Everis to invest $40 million in Colombia in the next five years

As Everis’ growth in Latin America continues to eclipse that of its European business, the firm has announced that it will invest between $175 million and $200 million in the region in the next half decade. Of this gigantic investment, roughly $40 million will be injected into the Colombian economy in the same time frame.

Everis is a Spain-based entrepreneurial consulting and technology firm that offers outsourcing services as well as digital transformation advisory and client support in terms of technological disruption. Everis has an employee base of over 21,000 workers worldwide and an annual turnover of $1.3 billion, of which $360 million came from Latin America.

The firm's strategy in the region is to invest in, develop, and distribute IT technologies that will transform and empower their clients. Everis currently consults and advises on tech development areas such as digital and legacy transformation, blockchain, big data analytics, AI, and robotics, making it one of Industry 4.0’s leaders in Latin America.

In Colombia the firm operates in Bogotá, Medellín and Popayán, employing over 1,300 professionals. Diego Tovar Chinchilla, President of Everis in Colombia, commented, “We hope to increase our presence with 450 more in Medellín in the coming months, in the fields of digital technologies, innovation, customer experience and productivity.” 

The money to be spent is necessary to facilitating future growth for the firm in the region, according to Juan Yañez, CEO of Everis for the Americas. “In a very high calculus, the company would have to invest between US$ 175 million and US$ 200 million in the next five years.”

“This investment will be the necessary capital expenditure for everything that means growth, facilities, technological resources, materials, productive accelerators, centers of excellence, centers of high performance, generation of new value offer, among others.”

Colombia is responsible for roughly $35 million worth of turnover each year, according to a recent posting by the consulting firm. The same amount is thought to be invested back into the country with the hopes to triple its national operations – in terms of both revenue and workforce. 

“At this moment, Colombia is a country with ample growth potential because companies need to know how to apply technological concepts to their operations and negotiations. Thanks to these factors, the country is reporting revenues of US$ 35 million per year, and what we are looking for at a national level is that the numbers will triple and invoice US$ 100 million. The same can happen with workers, who could increase to 3,000 jobs," said Yañez.

Specifically looking to Medellín, the consulting firm will invest $3 million into the country’s innovation capital in the next two years. According to Everis’ management, the money will go towards expanding the city’s physical infrastructure and digital services throughout Antioquia. 

The firm has also signed a memorandum of understanding with the two universities in Antioquia to better develop the workforce of the future. The agreements with Salazar and Herrera University Institution – both located in Medellín – state that the universities will enhance their focus on growing students’ digital and technological capabilities.

“We have a generational crisis of technological professionals throughout the country. Demand is greater than supply and that is why we have to invest in practically reinventing the educational model,” Tovar Chinchilla said. “The student is our employee since he began the first semester in the institution. Here we find an echo for this model, in fact, it is so important for us that we decided to move our offices to the campus of the university,” he added.

Beyond Colombia, the firm also announced together earlier this year that it would expand sixfold in the Mendoza region’s new tech hub. The commitment was in line with the firm’s goals in Latin America to open “new lines of knowledge and new departments… Some of which will serve the whole of the America Region, one of which has already begun its operation which corresponds to the development of Big Data technology.”