How Is Romania Faring as Eastern Europe’s Prime Outsourcing Destination?

December 15, 2016 – Mihai Popa

How Is Romania Faring as Eastern Europe’s Prime Outsourcing Destination?

December 15, 2016 – Mihai Popa

Romania has firmly emerged to be an epicenter of outsourcing mainly for white-collar intellect including data crunching, bookkeeping, research and development. Today, hundreds of American companies have outsourced services to Eastern Europe. Most notably, I.B.M., Morgan Stanley and Dell not only have outsourced services to Romania, but have also helped other American companies do so. Outsourcing, mainly from a software perspective, is really booming in this region, as it quickly integrates itself economically to the countries in the west. This progress has drastically reduced the level of unemployment in Romania, and Eastern Europe in general. In this article, we’ll ask how Romania’s faring as Eastern Europe’s prime software outsourcing destination.

Romania’s Culture

Romania has a very unique culture which is brought about by its geographical position and the historical evolution. The Romanians are mainly the descendants of the Balkans but they have been Romanized. The culture of Romania is very similar to the other European cultures and has some influence with the Slavic countries. Traditional Romanian cultural practices include wood carving, dance, folk arts, ceramics, weaving, house decoration and the fascinating folk music which still flourishes in the country even to date. The official language is Romanian and has Latin roots dating back to the Roman occupation of that area – but also contains some words from the Slavic language, Turkish and the Greek. Education

Numerous educational reforms have been implemented in Romania over the past years. The IT sector has immensely developed due to the creation of IT universities in the region. The country has some of the biggest software and hardware industries which provide services to most of the neighboring nations. All this has been achieved through the creation of the many learning institutions offering IT education to the young generation. This extensive and well educated IT pool greatly powers the top profile nearshore software outsourcing companies in the country.. Throughout the nation’s cities, there are scores of highly skilled developers in some of the most common software development languages and platforms, including C++, Java and Microsoft Technologies.

IT Talent – How Does Romania Compare

Romania is among nations that significantly export IT services and software. Most of the outsourcing firms in this country have immensely talented IT software groups. The fact that the country’s offshore and nearshore software development services meet global classifications make it a considerable landing pad for European and American companies. Favorable economic conditions have ensured that Romania’s IT sector grows – as it has undergone through a drastic evolution through the past few years. More so, software and hardware services have continued to exhibit an upward trend in recent years according to research carried out by the (NICR) “National Institute for Computers Romanian”. Total turnover for the IT sector in Romania increased 8% in 2010, and further increased by 2% in 2011. These trends are evident as both local and foreign IT employers have been requesting for services primarily related to JAVA, C++, .NET and PHP.  PHP particularly had a high demand in 2011 and 2012. Since the mobile sector has also greatly improved in the past years, employers have started looking for people with a high combination of technologies such as Android, C++, Java and iOS because they need people to use the applications as they are depending on while projects are underway. IT talent seekers are increasingly looking to recruit the nation’s share of iOS and Android developers as the mobile sector solidifies its gain over other forms of software technologies. Though Romania is recognized as a top talent IT hub, most employers are looking for people who are doing well in the industry and mostly the top talent across the world. The young and motivated professionals in Romania’s IT sector have not only mastered English but also French, German and the Italian languages and thus are a crucial part of the Romania’s appeal, this is according to the analysts’ club.

3. Nearshore Software Companies become Nearshore Recruitment Agents

Some of the end-clients decided that the only trustworthy agents to employ for their nearshore recruitment efforts are nearshore software companies (in Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Czech or otherwhere).

But why?

  • Nearshore software companies actually know and understand their local markets. Unlike the average onshore, next-door recruitment agency in Belgium, The UK, Netherlands, etc, nearshore software companies in Romania, Poland, etc. have actually been working with local engineers for decades. They know them, they keep in close touch with their evolution and desires.
  • Nearshore software companies can provide nearshore engineers with a wide range of jobs and projects. Programmers can move between them, when such change is required, without changing work environment or employment.
  • Assembling a larger body of engineers locally across multiple projects enables nearshore software companies to provide better benefits – e.g. group health insurance, gym, massage, tech courses – which are very difficult to access individually.
  • Nearshore software companies take it upon themselves and their reputation that complete confidentiality and non-competition are ensured

The Miss-Outs. Why Recruitment is but a part of Nearshore

  • Ready-to-go teams. When projects end, entire functional teams might become available with nearshore software companies. If vetted individually by clients,  they may or may not end up together again. Team communication and established channels might be lost in the case of them being assigned amongst different projects.
  • Internal procedures and methodologies. Nearshore companies invest a lot in training their staff. There is cross-team communication, team problem-solving, pair-programming, recurring agile training. Often, nearshore companies’ approach to Agile is better than what end clients use internally.
  • Commitment to delivery. When an entire project is entrusted to a nearshore software company, they will take on responsibility for its completion and delivery. If individual engineers are requested of such companies, they will only be responsible for providing qualified engineers, who show up for work and fulfil their shift.

Conclusion

The nearshore software companies may have merely been reduced to HR today as the global pandemic continues and WFH becomes a norm, erasing geographical boundaries.

You might rely on nearshore partners just for resources, but you’d be missing out on all the other benefits that a reputable nearshore software company can provide. With today’s abundance of technological resources, you can choose either.

dotNear is an established nearshore software company in Romania and can help with efforts in both attracting the best technical, English-savvy developers and in completing projects from scratch. An all-round, AI-powered recruitment platform helps us minimize nearshore recruitment cycles and make recruiting nearshore talent with us a breeze. However, there is more to what we do. With a proven distributed Agile set of processes in place, we can help you start or rescue projects, with assured delivery. Contact us and let’s talk about how we can help.

