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No. 5 (48) | September–October 2019 ISSN 2083-8867 PRICE EUR 6 (INCL. 8% VAT)
WE KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT BUSINESS Interview with Andrzej Osiński, President of Bisnode Polska | page 24 BUSINESS:
CAREER & DEVELOPMENT:
BUSINESS:
A technological revolution in information management |page 30
7 trends in recruitment |page 76
Entering German market has become easier |page 14
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INTRODUCTION
Created by Pro Progressio
Editor-in-chief Dymitr Doktór dymitr.doktor@proprogressio.pl Managing editor Katarzyna Czylok-Dąbrowska katarzyna.czylok@proprogressio.pl @DymitrDoktor
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Dear Readers, The summer season is behind us and it's time to sail out into the wide business waters. September, like the following months, is going to be dynamic in the business services sector. In the autumn and winter edition, Outsourcing&More will be a partner of many interesting business events, which we will describe in the next issues of our magazine. Before this happens, I invite you to read the September–October issue of Outsourcing&More, in which we have the pleasure to share many interesting publications. Our main talk is an interview with Andrzej Osiński – Presi dent of the Management Board of Bisnode Polska, an organi zation that knows everything about companies. The subject of business intelligence and company credibility studies has been in our interest for a long time and we decided to go to the best source of information in this regard. As usual we also present a wide set of articles from many Countries. This time we invite you to read interesting stories from Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria and our great friends from Emerging Europe. Enjoy reading and see you at the BSS Tour conferences! Dymitr Doktór Editor in Chief
Partners
Authors: Michal Lisawa • Katarzyna Oleksik • Sascha Kronberg • Katarzyna Psyta • Paweł Płocki • Andrzej Osiński • Sylwia Pyśkiewicz • Lilla Stachowicz • Tomasz Bereźnicki • Iryna Zubenko • Ilia Krustev • Monika Vilkelytė • Andrew Wrobel • Loredana Niculae • Agnieszka Marciniak • Justyna Boreczek
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
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INDEX
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10 14 16 18 24 30 34 38 42 44 4
BUSINESS NEWS Volleyball worth millions! This year’s 10th Charity Real Estate Beach Volleyball Tournament raised a record amount of money for medical equipment used for children's cancer treatment.
Employee capital plans (PPK) are in force. What does it mean in practice? Subject to a few exceptions, all employers have to set up PPK.
Entering German market has become easier Interview with Sascha Kronberg.
Alcohol during business events. Legal aspects of advertising, promotion and sponsoring It often happens that an event is accompanied by alcohol promotion or it is sponsored by a manufacturer or distributor of such beverages.
This is not SSC, this is business partner Interview with Paweł Płocki, Head of TRUMPF Shared Services Centre in Warsaw.
MAIN INTERVIEW We know everything about businesses Interview with Andrzej Osiński, President of Bisnode Polska.
A technological revolution in information management A number of tools can be used to optimise a company’s operational efficiency, including a dedicated IT infrastructure that significantly affects the quality and speed of many business processes.
HR side of Carlsberg Shared Services Interview with Lilla Stachowicz, HR director at Carlsberg Shared Services.
Closer to perfection Every organization strives for excellence, whether purposely or not. However, only a few succeed. So how does one enter the right path of development?
INVESTMENTS NEWS
Łódź is hungry for business and has a place for it The modern business services industry in Poland has already moved from a phase of dynamic development to a smart and stable stage of further evolution.
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
46 50 52 56 58 60 62 64 66 70 74 76 80 Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
F&A in Lublin ready for new investments Already for some time the booming business service sector in Lublin has been clearly dominated by the IT industry which records the fastest growth.
Space technologies and business events offer in Kielce Just now Kielce hosts the international competitions, which are organized by the European Space Foundation, with the City of Kielce as one of the main Partners.
Częstochowa – the power of cooperation Częstochowa is the leader of the Northern Subregion of Silesian Voivodeship and as its leader it has its own responsibilities.
Construction of IT Park to start in Lviv this autumn On June 28, during Lviv IT Jazz 2019 conference, signing of contracts with future residents of the business park Innovation District IT Park took place.
Bulgaria becoming recognized high added-value services destination Few noticeable trends in the outsourcing industry form the current market and the growth prospects nowadays and lead to the stable positioning of Bulgaria as preferred high added-value services destination.
Building a tight-knit community Lithuania’s strategic approach to RPA development.
Can Poland’s tax break for young people halt demographic decline? Poles under the age of 26 who are employed full-time and earn less than PLN 85,528 (19,610 euros) a year will no longer pay income tax.
Romania in three words: culture, values, and innovation Over the past two decades, Romania has continuously developed and turned into one of the most attractive countries for outsourcing.
I am deeply satisfied of my contribution to Poznan development Bartosz Guss, Deputy Mayor of the City of Poznan, tells us about the new infrastructural projects in Poznan, initiatives for the BPO/SSC sector, sustainable urban planning policy supporting city development and about the new sports plans for the future.
5 reasons to invest in Bydgoszcz Bydgoszcz has been striving for the right climate for the development of economy and creation of entrepreneurship for years.
HR NEWS 7 trends in recruitment Employers have realised that the old recruitment methods are no longer enough to attract top talent to the organisation.
The HR side of ALD An interview with Justyna Boreczek, HR Director at ALD Automotive Polska.
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BUSINESS NEWS
A GOOD YEAR FOR KIDS&CO.
The number of branches of the nation wide network of bilingual office and company kindergartens has already increased to 15. Newly opened kinder gartens are located in Warsaw's Służewiec Przemysłowy in the modern D48 office building, in Łódź in the Imagine office complex, and in Poznań in Pixel and Nowy Rynek. The latter was created exclu sively for one of the largest employers in the business services sector in the city. All newly created facilities have a total of 400 places for children, including in nursery groups. Apart from kindergarten in the Nowy Rynek, they are open to the enrollment of tenants and parents outside the complexes. The operator is also open to cooperation with employers, giving companies the option of booking places and subsidizing tuition fees for their employees. This year's projects have been implemented in the invest ments of Skanska, Garvest, Avestus and Penta. Next year, the operator focuses on the development of the network in other cities – primarily Gdańsk and further development in existing locations.
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Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
FINNISH INVESTMENT HELPS CLOSE THE EDUCATION GAP IN AFRICA Finnish development financier Finnfund is investing 7 million US dollars in Maarifa Education Group, a private tertiary educa tion company operating in Sub-Saharan Africa. Maarifa Education offers high quality programmes in labour market relevant studies of medicine, business, IT, law, and social-sciences, complementing public universities which can educate only a third of all applicants.
and IFU, the Danish development Maarifa has increased student enrolment finance institution. and enhanced the efficiency of business and academic operations. – The new capital from the European development finance institutions will Finland’s Minister for Development enable Maarifa to continue enhancing Cooperation and Foreign Trade, Ville the quality of academic programs and Skinnari welcomes the investment. student services at its existing universi- – Developing countries, especially in Africa, ties and to acquire additional universities are faced with a serious learning crisis. in Africa – says CEO of Maarifa Educa Public and private forces can together tion Peter Kagunye. – Maarifa’s vision provide solutions to it, to students of all Despite the doubling of tertiary educa is to be the premier pan-African tertiary ages – Minister Skinnari says. tion enrolment in Sub-Saharan Africa education company that provides high since 2000, enrolment in the region still quality, market-relevant education that In addition to Finnfund’s investment, averages at under 9% of the age cohort. equips students to succeed in today’s Maarifa Education has partnered with labour market. Maarifa is committed a Finnish EdTech company Claned and – This is Finnfund’s first direct investment to increasing access to high quality educa- uses its distance-learning platform for in the education sector. Increasing access tion by offering scholarships and reaching teachers and students. Claned combines to tertiary education offers the students students in underserved countries. the theory of learning with a machine learning algorithm that starts to under market relevant skills, bridging the gap of young graduates and labour market Maarifa currently owns and operates two stand how a person learns. The combi demands – says Finnfund’s Investment universities: Cavendish University Uganda nation of Claned’s innovative platform Manager Eero Pekkanen. and Cavendish University Zambia. and Maarifa’s academic model, will Maarifa has transformed these universi enable Maarifa’s universities to offer Finnfund invests in Maarifa Education ties by investing in employees, campus transformative academic programs together with Proparco, the French facilities, student services, and the quality and expand access to thousands development finance institution, of academic programs. In addition, of students in Africa.
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
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BUSINESS
VOLLEYBALL WORTH MILLIONS! This year’s 10th Charity Real Estate Beach Volleyball Tournament raised a record amount of money for medical equipment used for children's cancer treatment.
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Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
10th Charity Real Estate Beach Volley ball Tournament, organized every year by the international advisory agency JLL, raised a staggering PLN 1.18 million through donors, sponsors and players. This year, the event raised money for “Na Ratunek Dzieciom z Chorobą Nowotworową” (To Rescue Children with Cancer Foundation). This money will enable the charity to buy equip ment for the patients at the Przylądek Nadziei (Cape of Hope) oncological clinic in Wrocław. The Polish Volleyball Fede ration was the event's honorary patron. The event took place on 1 st August 2019 at Warsaw’s La Playa Music Bar. In total, 60 teams, 420 contestants and 2,500 guests participated in the tour nament. MLP GROUP S.A., Panattoni Europe and JLL Poland took the top three places. – What happened during the finals of the JLL Charity Tournament was something totally unbelievable! The huge number of people – the organizers and representatives of the largest companies from the commercial real estate industry – translated into enormous support for the "To Rescue Children with Cancer Foundation". A staggering amount of nearly PLN 1.18 million, raised for the Foundation, is the largest single donation in the charity's 28-year history. This record donation will enable the latest generation of medical devices for innovative cellular therapies to be purchased for the Paediatric Oncology, Haematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation clinic at the "Cape of Hope" facility in Wroclaw. In addition, scientific research and early cancer prevention programs for children will also be funded. Thanks to the involvement of JLL and the largest companies from the real estate industry, the Foundation will be able to realistically help in saving hundreds of children both now and in the future – comments Przemek Pohry bieniuk, President of the Board, To Rescue Children with Cancer Foundation.
for their commitment and generosity, and Panattoni Europe and Globalworth Poland which once again supported us in such a great way. It is unbelievable how much the business and the companies that – We will all remember the moment compete with each other on a daily basis, when the result of the auction meant can nobly work together to help children that we broke the event's record amount affected by cancer. I remember the beginof PLN one million. It also means that we nings of our tournament, when the event have collected nearly PLN 3.5 million over attracted about 300 people. We knew the last decade. I would like to thank all that we were creating an event that was of the competitors, sponsors and donors interesting and quite different, but we
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
could never have expected that 10 years later, interest in the tournament would be such that some teams and guests would be placed on reserve lists. Despite this fantastic result, now is not the time to rest on one's laurels. So, soon we will start to work on next year's event. See you in 2020 – says Tomasz Trzósło, Managing Director, Poland & CEE, JLL. Outsourcing&More was the proud media patron of the event.
