Information Technology in Argentina
Major End-Users:
The telecommunications market may be divided into three segments according to potential demand:
According to the Argentine Bureau of the Census (Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Censos-INDEC), small companies are those with less than 50 employees, medium firms have between 50 and 199 employees, and large companies employ more than 200 people. [1]
End-User Profile:
Government Sector
Government agencies might constitute a large potential client for telecommunications equipment when the rippling effects of the Mexican devaluation are met by a reactivation of the economic machinery. The financial crisis in Mexico had unfavorable effects on the Argentine economy. The economic recession resulting from the Mexican devaluation and budget cuts needed to reduce public spending put the Government sector in a tough position. It needs to upgrade its telecommunications systems, but cannot do so because of budget cuts on all fronts.
The Government of Argentina works almost exclusively with IBM mainframes. The present Undersecretariat of Informatics favors UNIX systems and aims at eventually rightsizing all the Government mainframe sites. The Government does not provide attractive sales prospects because the decision-making process typically lasts approximately two years. Many local distributors are not interested in working with the Government.
Private Sector
Large, medium and small companies in need of either purchasing telecommunications equipment and incorporating or upgrading telecommunications systems include firms in all major industrial sectors: telecommunications, oil and gas, energy, transportation, building and construction, etc.
Medium and small companies, however, were the hardest hit by the rippling effects of the Mexican crisis and the ensuing lack of financing. Even though the Argentine Government is undertaking plans to assist these small and medium-sized companies, it may take some time to alleviate their financial situations.
Though professionals and individual end-users have also been hard hit by the lack of credit, there is an element of prestige associated with the use of cell phones, pagers and other telecommunications equipment (answering machines, faxes, wireless phones, etc.) that will keep demand high.
Following are the billings of the largest software companies active in Argentina:
Software, Top Vendors (in Millions of dollars):
1993 1994 IBM -- 55.0 EDS -- 26.0 MICROSOFT 6.0 15.0 ORACLE 6.5 11.5 J. D. EDWARDS 4.0 13.0 INTERSOFT 7.1 11.0 SSA -- 9.0 INFORMIX 4.0 6.0 NOVELL 4.0 6.0 LOTUS 3.5 4.5
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, 1995
International IT Dependence
Argentina almost completely relies on other countries to support their
IT hardware and software needs. With less than 2% of the software used in
Argentina is imported, there is no growing domestic software developers
that can compete with the large American, European and Japanese firms. [4]
Last Updated: 5/5/97
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