Kraków in the Global Top 10 of Emerging Outsourcing Cities in the BPO Sector

The list is divided into three groups:  “The Top 10 Emerged Cities”, then the above mentioned “Emerging Outsourcing Cities”, and from positions 61 to 100 - “The Aspiring Cities”.

Global Services and Tholons, Indian companies dealing with analysis and advisory services on the global investment market in the field of outsourcing services (BPO, SSC), new technologies and research and development centres (IT, R&D), have published the recent “TOP 100 – Outsourcing Cities” ranking. The list includes the best cities for investment in the BPO sector, including all kinds of external services (call centers, accounting, finance, human resources management, etc.). The highest positions on the TOP 100 lists are obviously occupied by Indian cities: Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi. In general, the top ten includes 6 Indian, 2 Philippine (Manila and Cebu), one Irish (Dublin) and one Chinese city (Shanghai).

Kraków leads the second ten of the TOP 100, followed by cities located in China, Argentina, Egypt, Brazil, Vietnam and Sri Lanka. Kraków is the highest ranked city in Central Europe on the list prepared by Global Services. In comparison, Warszawa (Warsaw) is ranked 38th and Wrocław - 84th. The authors of the report considered many factors of different significance for the final ranking. The most important criteria included: quality and size of the labour market, costs related to conducting business activity in the BPO sector (office area, operational costs, maintenance costs etc.), business environment (investment incentives, investor cooperation), operational environment (transport, technical infrastructure, service accessibility), business risk (political, business, natural and social risk) and quality of life (e.g. healthcare, culture, leisure, free time). In the case of Kraków, the increase in the number and quality of services provided for the benefit of investors was emphasized (advisory services in accounting, finance and resource management). The fact that the largest companies in the BPO sector, such as Capgemini, Google, IBM and Motorola, have decided to invest in Kraków, was also taken into account.

Kraków, together with Zabierzów (Kraków Business Park) has recently become a place for investment for many outsourcing companies. It is estimated that approximately 16 000 persons are employed in such companies – mainly young, well educated graduates of Kraków’s universities - both specialists in economics and IT and persons proficient in foreign languages.  During the autumn, the Annual Business in Małopolska Meeting 2010 was organized by investment service institutions of the Małopolska Regional Development Agency joint stock company, Kraków Technology Park and the Marshal’s Office of Małopolskie Voivodeship. Representatives of Kraków companies in the BPO sector, such as:  Shell, Sabre Holding, HCL and CISCO indicated strengths of the city and further expectations of investors, regarding, among other things, improvement in air transport standards, cooperation with universities and foreign language learning. The Business in Małopolska Centre does not only organize visits and prepare investment offers for the BPO sector (approx. 20 investment offers in the autumn 2009 – autumn 2010 period), but also deals with cooperation with companies operating on our market, global promotion of Kraków and Małopolska, advisory services concerning infrastructure and the labour market. In the forthcoming days, another company from the BPO sector will be paying a visit to the Business in Małopolska Centre …

Prepared by: CeBiM on the basis of source materials of Global Services, 15.11.2010