The pandemic has forced all of us to focus on the current circumstances rather than planning for the future. However, according to a McKinsey report which analyzes the challenges of the so-called new normal, 2024 will be the year of looking into the future rather than struggling with ongoing issues caused by the coronacrisis. It is the right time to change attitude and switch from reacting to foreseeing and planning.
The new normal and a burst of innovation
In 2024, a large number of businesses changed their digital strategy and expedited the implementation of innovative solutions. According to McKinsey research, companies were able to respond to changes as many as 20-25 times faster (and in the case of enabling remote working, even 40 times faster) than expected by employees. This proves that there was huge dormant potential for digital change in organizations.
Nearshoring as a competitive advantage
In doing so, many businesses have decided to cooperate with IT outsourcing companies in countries located nearby. Nearshore-IT can be a good idea for companies unwilling to outsource their work to faraway locations. This model can bring many other unexpected benefits and help you to build a competitive advantage. Here is what you can get:
- Quick access to competences – many IT outsourcing companies have human resources available which are ready to undertake new projects in an instant. Not all employees are assigned to projects so as to guarantee the smooth kick-off of projects for new clients.
- New management styles – IT companies cooperating in a nearshoring model very often take advantage of management styles which improve collaboration in remote teams. If your company does not use Agile methodologies (like Scrum, Kanban, Disciplined Agile, and many others), such cooperation can be a great opportunity to become familiar with them and improve internal project management techniques.
- Extended talent pool – nowadays many companies join clusters, create aliases, and join software development organizations. For example, in Poland, several IT software houses are part of SODA (Software Development Association Poland), where they can exchange knowledge and resources. This way their clients benefit from wider access to know-how and competences.
- Newest tools and technologies – innovative technologies and tools are one of the main focuses of IT nearshoring companies. To increase competitiveness, IT companies keep an eye on recent trends and use top programming languages.
Nearshoring in Poland – case study
A Swedish e-commerce platform checked Polish developers’ skills
The Swedish company Boozt Fashion AB is the owner of the e-commerce platform Boozt.com. After previous experiences with offshoring IT services to India and Vietnam, the company set up headquarters in Malmo in 2017 and made the decision to look for an IT company located nearby that could support the company’s developers. It was important that the chosen external IT provider:
- could provide access to developer competences and scalable teams
- had good language skills
- was able to develop a custom system based on PHP technology and provide technological know-how
Due to the development and the need to have several scalable development teams, the choice was made to outsource services to Lithuania and Poland. These countries have a similar working culture and are located in a convenient distance and within a similar time zone.
In the case of the Polish team, the company decided to entrust the implementation of the project to JCommerce, an IT service provider that has been operating on the market since 2005 and had the necessary programming skills. Cooperation with an IT nearshoring partner turned out to be a home run, and unlike in the case of the offshoring model, there were more opportunities for face-to-face contact.
The company came to value the skills and expertise of Polish front-end, back-end and DevOps developers. The first successfully implemented project resulted in trust and long-term cooperation, as part of which the external IT company:
- proposed the use of agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban)
- provided high-quality team competences and further competences as cooperation developed
- provided technical know-how which the company could adapt in-house
- set up a dedicated e-commerce development center in Poznań
- provides support and reacts quickly, which is especially important when collaborating in distributed teams
Some important facts about IT services in Poland
Nearshoring services have allowed many companies to implement essential innovative digital solutions during the coronavirus pandemic. Digital Transformation calls for access to developers’ competences and taking advantage of the experience of companies implementing projects for clients from many industries. What do we know about the Polish IT sector and why do so many companies decide to locate their development centers in Poland?
- The Polish IT industry grows by 6% every year – software development services are an important element of Polish companies’ development strategy.
- The IT sector offers jobs for over 400,000 Polish IT specialists.
- There are over 78,000 IT graduates from technical universities in Poland, and this number is growing every year.
- A good environment for technology startups. According to the Polish Startups 2024 Report, during the coronavirus pandemic and the associated accelerated digitization, 56 percent of entrepreneurs claim to have grown their client base.
- According to government sources, the share of the IT / ICT sector in Poland’s GDP accounts for 8%. Poland is also an important market for software development services and a nearshoring partner for Germany, Great Britain and Scandinavian countries, among others.
Nearshoring to Poland? Why not?
Nowadays IT nearshoring helps companies to achieve their goals and means more than only a cost-effective solution. IT nearshoring helps companies to access unique and niche competences and skills. While searching for a destination for IT project development, it is worth taking a closer look at Poland.
Nearshoring to Poland? Why not!
Poland is considered the 3rd best country to invest in and Polish IT companies can guarantee access to a vast talent pool of 240,000 software programmers. The excellent location and well-developed infrastructure convince global behemoths like Google, Microsoft and Facebook to locate business in the heart of Europe. Over recent years, Poland has also become one of the top destinations for nearshoring software development projects, and nowadays companies from European countries eagerly take advantage of Polish developers’ expertise.
