Cost is no longer the only trademark of the CEE region, shows a whitepaper just released by Daxx, a software development and technology consulting service provider with development centers in Ukraine.
The time for mere business processes outsourcing to countries like Ukraine just for the sake lowering costs is gone for good. As Central and Eastern Europe is becoming a mature tech powerhouse, the region contributes to the value of Europe as a tech frontrunner, helping Europe foster its competitive advantage on the global tech scene.
Here are some highlights of Daxx’s latest study:
- The CEE region closes the talent shortage gap for Western Europe and the USA
Today 87% of global companies report facing skill gap challenges. The software developer talent shortage in Europe has reached a drastic level — 670,000 tech professionals are lacking in the region as of 2021. Western Europe and the USA strive to combat the talent shortage challenge by leveraging educational reforms. Meanwhile, Central and Eastern Europe bring the fastest alternative to meet the demand — by providing strong talents and high-quality service.
- The CEE region is anything but just a low-cost workforce hub
While the quality of tech services provided in CEE countries stays in line with Western Europe and the USA, low cost has been the differentiating factor of the region for decades. However, in 2021, CEE customers increasingly tend to see the region’s value proposition as a far more integrated one. Engineering smarts of the region’s workforce bring sustainable innovation, efficiency, and capability to meet growth plans fast.
Number of software developers and development costs across Central and Eastern Europe
- High-caliber tech talent is the main competitive advantage of the CEE region
Young, well-educated, and thriving professionals are the most important asset of the CEE region. Europe is home to 6.1 million software engineers. However, this number is distributed unevenly — while Western Europe is in dire need of talent, Central and Eastern Europe is a hotbed of developers. With bright engineers and problem-solvers able to outwork and outthink many of their competitors, Central and Eastern European specialists have gained a solid reputation.
“Ukraine is overcoming one of its bottlenecks in outsourcing — we used to have bright and smart engineers but we didn’t have enough skills to present them properly to the world. Now we see that our business skills — be it management or sales — are evolving. And while a couple of years ago we were just a solid addition to the in-house technical teams bringing technical expertise, now our solutions solve business problems and we move up our clients’ value chain.” — Igor Tkach, Daxx General Manager
- Ukraine’s competitiveness on the global outsourcing scene
Ukraine cannot compete with Asia in terms of prices, but we are a few notches above in terms of quality and cultural similarities with Western countries. Well aware of what they pay for, the companies seeking outsourcing to Ukraine come for quality and the best value/money ratio — the price in absolute terms being secondary. The human capital component along with the low cost of living makes Ukraine one of the most desirable software development destinations in Eastern Europe.
Ukrainians are hardworking and loyal to their clients when they see value in what they’re doing and feel appreciated. They are ready to work overtime if something urgent arises. In this sense, Ukrainians are perhaps culturally closer to US workers rather than to European ones.
Daxx’s study also contains analysis of the , the impact of Covid-19 on the CEE tech industry, as well as of venture trends and startup ecosystems across the region. Click here to download the full version at no charge.
