80 percent of the world’s 500 largest companies are offshoring work to India, because of lower costs and accessibility of labor. European outsourcing destinations such as Ukraine, can challenge India when it comes to service quality and reliability.
But still lots of UK business owners do not consider cooperation with IT-companies from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), as they are not aware of the true potential of the region and its human resources.
On March 27th – 28th MindK representatives were honored to participate in the Sourcing in Emerging Europe conference (SSE) in London. As MindK is an international company with an R&D center in Ukraine, we aimed to provide a deeper focus on the Ukrainian IT-sector and its perspectives.
The event aims to connect investors and decision makers from the UK to the rapidly developing tech sector of Emerging Europe. This year, it brought together more than 100 investors, industry leaders and independent experts.
Together with representatives from 23 countries, Oleg Nesterov, our CEO, discussed the prospects of partnership with software development vendors in Emerging Europe and the ways technology can transform business in the UK.
As a speaker for Ukraine’s breakout session, he highlighted the country’s true potential and also had a chance to speak about the challenges facing those who work with Ukrainian companies, including corruption and red tape, and the ways to overcome them.
Oleg Nesterov speaks at SSE Ukraine’s breakout session in London
Oleg pointed out that with over 100,000 IT professionals, Ukraine has one of the largest talent pools in the world. More than 36,000 tech majors graduate each year from Ukrainian universities, ready to double the IT workforce in the next few years.
They have an excellent technical background but lack practice and some of the skills required on the market.
That’s why MindK R&D team engages with the students while they’re still studying. In addition to holding numerous conferences and hackathons, the company has opened a lab at the region’s top university. There students can learn the intricacies of modern web development and acquire the skills sought by business.
Although Ukrainian universities are listed among the world’s best institutes of technology, their programming courses are often outdated. For this reason, many IT companies work with the local universities to make their educational programs better suited for the market needs.
Over the last decade, the tech sector has grown into one of the pillars of the Ukrainian economy. Today, software development is the country’s third largest export. 13 Ukrainian firms rank among the world’s top 100 developers. The tech boom has also spawned many famous startups like Grammarly, Looksery, and PetCube.
As an outsourcing destination, Ukraine has excellent rates allowing savings of up to 60% on labour costs. But the main ingredient to the country’s success has always been the outstanding quality of services.
All in all, during the event, the UK business owners had an opportunity to:
- learn how Emerging Europe stacks up against traditional outsourcing destinations like Asia-Pacific region, South America, and South Africa;
- get independent opinions from the leading experts about the region’s economic prospects, technological potential, financial and tax incentives, human resources, risks and challenges;
- dive deeper into the specifics of emerging markets on the breakout sessions dedicated to individual countries.
At the same time, service providers from CEE gained a deeper insight into the UK market, understood the real needs of local entrepreneurs and found new business contacts.
Sourcing in Emerging Europe provided a wonderful opportunity both for investors and service providers to learn more about each other and develop effective business relationships.