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BUSINESS
EMPLOYEE CAPITAL PLANS (PPK) ARE IN FORCE
WHAT DOES IT MEAN IN PRACTICE? Subject to a few exceptions, all employers have to set up PPK. The deadline for this depends on the number of employees hired by the employer. Firms hiring at least 250 individuals are subject to the Act on PPK as of 1 July 2019. However, they will be obliged to start paying PPK contributions for their staff only in the fall of this year. The Act on employee capital plans (PPK) came into force at the beginning of this year. It introduces an additional pension saving scheme for staff. It will be financed by contributions of the employer, the employees and state contribu tions. The funds gathered in PPK will be invested by financial institutions with the aim of increasing them. The funds will be the property of the PPK partici pants and will be heritable. PPK partici pants may cash out the funds at any time; however it is most profitable to do so after reaching the age of 60.
automatically signed up again every as of 1 July 2019, firms hiring between 4 years, unless they opt out again. 50 and 249 individuals – as of 1 January 2020, those hiring between 20 and PPK CONTRIBUTIONS 49 individuals – as of 1 July 2020 and Obligatory PPK contributions financed all other firms – as of 1 January 2021. by the participant equal 2% of remu The number of individuals hired should neration, whereas the obligatory contri be calculated as at the dates indicated butions financed by the employer are in the Act on PPK, and later changes do 1.5% of remuneration. Both these enti not impact this calculation. Other than ties may declare a higher contribution, employees, the number of staff includes which cannot exceed 4% of remunera other staff members subject to obliga tion. In consequence, the total contribu tory social security insurance. In prac tions will be from 3.5% up to 8% of gross tice, employers will only be obliged remuneration. As an exception, partic to start paying PPK contributions a few ipants who earn no more than 120% months after the Act on PPK becomes PPK PARTICIPANTS of the minimum statutory remunera applicable to them. All staff subject to obligatory social tion may declare a lower contribution security pension and disability insur of at least 0.5% of remuneration. Addi As an exception, smaller firms may set up ance can participate in PPK. There tionally, PPK participants may receive PPK before the Act becomes applicable fore, PPK participants may not only be yearly state contributions of PLN 240 and to them if there is an entity in their capital employees, but also persons hired under a one-off welcome contribution of PLN group which sets up PPK before then. service contracts, agency contracts, and 250 financed by the state. members of the supervisory board. ENTITIES WHICH CAN RESIGN FROM SETTING UP PPK Staff aged 18 – 54 will be signed up for DEADLINES FOR SETTING UP PPK PPK automatically, whereas staff aged The Act on PPK will be applicable Certain groups of employers may decide 55 – 70 may be signed up for PPK upon to specific employers at different times not to set up PPK. For example, firms their request. At any time, the PPK partic depending on the number of employees which already operate an employee ipant may opt out of PPK and sign back at the firm. Firms hiring at least pension program (PPE) may decide not up. Persons who opt out of PPK will be 250 individuals are subject to the Act to set up PPK, provided that the basic
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Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
employer PPE contribution is not lower than 3.5% and at least 25% of all staff participate in the PPE scheme. More over, at least one PPE contribution must have been paid before the Act on PPK became applicable to this employer. Fulfillment of these criteria by the firm should be monitored on a regular basis. If as at 1 January or 1 July of a given year the number of PPE participants is lower than 25% of all staff, the firm will be obliged to set up PPK. Additionally, subject to certain requirements, micro-en trepreneurs may decide not to set up PPK if all staff members file a declaration of resignation from PPK.
OBLIGATIONS OF THE EMPLOYER One of the key obligations of the employer in the process of setting up PPK is choosing a financial insti tution. The employer must take into account the experience and effective ness of the financial institutions as well as the conditions of managing the PPK funds, e.g. the level of remuneration for managing the funds. The employer should also take into account the PPK partic ipants’ interest. This means that firms must apply due diligence when choosing the financial institution to operate PPK. Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
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BUSINESS
the month in which it was deducted. In practice, firms which hire at least 250 individuals and conclude the agreement on operating PPK in November 2019 will be obliged to pay the first PPK contribu tions in December 2019 or January 2020, The Act on PPK does not specify when depending on when they customarily consultations should be carried out. pay remuneration. The firm may engage the representa tives by involving them in preparing Moreover, firms will be obliged to operate the procedure on choosing the finan PPK, in particular to manage the decla cial institution and the meetings with rations of PPK participants and provide such institutions. The firm may also carry them to the financial institution. They out this process individually and only will also have to provide PPK participants consult the firm’s proposed choice of PPK with regular information on their rights provider. However, engaging the staff and obligations. representatives earlier in the process may be an argument proving the firm’s PENALTIES FOR BREACHING THE ACT ON PPK due diligence. Breaching the Act on PPK is subject Consultations should be carried out to severe punishment. Persons appropriately in advance and result acting on behalf of the employer in the conclusion of an agreement may be subject to a fine of up to PLN by the parties. If an agreement cannot 1,000,000 or 1.5% of the firm’s remu be reached a month before the statutory neration fund for the preceding year, deadline for concluding the agreement depending on the breach. This can on managing PPK, the firm may choose apply to failure to conclude the agree the financial institution independently, ments with the financial institution within taking into account the statutory criteria. the prescribed deadline, failure to remit the PPK contribution within the dead AGREEMENTS WITH line, or failure to keep PPK documenta THE FINANCIAL INSTITUTION tion. The fine of up to 1.5% of the firm’s Employers are obliged to conclude agree remuneration fund for the preceding ments on managing and operating PPK year may also be imposed on persons with the chosen financial institution. acting on behalf of or at the initiative The agreements must be concluded of the employer to incite staff members within the deadlines set out in the Act to opt out of PPK. Therefore, employers on PPK. Firms which hire at least 250 indi should avoid any communication with viduals must conclude the agreement employees which may be deemed on managing PPK by 25 October 2019 as incitement to opt out of PPK. and the agreement on operating PPK by 12 November 2019. Firms which hire between 50 and 249 individuals must Authors: conclude the agreement on managing PPK by 24 April 2020 and on operating PPK – by 11 May 2020.
unions. The representatives should be elected in the manner customary at the firm. The representatives should be elected from and by all staff members who can participate in PPK.
The offers of financial institutions can be found on the PPK portal (www.mojeppk. pl). Before making a choice, firms often carry out meetings with various finan cial institutions in order to better get to know their offers. This may also be an opportunity to discuss certain practical matters such as the compatibility of PPK system with the firm’s payroll systems and the customs at the firm. In consequence, it is advisable that the firm adopts a formal procedure on choosing the financial institution. The procedure should set out specific rules for analyzing the offers. It should also specify the criteria for choosing the PPK provider and the weight attrib uted to each criterion. Such procedure will not only set out the framework for choosing the PPK provider, but will also help the firm to prove its due diligence in the process of choosing the finan cial institution.
In practice, firms often choose to engage external consultants e.g. a law firm or a broker. Law firms may help in the preparation of the whole process in order to prove the due diligence of the employer and its managers and also to avoid penalties for breaching the Act on PPK. A broker may help with OPERATING PPK AND PAYING comparing the financial institutions’ effec PPK CONTIRBUTIONS tiveness, i.e. their results in managing After concluding the agreements with the funds. However, engaging a broker the financial institution, the employer is not obligatory under the Act on PPK. must begin calculating and paying PPK contributions. The contributions are due CONSULTATIONS WITH STAFF as of the month in which the agreement REPRESENTATIVES on operating PPK was concluded, but Each firm should choose the finan- deducted on the day of payment of remu cial institution in agreement with neration. Then the firm pays the PPK the trade unions or the representatives contributions to the financial institution of the firm’s staff if there are no trade by the 15th day of the month following
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Michal Lisawa, LL.M., Counsel, Baker McKenzie Krzyzowski i Wspolnicy sp.k.
Katarzyna Oleksik, Associate, Baker McKenzie Krzyzowski i Wspolnicy sp.k.
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
BUSINESS
ENTERING GERMAN MARKET HAS BECOME EASIER Interview with Sascha Kronberg. Outsourcing&More: Sascha, German market seems to become more and more attractive for international companies to start to cooperate with. Are German companies really open to build partnerships with nearshoring or offshoring services providers? Sascha Kronberg (IGNITE MY SALES GmbH): Yes – the German market is opening up, as the risk of falling behind outweighs the risk of partnering with non-regional partners. The saying "if you want it to be exceptional, you better do it yourself," still stands today. Germans are risk avert, and until today still, cele brate their regional traditions. However, society is changing, and the demand for talented people has never been as ap parent. Technology – and business pro cess provider who understand how to blend into the missing gap never had better chances as today.
important? If yes where should companies look for certifications? As mentioned, German compa nies verify potential solution providers by looking at their financial stability, op erational excellence, size, and experience. In today's world, everyone is a leading expert, with long-time practice. You see these slogans everywhere. A company should look at different aspects of certi fication. First, if you seek formal certifica tion in Germany, then choose a valued provider relevant to the German market. European Associations often do audits and verify stability and organizational ex cellence. However, foremost, take a look of the impression you give when clients look at you. Do you have a German web In general, continuity is fundamental site? Do you provide names and faces in every aspect. to your audience? How many testimo nials and case studies from German cli We heard it is important to be a German ents can you provide? For local German speaker to build trust and start selling companies, it is mandatory to feature We can assume German market and in Germany. Is it really true? an imprint stating company registration German clients pay attention to variTo address a German prospect numbers, VAT numbers, and Managing ous elements when it comes to start by a native-German-speaker is essen Directors. Do you have a data protection international business relations. What tial to the overall success. Germans policy? In German? You see, certification are the key elements to be successful often don't feel comfortable speak comes in many flavors. in sales on German market? ing English in a first call; may it be It certainly depends on the type merely the lack of language profi You represent a very specific type of client you are addressing. German ciency or the bias against "getting sold." of business, which is “Business companies who are used to work As the German market is attractive, there Development as a Service” – how does with an international provider will are many "sales cowboys" out there. such activity look like and how is it look for stability, size, and experience Besides, if you want to show a local pres popular in Germany? in an organization. Price and flexibility ence, German language proficiency We are bridging the gap for for are also essential factors, especially for is expected. eign solution providers to get access business process providers. Typically, to the German market through collabo these clients are either high techno How do German companies verify rative business development. We act logy-driven companies or global play the services providers? Are such things as an independent, local communica like certificates or recommendations tion partner. Our service model is based ers themselves.
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Companies new to outsourcing will most likely prefer Nearshoring (if at all). The biggest objection in partnering with providers abroad is trust – trust in the fulfilment, accomplishing a set goal. Elements like distance, understanding, and the commitment of the individual are essential. It is the "German Angst," the lack of control compared to having employees in an office next door. Compa nies addressing German prospects must address this fear by highlighting a regional presence, showing a longterm commitment to the market. They need to show their experience in working with German standards. Here stability and reliability reside over just being cheaper.
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
on continuity; we do not take commis sions. Our German consultants talk to a wide range of German companies and qualify upcoming projects, and IT de velopment needs, including overall short comings. We are going deep into an or ganization by addressing vendor manag ers, product managers, project leaders, or team leads; not only the C-Level man agement. According to the specifications, we match complementary solution pro viders, send out expert-profiles, and fol low up on the potential need. We coordi nate on-site presentations or web-demos between the prospect and the solution provider and hand over the relationship once both parties are ready to explore a possible partnership.
of first-level cold calling. They are mostly not really good at it and fear rejection and failure. Outsourcing it to a trained expert is much more efficient and cost-effective.
