Six Reasons To Move Your Software Development To Poland

Compared to Western European or American companies, the region of CEE is not only cost-effective, but also planted with software talents Western Europe seems to slowly lack.

Among all software outsourcing destinations, Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) seems to be on a constant rise with Poland closing the top 10 at A.T. Kearney Global Service Location Index and 4 more (Russia, Latvia, Romania and Bulgaria) in top 20 leaving other European countries behind on the scale. Studies by Tholons confirm Poland’s position.

Talent pool

According to GUS (Central Statistical Office of Poland), software engineering and computer science faculties are on the rise of popularity among all university faculties in Poland. GUS states that in 2015 there are more than 65 thousand computer science students in Poland, which brings computer science to the second place of most popular faculties, after management.

The trend is opposite compared to other European countries and shows that Poland is on the way to becoming European IT outsourcing leader.

Market of skills

But it’s not only the number of Polish developers that’s worth mentioning. It’s also their skill set and quality. Enough if we take a look at some international coding competitions such as 2016 Hacker Rank and Top Coder (one of the top technical communities in the world). In all of them, our developers coded their place to top 4 in the world. What’s more, in 2014 Polish students won Hello World Open competition leaving behind over 4000 participants from 90 countries and reading the best AI for a race car.

Affordable rates

The primary reason for outsourcing for big business was to produce the same value at a lower price. In software development it looks a bit different, though. As much as India, China and Pacific region are still recognised as destinations for money-savers, Central and Eastern Europe has much more to offer. With rents and wages even 77% lower than in the West, Poland becomes a destination for affordable quality.

Of course, when it comes to software houses rates, the calculations are not as straightforward as comparing wages. Still, even if we take into account the cost of running business in different European cities, Poland stays on top of the list of outsourcing destinations in CEE.

Geographical proximity

At the same time, being geographically close to Western European markets means almost entire work time overlaps and developers or project managers are available during UK or Irish clients’ working hours. In case of offshoring to India or Philippines, we’re talking about 8h time gap, which makes either the Clients receiving calls or developers working at nights.

While popular near-shoring almost doesn’t require meeting with your development team in person, being 1h away doesn’t and dense net of flight connections make it possible to visit a client within a day and discuss the project over a cup of tea.

English? Yes, please

Poland has experienced the biggest migration among post-soviet countries that joined EU. In last few years the migration destination has been changing and more and more Poles came back to the country with their skills and knowledge of English language and culture. And as far as discussion and level of English is concerned, all in all Poles score #9 in the world, with 90% of university graduates speaking English.

Keeping that in mind you can count on software houses employing developers who can easily communicate with clients, document their code and express their ideas in English.

Rising IT stars

Not only the number of software engineers rises. So does the quality of software houses. Due to their more intense collaboration with West European clients, Polish software companies managed to establish high standards and keep talented developers in-house. Deloitte acknowledges such companies as rising-stares of the region in their yearly reports. No wonder than 17 Polish tech companies (including 7 software houses) found their way to Deloitte Fast 50 Central Europe report in 2014. One year later, Polish companies confirm their status as a leader of the region with 17% of Fast50 software houses on Deloitte list. It clearly shows that Polish software companies compete on foreign markets, being reliable and trustworthy outsourcing partners.

Conclusion

As far as financial factor is important for businesses looking for software partners, there are other values Central and East European software houses have to offer. Gifted developers, skilled teams plus geographical proximity, understanding of European culture and legal requirements are the factors that make Central and Eastern Europe the outsourcing destination for your next software product.

This article was originally taken from Briisk blog.