World tech giants and Outstaffing to Eastern Europe
WHY DO FOREIGN IT GIANTS CHOOSE UKRAINE? (HUGE POTENTIAL FOR STARTING A BUSINESS)
Although on the global stage, Ukraine still remains a minor player with huge potential, it is definitely an attractive point of IT business development among European and Western countries. The Ukrainian IT market has gone through many stages of "evolution", and finally today, if we talk about Ukraine's potential, our resources and capabilities are a real treasure for foreign IT companies. This is what initiated the interest of many well-known companies in opening their own offices and R&D centers in Ukraine.
Offices, subsidiary companies, and R&D centers significantly influence the labor market in the country as a whole. When we help Western IT corporations to open their offices in Ukraine, we at the same time encourage them to set up a complete infrastructure.
In addition, IT Ukraine Association experts estimated that one employee in the IT industry creates 3-4 jobs in related industries. With the industry growing to 400,000 professionals by 2024, approximately 2 million jobs will be created in Ukraine, allowing Ukraine to assert itself as a more powerful player in this area.
Microsoft, Google, Apple, IBM, SAP, Sony, and Samsung are world-renowned technology companies with great products. But they have another common feature - they all work with Ukrainian software developers and decided to create their own centers and R&D offices here.
Their experience and reviews are almost the best promos for the Ukrainian IT market. So let's take a look at their own history of creating and locating their centers in Ukraine.
MICROSOFT
Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Andersen, Microsoft Corporation is a global leader in software, services, and solutions that help people and companies realize their full potential.
In 2003, Microsoft opened a representative office in Ukraine to develop the software market, promote Microsoft products, and provide support to partners and customers. Today, the office is located in the capital, Kyiv, at the address of Zhilyanska, 75, in the Eurasia Business Centre.
The company localizes the latest Microsoft technologies and implements numerous social initiatives in Ukraine. Microsoft has the status of the Official Partner of the American Chamber of Commerce for business productivity in Ukraine, providing an opportunity for the organization and its members to receive all the advantages of Microsoft technologies and solutions.
The opening of a representative office in Ukraine by such a global giant as Microsoft provided many advantages for both parties - directly for the company itself and for the country as a whole. Thanks to the successful location of the country - the center of Europe, the presence of competent and qualified specialists, as well as the area of tax optimization, Microsoft received the best conditions for locating its centers there. Ukraine, in turn, secured its status in the world IT market and gave many Ukrainian specialists the opportunity to work in their specialty at the company they dreamed of, without leaving the country.
APPLE
Let's continue with the world-famous American companies. Apple is a manufacturer of personal and tablet computers, audio players, phones, software, and modern multitasking operating systems with a graphical interface.
Through innovative technology and aesthetic design, Apple has built a unique, cult-like reputation in the consumer electronics industry. Every fan of this company is looking forward to the new presentation of the updated range of products because every time it is a new performance that will make the world talk only about it for the next few months. If we talk about statistics, the company ranks first in the world in terms of market capitalization - in mid-August 2020, Apple's capitalization grew to $2 trillion. By the way, an interesting fact is that only the Apple Company itself owns monetary capital greater than the GDP of 136 countries.
However, it makes no sense to talk a lot about the company's products, because statistics indicate that every second person on the planet has at least one of Apple's products, be it a computer, phone, watch, or tablet.
On June 28, 2021, the official Apple support service in Ukraine switched to the Ukrainian language - from now on, when contacting Apple Support, Ukrainian users of the company's products and services can receive advice in the Ukrainian language.
The launch of the Ukrainian support service became the first evidence that Apple is going to open its representative office in Ukraine, because in two days - on June 30, 2021, the Apple Company opened an official office in Ukraine and from now on independently imports equipment and controls the stores of official dealers. Such a decision by a global player in the technology market indicates a high level of trust in Ukraine, which in turn strengthened the country's image and attracted new investments.
IBM UKRAINE
IBM is the second most profitable IT company in the world with annual revenue exceeding $67 billion. And this is not surprising, considering that almost 97% of the world's banks and 80% of retail companies use the products and services of this firm.
