Global Atlanta, 3/31/6: California Firm Outsources to Eastern Canada

When Kevin Francis, a native of Nova Scotia, was hired as CEO of a California-based information technology management company in 2002, he had many valid reasons for setting up an outsourcing center in his native eastern Canada, he told businesspeople in Atlanta last week.

As former CEO of Xerox Canada Inc., Mr. Francis was well aware of the advantages of other popular outsourcing destinations, such as India and western Canada. But eastern Canada’s low-cost of living and IT-trained workforce appealed to him.

“There was a cultural, financial and technical fit for us in Atlantic Canada,” he said of Centerbeam Inc., the San Jose, Calif.-based firm that manages back-office needs for American-owned companies.

Mr. Francis chose Saint John, New Brunswick, a city of some 123,000 along the Bay of Fundy coast, as the site for Centerbeam’s IT outsourcing center.

The center now provides 65,000 daily services to American companies operating in 18 countries, he said during a business luncheon organized by the Consulate General of Canada in Atlanta.

IT growth and investment has given rural eastern Canada, a region that was once dominated by agricultural work, access to international markets, Mr. Francis said.

Atlantic Canada, which is comprised of Canada’s four eastern most provinces- New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island-is rapidly growing its IT infrastructure and industries, Greg Goldhawk, deputy consul general and senior trade commissioner, said during the meeting.

The region is experiencing the highest percentage growth of high-speed Internet users in Canada, and some 6,000 IT-related professionals graduate from the Atlantic Canadian universities every year, Mr. Goldhawk said.

In addition, the region also reports a cost of living 25-65 percent lower than other North American regions, according to the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, the provinces’ economic development arm that organized the trip to Atlanta.

Saint John, for example, offers a more than 10 percent cost savings in living and business expenses when compared to the average cost of living in the U.S., the agency reported.

Eastern Canada has also been a popular investment location for Atlanta-based United Parcel Service Inc. The company opened two contact centers in New Brunswick in 1994 to handle its Canadian customer service and package tracking operations.

UPS also has a financial services center in the province that provides support for company offices in North and South America, Carlos A. Vazquez, UPS industrial engineering manager in Atlanta, told GlobalAtlanta at last week’s luncheon.

The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency sent five economic developers to Atlanta for the business luncheon to meet with Georgia-based companies interested in outsourcing.

The group then continued to Orlando, Fla., where representatives attended Shared Services Week 2006, a five-day conference for outsourcing industry professionals.

For more information on outsourcing opportunities in eastern Canada, contact Suzanne Turmel, marketing and communications representative for the Atlantic Canada agency, at (506) 454-5107 or suzanne.turmel@gnb.ca.

Contact the Canadian consulate in Atlanta at (404) 532-2030.