CGI provides services such as software and telecommunications management for private-sector and public-sector organizations in several countries, including U.S. government agencies.RYAN REMIORZ/The Canadian Press
CGI Group Inc. is establishing a new IT services centre in southwestern Louisiana that will eventually have up to 400 employees.
Montreal-based CGI said Monday that it will begin hiring in the next few months and begin operations at a temporary location in late 2014. It will later occupy a new, $13.1-million (U.S.) facility at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, to be completed by the end of 2015.
The project also includes a state-funded, 10-year initiative to increase the number of undergraduates from the university's school of computing and informatics.
CGI provides services such as software and telecommunications management for private-sector and public-sector organizations in several countries, including U.S. government agencies.
The Lafayette centre will be one of CGI's onshore information technology centres, which focus on creating IT jobs in the United States. CGI also has onshore delivery centres in Virginia, Alabama and Texas and a regional centre in Ohio.
"CGI recognizes that Lafayette is an economic, technical, educational and cultural hub of Louisiana," CGI senior vice-president Dave Henderson said in a statement.
"It has one of the fastest growing work forces in the state, fed by one of the top-ranked computer science programs in the country – one that has a unique partnership with the local community college."