IBM Canada is establishing a Client Innovation Centre (CIC) in Fredericton, New Brunswick to provide a greater focus on its Atlantic-based clients.

The IT giant announced the new CIC on Friday, with plans to create 250 jobs across the province in a range of positions. Roles in the Fredericton centre will include application developers, business analysts, customer experience, design, and digital transformation, among others.

IBM selected Fredericton for its growth as an Atlantic tech hub and its “skilled and diverse workforce.”

According to IBM, the Fredericton centre will open in January and have an initial focus on delivering consulting services along with Oracle-based technologies, cloud, machine learning, robotic process automation, the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain and more.

IBM is working with the New Brunswick government through the province’s lead economic development agency, Opportunities New Brunswick, to establish IBM’s latest CIC. The centre will assume a portion of the IBM security hub space already located in Fredericton.

IBM’s global network of CICs provides services in the development, implementation, and support of technical and business solutions across various industries. IBM now has five CICs in Canada, located in Montréal, Gatineau, Halifax, and Calgary, which opened this June.

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Lorraine Baldwin, external communications leader for IBM, told BetaKit that IBM has a growing presence in New Brunswick and wanted to build on it. In 2017, the Government of New Brunswick partnered with IBM to open a cybersecurity research centre at the University of New Brunswick.

Baldwin also said that IBM selected Fredericton as the location of its latest CIC for its growth as an Atlantic tech hub and its “skilled and diverse workforce.”

IBM has made several moves to support Canadian tech talent in recent weeks in addition to the creation of a new CIC in Fredericton. This week, IBM awarded $35,000 USD to Montréal-based startups, Nearbuy and Esspera, for being runner-ups in IBM’s global Call for Code competition.

Call for Code is a global challenge meant to accelerate sustainable development and fight climate change through open source software. The last time the competition saw a Canadian finalist was in 2020, with Montréal-based Offship.

Nearbuy provides an e-commerce solution that aims to promote buying locally. Its shopping assistant integrates with existing online stores like Amazon, Ikea, and Structube. When browsing through these sites, Nearbuy sends out a notification if a similar secondhand item can be found locally. Nearbuy finished the competition in third place and secured $25,000 USD.

Esspera helps farmers select the best possible seeds to plant in the coming growing season, with information derived from published seed trial data and localized weather forecasts. It won $10,000 USD, selected for fourth place.

Featured image courtesy IBM.

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