Mindtree gets going with Florida-based delivery centre

17th November 2012
Mindtree  gets going with Florida-based delivery centre
Governor Rick Scott, right, congratulates Mindtree's co-founders, Krishnakumar Natarajan, left, and Scott Staples, centre, as he visits MindTree's ribbon-cutting ceremony in the Ayers building in Gainesville, Fla., November 13, 2012. ( Erica Brough /Gainesville Sun)

Gainesville, (Florida- US) Nov. 17, 2012 : Florida Governor Rick Scott was on hand to preside over the ribbon cutting of  Indian IT  major Mindtree's  first U.S. Delivery Centre here on November 13, along with co-founders Since Mindtree announced the project in March, ( see our story: http://indiatechonline.com/mindtree-r&d-in-florida-usa-717.php   ) 47 people have been hired including University of Florida (UF) and Santa Fe College recent graduates, veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces and executives who were laid off from other companies during the recession. A total of 400 new jobs will be created over the next five years and a $2.925 million capital investment in Ayers Building at Innovation Square. To date, Mindtree has already invested more than $1.6 million in the project.
"With today’s ribbon cutting and tour, it is easy to see the positive impact that Mindtree has already made in the Gainesville community and I am confident that we will continue to see great things from them in the future,” said Governor Scott. “With the largest unemployment drop in the nation, Florida’s economy is headed in the right direction and we will continue our efforts to attract companies like Mindtree that can provide needed jobs for our residents.”
Mindtree’s new U.S. Delivery Center is the first outside of India for Mindtree and is part of the company’s strategy to broaden its IT and software consulting offerings to its clients in the United States.
"We are very happy to have completed our first U.S. Delivery Centre in Gainesville," said Scott Staples, President, Americas, Mindtree Limited. "Mindtree has received great support from the City and the State and we are ready to bring our expertise and unique corporate culture to Florida. This was a big team effort, and one that is extremely important to our company.”
From local paper, the Gainesville Sun: Although committing to 400 jobs, the company would like to bring at least 1,000, according to CEO Krishnakumar "KK" Natarajan, from Mindtree headquarters in Bangalore.He called Gainesville the "beachhead" of Mindtree's plans to build three or four more U.S. development centers as more customers require immediate access to its services. In an interview with The Sun after the event, Natarajan said they meet with local governments all over the world."Very rarely do we find governments that move at such speed," he said. He also credited ( the Florida)state government help in sealing the deal.
The governor presented Mindtree founders Natarajan and Staples with Governor's Business Ambassador Awards."It's individuals like KK and Scott that have really built jobs," he said. "They're the ones who are out hiring people and changing people's lives, so it's a real honor to be with them today.". The full Sun report and slide show: http://www.gainesville.com/article/20121113/ARTICLES/121119865  

NOT ALONE
Mindtree is not alone in tapping the talent in the US. Bruce Einhorn and Kartikay Mehrotra write in Bloomberg BusinessWeek: In September, Bangalore-based Infosys acquired Marsh Consumer BPO, an outsourcing company with 87 workers based in Des Moines. In June rival Mahindra Satyam opened a new outsourcing center in Fargo, N.D. Cognizant Technology Solutions , a company headquartered in Teaneck, N.J., that has most of its 145,000 workers in India, acquired centres in June in Des Moines and Minot, N.D., employing over 1,000 people. ..Tata Consultancy Services  used the social network site CareerBuilder to find Darlene Black, 54, from Ann Arbor, Mich., who had worked for Parke-Davis and Pfizer for 18 years. She applied on a Sunday and by Friday had a full-time offer to help a TCS client manage contractors and other construction-related work. “They are getting people [into] the workplace here in the U.S.,” says Black.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-10-25/indian-companies-are-america-bound