Why Outsourcing to the CEE Region is Growing in Importance

Outsourcing to Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is set to consolidate its importance to Western and global markets in 2020 as more sectors see it as an essential business strategy for the present and future, and that trend is being fuelled by the huge growth in business’ requiring IT outsourcing services.

Cloud-based technologies, artificial intelligence, and bot technology are all combining to shift traditional customer-care models from “high-volume low-touch” agent interactions to include more self-service and automated processes. This shift is now putting more value on the role outsourcing plays.  As a result, brands have an increasing need for highly-skilled agents to deal with more complex issues and their high-value customers where self-service and automation may not be suitable. The CEE region is positioned to cater this growth thanks to the established BPO service supply heritage and access to strong agent talent with high-level technical skills. CEE sourcing hubs including Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, are well placed to deliver on this proposition.

Much of that potential is currently being realised with growth in IT services and high-quality multilingual customer care. Technical know-how is abundant as are language skills, both valuable in the market, and accessible in delivery points like Czech Republic and Poland.

In the CEE market, clients can find financial stability, low-operational costs, a free market, EU legislation, solid infrastructures, robust internet, and native-level multilingual agents.  Global companies like AT&T and DHL enjoy the benefits this area offers. Salaries are still affordable in comparison with western European levels and rental costs are low. Additionally, the geographic location of CEE countries and easy access to relative to major Western business hubs make them extremely attractive.

Delivery platforms for IT projects and services are usually cloud or app based, and this has boosted the CEE regions profile as centralised hubs can easily be established to cover any market in the world. The spotlight then shifts onto the quality of the service delivery, and CEE is rich with an experienced and educated talent pool.

Previous dire predictions of the demise of outsourcing due to automation of processes where completely unfounded. Instead the shift has been to high-value and high-touch interactions. With 59% of companies still actively embracing outsourcing to reduce costs, it’s very clear that outsourcing is here to stay.

Clients expect more value-added services in terms of problem-solving, and they’re looking for technical guidance in areas like automation for improved performance and reduction of costs. They are demanding more support that includes data analytics and workflow management to deliver business transformation..

Demand for talent remains high, but there’s a large supply of graduates entering the labor market every year.

Many companies are still moving processes to CEE as services become increasingly sophisticated. and tech talent easily competes with their Western counterparts on price and quality but offer more in terms of range of technologies and languages which can be centralised in one place.

Given the location, quality and availability of skills, time difference, language ability, and low costs, CEE is an excellent source of high-quality technical teams who can support a product in the market quickly.

New technology is advancing rapidly and with it, the digital landscape. Software, automation technologies, data analytics, and AI skillsets and solutions make up a significant part of the CEE talent pool.

Western European enterprises lacking the skilled resources to go digital cannot adopt new technology and CEE offers skillsets that can easily support looking to overcome such challenges.

CEE offers access to a motivated workforce skilled in digital transformation. The boom in such skills means that CEE countries is becoming a place to base operations.