Covid-19 has forced business leaders to rethink their outsourcing strategy – both in terms of destinations and models. Many French companies as many other in Europe are deciding to move their outsourced services from Asia and deciding on nearshoring in Central Europe. They do it to reduce risk and improve efficiency.
NATEK has strategically positioned itself in Central and Eastern Europe regarding the provision of high-quality IT services. We grew from the first office in Brno, established in 2004 by our CEO Jean-Michel Namand, to now several offices and Delivery Centers in Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Bulgaria. We have been supporting global customers, benefiting from our unique position.
Time to diversify – time for nearshoring locations in Europe
Until now, French companies, including a number of our customers, have been heavily outsourcing IT services in offshored locations. Such locations are usually mainly China and India. However, as we keep speaking with our French clients, the trend is changing. Many of them have already expressed their desires to bring their outsourced services back. They opt for nearshoring in Europe due to COVID-19. We are talking about companies from several industries and sectors. They come from Pharmaceutics, Defense, Technology, Banking and Travel industries. They are now determined to diversify their outsourced services between Asia and Central Europe in pursuit of diversifying potential future risks.
Poland in particular is no longer viewed as a place for inexpensive labour resources. It has become a recognized center of excellence. Polish IT specialists are highly sought after. Both because of their technical skills and experience gained for more than 10 years but also language skills. Interestingly, In the seven main shared service locations in Poland, circa 12 000 specialists declare on LinkedIn that they have at least a professional working level of French.
Current trends
We can observe a new tendency. Our French customers are more likely to outsource from Central Europe Software Development, Customer Support and Integration Services. NATEK has been already providing such services in various delivery models, with specialists working also from our two Delivery Centers – in Gdańsk, Poland and Kosice, Slovakia. Moreover, as post-COVID 19 world will be more digital and remote, our clients are considering not only to benefit from one local market in CEE but to allow us to extend our capabilities to provide broader solution within the whole region.
According to the ‘2020 Global Managed Services Report’, based on a survey of 1,250 executives in 29 countries, we see that 45% organizations will outsource more than insource in the next 18 months. This tendency is being observed with European clients too. It only confirms that diversity and cost efficiency will be the leading aspects for future IT executives – should such a situation happen again in the future.
The article was published in Polish in Kapitał Polski. To read it there click here and go page 10.
Interested in nearshoring? To read what makes nearshoring successful go to our previous article here.