The company International Business Machines (IBM) or "Blue Giant" (Big Blue), as it is sometimes called, was founded in 1911 by Charles Flint. Today, it is one of the world's most prominent players in the field of hybrid clouds, artificial intelligence, as well as service providers for business.
During its existence, the company had more than 130 collaborations and mergers with other companies. But the deal with Red Hat worth $34 billion is considered the most expensive.
"IBM Ukraine" was registered on September 11, 2006. In 2008, IBM, represented by IBM Ukraine LLC, joined the Association of Information Technology Enterprises of Ukraine. In Ukraine, as in the other 175 countries where IBM operates, the company's specialists help clients get benefits from data, optimize business processes, reduce costs, and gain competitive advantages in their industries. Employees lead service projects, work with distributors, engage in sales, customer support, and development of new solutions.
GOOGLE R&D CENTRE
Google is an American multinational corporation, part of the Alphabet holding company, that invests in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies, founded on September 4, 1998.
In 20 years, the Google company went from zero to almost a trillion - in value and pages. Today, the company's capitalization exceeds $850 billion. During its existence, the search engine indexed hundreds of billions of pages, changed its name twice, transformed online search into a digital advertising market, and learned to compete successfully in the market for smartphones and mobile devices.
Google made its first entry into the Ukrainian market back in 2005, opening its office in the capital, Kyiv. The critical task was working with advertisers and promotional mechanisms, as well as launching and supporting the corporation's products - Google Classroom, Google Pay, Google Cloud, and others. According to Youcontrol, in 2019, revenue amounted to 3.6 billion dollars, and in the first hour of the pandemic, it increased by 40-45%.
However, the company did not stop at just one office, and since January 2020, the employees of the CloudSimple office have received a new status - employees of the Google research center. Today, the center is located and conducts its vital activities in the capital, the heart of Ukraine - Kyiv, where about 50 people work.
It became the third of eight research and development offices of this global giant in Central and Eastern Europe. The other two are located in Poland and Hungary.
SAP
SAP was founded by five former IBM employees (we mentioned this company earlier). It sounds really cool - success begets success.
Founded in 1972, the company was originally called System Analysis Program Development, later this name was shortened to SAP. Since then, the company has grown from a small startup with five employees to a multinational company headquartered in Waldorf, Germany, with more than 105,000 employees worldwide.
The company develops software solutions that are used by small businesses, medium-sized businesses, and large corporations. In addition, SAP helps customers easily integrate operational data on business processes with experience data that reflects such emotional aspects as customer experience and customer feedback.
The company entered Ukraine in 1995, locating its office in the capital. In addition, SAP Ukraine has its own R&D center, which houses more than 50 employees of the local office - developers who created and perfected the MES (SAP Manufacturing Execution System).
What made the company interested in the Ukrainian market? The managing director of SAP in Southern and Eastern Europe, Josephine Galla, recently said that the company's business in Ukraine is developing quite dynamically: "Unlike many Western countries, which only think about the need to implement a digital transformation, Ukraine is not only ready for it but also makes big steps towards the transition to digital ways of working and processing various information in both the state and private sectors".
Conclusion
Every year, more and more foreign representations are opening in Ukraine. One of the reasons why the world's companies showcase their legacy centers in Ukraine is the competitiveness of the target state in the neighboring countries of the region. You can verify this by looking at the price/quality ratio, as well as looking at the reviews of other foreign companies that have been working in Ukraine for a long time and take their business to a new level every year. Such companies as Samsung, Ring, Siemens, Boeing, Netcracker, Oracle, and ABBYY have already opened their R&D centers in Ukraine.
Many foreign experts are sure that after the victory of Ukraine in a terrible war, it will become one of the world centers of IT culture and the projects opened in it will be the best of the best.
We hope that this article was useful to you and after reading it you did not remain indifferent. Good luck in building your business, and if you need information about the Ukrainian IT sector and Ukrainian dedicated developers, we recommend reading our previous articles.
If you have any questions or have an idea about hiring a team of professional developers in Ukraine, we would be glad to fuel your business idea with our services: contact.us@gointeractive.co
