Once called  ”Little Paris,” Bucharest is the capital  of Romania,  and is known for its extravagant architectures and contemporary high life. With favorable business conditions and excellent transportation facilities, the city differentiates itself as one of the wealthiest Eastern  European urban areas.   One of the biggest  advantages of this city is its proximity to the world’s second  largest  business process outsourcing services buyer base  in Western Europe.

According to Central and Eastern  European  Outsourcing Association  (CEEOA)’s 2008 CEE Review report, there  were 580 domestic and international IT outsourcing companies in Romania  in 2008, with 12,000 IT employees  working for the industry.  These include  companies such  as Accenture  BPO, Genpact, Ness Technologies,  Luxoft, Perot System, TechTeam, Unisys, Wipro, and WNS, to name  a few.

But the higher wage rate makes it more expensive option of Bucharest: Romania   techie earned between $ 28.510 and U.S. $ 57 450 per year, about CEEOA to AA. And the industry continues to feel that too much attention to market participants, it can strengthen its presence in Bucharest, put pressure on wage levels.

When the Michigan-headquartered IT-services company TechTeam needed a platform  to expand  its team  quickly with top talent, it started Bucharest operations in 1998.

Today, the company  that  provides technical design,  software architecture, development and on-going maintenance for its customers’ products has over 160 developers  operating  out of Bucharest.

“We were looking for a combination of attractive costs plus technical expertise set in a time zone as close as possible to European Standard Time. In time, Tech Team considered many other locations to expand on our existing Romanian capabilities (for example, India, the Ukraine, Bulgaria) â?? each of these being very competitive locations in their turn, but we could not find the right mix of technical abilities and pro-activeness, which is characteristic of our business,” revealed the company’s Business Development Manager Mihai-Daniel POPA. “Most of our customers are based in Switzerland, the U. K. , Netherlands and other Western European locations, since time difference with these countries (1 to 2 hours) works to their advantage (and ours). ”

Bucharest’s multilingual outsourcing capabilities are already one of the popular  ones among the buyers of outsourcing services.  ”Proficiency in English and French,  but also German,  coupled  with minimal cultural  differences from Western Europe,  make communication very smooth.  What is characteristic of Bucharest, and Romania  in general,  is that  its people  have the East European  frankness of telling whether something can be done or not, but at the same  time manage  to do that  in a constructive way related  to the client’s bigger picture,”  said the spokesperson from TechTeam,  which provides services  in over 25 languages globally.

To promote the outsourcing services  in the city and other Eastern  European  outsourcing service providers, many associations are being formed,  and many have been working for the betterment of the industry for ages.

Some of the known names  in the sector  are Central and Eastern  European  Outsourcing  Association (CEEOA), Human  Resource  Outsourcing  Association Europe (HROAE), Information  Technology and Communication Association of Romania,  Romanian Association of Electronic  and Software Industry, Employers Association of Software and Services Industry,  and Ministry of Communication and Information  Technology.

Bucharest’s educational structure is inclined  towards mathematics and physics.  This is why the city has one of the strongest ICT educational institutions such as University of Bucharest and Politechnica University of Bucharest. There are other institutions as well that offer technical degrees. Academy of Economic Studies is one of those  names.

According to the 2007 figures of The Information Technology and Communications Association of Romania,  ”Every year 5,000 graduates leave the universities for the ICT industry or education system. On per capita  basis,  Romania  has more IT graduates than  the U. S. ,  Russia,  India or China. These people have language  skills as a result  of a traditional good foreign languages education in universities. ” The city also lures talent  from other countries, like the Republic  of Moldova.

With two international airports  (Henri Coanda International Airport (OTP) and Baneasa Airport), the city has direct flights between  Bucharest and all the major European  cities  (average flight duration  is 2. 5 hours, maximum is 3. 5  hours). Transportation network (metros,  trams, buses, taxis, and fleet facilities)  in the city is one of the largest  in Romania.  Interestingly, there  are many international trains  from Bucharest to other Western European  cities  including  Athena,  Belgrade,  Istanbul, Kiev, Moscow, Prague,  Sofia, and Vienna, and vice versa. At the same  time,  Bucharest is well connected with other Eastern  European  cities  through  the country’s robust train network. It facilitates frequent and face-to-face meetings between  nearshore outsourcing service providers and customers from Western Europe

Besides, NATO-grade geopolitical  stability  and EU-grade Intellectual Property protection make Bucharest one of the most attractive nearshore outsourcing cities  in Eastern  Europe.


Article Source:China Sourcing Blog

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