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By LED - Louisiana is emerging as a technology and software development hub. Louisiana offers the nation's strongest, most comprehensive incentive for the industry, strategic investments in higher education and alignment from the state to local levels. These advantages have attracted software and technology companies - including IBM, CSC, GE Capital, Gameloft, Electronic Arts and Globalstar - to open new development centers, expand new divisions, consolidate testing facilities and relocate central operations to the state.
Major Technology and Software Development Companies Choose Louisiana
Louisiana’s unique advantages, including a low cost of living, high quality of life and the nation's most comprehensive incentive for software development, have been attracting globally recognized companies for years.
In 2008, Electronic Arts selected Louisiana for a testing center – one of only two in the world. In addition to utilizing the software development incentive, Electronic Arts partnered with Louisiana State University to occupy a new state-of-the-art facility on the university’s main campus. Globalstar, Inc., who develops and deploys satellite communications and the software that powers mobile voice and data services used by customers in 120 nations, moved its headquarters to Covington, La., from California in 2010. In 2011, Gameloft announced the creation of its game development studio in New Orleans. One year later, GE Capital selected New Orleans as the location for its new technology center, which will support the company’s financial products and customer functions. In 2013, IBM announced its latest major technology hub in Baton Rouge, La. The following year, CSC, a global provider of next-generation IT services and solutions, announced the selection of the National Cyber Research Park in Bossier City, La., for the establishment of a next-generation technology center.
Louisiana Offers the Nation’s Strongest Digital Advantages
Technology and software development firms that choose Louisiana point to the state’s flexibility in responding to their specific business needs as a critical influencer in their decisions. Louisiana’s tool chest includes the ability to create custom workforce recruiting and training solutions and a landmark tax incentive for software and digital media firms.
LED FastStart®, the nation’s No. 1 state workforce development program, provides customized services for software development companies locating or expanding in the state – all at no cost to eligible companies. FastStart partners with each company to analyze and study their unique workforce requirements. After determining the competencies that match the cultural and technical abilities that define the most successful employee, the FastStart team employs both traditional and innovative methods to recruit talent to meet each company's specific requirements.
Louisiana is committed to rapidly growing its current and future software workforce through investments totaling more than $30 million in the computer science and engineering departments of higher education institutions across the state, including Louisiana State University, the University of New Orleans and Louisiana Tech University.
The state’s Digital Interactive Media and Software Development Incentive further enhances the strategic advantage of Louisiana’s low-cost, favorable business climate. The incentive provides a 35 percent credit on in-state payroll expenditures and a 25 percent refundable credit on software production costs.
Find out more about Louisiana’s unique software and technology advantages at OpportunityLouisiana.com/software.