Romania has firmly emerged to be an epicenter of outsourcing mainly for white-collar intellect including data crunching, bookkeeping, research and development. Today, hundreds of American companies have outsourced services to Eastern Europe. Most notably, I.B.M., Morgan Stanley and Dell not only have outsourced services to Romania, but have also helped other American companies do so. Outsourcing, mainly from a software perspective, is really booming in this region, as it quickly integrates itself economically to the countries in the west. This progress has drastically reduced the level of unemployment in Romania, and Eastern Europe in general. In this article, we’ll ask how Romania’s faring as Eastern Europe’s prime software outsourcing destination.

Romania’s Culture

Romania has a very unique culture which is brought about by its geographical position and the historical evolution. The Romanians are mainly the descendants of the Balkans but they have been Romanized. The culture of Romania is very similar to the other European cultures and has some influence with the Slavic countries. Traditional Romanian cultural practices include wood carving, dance, folk arts, ceramics, weaving, house decoration and the fascinating folk music which still flourishes in the country even to date. The official language is Romanian and has Latin roots dating back to the Roman occupation of that area – but also contains some words from the Slavic language, Turkish and the Greek. Education

Numerous educational reforms have been implemented in Romania over the past years. The IT sector has immensely developed due to the creation of IT universities in the region. The country has some of the biggest software and hardware industries which provide services to most of the neighboring nations. All this has been achieved through the creation of the many learning institutions offering IT education to the young generation. This extensive and well educated IT pool greatly powers the top profile nearshore software outsourcing companies in the country.. Throughout the nation’s cities, there are scores of highly skilled developers in some of the most common software development languages and platforms, including C++, Java and Microsoft Technologies.

IT Talent – How Does Romania Compare

Romania is among nations that significantly export IT services and software. Most of the outsourcing firms in this country have immensely talented IT software groups. The fact that the country’s offshore and nearshore software development services meet global classifications make it a considerable landing pad for European and American companies. Favorable economic conditions have ensured that Romania’s IT sector grows – as it has undergone through a drastic evolution through the past few years. More so, software and hardware services have continued to exhibit an upward trend in recent years according to research carried out by the (NICR) “National Institute for Computers Romanian”. Total turnover for the IT sector in Romania increased 8% in 2010, and further increased by 2% in 2011. These trends are evident as both local and foreign IT employers have been requesting for services primarily related to JAVA, C++, .NET and PHP.  PHP particularly had a high demand in 2011 and 2012. Since the mobile sector has also greatly improved in the past years, employers have started looking for people with a high combination of technologies such as Android, C++, Java and iOS because they need people to use the applications as they are depending on while projects are underway. IT talent seekers are increasingly looking to recruit the nation’s share of iOS and Android developers as the mobile sector solidifies its gain over other forms of software technologies. Though Romania is recognized as a top talent IT hub, most employers are looking for people who are doing well in the industry and mostly the top talent across the world. The young and motivated professionals in Romania’s IT sector have not only mastered English but also French, German and the Italian languages and thus are a crucial part of the Romania’s appeal, this is according to the analysts’ club.

3. Nearshore Software Companies become Nearshore Recruitment Agents

Some of the end-clients decided that the only trustworthy agents to employ for their nearshore recruitment efforts are nearshore software companies (in Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Czech or otherwhere).

But why?

  • Nearshore software companies actually know and understand their local markets. Unlike the average onshore, next-door recruitment agency in Belgium, The UK, Netherlands, etc, nearshore software companies in Romania, Poland, etc. have actually been working with local engineers for decades. They know them, they keep in close touch with their evolution and desires.
  • Nearshore software companies can provide nearshore engineers with a wide range of jobs and projects. Programmers can move between them, when such change is required, without changing work environment or employment.
  • Assembling a larger body of engineers locally across multiple projects enables nearshore software companies to provide better benefits – e.g. group health insurance, gym, massage, tech courses – which are very difficult to access individually.
  • Nearshore software companies take it upon themselves and their reputation that complete confidentiality and non-competition are ensured

The Miss-Outs. Why Recruitment is but a part of Nearshore

  • Ready-to-go teams. When projects end, entire functional teams might become available with nearshore software companies. If vetted individually by clients,  they may or may not end up together again. Team communication and established channels might be lost in the case of them being assigned amongst different projects.
  • Internal procedures and methodologies. Nearshore companies invest a lot in training their staff. There is cross-team communication, team problem-solving, pair-programming, recurring agile training. Often, nearshore companies’ approach to Agile is better than what end clients use internally.
  • Commitment to delivery. When an entire project is entrusted to a nearshore software company, they will take on responsibility for its completion and delivery. If individual engineers are requested of such companies, they will only be responsible for providing qualified engineers, who show up for work and fulfil their shift.

Conclusion

The nearshore software companies may have merely been reduced to HR today as the global pandemic continues and WFH becomes a norm, erasing geographical boundaries.

You might rely on nearshore partners just for resources, but you’d be missing out on all the other benefits that a reputable nearshore software company can provide. With today’s abundance of technological resources, you can choose either.

dotNear is an established nearshore software company in Romania and can help with efforts in both attracting the best technical, English-savvy developers and in completing projects from scratch. An all-round, AI-powered recruitment platform helps us minimize nearshore recruitment cycles and make recruiting nearshore talent with us a breeze. However, there is more to what we do. With a proven distributed Agile set of processes in place, we can help you start or rescue projects, with assured delivery. Contact us and let’s talk about how we can help.

Get in touch

Send us a project brief / RFP, apply for a job or just say ‘Hi’

Get in touch

Send us a project brief / RFP, apply for a job or just say ‘Hi’