GM to Hire About 10,000 IT Staffers

General Motors Co. is hiring 500 information technology employees to staff a new center in Austin, Tex., as part of a move to bring most of its IT work in-house over the next three years.

Chief Information Officer Randy Mott tells reporters GM expects to recruit about 10,000 software developers, project managers, database experts, business analysts and other IT specialists during that period. Mott himself was hired from Hewlett-Packard Co. in February to lead the overhaul.

GM said in July it intends to boost the proportion of IT work performed internally to 90% from 10% now. The bulk of such work currently is done by outside vendors such as H-P, which acquired GM's former IT unit Electronic Data Systems Corp. in 2008.

Mott says handling IT duties internally will increase efficiency and foster innovation and development capability, thus enabling GM to bring new vehicles to market more quickly.

Austin will be one of four "innovation centers," according to Mott. He did not identify other locations or say whether any of them will be outside the U.S. The company currently employs about 1,500 IT workers.