The information technology (IT) industry in San Antonio has been one of the fastest-growing sectors of the local economy. San Antonio IT businesses include makers of components (including silicon chips), equipment providers and vendors, and a large computer services sector. In addition, there is a significant presence in many companies whose primary business is not in the IT field.
Within the services sector, San Antonio is particularly strong in information security. According to the National Security Agency, San Antonio is a national leader in this vital field. The information security presence in San Antonio extends beyond the business activity captured in this study to include the U.S. Air Force Air Intelligence Agency, the Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security at the University of Texas – San Antonio, and the new Information Technology and Security Academy.
Following the practices established in The Chamber’s previous economic impact reports, this study is based upon wage and employment data obtained from the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC). Details of the data and methodology are presented in the Technical Notes at the end of this report.
The economic impact estimates presented in this report include only those businesses whose primary product or service is in the information technology sector.
This definition is consistent with the Federal government’s industrial classification system, and with the industry definitions used in The Chamber’s other economic impact studies. However, as many members of The Chamber’s Technology Council Steering Committee noted, restricting the study to the IT industry defined in this relatively narrow fashion provides a very conservative estimate of the impact of information technology on the San Antonio community. As a result, this study excludes numerous companies that employ large numbers of information technology professionals even though their primary business activity is in groceries, telecommunications, insurance, or refining, to cite just a few examples.
To provide an indication of the magnitude of this “secondary” IT activity, The Chamber surveyed three of San Antonio’s largest private sector employers and found that these three firms alone employed 3715 full time IT workers and spent $775 million on their local IT operations. Obviously, this is but a tiny fraction of the “embedded” IT activity throughout the San Antonio economy.