Finally – how can you be found? We believe lots of CEE based companies would consider BDaaS as a way to enter German market. Let’s make it easier for them. You can find me working with my team in our Berlin – or Budapest location, training and managing business develop ment managers. You can find out more on our website: ignitemysales.com/sales-center/ or write to me at skronberg@ ignitemysale.com
Why did you decide to run the BDaaS services and how will it work in Partnership with German Outsourcing Association? I was asked to lead a sales work shop at the annual event at the German Outsourcing Association. Only then I re alized that many international providers of IT-development and business pro cesses have an exceptional service of fering, but lack the resources and knowl edge to address the market adequately. The German Outsourcing Association provides us the most recent trends and content, which we pass on to end-us Everyone in the B2B world has sales ers in Germany, to further open up people who need to do the tedious job the market. Thank you for the interview.
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
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BUSINESS
ALCOHOL DURING BUSINESS EVENTS
LEGAL ASPECTS OF ADVERTISING, PROMOTION AND SPONSORING Organising a business event is not an easy task and requires a lot of time, work and money. It often happens that an event is accompanied by alcohol promotion or it is sponsored by a manufacturer or distributor of such beverages. However, it should be borne in mind that the legislator has imposed certain restrictions on advertising and promotion of alcoholic products which pose numerous hazards for organisers. According to the marketing business, events are one of the most effective methods to build relations with customers and a method to create brand awareness. It is also a moment to support company business objectives and directly access a target group. Yet, organisation of a good final event is not an easy job, it is the fi nal effect effect perspec that matters and constitutes a perspecorgan tive for the assessment of the organising party. One of problematic issues organisa which can appear during the organisaalco tional work is an option to include alcoholic beverages. Advertising, promotion stip and sponsoring are restrictively stipulated in the act of 26th October 1982 counter on upbringing in sobriety and counteracting alcoholism (hereinafter referred to as the “act”)1.
HOW TO LEGALLY ADVERTISE AND PROMOTE ALCOHOL DURING AN EVENT? Alcoholic beverages are included in prod a group of so called sensitive products – goods whose advertising or promotion is, due to social reasons, either remarkably limited or even totally 1
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Off.J.2018.2137 i.e. of 2018.11.14
banned. Restrictions of promoting and • • public dissemination of names and graphic symbols of entrepreneurs advertising alcohol (also known in legal systems of many European Union states) producing alcoholic beverages not are caused by the care for the public being different from names and health protection. symbols of alcoholic beverages, which serve to popularise trademarks defiBefore any analysis of the topic, a defi of alcoholic beverages. nition should be established of alcohol or alcoholic beverage to be precise, as this The promotion of alcohol is (Article 2¹ alco paragraph 1 item 2 of the Act): is the term used by the legislator. An alcoholic beverage is a beverage designated •• public tasting of alcoholic beverages, associ for consumption and containing agricul agricul- •• free distribution of accessories associtural ethanol, the concentration of which ated with alcoholic beverages, exceeds 0.5% volume (art. 46 sect. 1 •• organising the sale of alcoholic of the act). beverages with prize-awarding and alco contests based on purchase of alcoholic beverages, Art. 131 of the act, prohibits both the adencoura vertising of alcoholic beverages, as well •• any other forms of encouraas their promotion. Thus the question alco ging publicly to purchase alcoholic beverages. how the two concepts differ differ and does it have any practical meaning should be answered? The clarification clarification of these issues It should be noted here that despite is found in the statutory glossary, i.e. art. the separate definitions of adveradver 21 of the act: tising and promotion, the legislator did not differentiate the regulations The advertising of alcoholic beverages related to them. As a consequence, should be understood as: promo prohibitions regarding the promo•• the public dissemination of images tion and advertising of alcoholic of trademarks of alcoholic beverages beverages are identical and shall be and graphic symbols related to them, discussed jointly.
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
Moving to the analysis of the provisions and the aforementioned art. 131 par. 1 of the act, it should be primarily stated that the prohibition of advertising and promotion of alcoholic beverages is an absolute ban, except for beer. Referring adver to events, it should be noted that advertising and promotion of beer is admis admissible at an event, although with many restric statutory reservations (the same restricpromo tions apply to advertising and promotion of beer on the media and at events). There are restrictions as to the content of the message, e.g. advertising and associ promotion of beer cannot evoke associ“profes ations with “relaxation or leisure”, “professional success”, and also as to the form, e.g. posters with beer advertisements should contain a message about its harmfulness. In the context of events, it is also important to mention that beer advertisements are not allowed to be broadcast on TV between 6.00 and 20.00, organ except for advertisements run by organizers of professional sports contests (e.g. a match) during such an event. As a consequence, a conclusion may be drawn that apart from beer, it is not bever possible to promote alcoholic beverages, which would mean that alcohol must not accompany an event. However, excep the legislator introduced a second exceppromo tion, allowing advertising and promotion of alcoholic beverages placed on the premises of wholesalers, separate alco stands or points of sale selling only alcoholic beverages, as well as on the premprem bever ises of the points that sell alcoholic beverages for on-site consumption (Article 131 sect. 9 of the act). Thus, this regulation promo allows for carrying out certain promotional activities (e.g. “posters” or “stands”) at the alcohol sales site. In these places, it is possible to advertise and promote not only beer, but all alcoholic beverages. There are no legal restrictions against the promotion in such circumstances of strong drinks which contain over 18% alcohol. above-men It should be noted that the above-mentioned situations, i.e. advertising and promotion of beer and alcohol at the point of sale, are exceptions to the statutory ban on advertising and legis promotion of alcohol. Generally, the legispromo lator provided for a ban on promotional activities in other circumstances, which applies not only to “stronger” spirits such as vodka or whisky, but also beverages similar to beer in terms of alcohol content, such as cider. That
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
Ilegal advertising and promotion of sensitive products is subject to criminal liability fines – from and high fi nes – from PLN 10,000 to 500,000.
sometimes causes astonishment among ruth consumers, but the legislator was ruthless in this matter. It should also be noted that, according to the liberal attitude, the ban on advertising and promotion only applies to public activities. There Therefore, it is assumed that the prohibitions do not include non-public activities of this nature. In order to qualify a given message as a non-public advertisement, it is only important to state that the public has been predetermined2. According to such an understanding of those provi provisions, private advertising and promotion of alcohol (with any percentage content) will not be an “advertisement of alcoholic beverages” within the meaning of the act and thus would not be prohibited. This constitutes a very interesting issue for field event organizers, as it opens a certain fi eld of activity for closed events. On this basis, the legitimacy of promotional campaigns justified is justifi ed as part of closed events for invited guests only. However, caution has to be exercised in this respect, because determining which event is of non-public difficult nature can be diffi cult in practice, also bearing in mind that each case should be viewed individually.
SPONSORING – LEGAL ISSUES
In the case of beverages containing 1. In 1. up to 8% alcohol, information about their sponsorship is allowed, provided it is actual information, not advertising. The message should concern the event and the sponsor’s participation is only a formula. In the case of beverages containing 2. In 2. alcohol from 8 to 18%, sponsorship information is allowed, but with certain restrictions (Article 131, section 5 of the act). First of all, only “sporting events, music concerts and other mass events” are allowed for informing about the sponsorship. The event must therefore fall into this category only. In addition, only a message can be included “inside daily newspapers or magazines, on invitations, tickets, posters, products or information boards connected with the particular event”. Another limitation is that only manu the name and trademark of the manufacturer or distributor – and nothing else – can be presented inside the sponsor’s message. 3. In the case of beverages containing 3. In alcohol above 18%, sponsorship conse information is prohibited. As a consequence, the alcohol producer will only be able to advertise his product within acceptable limits, i.e. mainly in the place of sale of the alcoalco holic drink. Summarizing, it should be stated that the regulations regarding issues related to advertising and promotion of alcoholic beverages as well as event sponsoring by the producer may cause numerous organ practical problems for the event organizer, in many aspects they are also unclear and incomprehensible for participants. difficult On the other hand, it is diffi cult to imagine a complete exclusion of alcohol from such events. However, any entity which decides to take such actions should act adver very prudently, because illegal adverprod tising and promotion of sensitive products is subject to criminal liability and fines – high fi nes – from PLN 10,000 to 500,000 in the event of advertising or alcohol promotion contrary to the act. act.
In addition to advertising or promotion of alcoholic beverages, cooperation can sponsor be initiated on the basis of event sponsorship by an alcohol producer, e.g. by trans transferring a certain amount to the organizer pref or providing alcoholic beverages at a preferential price. The act does not contain conse any restrictions in this respect, so consequently the producer or distributor can become sponsors of the event, regardless of the activity they perform. The problem arises at the stage of informing the event participants about sponsorship and Author: it is necessary to distinguish among messages that may be presented to them, making their content dependent on the percentage content of alcohol in the sponsor’s drinks: R., Prawne Walczak R., Prawne aspekty reklamy w ustawodawstwie polskim, europejskim i międzynarodowym, Polskie Wydawnictwo Prawnicze IURIS, Warszawa –Poznań 2001, 148–149.
2
Katarzyna Psyta, Attorney at Law in the Law Firm “Chudzik i Wspólnicy Radcowie Prawni” sp.p. www.chudzik.pl
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SSC
THIS IS NOT SSC, THIS IS BUSINESS PARTNER
Word of admission: SSC Lions is a project run by Pro Progressio and focused on the communication support provided to Shared Service Centres. On Outsourcing&More Magazines’ pages we will present business cases and interviews with leaders of Shared Services Centres, industry experts and consultants.
Our interlocutors will provide the answers to the questions related to best business practises, project manage ment and employer branding. In the tenth edition of SSC Lions we are presenting you the interview with Paweł Płocki, Head of TRUMPF Shared Services Centre in Warsaw.
SSC LIONS
Wiktor Doktór, Pro Progressio: TRUMPF is a global producer of machine tools and industry lasers, having 70 subsidiaries in almost all European countries, in North and South America as well as in Asia. How TRUMPF`s Shared Services Centers are organized? Pawel Plocki, Head of TRUMPF Shared Services Centre: TRUMPF provides laser solutions and advanced machine tools for almost 100 years of its existence. Its important to point out, that the company intensively develops two additional areas of its business – production of 3D printers and know-how for the Industry 4.0 (Smart Factories). TRUMPF designs and implements very interesting solutions within that area. For example remote servicing of machines via smart glasses or detailed visualization of machine tools and production halls using VR technology. We deliver industry lasers for many well known brands, mainly within automotive industry.
services. Due to the fact that the company grows primarily organically, rarely making acquisitions, there is no need to adopt new systems and processes. I know from experience that it usually causes a lot of issues in SSCs everyday work. Poland has been targeted mainly due to its proximity to the company`s HQ in Ditzingen (Stuttgart area), cost arbitrage and also – which was a key factor for TRUMPF – the level of competences. Besides that, the language pool and availability of German speakers was a nice to have. TRUMPF is a German, family owned business and for our clients an ability to communicate with accounting teams in their mother tongue was a factor of significant importance.
teaches the basics of programming, writing scripts and makros. Few volun teers who have had some previous experiences within that area and wanted to build on that, signed up. There were also some who simply wanted to learn something entirely new. The plan was to expand the competencies of accountants who already have a very good understanding of financial processes. Learning the basics of programming allowed them to create simple applications improving these processes. That is how an informal Developers Group has been born.
