GM to Open Next IT Center Near Atlanta

General Motors Co. is opening its third big information technology center this one in Roswell, Ga. later this year. GM says the facility, which will focus on R&D support, will employ about 1,000 workers by 2017.

GM previously announced IT centers in Warren, Mich., and Austin, Tex. A fourth facility will be named later this year.

The so-called innovation centers are part of GM's plan to boost the proportion of IT work it performs internally to 90% from 10% currently. The company has said it expects the effort will add about 10,000 software developers, database experts and other specialists over the next three years.

GM had centralized its IT work in its Electronic Data Systems Corp. subsidiary 30 years ago. But it spun off EDS in 1996, and Hewlett-Packard Co. acquired the company in 2008.

CEO Dan Akerson told The Wall Street Journal earlier this week that outsourcing control of its IT operations was one of GM's worst decisions in the past 65 years. He estimates it will take five years to complete the transition.

The insourcing project is headed by Chief Information Officer Randy Mott, who joined GM from Hewlett-Packard last February. Mott says performing IT work internally will foster innovation and help GM bring new models to market faster.