The IT outsourcing market in Central and Eastern Europe is booming. From Ukraine and Belarus to Hungary, Romania, and Croatia, outsourcing companies are springing up like mushrooms. However, if we had to choose one destination that stands out from the rest, our top pick would be Poland. In this article, we’ll explore the top five reasons why software outsourcing to Poland could take your business to the next level.
Before we get into that, though, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page by explaining a handful of key industry terms.
What Is Extended Software Development?
Extended or remote software development is an outsourcing model where businesses delegate software development projects to third-party service providers. There are different types of IT outsourcing, with the most popular ones being offshoring and nearshoring.
What Is Offshoring?
With offshore software development, projects are subcontracted to outsourcing vendors in countries on another continent. Traditional offshoring hubs include China, India, and Latin America.
What Is Nearshoring?
Under the nearshore model, software development is outsourced to nearby or neighboring countries. What sets nearshoring apart from offshoring is that the remote and in-house engineers typically work together on common tasks. In effect, the extended developers become a seamless extension of the core team. That’s why nearshoring is sometimes referred to as staff augmentation.
Both models have their benefits. To learn which one would be a better fit for you, check out our post on the differences between nearshoring and offshoring.
Why Choose the Extended Development Team Model?
The term “extended development” is often used in a more narrow sense as a synonym of nearshoring or staff augmentation. Although it’s somewhat of a misnomer, the phrase has become standard industry lingo, so we’ll stick to it.
However you want to call it, setting up an extended team comes with many perks. Some of the benefits of extended development teams include:
- Saving time, money, and other resources
- Minimal operational hassle (think red tape, onboarding, setting up the payroll and physical workstations, compliance to local regulations, etc.)
- Staying in control of all stages of your product development
- Closer cooperation and increased transparency between the remote and in-house teams
- Higher overall productivity
- Faster time to market
Top 5 Reasons Why Software Outsourcing to Poland Can Give You a Serious Competitive Edge
According to Statista, Poland’s IT outsourcing services sector hit a record-breaking $2,255.05 million in revenue in 2020. That marks five years of continuous growth and a 112.5% increase from 2016. The projections of $2,311.72 million in revenue for 2021 are not looking bad, either, which indicates the industry hasn’t been hit too hard by COVID-19.
All that shouldn’t come as a surprise. Poland has been a global leader in the outsourced business services market for quite some time now.
By 2014, Poland had already outpaced virtually all its neighbors in Central Europe, growing at a rate three times faster than India. A 2015 KPMG study of 450 international organizations found that Poland was the second-most attractive location for IT outsourcing worldwide. And in 2020, both Microsoft and Google announced plans to invest $1 and $2 billion, respectively, in cloud service data centers in the country.
Clearly, things are looking good for Polish software development — but there’s more.
Here are five more reasons why software outsourcing to Poland can ensure you’ll get ahead of the competition in today’s economy:
#1. Talent Is Abundant
The latest Eurostat data on the number of specialists in the ICT sector places Poland among Europe’s top six countries for 2019. With its 510.9 thousand ICT professionals, Poland ranked higher than traditional industry leaders like Sweden and the Netherlands, earning its badge as one of the largest tech hubs on the continent.
What’s more, the country brags some 279,800 developers (and counting). The cohort grows every year, too: as many as 17.9 thousand new ICT graduates entered the Polish labor market in 2018 only.
#2. Polish Programmers Are World Class
Another reason why you should seriously consider outsourcing software development to Poland is the sheer quality of local talent.
Nearly 80% of local ICT professionals have university degrees or another form of tertiary education, which is considerably higher than the 63.6% EU average. Thanks to the top-notch technical education in Polish universities, young graduates leave their alma maters in Warsaw, Łódź, Poznań, and Wrocław with first-rate skills.
The numbers speak for themselves. In 2016, Polish developers won third place in HackerRank’s Programming Olympics, with their counterparts in China and Russia snatching first and second place. The Polish participants also took home the gold medal in the Java competition and ranked second in algorithms and Python.
Poland also currently ranks fifth in the world in TopCoder’s countries ranking.
#3. It’s Cost Effective
When all is said and done, running a business comes down to meeting that bottom line. Most of our clients in the UK, Ireland, and the Nordics see a 15–30% reduction in costs from outsourcing to Poland in comparison to hiring locally. For some of our US clients, the savings can reach up to 50%.
That means you can hire experienced software developers with just the right level of education and technical expertise you need at extremely competitive rates, while still paying great salaries to the engineers there.
#4. Location, Location, Location
Thanks to its strategic location, Poland has minimal to zero time zone difference with virtually all European countries. For clients in Europe, that makes developer management a breeze. The flexibility that comes with direct communication, real-time collaboration, and low travel costs, is a major competitive advantage.
And if you are in the US, the time difference is manageable, too — and could even ensure that you serve your customers round the clock.
#5. Ease of Communication
One of the best aspects of outsourcing software development to Poland is the lack of significant cultural differences with most, if not all, Western countries. Not only does that help streamline cooperation, but it also means you can expect a work ethic much like that of your in-house staff.
The vast majority of Polish developers also have advanced language skills. Poles ranked sixteenth in the world and fourteenth in Europe in the 2020 EF English Proficiency Index, and many local programmers speak other major European languages such as French, German, or Spanish.
Last but not least, many Polish engineers have experience working on international outsourced projects. Adapting to an extended team won’t be an issue for most of them.
Software Outsourcing to Poland: Final Thoughts
Want to learn more about software outsourcing to Poland? Then read this article on why outsourcing there will ruin your life — because it’s just too good to be true!
Interested in Software Development Outsourcing to Poland? We Can Help.
Setting up an extended software development team on your own can be quite a challenge. You have to think about:
- Looking into — literally — thousands of Polish software companies
- Choosing the right vendor and outsourcing model for your project
- Understanding the local tech talent market
- Sifting through hundreds of developer applications
- Ensuring you shortlist talented programmers with technical expertise, English language proficiency, work history, and soft skills that meet your requirements and specifications
- Researching average developer rates and making sure not to go over budget
You got tired just reading about it, didn’t you?
You don’t have to go it alone. We can help.
At Zartis, we specialize in building high-quality remote developer teams from our extended development center in Poland.
We take care of everything, freeing up time and energy so you can focus on bigger priorities — growing your business and creating products customers love.
And what if you want to venture outside of Eastern Europe? That’s no problem. We can set you up with an extended team in Spain or Portugal, too.