FULL VERSION OF THIS INTERVIEW IS AVAILABLE ONLY IN PAPER EDITION OF OUTSOURCING&MORE MAGAZINE OR ON THE PRO PROGRESSIO WEBSITE. Accounts Payable and Intercompany constitute the majority of SSC`s scope. Recently we have finalized the transition of payments process and in September this year we pick up Vendor Master Data Management for all business units withAt the moment the Warsaw SSC is in our scope. the first in TRUMPF group. We provide services for 15 European subsidiar- Multiple changes – sociological, ecoies (mainly German, but also Swiss and nomical, technological – are expected Polish), as well as Japan and there is more in this coming decade. Is your Center to come. Possibly in the future other making use of new technologies and regional Centers will be built in other processes robotization? How in your localizations, especially that TRUMPF case does it affect the effectiveness actively operates on few continents. of your activities?
Right now with the help of a trainer who is also a process excellence expert, our group of accountants created few automations, more are being developed as we speak. All finalized applications work at least a couple months now in everyday operations and they deliver to expectations. But most importantly, our bots eliminate manual, laborious work performed in subprocesses by well experienced accountants who do not anymore need to click through piles of transactions.
You consider yourselves a business partner for TRUMPF entities, not a service provider. What values, standards, competencies distinguish you? I will very openly say, that up till now our biggest issue and in the same time the biggest challenge has been that the above statement works only AT THE MOMENT THE WARSAW SSC IS THE FIRST one way. We are working intensively to “advance” in the eyes of the colIN TRUMPF GROUP. WE PROVIDE SERVICES FOR leagues from business and go beyond 15 EUROPEAN SUBSIDIARIES (MAINLY GERMAN, pure service provider role. More so, that in my mind our SSC is not and BUT ALSO SWISS AND POLISH), AS WELL will never be solely a factory mass proAS JAPAN AND THERE IS MORE TO COME. ducing accounting transactions. Mass production can be automated and we are having much larger potential. It is Polish TRUMPF Shared Services Robotization is a huge topic in itself my main task and personal ambition Center was established in 2015. What and a lot has been said about it, also to make a use of it. I will provide you was behind that decision? What in O&M articles. I have been and I still with an example. operational processes are in scope am a little bit skeptical when it comes of Polish SSC? to robotization in SSCs, because robots One of American TRUMPF subsidiarThe decision to establish SSC are not always the ideal solution. A lot ies from the West Coast needs support in Warsaw was driven by similar fac- depends on the nature of processes, types to improve administrative tasks in sales tors as the ones driving other compa- and volumes of transactions. It obviously processes. This particular business unit nies` decisions – but mainly standar doesn`t mean there is no place for robots generates c. 30 million USD income dization of financial processes. Having in the SSCs, on the contrary. annually, has only few employees. Being largely harmonized processes, one ERP quite small within the TRUMPF family, instance in most of subsidiaries and a Few months back we offered our it is not easy for them to get to the top plan to roll it out in all the others, it was employees a possibility to participate of IT list of priorities. And that is where a realistic aim to centralize accounting in an internal training scheme that we spotted a “win-win” opportunity.
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SSC LIONS
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Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
MOST OF ALL WE VALUE GOOD COMMUNICATION AND COOPERATION OF TEAM MEMBERS. WE CARE ABOUT ATMOSPHERE, WHICH IS WHY EMPLOYEES SHOULD BE OPEN TO BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS AND BE WILLING TO SHARE EXPERIENCES.
of acquiring these, for example in the Association of Polish Accountants (Stowarzyszenie Księgowych w Polsce).
What are the development plans for TRUMPF SSC in Poland for the next 5 years? What are the challenges you will be facing? Allow me to start with the challen ges. First of all we need to build much higher awareness within our global organization as to what SSC is and what it is not. We are facing issues which probably origin from lack of understanding of how SSC works, what to expect and what not to. That kind of education of our partners is a lengthy process and I am aware that short term any kind of noticeable change might Our Developers Group will help US not happen. entity with minor automatizations, that will improve their daily work, eliminate Equally important is trust. We need errors and allow them to focus on sales more of it and then maintain it, so that rather than purely administrative tasks. the company is willing to cede more In the same time these improvements responsibility on us. Right now we are will help building positive image of War- at the stage of being able to provide good saw SSC. That will be our pilot, which quality service within existing scope. We will hopefully trigger succeeding oppor- are starting the phase of extending it via tunities for us to stand out in TRUMPF small – even tiny – steps. We are as well as a helpful partner, possessing XXI cen- taking full responsibility for the protury competencies. ject of global implementation of a new workflow application. What competencies you expect your employees to have? When it comes to development plans Most of all we value good com- we definitely put emphasis on already munication and cooperation of team mentioned extension of scope and it members. We care about atmosphere, seems, there is soon readiness within which is why employees should be open the organization to initiate serious disto building relationships and be willing cussion about the topic. There is potento share experiences. We want to build tial not only in purely transactional and maintain partner relations with sub- processes, as the SSC we can be usesidiaries, hence it is important that we ful for the company in many different understand their business needs and are ways. For example as a real competence focused on delivering on our targets. We hub for automatization and improvewould also like our employees to engage ments of processes that belong outside in new initiatives, we value a drive to self the scope of our services and are never develop, proactiveness and ownership to be transitioned to the SSC. of the entire process. It is of great importance for me personWhen it comes to hard skills, obvious- ally that our SSC is diverse, that people ly knowledge of foreign languages, ERP with various ambitions, career plans and system and experience in accounting competencies can find something inter(preferably SSC) are desired. We pro- esting for themselves. Transactional vide an opportunity to develop these via processes other than AP and Intercomongoing, internal trainings and courses pany, analytics or business reporting, which till date have had a lot of interest. automatizations, projects – no doubt we have a potential to grow and I am deterIt is important to add, that our em mined to make a use of it. ployees possess various accounting certifications and some are in the process Thank you for the interview.
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
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MAIN INTERVIEW
WE KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT BUSINESSES Interview with Andrzej Osiński, President of Bisnode Polska. Wiktor Doktór, Pro Progressio: If you had to describe Bisnode’s main activities in five sentences, what would you say? Andrzej Osiński, President of Bisnode Polska: Bisnode helps businesses every day to acquire new customers and main tain secure relations with them through out the entire period of cooperation. It is one of the largest companies in the world to deal with analysing large amounts of data and creating business solutions based on Smart Data technology.
and supporting risk management in an enterprise. The former lets our customers save the time spent on own sourcing from public sources, the latter helps them make the right decision on whether to start cooperation with a client based on trade credit. The second element is based on the knowledge of specialists in financial analysis and statistics, who have prepared predictive models assessing the probability of bank ruptcy of companies operating all over the world. Therefore, it is one of the ways In practice, this means that Bisnode to use know-how in an independent ana prepares solutions for its customers lysis of the financial condition of busi containing, on the one hand, a complete ness partners. picture of the activities of businesses from around the world and, on the other, The range of businesses that coop knowledge in the form of a recommen erate with us is limitless. We work with dation regarding a given business’ credi everyone, starting from government bility. One can say that the Bisnode’s agencies to small and medium-sized products fulfil two functions: informative enterprises as well as ending with global
corporations. Their common feature is that their chosen business development paths are based on analysis and hard data. Does your activity in Poland coincide with what you do around the world or are there any differences? When talking about international cooperation, one should emphasise the fact that Bisnode is now present in 19 European countries. What is more, thanks to our strategic and long-term part nership with Dun & Bradstreet – a global provider of economic and business infor mation – we have access to the largest and most comprehensive global business database on the market. This gives us ac cess information on over 300 million busi nesses from nearly 200 countries around the world, including their personal and capital relations and risk assessment re garding cooperation.
FULL VERSION OF THIS INTERVIEW IS AVAILABLE ONLY IN PAPER EDITION OF OUTSOURCING&MORE MAGAZINE OR ON THE PRO PROGRESSIO WEBSITE.
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MAIN INTERVIEW
The method of delivering data to the customer is the same throughout the world. This is due to the fact that all entrepreneurs have the same needs. They ask exactly the same questions.
Back to the question, what we do i n Po l a n d d e f i n i t e l y c o i n c i d e s with what Bisnode offers around the world. The only difference is the scope of the data obtained regarding the company analysed. This mainly results from the local law in a given country, the development of infra structure and cultural differences. For example, the data about a Swedish company famous for its openness and business transparency will be much more comprehensive and detailed than the data about a company from Congo. This, of course, is an extreme example but it illustrates the differences in transpar ency on individual world markets well. Nevertheless, the method of deli vering data to the customer is the same throughout the world. This is due to the fact that all entrepreneurs have the same needs. They ask exactly the same questions. For example, whether they will receive money for a delivered
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product or service in time, whether they will be cheated or whether the company they want to cooperate with really exists. In the globalised world, with no phys ical boundaries and with a high degree of digitisation, our customers, even those who come from the most distant corners of the world, receive exactly the same product – which is available 24/7. Looking at the customer market – who uses your services and is the BSS (Business Support Services) sector on this list? The services of Bisnode Polska are mostly ordered by entrepreneurs. However, it is impossible to specify only one sector. The majority of Bisnode’s customers are entities deriving from the financial services sector. First of all, one should mention banks, insurance companies, business consulting com panies and credit institutions. Recently, we have noticed a significant increase in entrepreneurs’ interest in tools and
products that allow companies and in dividuals to be checked against global sanction lists, checking them in terms of cooperation and membership of ter rorist organisations as well as money laundering. In other words, these are as pects that may create the negative image of a company on the market. There are also plenty of inquiries regarding con sumer information. What is more, for many years Bisnode has been successfully cooperating with companies that naturally fit into the broad definition of Business Support Services. Regardless of the offered services, their current activities are based on hard and current data. This allows them to develop their own business and successfully work for their clients. Access to the huge data base resources of Bisnode Polska allows BSS companies to identify hidden risks on an ongoing basis and verify the finan cial standing of companies for their own and clients’ needs.
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
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MAIN INTERVIEW
We collect information about all companies in Poland including those registered, active, dormant and deleted from the official registers. At the moment, we have over 7 million enterprises. Thanks to the fact that the data is updated automatically, you can receive the latest information almost immediately.
Why can or should BPO/SSC companies be interested in economic intelligence services? Because we have a perfect under standing of what Business Support Services companies are and how they operate. We are aware of the difficulties and obstacles that they cope with each day. A strongly developed and decentra lised structure, with many national and foreign branches, is just one of them. Such entities usually do not have a com mon information exchange platform. This hinders communication and makes it im possible to reliably analyse the risk of co operating with customers. All the more is that BSS companies operate on many markets, where the opportunity to access verified information, is much more diffi cult. Cooperation with Bisnode is, there fore, a perfect alternative to costly and time-consuming projects of implement ing identical CRM systems in all compa nies of the group.
