Romania : An Awesome IT Outsourcing Destination — Dimensions Content

Philosophers say that we must look at the bright side. The ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, with all its tragic consequences, has a silver lining too. Because of the lockdown, people are forced to stay at home. But the wheel of business must go on. Hence organisations have embraced the work from the home concept in a big way. They are leveraging the high-speed internet and IT infrastructure. The employees are connected to the office systems even if they are staying at home. The organizations are embracing the remote work culture and outsourcing in a significant way.

As remote work is getting traction, more and more companies are realising the value of outsourcing. The big companies in the UK or America were closed during the lockdown. But their customers were still being served by the outsourcing partners in other countries.

Among the Eastern European countries, Romania has proved itself to be a great outsourcing destination. The IT companies in most of the countries were and still are suffering from lack of efficient work from home processes. But the Romanian IT industry flourished even during the lockdown. In fact, it has grown so much in the last decade that the established Asian outsourcing giants like India, China or the Philippines are getting worried. There are strong reasons why so many big names across the industries trust Romania.

Romania’s Phenomenal Growth As The IT Outsourcing Hub

Romania has been positioning itself as a cost-effective and efficient IT outsourcing hub since the 2000s. Today over 260 well-known companies have partnered with Romanian outsourcing vendors. However, Romania’s success as an outsourcing hub was not an overnight one. It was the result of meticulous planning, commitment and a strong desire to rise above the muck of economic instability.

No Shortage of Skilled Workers : Another Outsourcing Advantage

The Romanian education system gives extreme focus to computer science and software engineering. Students, here, learn the basics of coding and software development from a very early age. Universities like Bucharest Polytechnic, Universitatea Tehnica Cluj, Babeș-Bolyai University etc are very efficient in teaching not only the already popular courses on Java, C, C++, Python QT and even Kotlin, but they also give immense importance to the emerging technologies pertaining to AI, ML, Blockchain, Containers, Kubernetes etc.

With such a rigorous education system in the country, every year more than 10,000 new software engineering graduates come out of college. All of them are rigorously trained.

Quick Fact: Romanian Developers Secured Rank 19 and 20 In The HackerRank Leaderboard!

Well Behaved People with Foreign Language Expertise

The Romanians are extremely well-behaved. They know the art of persuasion. The clients of the outsourcing vendors and the end customers as well are satisfied with the Romanian way of service. The direct result of this was, in 2016 the salaries in the call centre industry across Romania increased by 10–12%.

A lot of companies who have shown interest in Romania are particularly excited about the fact that Romanian IT specialists can speak many foreign languages. This makes communication easier and the business process smoother.

The Nearshore Advantage

Romania is quite nearer to the European companies — not only geographically, but culturally too. There are many problems with sending work offshore. However, onshore outsourcing is not viable too. As a middle path, companies are opting for nearshore outsourcing hubs.

Romania is within a reasonable reach from the European countries. Even the American countries find Romania easily accessible.

So, important physical resources can easily be transported to Romania from the parent company. It can also help workers to get the necessary training and instruction on a first-hand basis.

Culturally Similar To The Countries Outsourcing Their IT Work

Since Romania is closer to Western European countries, the Romanian culture is quite similar to that in the West. This makes interactions smoother. The call centre executives in Romania can speak in an accent that sounds familiar to the Western customers. The work culture in Romania is also akin to that in the West.

Overlapping Time-Zones Make Communication Easy

European companies get 8–9 or more hours to talk to their Romanian counterparts to clear any issue or to make the decision-making faster and smoother. US businesses, too, get 2 to 3 hours of overlapping working hours when they deal with Romanian companies. This makes issue-solving faster. Romanian developers do not have to wait for the morning to come in order to clear any doubt with the parent company. As a result, the operations remain agile.

Bang for the Buck

Although Romanian companies charge higher when we compare them with those of all the other outsourcing hubs, they charge much less than the European or US companies. In fact, Romanian IT specialists charge 50% less than their German or US counterparts. This is the reason that it has become one of the viable IT outsourcing hubs.

Ease of Doing Business

There is a reason behind the cropping up of so many startups ( 200 in Bucharest alone). That reason is the ease of doing business in Romania. It ranks 52 in the Ease of Doing Business index. With tax deductions, little to no red-tapism and the government’s push towards STEM-focused development, the Romanian economic atmosphere has become extremely business-friendly.

IT Outsourcing — Romania’s Road to Prosperity

The erstwhile Communist regime in Romania failed to pull the country out of the economic quagmire. After the end of the communist regime, Romania limped towards progress. Gradually, it gained stability and somewhat economic balance. The Communist history of the country-influenced the leaders to craft a Science and Technology focused education system in the country. The IT outsourcing opportunity that the Romanian companies gained has helped the economy immensely. The revenue from IT outsourcing represents 6% of the Romanian GDP.

Naturally, the people, who came out of the abyss of economic instability with the help of outsourcing, are more than happy to please the overseas companies. They go out of their way to do their work as efficiently as possible.

Some Challenges

With so many positive things, there are certain things that are making the Romanian companies and the government worried. More and more people are trying to migrate to the UK and other European nations. This brain-drain needs to stop.

The country needs more investment — particularly foreign investments. The Communist regime kept the country closed to foreign investors and companies. The country is trying hard to lure foreign investors.

Bottom Line

The Romanian IT outsourcing market has matured a lot. It cannot be called ‘new’ anymore. Any foreign company interested in outsourcing to Romania can rest assured that its business is in experienced hands. The skilful workforce in Romania is perhaps the country’s most important asset. Romania has changed the definition of outsourcing — No longer outsourcing means saving costs alone. Romania has also proved that as an outsourcing hub, it can also complement the businesses. In the outsourcing sphere, Romania is here to stay.

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Originally published at https://dimensionscontent.com on March 5, 2021.