Why IT Outsourcing in Poland Is Becoming Popular for Startups

There are often times when companies decide not to handle certain tasks in-house and instead delegate tasks to outside parties. When a company does this, they are taking part in what is known as outsourcing. Let’s discuss possible options of outsourcing, i.e. offshoring and nearshoring, and find out why choosing IT outsourcing in Poland is a smart decision to make.

When offshoring, a business outsources certain tasks across nation borders. For instance, when a United States company hires a company or workers from another country like the Philippines or India, they are participating in the process of offshoring. A more recent trend in outsourcing that’s particularly popular among technology companies is what is referred to as nearshore outsourcing.

With nearshoring, the same concept holds true where certain work or tasks are sent to a third party. The one variance is that the tasks are handled in a location that’s in closer proximity to the company in question—hence, the root of the term “nearshoring”.

IT outsourcing in Poland: acknowledged globally

A popular trend over the past decade for both near- and offshoring is that companies have been increasingly outsourcing work to Poland. As revealed in this year’s Global Services Location Index, IT outsourcing in Poland is a prominent choice when searching for a European country to outsource app development.

In many countries like Poland, there has been a heightened interest in mobile app development, which has fueled a rise in the number of mobile app developers available. As a result, many companies have begun outsourcing their mobile development processes to other IT companies located in Poland such as 10Clouds.

The reason for this is that when it comes to outsourcing to Europe, Poland is designated as the top choice. In fact, Poland is identified as one of the top outsourcing locations for service delivery in all of Europe. To support these facts is the 2016 report from Tholons, which lists the Top 100 outsourcing destinations throughout the world.

The results should come as no surprise considering Polish developers have a solid image within the technology industry for being both intelligent and extremely hardworking. Sure, it is true that there are numerous other countries that offer these same qualities. However, there are a handful of factors that help make a better case for when deciding to offshore or nearshore work to Poland.

Let’s take a look at what is so special about outsourcing to Poland.

Talent

One of the most evident reasons companies are electing to outsource to Poland is because of the talent pool that is available. According to the NYTimes, 39% of citizens in Poland ages 25 through 34 have university degrees and if not—some type of certification of equal value. This fact alone proves that Poland has one of the highest numbers of educated inhabitants in all of Europe. Plus – of the more than half a million graduates each year, at least 80,000 have majored in Information Technology.

It is no wonder Poland has been attracting some of the largest technology firms such as Google, IBM, Microsoft and Motorola. With numbers like these, I am sure you can imagine how intense the competition is amongst the labour market. This proves extremely beneficial for those electing to outsource to Poland. The highly competitive market provides motivation for app developers, which drives them to always put forth their best and produce high quality work.

Location

An appealing reason for IT outsourcing to Poland is the similarity of time zones. Whether a company is outsourcing to Poland from the United States or nearshoring from a nearby country—the small difference in time zones is a major perk. The closer proximity and overlapping work times promotes better communication, therefore making production more efficient.

As expected, this proves to be a major selling point for when outsourcing any type work.If you have ever had to work with a team from a different part of the world, I am sure you are familiar with how frustrating it can be when there isn’t an overlap in the workday. Without the overlap, there is always a delayed response so even if you only have a quick question to ask—unfortunately, there will be nothing quick about receiving a response!

Similarity in laws

With Poland belonging to the EU, OECD, WTO, NATO and European Space Agency—it is a top choice for companies looking to outsource through nearshoring. This is because when outsourcing work to Poland, data can be openly transferred between EU countries without the need for obtaining work permits and/or visas.

Poland also follows all European Union laws for copyright and IP (intellectual property) and in addition, they comply with United States standards in data security and IP protection. Due to this fact, it has become a lot easier for companies to outsource to Poland. It is also a wiser choice for US and European based companies because due to these updated legal matters, there are fewer risks involved.

Communication

In addition to the fact mentioned earlier regarding the similar time zones, another key point to mention is the fact that Poland offers convenient communication. The first point to mention here is the fact that there are very few communication barriers (if any) when working with companies in Poland. Why is this? Well… according to a report published by Hill International, 80% of Polish students speak English.Through pushing students to learn English, Poland is doing a stellar job in getting students ready for the possibility of working in an international environment once they have graduated.

Poland also has a strong infrastructure, which fully supports digital communication, which is required for being involved in any type of outsourcing. Actually—when it comes to the infrastructure, Poland outshines competing countries like the Philippines and India, where internet connections can often be shoddy and speeds are extremely slow.

Business climate

Although the recent global crisis has led the majority of European countries into a recession, the economy in Poland has persevered and continued to grow. Poland, actually, has a very stable gross domestic product (GDP) and the forecasts for the future are only positive.

With things as they are—Poland will continue enhancing their infrastructure, which will only further increase its value. As demonstrated by the PLUS-IP (The US-Polish Innovation Program), which promotes cooperation between Polish researchers and American investors, Poland proves to have an extremely valuable workforce for conducting business with.

Competitive pricing

Another positive aspect of conducting business and IT outsourcing in Poland is that it is financially attractive. Poland, like other popular countries for outsourcing, is able to offer competitive pricing because of the countries below average labour costs. Polish development firms are able to propose some of the most affordable prices because they have the lowest labour costs within the European Union. Combined with the fact that Poland also offers appealing tax incentives, makes the country an excellent choice for outsourcing.

Cultural similarities

Polish application developers are highly professional and, accordingly to other Europeans, very creative. An advantage for outsourcers from the US and other European countries to select vendors from Poland is—that when analysed against other popular application outsourcing destinations such as Asia or India—Poland poses very little (if any) cultural gap.

As explained in this post, Poland has become a favoured location to hire top tech talent from. With the convenience, talent pool and competitive pricing, it is no wonder Poland has become a top outsourcing destination for companies looking to offshore or nearshore some of their technical operations.

At 10Clouds, we work with a lot of US and European companies outside of Poland that elect to outsource application development work to our talented team of developers. If you are interested in learning more about our outsourcing services, contact our tech office today by calling +48792517054 or by emailing us at hello@10clouds.com.