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
Over 25 years of experience on the market allows Bisnode to provide a range of tools which support the correct risk management in the largest companies in the world. This enables ready-made analyses to be created and identifies the risk areas in trade on an ongoing basis. All of this is available to the users at various levels in organisations. As a result, the CFO and the Sales Director – persons approving credit decisions and employees of the debt collection department – can all have access to the database at the same time. And this is just one of the advantages. Can the public sector, for example municipal offices or ministries, use your services? To what extent? Are you able, for example, to verify the credibility and assess the risk of companies taking part in public tenders? Unfortunately, the most impor tant criterion when choosing the win ning tenderer is the price. To avoid be ing accused of mismanagement, nep otism or corruption, officials often choose the lowest rate. This approach is often reflected in the quality of pro jects. Orderers pay the most attention to the price as the Public Finance Act requires them to be thrifty – it's a fact. What is more, they do not verify the fi nancial standing of tenderers. As a result, companies with a high risk of bankruptcy win. Recently there have been plenty of examples of bad choices of contrac tors, starting with the suspension of mo torway construction work, and ending with fiascos of numerous local projects for the construction of roads, schools and sports fields. They have one common feature – the main contractors selected in the tenders experienced financial dif ficulties and were unable to complete work on time. That is why it is so impor tant to obligatorily check the financial standing of all bidders, and to monitor the standing of the winning tenderer. This procedure will allow the orderer to avoid unpleasant surprises – especially in the form of a loss of financial liquidity or the main contractor going bankrupt. This often entails suspension of the pro ject and definitely slows it down.
Unpleasant surprises can be avoided with obligatory checks of the finan cial standing of contractors/subcon tractors and by monitoring it during the project implementation phase. These can be checked in a number of ways. One can use the services of business intelligence companies. This allows the orderer to determine the risk of cooperation and the financial credi bility of the contractor. Business intelli gence companies regularly use a variety of information sources including regis tered, sector and marketing ones. This allows the orderer to quickly obtain all information about the contractor and its subcontractors, starting from confirmation of their registration details, financial data, submitted bankruptcy petitions and ending with the information published on various websites – in the press, or in interviews with the managers. Moreover, the data on the audited entity is enriched with information about the payment morality of the entity and its capital relations with foreign companies. On the one hand, you acquire data for your customers but, on the other, you collect data from many sources. How willing are companies to share information with you? We collect information about all companies in Poland including those registered, active, dormant and deleted from the official registers. At the mo ment, we have over 7 million enterprises. Thanks to the fact that the data is up dated automatically, you can receive the latest information almost immedi ately. You can also order an individual piece of research and we then update the data for the customer on that par ticular day. You are asking me about the informa tion shared. Currently I can say that with the growing awareness of entre preneurs, the percentage of information provided by them is much higher than it was a few years ago. Thank you for the interview.
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BUSINESS ADVERTORIAL
A TECHNOLOGICAL REVOLUTION IN INFORMATION MANAGEMENT Managing an enterprise is an extremely complex process. It is affected by many different factors whose synergy translates into business growth. A number of tools can be used to optimise a company’s operational efficiency, including a dedicated IT infrastructure that significantly affects the quality and speed of many business processes. Iron Mountain is an example of a company which by establishing partnerships with IT giants taps into the most advanced technologies to optimise its clients' operations. Iron Mountain is a global leader in information management. In the United States of America alone, it scans about 627 million documents annually. As many as 95% of companies in the Fortune 1000 ranking – a list of America’s thousand largest companies – use company’s services. In Poland, the company serves 1,700 clients, including 98% of banks. Such a number of documents can only be managed with the latest technological solutions. To meet the expectations
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of its clients, Iron Mountain works together with two major players on the technology market. One of them is Google. Cooperation with the American giant focusses on use of automation, possibilities offered by artificial intelligence and algorithms developed by Google. The second partner is a company called M-Files, whose extremely advanced software for business process management has been available to Iron Mountain clients since 2019.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE HOLDS OUT A HELPING HAND TO BUSINESS The effects of joint efforts by Iron Mountain and Google are very tangible. In April 2019, Google awarded Iron Mountain the title of Technology Partner of the Year in the category of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (2018 Google Cloud Technology Partner of the Year – AI AND MACHINE LEARNING). What was it that deserved such an important distinction? The proprietary InSight platform, which is already being used by many US companies and organisations. One of the largest German banks is already testing this solution on the European market, and by 2020 InSight will be included in the standard portfolio of services offered by Iron Mountain around the world.
WHAT CAN INSIGHT DO? InSight is an Iron Mountain platform that allows you to systematise document collections, as well as many other data storage media (e.g. video, sound or image). Since various types of correlations and dependencies often occur between them, it has become clear that management processes need to be
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
improved. Therefore, Google Cloud, which relies on the most advanced solutions in algorithm use, artificial intelligence and machine learning, was connected to the InSight platform created specifically for it by Iron Mountain. Properly used, these tools allow far-reaching automation of document management processes. In this way, each Iron Mountain client can benefit from the entire technological arsenal of Google. This translates directly into the organisation of document databases, optimisation of decision-making processes, and also allows to draw conclusions that have so far been “hidden” among thousands of pages. This, in turn, is directly reflected in the financial results of enterprises, which until now may not have been aware of the business opportunities offered by the data they manage. – Thanks to cooperation with Google, Iron Mountain even more fully supports and accelerates the business processes of its clients. The InSight tool can even replace bank analysts and autonomously decide whether a loan is granted based on its examination of loan applications – explains Sylwia Pyśkiewicz, Iron Mountain Polska CEO.
HOW DOES IT WORK? Simply put, Google Cloud converts information into structured data packages. Thanks to this, regardless of whether we are looking for an account number on an invoice or a photo that meets certain criteria, Google's algorithms will allow them to be searched quickly. “Paper” data, scans, video or telephone records are uploaded to the cloud, where they are indexed by Google robots. Then they are placed on the InSight analytical platform, to which Iron Mountain clients have direct access. From there, they can smoothly create any analysis or quickly search data. Due to the fact that the information contained in most documents is confidential, Iron Mountain InSight, with Google Cloud support, offers advanced security systems. These include encrypted connections or unilateral access to databases. The space in which the data is stored is separated from the cloud, only the client has access to it. The service has been conceived mainly for enterprises whose specificity of operation causes them to generate large amounts of documentation, such as banking, energy providers or healthcare institutions.
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BUSINESS ADVERTORIAL
In April 2019, Google awarded Iron Mountain the title of Technology Partner of the Year in the category of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (2018 Google Cloud Technology Partner of the Year - AI AND MACHINE LEARNING). What was it that deserved such an important distinction? The proprietary InSight platform, which is already being used by many US companies and organisations.
The second of the technologically advanced solutions offered by Iron Mountain is a tool developed by M-Files, i.e. a platform from the BPM segment, which in many ways facilitates the daily work of enterprises from every industry.
ALL BUSINESS PROCESSES IN ONE PLACE The second of the technologically advanced solutions offered by Iron Mountain is a tool developed by M-Files, i.e. a platform from the BPM (Business Process Management) segment, which in many ways facilitates the daily work of enterprises from every industry. It offers quick access to data, information or documents, and control over the flow of tasks and work. At the same time, M-Files has full mobile support using a dedicated app. One of the key functionalities of the platform is also the possibility of integration with IT infrastructure and solutions which are already used by the client. M-Files works by effectively organising information and documents to make them easily retrievable. The software supports all kinds of business processes, e.g. management of contracts, agreements, invoices, or HR documents. It even helps oversee vacation leave requests or delegation expenses. What makes M-Files unique is the way it stores content – instead of traditional organi sing by storage location (e.g. a folder-based solution), the software creates a set of metadata according to which sorting is based on content, which makes searching and use much simpler.
The technological revolution goes far beyond the latest models of smartphones or laptops. It also manifests itself in systems and solutions for companies that are already using seemingly futuristic solutions, such as artificial intelligence or machine learning. The growing amount of data that is collected according to different standards and on various media makes it necessary to take advantage of the enormous possibilities offered by modern IT infrastructure in the wide sense. The solutions offered by Iron Mountain in cooperation with Google and M-Files, thanks to their efficiency, allow for significant savings in time and resources, which directly translates into each company’s bottom line.
GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP Thanks to cooperation with M-Files, Iron Mountain clients can use all benefits offered by the platform. The company provides a subscription for any number of positions, and also offers the option of installing M-Files on its clients' internal servers. – Having added this solution to the portfolio of services offered by Iron Mountain, we are able to provide comprehensive, modern and highly personalised tools
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to manage all business processes of our clients, regardless of the type of business they run. As in the case of the Google partnership, which brought us the title of 2018 Technological Partner of the Year in the US, we see enormous potential also in these joint efforts. According to our estimates, cooperation with M-files can improve selected processes of our clients by 30%, which translates into time, but also cost savings, which is the most important benefit for the company – says Sylwia Pyśkiewicz, President of Iron Mountain Polska.
Author:
Sylwia Pyśkiewicz, President, Iron Mountain Polska
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
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WE I SEE I THINGS I DIFFERENTLY
BUSINESS
HR side of Carlsberg Shared Services Interview with Lilla Stachowicz, HR director at Carlsberg Shared Services.
Carlsberg Family Picnic 2019.
Outsourcing&More: Dear Lilla. You have taken over the role of HR Director at Carlsberg Shared Services relatively recently. What is it like to manage personnel in one of the most recognizable shared services centres in Poznań? Lilla Stachowicz, Carlsberg: The role of the HR director at Carlsberg Shared Services was an interesting offer, giv ing me the possibility of a real impact on shaping the HR processes in the organization. CSS Poznan is a company of opti mal size, where processes can be shaped without forgetting about a man as a sub ject of the process. I feel that my de cisions have an impact on improving the employee's quality of life. As I be come more familiar with the organiza tion, I have more and more opportuni ties to influence, fantastic management that does not limit but supports – it is very
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valuable in this organization. A great asset is also an attractive brand – from the mo ment I started working here I am a fan of Grimbergen beer, and beers are an in teresting addition to the weekend diet. We closely observe the communication of BSS companies in the media and in social channels, and the year 2019 in the case of Carlsberg Shared Services has seen an exponential increase in communication dedicated to employees and Employer Branding. Why have you decided to focus on the employee in your communication? Employee-centered Communication has never been a stranger to us. We be lieve that employee stories are the best example of what is happening in our company. We are active on Facebook and LinkedIn, where we share news about
our sustainability campaigns, recruitment offers, beer brands and financial results, but we focus mainly on successes and employee stories. In June 2018, we opened a new channel in social media on Instagram dedicated to the stories of our employees – life@CSS, that is life at Carlsberg Shared Services. Thanks to the interviews, we have the chance to see the company's story from the perspective of employees at various levels of the organization, from different areas, with different seniority. It is a unique look at the devel opment possibilities from the perspective of employees. We believe that this diver sity and the set of all moments creates our history, gives a taste of who we are, what culture we create, and what it's like to be part of our team.
