Local IT service provider Paragon Technology Group has expanded into the United States in a bid to continue to attract specialist talent at a time when it has become increasingly difficult to bring senior technology engineering experts to Bermuda.

The eleven-year-old company announced yesterday that it has changed its business model to one of ?near-shoring? to reduce the need to attract and accommodate foreign workers offshore.

As such, it has formed Paragon Advanced Resource Centre USA Inc. (PARC) to provide global support services for Paragon?s financial and insurance market clients in Bermuda, the Bahamas and Cayman.

PARC has been formed in Atlanta, Georgia because of that city?s direct flights to each of Paragon?s operating locations and its established reputation as a hub for IT activity. While Paragon already has an office in Halifax, Atlanta offers a wealth of senior IT talent who have expertise either working for insurance companies, funds or banks. PARC is poised to hire a dozen people in the next five months.

Graham Pearson, president and CEO of Paragon Group, said: ?PARC provide us with the ability to access a huge pool of technology talent within the financial and insurance sectors that otherwise would not be amiable to us due to the challenges involved in hiring expatriates.?

The difficulty of attracting senior talent is not specific to Bermuda, but rather a general offshore issue since such talent is generally older, has children and is looking for long-term positions.

The company?s only option in the past has been to hire people and bring them to the Island on on or two year contracts due to a ?limited indigenous technical resource pool in Bermuda?. Mr. Pearson said: ?This increases infrastructure pressure in areas such as housing, schools and traffic.

The immigration process typically results in a waiting time of three to four months before the necessary permits are issued, with all the attendant costs. Expanding our operations to Halifax and now Atlanta enables us to hire talent within days, as opposed to months.?

US salaries are not necessarily lower than those in Bermuda, but the US advantages include team continuity and a large pool of qualified candidates to select from rather than just a few.

The move will also result in more senior roles becoming available to Bermudians as they will be able to fill longer-term IT roles at Paragon which require broader skill sets such as senior IT management and permanent onsite engineers.