'A long courtship': It took four years to land tech giant Infosys, says Nenshi

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Civic officials courted Indian IT company Infosys for four years leading up to the tech giant’s announcement this week that it will open a Calgary location and create 500 jobs in the city by 2023.

Infosys — a New York Stock Exchange-listed global consulting and IT services firm with more than 249,000 employees worldwide — told Postmedia on Tuesday that it has selected Calgary for the next phase of its Canadian expansion. The company already has offices in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Ottawa, and is planning to double its current Canadian workforce to 4,000 employees over the next three years.

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'A long courtship': It took four years to land tech giant Infosys, says Nenshi Back to video

In an interview, Infosys president Ravi Kumar said Calgary was a logical choice not just because of its proximity to the company’s U.S. client base, but also because of the size of the available workforce locally. The company has plans to work directly with Calgary’s post-secondary institutions to train a pipeline of new grads, and also has a re-skilling program that will help individuals in mid-career transition into tech-focused jobs with Infosys.

On Wednesday, Mayor Naheed Nenshi said the fact that Infosys made the decision to come here — without the promise of any provincial or municipal incentives — speaks to the attractiveness of Calgary as a potential location for technology companies. But he also said Calgary pursued Infosys over a period of four years through a series of phone calls, meetings and trade missions to Silicon Valley and India to seal the deal.

“It’s been a long courtship, but I also hope a long marriage,” Nenshi said in an interview.

Calgary Economic Development president and CEO Mary Moran said her organization has been having bi-weekly phone calls with Infosys since last summer. While the company has not yet made any decisions about real estate, civic officials hope the company may lease up to 50,000 square feet in the downtown.

“All the options we’ve put forward for them are in the downtown or the Beltline,” Moran said in an interview. “They understand the quality and value they’d be getting by moving into the downtown, for sure.”

For CED, attracting an outside company — especially a global player with a recognizable name that can help put Calgary on the map as a technology centre — is a major win.

“In terms of attraction, it’s been one of the biggest opportunities for us for sure in the organization’s history,” Moran said. “I think for this city, at this time, it’s the biggest positive story we’ve seen.”

Moran said Calgary will continue to try to attract other global companies by emphasizing the ability to serve large clients in Canada and the U.S. from this city, where their employees can enjoy great quality of life and where the company can benefit from a low cost of doing business.

“We’ve been talking to a lot of Indian tech companies. Will they make the same level of commitment into the community? It’s going to really depend,” she said. “We also have some other really exciting projects in the pipeline that we hope will be announced this year.”

In a virtual news conference Wednesday, Premier Jason Kenney called the Infosys announcement a “red letter day for Alberta.”

“This is one of the best days in Alberta’s economy in some years,” Kenney said. “It’s an amazing shot in the arm, great momentum when we need it most.”

Infosys was founded in Bangalore, India, in 1981. According to the company’s website, it has grown to become a US$13.15-billion company with a market capitalization of approximately US$72.2 billion and offices in 46 countries around the world.

astephenson@postmedia.com

Twitter: @AmandaMsteph