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
We have heard that you have launched an internship programme. What does it involve and who can take part? At the beginning of May, we started a six-month internship programme. It is a unique development programme pre pared for students of such fields as fi nance, accounting or logistics, but also for students of all other fields who would like to start their career in the shared services industry. In a word, any student who speaks English at the minimum B2 level, is motivated to learn and his pas sion is development in particular areas such as accounting, financial controlling or logistics could apply for an intern po sition. Our internship programme, coor dinated by Natalia Machińska (Employer Branding & Campus Recruitment Lead), is built in such a way that the student will not only know the industry and work in individual operational teams, but also will take advantage of many benefits, such as specially prepared trainings in the use of specialized pro grammes and tools. Access to our in ternal training platform will also ena ble an opportunity to acquire new soft skills. Each intern will have an assigned tutor who will look after his develop ment and provide valuable feedback on an ongoing basis. After completing
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
the internship, the most talented interns will be offered positions of junior spe cialists in the areas mentioned above.
Employee-centered Communication has never been a stranger to us. We believe that employee stories are the best example of what is happening in our company.
Let ’s move from internships to a broader area of work at Carlsberg Shared Services. Which departments are currently being developed in your company and what kind of competences are you looking for among candidates? We take over further processes from markets such as Germany, France, and others. We develop practically every department, with a special em phasis on the areas of Controlling, Record to Repor t, and Intelligent Automation. This is a part of our strategy to create a Center of Excellence and grow in the end to end processes. Advanced processes are one of our distinguishing features and often a magnet for candi dates. Inviting to cooperation, we care about cultural fit. Therefore we are look ing for pro-activity, creativity, and a sense of responsibility. The ability to think ana lytically, plan and work in a team are also vital. We want our employees, both with several years of experience and new ones, to be guaranteed interesting develop ment opportunities both at our office and abroad.
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BUSINESS
2019 internship programme.
I have the satisfaction of working with cool, passionate people, and I also got a good work-life balance.
Employee volunteering – refurbishment at ARS Foundation.
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Finally, let’s take a look into the future. What HR-related goals do you set for yourself and for Carlsberg Shared Services for the coming year? If I were to summarize it in one word, I would say Development. The develop ment of our employees, the entire HR department, the area of talent manage ment. I would like to create such a cul ture in an organization where employ ees are ambassadors of both our brand and employer, where they feel proud of being part of Carlsberg. We change the physical space of our office to adapt it to the needs of employees in accord ance with the principle of activity-based workplace. I really care about employees’ satisfaction and enabling them to work effectively, which is why the employ ees are allowed to work from a selected place in the office (or outside the office on the basis of remote work), which best suits his or her needs. I want every em ployee in the company to feel good and calm on Sunday evening thinking about going back to work on Monday.
HR is a difficult and very wide area of activity for any BSS operations centre. What has been your career path so far? I spent the first nine years working in accounting and controlling. At some point, I felt that I needed contact with people, so I completed my education with management in the area of HR, and I started working as HR Specialist. I was quickly promoted to the position of a sen ior specialist, then a manager. For several years I have been working as HR director and member of the board. At Carlsberg Shared Services, I feel that I can share my experience and fulfill myself as a mentor. Thank you for the interview.
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
Praca tymczasowa, outsourcing blue-collar, rekrutacje pracowników ze Wschodu
Rekrutacje stałe, outsourcing white-collar, doradztwo personalne
360°
Rekrutacja i outsourcing pracowników IT, automatyzacja procesów biznesowych
Transgraniczne delegowanie pracowników
Facility management
KOMPLEKSOWE usługi doradztwa personalnego Od 15 lat współtworzymy rynek pracy, dostarczając kompleksowe usługi rekrutacji i zarządzania kapitałem ludzkim. Skontaktuj się z nami.
BUSINESS
CLOSER TO PERFECTION Every organization strives for excellence, whether purposely or not. However, only a few succeed. So how does one enter the right path of development?
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There is no way to achieve great things in business without agile organization, the kind which is capable of innovation and responsive to trends and changes in the market. None of this is achieved without establishing an organizational culture which enables all employees to concentrate on the surplus value (which constitutes actual value for the customer), continually improve process efficienc y and engage in eliminating waste. Unachievable? Quite the contrary, as evidenced by the success stories of many companies. Nevertheless, it is a challenging process and requires the involvement of everyone within the company, from board members to line workers.
regardless of unfavourable external stimuli. To achieve this, a number of conditions must be fulfilled.
COULD IT GET BETTER? ABSOLUTELY!
CHALLENGES FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION
Most companies strive for excel lence, but very few succeed. After all, improvement is a constant process through which the company becomes more and more efficient as a whole, by avoiding internal perturbations and
Let’s tr y to get one step closer to some of the conditions– chosen on the basis of our long-standing expe rience – to be fulfilled in order to enter the path of continuous improvement, equivalent to business growth.
Our experience shows that every organ ization can take its own path to excel lence by choosing solutions, attitudes, and tools which are relevant at a given stage of their development. However, the efficiency of processes is always crucial. In practical terms, it turns out that companies’ effectiveness in pursuing stra tegic objectives depends entirely on how efficient their processes are. In order to achieve this goal, it is worth consid ering the supporting factors. There are many of them, but the most important ones can easily be identified.
Employee commitment. The vast majority of workers are not particularly keen on their jobs and perform them out of mere obligation. The cyclical reports of the Gallup Institute indicate that the situation is similar all around the world: barely a dozen percent of employees like their work and are fully committed to it. The same institute has analysed the relationship between employee commitment and the effec tiveness of their companies. The mutual influence is obvious; a high level of satis faction translates into better performance and business outcomes, but as with everything, it’s all about the details. Namely, there is no way to turn some body into a committed worker if they lack the proper motivation. It also turns out that the main motivator does not neces sarily have to be the salary and finan cial bonuses. Understandably, a number of stimuli can serve as motivating factors. Here are a few good examples: • Understanding the strategy (the mission and vision of the company, so it is clear what the employees are involved
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
in and they understand the point of their work); • Impact on the company (the mana gerial ability to delegate tasks and greater freedom in decision-making by employees located in the lower parts of the structure); • Internal communication (the employee can rely on the manager and they are given feedback through which they learn how well they are performing. These relationships are based on dialogue and hence mutual communication); • Transparency of organizational culture (the establishment of clear and common rules in the company, which include competence development and promotion prospects – the path of development). Learning. Employee attitudes also influ ence the development and learning potential. It is important to note that the same factor directly translates into the efficiency of the processes and their "agility" (the ability to adapt quickly to new conditions and market needs). Without developing staff (providing them with new skills and competences), achieving the desired outcomes is not possible. The mentor–disciple rela tionship is also crucial to the process (the employee can rely on their supervisor not only to issue commands, but also to provide support, listen and challenge them, so that they can effectively solve problems together). It enables a certain “relay-race” of generations to take place, namely: • Efficient intergenerational coop eration in a variety of teams (one of the key challenges organisations of most sectors have to face today); • Effective acquisition of knowledge (provided by experienced people in the company) by novice workers (today, many companies are strug gling with resignations and the ability to replace the leaving workers with new ones who quickly adapt to the busi ness requirements); • Supporting talents (the search for and development of particularly gifted people, for which there are a number of tools, ranging from internships and training to well-written competency
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
The cyclical reports of the Gallup Institute indicate that the situation is similar all around the world: barely a dozen percent of employees like their work and are fully committed to it.
Leadership. The strategic objectives are to be determined by the management of the company or its owner. However, effective communication is crucial to get the strategy across and down the corpo rate ladder – so that each employee matrices, which constitute the basis for understands the objectives equally (but workers’ development); also the meaning behind the strategy!) • Exploiting the diversity potential (every and gains an impact on its implemen worker has different personal charac tation (within the process in which teristics and experience from other they participate and within the limits workplaces, it is certainly worthwhile of their assigned tasks). The employees’ to approach employee initiatives responsibility for the implementa in an open way and exploit the poten tion of the strategy varies depending tial of diversity, which constitutes on competence, position or experience. significant company capital). The task, however, applies to everyone without exception. Strategy of development. There is no way to plan long-term development These are the key factors that deter of the organization without setting mine the effectiveness of processes specific goals. The key to the company's in the company and the ability to improve strategy is its vision and mission (what we it comprehensively. Most companies would like to achieve as an organization disregard these elements, which could be one of the possible reasons for their fail and how). It is important that: ures. Everybody wants to be the best, but • The strategy is defined over time few ever succeed. A leader must never fail (by means of targets) and using to pay attention to his employees – they recordable indicators (hard data that are, after all, the most important capital will indicate whether the targets are of many organizations, which translates being pursued); into their ability to continually change • Milestones are set, which are simply for the better. stages of implementation within the time periods of the compa Author: ny's strategy; • Everybody (from the board to line workers) equally understands the stra tegic challenges faced by the company and is aware of the contribution they should make in order to support Tomasz Bereźnicki, the implementation of the compa Manager Partner, DPC Polska ny's strategy. One element which can support this endeavour is a well-de signed efficiency management system The subject of this article is to be built on the basis of the KPI cascade. presented more broadly at the Closer to perfection conference. Comprehensiveness. The improve The conference will be held ment of the organization must be on 17 October 2019 at the Marriott holistic in nature. It needs to influence Hotel in Warsaw. We are looking forward to meeting you. only a certain part of the company’s activities, one of the processes, perhaps as part of a pilot action, so that the organ Find out more at: www.blizejdoskonalosci.pl. ization gains the internal competences to coordinate this complex evolution. This approach requires the involvement of appropriate tools for specific tasks (tactical objectives), attention to detail, efficient use of resources and loyalty to the company's strategy.
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INVESTMENTS NEWS SKANSKA AND INNOGY INNOVATION HUB HAVE ENTERED INTO AN AGREEMENT ON STRATEGIC COOPERATION
Skanska Commercial Development Europe and innogy Innovation Hub, which is funded by innogy SE have entered into an agreement on stra tegic cooperation regarding technology development in the commercial real estate industry. This is the first agree ment between the fund, which invests in PropTech (property technology) and ConTech (construction technology) inno vation as part of its investment strategy, with a developer company in Central and Eastern Europe. Under the agreement, Skanska will cooperate with PropTech and ConTech focused start-ups within the innogy Innovation Hub portfolio. By the end of the year, the partners wish to carry out the first implementation projects with respect to Skanska Commer cial Development Europe office building investments in Poland, Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary.
