Seminar 'IT-opportunities in Central and Eastern Europe'
Tuesday June 3, 2003
Due to the worsening economic situation, a growing interest for global IT outsourcing can be noticed in Belgium and the Netherlands. Developing software is expensive and many organisations are in a need to reduce costs. And because of the recession in the IT-sector, software engineers must be hired in a flexible way. In addition, companies should also investigate new markets to export their software products or their IT-services.
Central and Eastern Europe
Traditionally, the level of education has always been high in Central and Eastern Europe and there are large numbers of qualified IT-professionals available. Local labour costs are lower than in the Benelux. Dutch and Belgian companies have already produced software in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Russia, Romania, Bulgaria and the Baltic states. Well-known firms such as Exact, Roccade and Getronics have outsourced IT-projects to local software houses. Philips and Profuse established their own software subsidiaries. Other firms set up joint ventures with local partners. Foreign IT-staff is also working on-site in the Netherlands or Belgium.Although the countries in Central or Eastern Europe are not yet well-known IT-destinations, they offer many advantages. The local software engineers are highly skilled, the infrastructure is up to date and the distance to the Netherlands and Belgium is short. And compared with countries such as India, it is often easier to communicate because the common cultures are European. Some countries are also becoming interesting export markets for Dutch and Belgian software producers and IT-service providers.
Advantages for many organisations
Several activities in the field of software development can be done 'offshore', such as programming and testing. Also various types of work in the field of processing services can be carried out abroad, such as data-entry, document conversion and the production of multimedia or animation.Is your company interested in realising substantial cost savings? Are you in need of new export markets? There are many IT-opportunities in Central and Eastern Europe and our seminar should not be missed. International co-operation should be considered by every organisation involved in software development, both large and small.
We already had four successful events on global IT outsourcing in the past, with representatives from (very) large and medium-sized Dutch and Belgian companies. They considered our program varied and well informative. Several participants decided to start with offshore IT projects because of the valuable information received at our seminar.
Vught, June 3
The seminar will be held in Castle Maurick at Vught (in the southern part of the Netherlands) on Tuesday June 3, 2003. From 9.30 till 17.00 hours. Drinks and snacks will be served at the end of the presentations. Costs: € 495,- when you register before May 6, otherwise € 520,-. These prices include lunch and extensive course material, excluding 19% VAT. Several of the presentations will be held in English. Registration is possible through Monitor, tel. +31-20-6203930 or www.monitor.nl. The number of participants is limited to 30.
YOUR GUIDE
Paul Tjia is working as a consultant at GPI Consultancy, Rotterdam. His background is in Information Technology and in Cultural Anthropology. He acts as an advisor in global IT outsourcing (including Central and Eastern Europe and Asia). He also conducts research in this field.
PROGRAM
Global IT outsourcing: the status in the Benelux
Paul Tjia is a senior consultant at GPI Consultancy, a Rotterdam-based consulting company. He has a background in Cultural Anthropology and Information Technology. He has been active in global IT outsourcing for more than ten years. He does research on the experiences of Dutch companies with offshore outsourcing and publishes articles on this subject. What are the advantages of outsourcing to Central and Eastern Europe? The different ways of international co-operation will be covered, including Dutch examples with Central and Eastern Europe. How to start pilot-projects effectively will be dealt with as well.
An own software subsidiary in Romania
Romania is becoming one of the most popular IT-destinations of Eastern Europe. Several companies are currently investigating opportunities. ITprovision is a Belgian organisation. Several years ago, together with a local partner, it started a software development centre in Brasov. More than 70 people are active in software development and data processing. Dr Michel Loots, director in Belgium, and Dan Camarzan, manager in Romania for ITprovision, will share their experiences. They are designing a strategy to sell their services in Romania and other markets as well.
The IT-sector in Central and Eastern Europe
Countries such as the Czech Republic and Hungary are very advanced and will join the European Union soon. Other nations, such as Romania or Bulgaria, have low labour costs. Mark Bownas is a partner at KPMG Hungary and is responsible for Dutch and Belgian clients. He will discuss recent developments in the IT-sector in Central and Eastern Europe.
Outsourcing to Central Europe: Cleverlance from Prague
The Czech Republic is not only a popular holiday destination; there are also large numbers of qualified software companies. In addition, the local IT market is growing strongly. Cleverlance is a supplier from Prague and is experienced in the field of Client/Server and Internet. They already work for foreign clients. Director Jakub Dosoudil will explain how projects are being executed, what kind of activities are being done, and what the advantages are of software outsourcing to the Czech Republic.
