Software giant Cognizant opens second centre in Brazil at Sao Paulo

Amid reports of layoffs from its India operations, software major Cognizant today announced an expansion of its Latin American operations by opening a new centre in Brazil.

The announcement comes at a time when the US-based company rolled out a voluntary separation programme for directors, associate VPs and senior VPs, offering them 6-9 months of salary.

The new centre, its second in Brazil, has been done "to support increasing demand for the company s digital business, operations and systems and technology services", it said in a statement.

Jo o L cio de Azevedo Filho, its country manager for Brazil, said, "Since commencing operations in Brazil in 2009, we've continued to grow our footprint and investment in the country and its people".

The move comes amid an increased focus on 'on-shoring' or 'near-shoring', rather than the traditional off-shoring model where jobs were done in low-cost countries like India. Cognizant currently delivers a broad range of services to more than 40 of the region's leading financial services, insurance, healthcare, life sciences, manufacturing, retail, consumer goods and technology companies. The new centre in Sao Paulo is Cognizant s second in the country.

The expanded capability in Brazil will help Cognizant enhance its operations throughout Latin America, enabling a growing roster of local, regional and global clients to further leverage it's technical and business capabilities,the company said.