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Under the agreement, Skanska Commer cial Development Europe and innogy Innovation Hub will focus on several key areas, such as data analytics from building systems, user comfort, and improvements in the construc tion process. Skanska will be able to cooperate with start-ups belonging to the innogy Innovation Hub portfolio all over the world. Together with selected partners, Skanska will conduct the proof of concept for the available solutions this year. So far, within the framework of the cooperation, Skanska’s representa tives have participated in several sectoral innogy Innovation Hub identifies, funds conferences for start-ups organized and provides a co-creation platform for by innogy Innovation Hub in Germany technologies and businesses that have and Israel. the potential to redefine the energy market of the future. With buildings The innogy Innovation Hub has created responsible for 40% of global energy a €162m portfolio (as of December consumption, the construction and 2018) through investing in disruptive building industry is a key focus area individuals, start-ups and early stage for the Innovation Hub’s ‘Smart and businesses, and has provided oppor Connected’ team. Its vision – for ‘smart’ tunities for nearly 90 start-ups and office buildings of the future – matches scale-up companies to collaborate. Skanska’s vision. For several years already, One example of a portfolio company buildings have become increasingly focused on the future of buildings has autonomous, smart entities that monitor created a platform tracking construc and optimize their resources in real time. tion progress in real time, thanks to 360° For example, by leveraging continuously panoramic pictures. The software conti gathered user data, information on occu nuously updates construction status, pancy and Data Analytics, buildings are which allows for more effective cost able to conserve energy and heat, adapt and schedule management and helps temperature, humidity, and lighting, to avoid budget overspending, which while at the same time caring about is very helpful at the time of growing the users’ health. labour and material expenses.
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
IMMOBILE S.A. CAPITAL GROUP IN IMMOBILE K3 At the beginning of August in Bydgoszcz, the owner of the building – Immobile S.A. Capital Group and its comprised companies CDI Konsultanci Budowlani, Projprzem Makrum and Focus Hotels, opened their offices in Immobile K3.
of the building area will be rented by the end of the year – says Maciej Wawrzyniak, director of real estate management and representative of the developer CDI Konsultanci Budowlani Sp. z o. o.
The high interest in this modern office – About 65% of the office space has space is not a surprise. Immobile already been rented. We estimate that 95% K3 is located in the heart of the old town – representative point of the city with a very good transport accessibility. In July, Sii, one of the leading providers of IT services and industrial engineering in Poland, opened its headquarters in Immobile K3. Currently, 40 people are employed in the Bydgoszcz branch, but the team is to be systematically expanded. In the first stage, Sii Polska has leased 500 sqm, but enlargement of office space is already planned. In Immobile K3 are also located Office of Competition and Consumer Protec tion, AVIVA, BOŚ Bank S.A, mFinanse and BNP Paribas. On the ground floor, in the commercial and service space, arrangement works are underway in the La Rosa restaurant – new project of owners of the Karafka, a very popular dining place in Bydgoszcz.
NEW SALES & MARKETING DIVISION IN THE WROCŁAW BRANCH OF MICHAEL PAGE The recruitment company Michael Page has created a new Sales & Marketing division in Wrocław, which focuses on the recruitment of marketing and sales specialists. This is a response to the needs of the Lower Silesian labor market, where there is a high demand for employees from these areas. The Lower Silesian Sales & Marketing division focuses on the recruitment of manage rial staff. Its main clients are companies from the manufacturing sector that are looking for professionals who combine technical education with highly devel oped soft and sales competences. In the case of marketing positions, people with high marketing knowledge, good knowledge of the market and under standing of the product are particu larly sought after. Marcin Kunicki, Senior Consultant at Michael Page, is responsible for the development of the division.
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
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INVESTMENTS
ŁÓDŹ IS HUNGRY FOR BUSINESS AND HAS A PLACE FOR IT The modern business services industry in Poland has already moved from a phase of dynamic development to a smart and stable stage of further evolution.
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Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
Polish cities are increasingly strengthe ning what they have to offer (in the heads of investors) and, what can be seen through actual investments, is the growth and development of new and existing investment projects such as BPO and SSC operational centres, which is almost equally as fast. The latter, in particular, have been evolving over the years and there has been a notice able increase in the number of GBC and CoE projects. GBC (Global Business Centre) and CoE (Centre of Excellence) are centres where an increasing number of advanced business processes are being carried out. It is here that the staff are required to have more and more experience, skills and knowledge of many foreign languages as well as being open to the quick imple mentation of new processes taken over from the parent company and companies related to the investor's group. Over the last two decades, Łódź has proven to be a location conducive to the evolution of shared services centres. For a dozen or so years, the city has taken care of the dynamic and impressive growth of office space, which is currently inhabited mainly by BSS companies as well as IT and financial institutions. However, this did not stop the city authorities from further developing their office structure. Several office projects, which fully meet the needs of demanding tenants from the BSS world, are underway. At the beginning of 2019, representa tives of BPO/SSC companies participating in The BSS Forum and the Outsourcing Stars Gala widely discussed the attractive ness of Łódź as not only one of the most interesting Polish locations for shared services centres, but also European ones.
schools with the BSS industry, job fairs, entrepreneurship days or joint projects implemented as part of the ‘Youth in Łódź’ initiative are commonplace. The result of this cooperation is a constant supply of well-prepared personnel to the labour market both in newly created operational centres and in those which have been operating in Łódź for years. From a logistics point of view, busi ness life is divided into two main parts of the city i.e. along the streets of Mickie wicza and Piłsudskiego and within the area of the New Centre of Łódź. The areas adja cent to the Łódź Special Economic Zone cannot be omitted either. By opening the modern Łódź Fabryczna station a few years ago, the city has prepared itself for increased railway traffic which, when combined with the second Łódź Kaliska station, will significantly facilitate access to every business district of Łódź. Łódź is one of a few Polish cities with a multicultural agglomeration. The Łódź of Four Cultures Festival, the Holi Festival – the Festival of Colours and such projects as Bollylodz take place here. These events are close to the hearts of foreigners who have associated their academic and business lives with Łódź. If we take a closer look at the employment in BSS centres, we can see that the people working there speak nearly 30 different languages and represent several dozen different nationalities. This fact is not surprising as the investors from the BSS sector in Łódź are companies from Japan, India, Europe and the United States.
Can the city become home to further BSS investments? Not only can it become home to further investments – it's already happening right now! Successive office projects incorporated into the urban fabric If we were to examine Łódź through demonstrate this and the city can provide the eyes of an investor and take a closer new investors with a large selection look at the two most important elements of interesting offices, experienced staff determining an investment deci and an excellent cultural offer which takes sion – namely the availability of human care of the corporate work-life balance. resources and logistics – then we would see a city that pays the most attention More information: to these two factors. In a city with nearly 700,000 inhabitants, there are 21 higher education institu tions with approximately 20,000 gradu ates each year, most of whom are poten tial employees of the sector of modern business services. The cooperation of local
Business Development and International Relations Bureau Piotrkowska 104a Street, 90-926 Lodz Phone: +48 42 638 59 39 Fax: +48 42 638 59 40 e-mail: boi@uml.lodz.pl
New investment in the city
Name of the investor: Digital Teammates Country of origin: Poland Number of workplaces: 127 sector: Robotic Process Automation
We opened an office in Łódź because we know that it is people who create the company and work for its success. We have found enthusiastic and qualified employees in Łódź, many of whom are graduates of local universities. Those who have joined our teams are ambitious and open to new ideas, willing to share their knowledge and passion. It is thanks to them, as well as investments in infrastructure and revitalization, that Łódź is gaining an increasingly stronger position on the map of Poland and Europe. Our activity in the city has resulted in the cooperation with the City Office, where a Digital Clerk – created and maintained by our Robot Shepherds – has begun work this year.
Mariusz Pultyn, CTO, Digital Teammates
INVESTMENTS
F&A IN LUBLIN READY FOR NEW INVESTMENTS
Already for some time the booming business service sector in Lublin has been clearly dominated by the IT industry which records the fastest growth, which is reflected in the number of new investors representing the IT sector who on a regular basis choose Lublin for a place of their operations. This results not only from the specificity of the market and the ever-changing world of technology, but also from the adoption and implementa tion of Lublin Development Strategy by the City Hall which defined the IT industry as one of city’s priority specializa tions. According to the Strategy, priority is also given to business services. However, the IT sector somewhat outshines the growth of the Finance & Accounting, which some years ago gave the impetus for the dynamic rise of BSS in Lublin. Just like in case of the IT industry, some of the key factors behind the influx of F&A investments include resources and the quality of education provided at Lublin’s universities. Economy, finance and accounting, management, as well as English studies and applied linguis tics are, besides law, IT and psychology,
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the most popular courses of study in Lublin. For example, the analysis of recruitment for the upcoming academic year for the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, which is the biggest university in Eastern Poland, reveals that the greatest interest in terms of the number of candi dates per place is shown in the courses which are crucial for the development of BSS, including F&A, namely finance and accounting, English studies and applied linguistics which took the second, third and fourth position respectively (the posi tion of the undisputed leader belongs to psychology). During the previous academic year in Lublin, there were 2,080 students of finance and accounting, 1,793 people studied management, 1,654 economy, 659 English studies and 403 applied linguistics. These numbers prove that the offer of Lublin’s univer sities is adapted to the labour market
requirements and it responds to its needs, as well as that young people see the current and future potential of these specific courses of studies, and indirectly value the attractiveness of workplaces offered by the business services sector. One of the first companies, at the same time one of the most important for the growth of the F&A industry in Lublin, which was lured by the academic and business potential of the city was Genpact, a global provider of finance and accounting services, which already in 2008 selected Lublin for a place of its first branch in Poland. Its Operations Centre, currently employing 230 special ists, delivers services to industries like pharma, automotive and FMCG. To serve its mostly Russian – and Polishspeaking clients, Genpact benefits from the availability of local specialists
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
The IT sector outshines the growth of the Finance & Accounting, which some years ago gave the impetus for the dynamic rise of BSS in Lublin.
in the areas of accounts receivable, accounts payable, general ledger or management accounting, complementing F&A services with the processes related to customer service. It was actually Genpact’s investment that has given rise to the strong growth of BPO industry in the city, and it was followed by other investors active in F&A who established in Lublin. Accounting and payroll are some of the services, which are most frequently outsourced, while this solution is currently used by less than a half of businesses in Poland. However, the trend for outsourcing is clearly growing due to common shortages of human resources, and thus increasing recruitment costs. An external service provider instead of a full-time employee is not only about saving money and time, but to a great
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
extent also about limiting financial accountability of management boards thanks to the transfer of responsibility to the service provider. The industries which are most prone to outsource their F&A operations include technology, telecom, FMCG and manufacturing. Finance and accounting is also one of the groups of services which are most likely to become centralized in a form of shared services centres. One of the examples of such investments is the Centre for Accounting Operations of Orange Polska which since 2006 has been delivering F&A services for the companies which belong to Orange Polska group. Already at the very beginning of its presence in Lublin, operating at that time as the Centre for Accounting Operations of TP, Shared Services & Outsourcing Network (SSON) presented it with a prestigious award for the best own shared services centre in Europe.
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INVESTMENTS
Banks are one of the key tenants of modern office space in Lublin, which is proved by a recordbreaking transaction of Santander Bank Polska, which recently leased 5,000 sq m in CZ Office Pak 1UA building.
Competitiveness of salaries, together with lower operational costs of running a business in Lublin make international companies eye Lublin as a place of their new business operations despite the decreasing availability of human resources, which is a common challenge across Europe.
