with an important infrastructure, skilled people and dimensions that allow us to test new technologies if we can adapt quickly to the changes.
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