8 Reasons to Consider IT Outsourcing in Poland

Even among top choices in Central and Eastern Europe, Poland has earned a reputation as a top choice for IT outsourcing and high-quality software development. 

Amid the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, a shortage of skilled technical workers, and civil, political and climate-related unrest, organizations are turning to Poland’s robust technology sector not only to cut costs and streamline business processes but also to access a talent pool of highly skilled software engineers and digital specialists they need to innovate and generate business growth.

So what is it about Poland’s technology professionals that makes them some of the best in the business? Here are eight reasons why more and more businesses in the U.S. and Western Europe are choosing to partner with Poland’s robust IT outsourcing sector.

1. Skilled IT Professionals

Poland’s developer community is passionate about coding, and they start honing their skills early. Polish students consistently rank high in international coding competitions, including Google Code-in, Google Jam and the Central European Olympiad in Informatics.

Polish software developers take a proactive approach to career development by staying up to date with the recent technology trends. As members of outsource teams, Poland’s IT professionals share their knowledge of the latest technologies, tools, libraries and frameworks, which increases efficiency and speed teamwide.

2. Strong Work Ethic

Polish developers are hardworking, innovative and competitive. They pride themselves on conducting business with integrity, making honest estimates and delivering the most effective and economical solutions to save their clients both time and money.

This tenacity and work ethic was even recognized by HackerRank, which in 2016 named Poland one of the top three countries that never give up.

3. Broad Knowledge Base

One of the key reasons organizations outsource IT is to gain access to specialized knowledge and broad technical expertise.

Poland’s IT outsourcing community is is known for code quality and well-versed in cutting-edge technologies, such as  cloud services, IoT, cybersecurity and IT Infrastructure. Polish software developers are also highly skilled in creating algorithms, JavaScript, front-end programming (e.g., React or Angular), and back-end programming (e.g., PHP, Java or .NET). They are also skilled practitioners of Agile methodologies. The country’s tech community hosts numerous agile events such as the ACE! Conference or Agile By Example.

That’s why, many tech businesses are choosing to setup software development teams in Poland.

4. Flexible, Collaborative Culture

Polish developers are known for their flexibility and agility, as well as their excellent communication skills, which makes them ideally suited for distributed outsourcing teams. They are comfortable working in remote work environments and have perfected the art of collaborating efficiently over distance.

English is taught in Polish schools, and the country is ranked “very high proficiency” in English skills, so there is rarely a communication gap between the IT outsourcing team and the in-house team.

5. Highly Educated Workforce

Poland makes high-quality education a priority. Starting in elementary school, students study mathematics, sciences, technology and the basics of programming. 

Rigorous academics continue through post-secondary education at more than 500 universities, two of which have ranked in the top 10 universities from emerging Europe and Central Asia.

6. Strong & Stable Economy

Between 2007 and 2020, Poland invested 140 billion Euros from the European Unionto improve critical infrastructure, including new roads, airports and highways. Government leaders also allotted some of the money to improve digitalization and invest in business development. 

These improvements have helped Poland become the eighth-largest economy in the EU.

Poland’s economy was significantly less affected than many others by the COVID-19 crisis, so post-pandemic, the country is recovering more quickly than the rest of Europe. In fact, forecasts predict that Poland will be the only EU member to reach its pre-crisis growth level by the end of 2021.

7. IT and Startup Hot Spot

Poland’s IT outsourcing sector is made up of roughly 700 software development companies that employ more than 150,000 specialists. Krakow and Warsaw are the country’s confirmed tech, outsourcing and startup hot spots, but Gdansk is quickly emerging as the next big outsourcing destination in Poland.

In 2020, NimbleFins recognized Poland as one of the most startup-friendly countries in Europe. Investment experts appear to agree; Poland is seeing a large increase in VC spending, including a record 477M euros raised in 2020.

According to Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper, “Now is the perfect time to look into investing in Poland. The region has always had great technology but now they are starting to connect it to the marketplace. Poland is a generation ahead of other countries in the region in understanding the market system.”

Poland’s IT ecosystem is also highly attractive for international companies. Tech leaders such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Uber have opened offices or R&D centers in Poland.

8. An Ideal Geographical Location

Located in Central Europe, on a GMT+1 time zone, Poland is ideally positioned to enable effective communication with companies in Western European countries. With an international airport, it’s easy to travel to Warsaw from most major European cities in about 1-3 hours. 

With the East Coast of the United States and Canada there is a time difference of 6 hours.  By relying on operations carried out by Polish development teams, US businesses can take advantage of the extra hours and deliver more, with the common working hours still allowing them to ensure enough collaborative work between in-house and remote teams, making it one of the most popular outsourcing destinations in Central and Eastern Europe.  

How to Outsource IT in a Fast-Growing, Innovative Market

In 2019, Poland ranked fifth in Harvard’s Business Review’s list of the most tech-skilled labor markets in the world. The COVID-19 crisis hyper-accelerated digital transformation in many organizations, which has only increased demand for Poland’s highly skilled, ambitious IT professionals. 

Looking for an outsourcing partner? Contact us to learn how working with Pentalog for IT outsourcing in Poland can cut costs, improve time to delivery and provide access to an Agile-trained, highly technical extension of your team.