General Motors efforts to onshore more of its IT work are starting to surface in Metro Detroit now that the automaker plans to open an Information Technology Innovation Center in Warren.
The plan is to bring in about 1,500 IT and software professionals over the next four years. The new workers will focus on developing new software and IT solutions that could have business development implications beyond the carmaker's normal business model.
"It will gradually build up," says Juli Huston-Rough, director of media strategy for
General Motors' IT Dept. "We're anxious and excited about it but we need to find the right people for the right positions."
Onshoring IT work has proven to be a good strategy to grow a more traditional business. For instance,
Domino's Pizza has reinvented itself through its newly found stature in IT and software, a move that has lead to new opportunities while bolstering its core business.
GM is taking a similar path by opening four "Innovation Centers" across the U.S. The first was announced in Austin, Texas and the Warren center (formerly known as the GM Michigan Innovation Center) is the second.
GM's leadership expects the innovation centers to create and deliver IT services with new capabilities that will help the company improve its performance, drive down the cost of ongoing operations and increase the level of innovation delivered to GM customers.
Source: Juli Huston-Rough, director of media strategy for General Motors' IT Dept
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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