Russia: communication and cultural differences
How can you communicate with foreign staff? How to motivate a team abroad? The foreign IT-professional often speaks English well and is highly skilled. However, personal communication is not always easy. Differences in culture can sometimes cause misunderstandings. Lisette Breukink is CEO of Lizatec and established a software factory in St. Petersburg. She works with 25 Russian programmers and she will explain how she deals with the Russian culture. Lizatec is also exploring the Russian market to sell some of its software products locally.
Infrastructure management
Atos Origin has subsidiaries in countries such as Hungary and Poland. Services are being offered in the field of software development and infrastructure management. They work for both local and foreign clients. Erik Beulen will discuss their experiences in offering services from Central and Eastern Europe. Erik teaches at the University of Tilburg and is also is business development manager at Atos Origin Netherlands.
Using subsidies
Taake Manning of Senter will present the various Dutch and European subsidies that are available for international activities in the field of IT. These funds can be used for export promotion activities (such as the translation of a folder or a website), international projects (R&D) or foreign investments.
Informal drinks and snacks from 17.00 hours
ITprovision
ITprovision is a joint Belgian/Romanian company, previously known as HumanityCD Belgium and Simple Words Romania. ITprovision already exists for 7 years. ITprovision provides programming and digital data services to governments and international organisations. During the more recent years ITprovision continued to expand and now provides software development services to Dutch, German, Danish, Austrian, Canadian companies. We are also looking to represent foreign software products in Romania for the local East European market. There are two directors and co-owners of this joint Belgian/Romanian company.For the moment ITprovision works with a team of 70 people in Romania, of which, 40 people trained in digitalisation and conversion, and about 25 programmers skilled in a variety of programming tasks and environments. The quality and intelligence of our collaborators is outstanding, many of our programmers being awarded in the international Informatics Olympics.
Our solutions cover a broad range of technology areas with core competency in software (with C and C++ as basis), Internet applications, database design, web solutions and CRM. We are expanding the programming capacity to 40 by the end of this year.
Our goal is to create software partnerships or joint ventures with commercial partners, to which we can provide long-term, optimal, synergistic services based on quality, low costs, transparency, experience sharing and loyal relationship.
The strength of Romania is the high quality and intelligence of programmers, the low costs and the cultural and geographical proximity. It is easy to dispatch a programmer or a digitalisation team member for one or two weeks at clients' premises every 3 to 4 months. This possibility greatly optimises the outsourcing process, communication and collaboration. ITprovision is at an average of 4 to 6 hours door-to-door travel from most cities in Europe. ITprovision profiles itself as a long term reliable ICT partner for Romania. Visit our site for clear rates information. Contact us for all your queries or projects.
Cleverlance
Cleverlance was founded in the beginning of 2000 by former employees of Sybase who wanted to exploit their extensive experience from this multinational company on their own.In two years time, this experience has grown with the knowledge acquired during development of state-of-the-art information systems and system applications. The projects include large B2B centres (100 000+ users), extensive hospital, editorial and information systems, and deployment of billing systems for telecommunications companies. Recently, it has been working on internal banking systems, internet banking and securities trading systems. During its existence, Cleverlance has proven to be a provider of large solutions that require complex technological quality, the highest level of security and fast response of applications.
Apart from state-of-the-art technology that's taken for granted, Cleverlance focuses on tight project management, sophisticated design and development based on standardised methodologies that guarantee return of clients' investments.
From the very beginning, Cleverlance has focused on enterprise systems development and shortly - as the first company in Europe - received Hewlett-Packard certification for application products. Cleverlance also came with own ideas. At the international contest 'Berlin Days', its Phoebe product was awarded as the fourth best idea in comparison with a multitude of products and solutions from all industries.
Motto: We strongly focus on knowledge and experience of our staff as this is vital for our business.
ITprovision
Tel: +32-3-440.54.59Fax: +32-3-449.75.74
Web: www.ITprovision.com
Email: Michel Loots of Dan Camarzan
Cleverlance
Tel.: +420 257 090 155Fax: +420 257 090 159
Web: www.cleverlance.com
Email: Jakub Dosoudil
1e Atjehstraat 132-1
NL-1094 KT Amsterdam
E-mail: monitor@monitor.nl
Web: www.monitor.nl