Halifax, NS (June 4, 2013) – Nova Scotia’s knowledge economy continues to grow. Last November, with the support of the province through Nova Scotia Business Inc. and a consortium of six universities and colleges, IBM Canada created its first-ever IBM Services Centre in Canada. NSBI, the province’s economic development agency, worked with IBM Canada since 2009 to help ensure that the competitive opportunity was secured in Nova Scotia.
“Nova Scotia offers the leadership and competitive business environment that make the province a strategic choice for our IBM Services Centre,” said Dan Fortin, President of IBM Canada. “By engaging with our academic partners, the province and industry will benefit from a workforce that delivers essential analytics skills.”
Showcasing Information and Communications Technology Sector
Nova Scotia, Canada has created an environment to foster growth and innovation and is growing at a fast pace. Statistics Canada reports that in terms of real GDP, its ICT market was one of the fastest growing ICT sectors across the country. It has all of the key ingredients for growth – strong research and development support, competitive costs and an educated labour pool. In fact, the province has seen 16 percent more grads per capita on the average over any other provinces, according to Statistics Canada.
IBM and Nova Scotia Canada’s Advanced Educational Institutions Partner for Big Data Analytics Initiatives
Considered to be Canada’s University Capital, Nova Scotia is home to 10 universities and 13 community college campuses. Availability of highly-skilled talent was a major factor for the province to be selected as the location for the IBM Services Centre. Dalhousie University, Saint Mary’s University, Acadia University, Cape Breton University, St. Francis Xavier University, Mount Saint Vincent University and Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with IBM to partner on curricula and training initiatives that will provide students the skills they need to work with analytics and workplace optimization. It is expected that IBM will create up to 500 new employment positions in the province throughout the agreement.
Nova Scotia, Canada Geared Towards Big Data Analytics
Big Data Analytics promise to give businesses the tools and valuable information needed to identify unexpected insights, boost productivity, and improve profitability. This is made possible by capturing and making useful analysis of vast amounts of structured and unstructured data being generated daily. IBM reported in its Chief Marketing Officer Study that “we now create as much information every two days as we did from the dawn of civilization to 2003,” Nova Scotia, Canada is proud to be intimately involved in this growing market by aligning itself with industry leaders working on innovation in Big Data Analytics.
Visit www.novascotiabusiness.com for more information.
Source: Nova Scotia Business Inc.
