The CEE region – a European leader for on-, near-, and off-shoring activity

Jones Lang LaSalle presents a set of new research reports: Onshore, Nearshore, Offshore: Unsure? on offshore and BPO investment opportunities in the seven countries of Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Serbia and Croatia.

The reports provide a comprehensive picture of these countries’ offering for Shared Service Centres (SSCs), Business Process Outsourcing Centres (BPOs), and Information Technology Outsourcing Centres (ITOs) from the business environment, real estate, labour market and state aid point of view. Several external content partners, including Ernst & Young and Hays, have contributed to these thought-provoking papers.

One of the changes in the global shoring decision-making framework seen in recent years is a shift in emphasis from a focus on straight cost arbitrage to a more sophisticated analysis of the operational costs and benefits of location decisions for business functions. A longer term focus on the productivity, operational efficiency and  future scalability of shoring operations is now driving decision-making rather than cost savings in the short term.

Worldwide, the range of functions being considered for offshoring or nearshoring shows signs of increasing. Higher value roles such as research and development, marketing, finance, legal services and HR, are increasingly being outsourced as part of the process of footprint and process optimization.

John Duckworth, Managing Director Central and Eastern Europe at Jones Lang LaSalle commented: “The CEE market of approximately 100 million people is well positioned to respond to those growing needs from global corporations. The stalwarts, such as Poland and Romania for example, are seeing increasingly advanced roles being added to the spectrum of executed processes in the existing centres.”

“The options for global decision makers across the CEE are multiplying. Alongside the EU members of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, which all feature full EU compliance, Croatia and Serbia have also emerged as strong alternative shoring locations. The former is set to become the 28^th EU member on 1^st July 2013, while the latter received EU candidate status in March 2012. In addition, within the central and eastern EU member states, the external accessibility, internal connectivity and infrastructure (transport and real estate) have, in a positive sense, changed profoundly since EU accession in 2004 and 2007 respectively.” continued John Duckworth.

Kevin Turpin, Head of Research Central and Eastern Europe at Jones Lang LaSallesaid: “The real estate sector across the CEE region is currently well placed to accommodate those entering or expanding within the market. The majority of office markets, both in the capitals and in the regional cities, currently feature   conditions favourable to the occupier. In essence, this means that there is  an ample supply of high quality, modern office space at competitive price levels. Having said this, we continue to advise occupiers to plan their office space search well in advance. In some markets, the broader tightening of lending conditions and financing have forced many developers to be more conservative with speculative projects. Many now require pre-let agreements in order to begin construction, with a notable reduction in the availability of speculative solutions. On the one hand, this can provide the corporate occupier with stronger leverage in the marketplace and a more tailored product, however it also has the potential to extend lead-in times and compromise speed to market.”

Importantly, Poland and Romania are rated 7^th and 9^th globally amongst the Top 10 Shoring locations over 2008-2012. The ranking by fDi Markets (from the Financial Times) is based on the number of jobs created in these types of projects over the time period which were approx. 13,500 and 11,500 respectively. Furthermore, Poland was ranked 3^rd globally, behind only India and Malaysia, in the 2011 Top 10 destinations for Foreign Direct Investment in shared service centres, again based on the number of jobs created on an annual basis.

Małgorzata Jasińska, Corporate Accounts Director in Central Eastern Europe at Hays Specialist Recruitment said: “Central and Eastern Europe is recognized globally as an important location for business services offshoring. One of the main advantages which make this part of the world so attractive is Human Resources. A well-educated talent pool, speaking foreign languages, which cultivates a strong work ethic, ensures a quality of service which meets the highest international standards. Another significant competitive advantage of CEE is lower labour costs when compared to Northern and Western Europe. Moreover, the talent pool, currently exceeding 250,000 experienced specialists within the SSC/BPO sector enables the timely development of services and implementation of more advance, knowledge-based processes (KPO). Additionally, a greater emphasis has been placed on technical education that has increased the number of engineering graduates in recent years. The knock-on effect is an increase in the development of R&D centers that absorb these talents.”

Language skills cannot be underestimated when it comes to the requirements of employers from the business services sector. “Knowledge of foreign languages is particularly strong within the CEE region due to high educational standards as well as work migration of Eastern Europeans. Millions of them have travelled to Western countries as well as Northern Europe seeking employment opportunities. Recently, we have witnessed the reverse with, many of these specialists returning to Central East, gaining employment within BPO/SSC centres. They are still servicing foreign markets but this time from home.” added Małgorzata Jasińska.

Managing Director of Hays Hungary, Tammy Nagy-Stelliniprovides an overview of the SSC/BPO sector in Hungary: “Since the late 90’s, Hungary has been a popular European destination of BPO/SSCs. The first centers opened before 2000 and after the country’s European Union accession, their number started to increase rapidly. To date, more than 70 operations are present, employing a total of 30,000-35,000 people. The main concentration of SSCs is in Budapest, where the majority of service centres are located due to the city’s excellent infrastructure and knowledge capital”, says Nagy-Stellini. “However, about 20-25% of SSCs are situated in the regions, mostly in county capitals such as Győr, Debrecen or Miskolc, which also possess outstanding logistics networks and acclaimed universities. Typical outsourced activities include: finance, operations & cost accounting, IT desktop support, HR administration. Besides traditional outsourced activities some companies perform complex, high added value activities such as: marketing, procurement or modeling.”

Commenting on the public support aspect of the SSC/ BPO investments to the CEE region,Pawel Tynel, Executive Director, Tax/ Grants and Incentives Advisory Services at Ernst & Young said:“In the current market conditions, it is pretty clear that competition for investors and investments has increased significantly over the last few years. One of the outcomes is that governments across CEE are increasingly prepared to provide incentives offering tax exemptions and cash grants. For many investors with whom we cooperate, it is very important to initiate such a dialogue with governments when making strategic decisions on placing a set of important processes in a given location.  Leaving aside the monetary aspect, the relation building process is also about negotiation.”

“Hungary has been a popular destination of service centers and outsourcing corporations since the beginning of the 2000’s. In the last 10 years infrastructure of the country has significantly improved; real estate market has matured a lot and new developments are able to fulfill the specific requirements of tenants. Although there were less new service center openings in the last few years, the ones already in Hungary are continuously expanding their business in terms of size of their offices as well as the number of their employees. This clearly reflects that they are pleased with the business environment in Hungary” – added Rita Tuza, Head of Research of Jones Lang LaSalle Budapest.