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Besides large business centres offering financial and accounting services, Lublin also witnesses the growth of smaller accounting offices, some of which provide services to international corporations facilitating their entry to the market and delivering a comprehensive package of services, including advisory on suit able forms of business activity, assistance in registering a company, representation before the Social Security Office or a Tax Office or preparing financial statements. Just like in in the entire business service sector, it is worth to underline excellent language skills of F&A specialist in Lublin. Furthermore, lots of them are associ ated in the Accountants’ Association, which is one of the most important and credible groups which gather professional accountants and financiers. Substantial potential of the city noticed by new investors results also from cost competitiveness, e.g. salary expecta tions which are still lower than in cities in central and western Poland. For instance, an English-speaking junior accountant (AP/AR) in Lublin earns between PLN 3,200-4,200 gross, while salary at the same position in Katowice ranges between PLN 4,500 and 5,500 gross. A similar difference is visible when comparing more experienced positions – a Team Leader (General Ledger) in Lublin who manages a team of 5–15 employees may expect between PLN 8,500 and 12,000 gross, as compared to PLN 10,000–15,000 gross in Gdańsk. Competitiveness of salaries, together with lower operational costs of running a business in Lublin make interna tional companies eye Lublin as a place of their new business operations despite the decreasing availability of human resources, which is a common challenge across Europe. Interestingly, in spite of a clear increase of the importance of automation of processes in finance and accounting, F&A companies are still some of the biggest employers in Lublin. It is worth noting, however, that according to the State of Outsourcing, Shared Services, and Operations Industry 2018 prepared by KPMG, in the years to come solutions from the area of Robotic Process Auto mation will be the most significant tech nologies enabling operational savings, and without doubt automation of simple, repetitive and time-consuming tasks
of employees, like invoicing, handling accounts receivable or processing and tracking payments will change the nature of work in F&A. Another industry which is strongly repre sented in the business services sector in Lublin is banking. It is in this city where since 2013 Alior Bank has got its contact centre, which serves as the bank’s customer relations office. Lublin is also home to the Individual Client Service Centre of PKO BP, which since 2004 has provided telephone and email service to the bank’s clients and companies from the capital group in Poland and abroad, as well as operational centres of Pekao Faktoring, Open Finance, Vistra Corporate Services or EOS KSI Polska which oper ates in the area of managing debt collec tion. It is worth noting, that banks are one of the key tenants of modern office space in Lublin, which is proved by a recordbreaking transaction of Santander Bank Polska, which recently leased 5,000 sq m in CZ Office Park 1UA building. Thanks to three new investments which have been just started, the growing office market in Lublin will expand by almost 40,000 sq m of A-class space. Wojciechowska 9A of 6,700 sq m devel oped by W9 Investments S.C. J.Urban D.Piątek, G7 building of JBU Sp. z o.o. Sp. k. (14,500 sq m) and CZ Office Park 3U (16,500 sq m) by Centrum Zana Holding which is the next step of expansion of the office park are new investments of local developers who, despite still rela tively high vacancy rates, see the great potential of the market, number of new investments coming to the city, as well as the growth rate of existing tenants, including those representing business services sector. After completion of these projects, the total modern office space in Lublin will reach 243,282 sq m. More information:
Łukasz Goś Director of Investor Relations Office Lublin City Hall Phone: +48 81 466 25 42 e-mail: lukasz.gos@lublin.eu
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
INVESTMENTS
SPACE TECHNOLOGIES AND BUSINESS EVENTS OFFER IN KIELCE You do not have to go into space to see the Red Planet up close... Just now Kielce hosts the international competitions, which are organized by the European Space Foundation, with the City of Kielce as one of the main Partners. In addition to attractions for enthusiasts of science and new technologies, the city has prepared an offer of several other valuable economic events that will satisfy the expectations of the most demanding guests. EUROPEAN ROVER CHALLENGE SEPTEMBER 13–15
placed first in the international compe tition – the University Rover Challenge, which were held on May 30 – June 1, 2019 in the desert in the USA state of Utah. Our students defeated 95 teams from around the world, and in the final they competed against 36 teams from the United States, Great Britain, Canada, India and also from Poland. Although Poles in recent years quite often stood on the podium in the University Rover Challenge, it is certainly the crowning achievement of the effort of many people and the addi tional argument for the European edition of the event to take place in Kielce.
The European Rover Challenge (ERC) is Europe’s largest international robotics and cosmic competition. The teams that take part in it, with the help of in-house designed and constructed devices, perform similar tasks to those carried out by unmanned missions on other planets. It is not only an educational event – it is also a space to develop the cooper ation between science and business, to strengthen the transfer of knowledge. That is why the ERC is enthusiastically welcomed by public institutions, univer sities and enterprises dealing with IT and modern technologies on a daily basis. The place of the competition, the campus of the Kielce University of Technology, was The event that currently takes place prepared in a way to reflect the conditions in Kielce is a treat for the enthusiasts prevailing on the alien planet. Brown of space and new technologies, students, earth specially formed in the obstacle youth and representatives of the world course resembles both the appear of science and business. It takes place ance and the geological composition periodically from 2014 and, apart from of the Martian soil. Competing teams observing the struggles of individual perform a variety of tasks, including teams, it gives the opportunity to partici defeating the designated route, taking pate in various workshops, scientific exper and transporting a large load, blind iments and demonstrations. 400 people navigation, taking soil samples. They from 15 countries compete with each were designed to eliminate the random other. The host of this year’s, fifth edition factor and promote projects that operate is the Kielce University of Technology. in a permanent and repeatable manner. It was the team from the Kielce Univer A wide audience is watching the contest sity, Impuls Mars Rover Kielce, that was ants – the event is open to all viewers.
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– From the point of view of the city, it is important that in addition to popularizing space topics and science and technology workshops, we create a bridge to cooperation between science and business – Danuta Papaj, Deputy Mayor of Kielce says. And she adds: – Therefore, during this year’s edition of the competition, a mentoring and business conference for the representatives of the scientific and technological circles was organized for the first time, which creates a space for joint discussion on possible projects in the context of new space exploration plans. The European Rover Challenge is getting more and more recognized every year. The awareness of the representatives of the space industry is also growing that the event has a significant contri bution to the development of tech nology and education of staff of modern economy. Apart from the City of Kielce, the support for the event was offered by the Marshal of Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, the Special Economic Zone “Starachowice”, the Mars Society Poland and the European Space Founda tion. Honorary patronage was provided by the European Commission, the Polish Space Agency and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
INTERNATIONAL DEFENSE INDUSTRY EXHIBITION MSPO SEPTEMBER 3–6 The most known event in the defense industry in Poland has been held in Targi Kielce (Kielce Trade Fairs) for 27 years. It is not only a comprehensive presentation of military equipment, but also a space for business meetings and contracts between defense sector producers from different continents. This year, the Fair was held on 3–6 September. One of the most important exhibitors was Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa. For the second time in the history of MSPO, the Fair hosted the US National Exhibition, during which the potential of the American armed forces was presented. One of the guests invited by the American side was Alfred Merrill Worden – American astronaut, colonel of the United States Air Force, participant of the Apollo 15 mission, which certainly remains in connection with the celebrated recently, 50th anniver sary of the first man landing on the Moon. Also, such giants of the armament market as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman presented them selves at the Fair.
CONGRESS OF URBAN POLICY NOVEMBER 14–16 Kielce will soon host the Congress of Urban Policy. This event taking place from 14 to 16 November will be an oppor tunity for a broad debate on the directions of urban development with the widest possible range of people, institutions and environments involved in the issues of sustainable urban development. Topics discussed will be extremely important from the point of view of both residents and metropolitan managers: space shaping, housing, transport and urban mobility, environment and adaptation to climate change. We invite all those interested in urban issues and shaping sustainable urban development to Kielce.
More information at: www.kongres.miasta.pl
CONGRESS OF ACCOUNTING OFFICES NOVEMBER 26–27 The Congress of Accounting Offices will take place in Kielce on November 26–27. This professional event is organized in Kielce for the second time and gives an excellent opportunity for an in-depth discussion on the conditions of func tioning of small and medium enterprises in Poland and on the changing formal and legal environment of enterprises. The most numerous entities taking part in the congress are accounting offices, law firms and tax advisors who value the atmosphere of professionalism and the opportunity to build partnerships and exchange experience with a group of specialists.
KIELCE ATTRACTIVE FOR BUSINESS Numerous events taking place locally during this year’s autumn encourage to look for professional inspiration in Kielce. In addition to the opportunity to deepen your knowledge and make inspiring acquaintances in Kielce, you can spend your time well after hours – benefit from local tourist attractions, as well as from rich hotel and restaurant offer.
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
More information:
Investor Assistance Centre Kielce City Hall: Strycharska 6 Street, 25-659 Kielce Phone: +48 41 36 76 571, 41 36 76 557 e-mail: coi@um.kielce.pl www.invest.kielce.pl/en www.mapa.invest.kielce.pl/en
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CZĘSTOCHOWA – THE POWER OF COOPERATION Częstochowa is the leader of the Northern Subregion of Silesian Voivodeship and as its leader it has its own responsibilities. It is no wonder that local government comes out with further initiatives aimed at activating cooperation with successive municipalities. REGIONAL TERRITORIAL INVESTMENTS Northern Subregion of the Silesian Voivodeship is a territorial unit defined in the first Silesian Voivodeship Develop ment Strategy enacted on 25th September 2000 as one of the four so-called develop ment policy areas (subregions) of the Sile sian Voivodship, alongside the southern, central and western. Each of the subre gions is organized around an urban agglomeration of European or national importance which is fed by its functional area and supported by local develop ment centres. The Northern Subregion includes three land districts: Częstochowa, Kłobuck and Myszków and its peripheries comprise two rural areas with a low level of access for residents to goods and services that condition development opportunities.
Strategy for the Northern Subregion as part of the Regional Operational Program of the Silesian Voivodeship for the years 2014-2020. The signatories of the agreement are the City of Często chowa as the Leader of the Agree ment, three poviats, two cities and 28 communes. This document is extremely impor tant from the perspective of the whole subregion because it defines the main principles of coopera tion of the Parties to the Agreement in: • programming, • implementation, • coordination, • financing, • monitoring, • and settlement of Regional Terri torial Investments of the Northern Sub-region.
As part of the RPO WSL for the years 2014–2020, it was agreed to apply On March 6 th, 2015, a Cooperation the Regional Territorial Investments Agreement was signed on the devel instrument implemented in the Northern opment and implementation of the RTI Subregion in accordance with the findings
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On March 6th, 2015, a Cooperation Agreement was signed on the development and implementation of the RTI Strategy for the Northern Subregion as part of the Regional Operational Program of the Silesian Voivodeship for the years 2014-2020. The signatories of the agreement are the City of Częstochowa as the Leader of the Agreement, three poviats, two cities and 28 communes.
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
of the Voivodeship Board with local part ners. Regional Territorial Investments concern activities in the following areas: • increasing the investment potential in the "brownfield" areas, • increasing the share of energy from OZE, • improvement of energy efficiency in the public and residential sector, • increasing the attractiveness of public transport, • increasing the amount of waste neutralized, • extension of the wastewater treat ment system, • protection of natural resources, • improvement of access to social services and socio-economic activa tion in revitalized areas, • increasing access to pre-school and vocational education.
in the "zonal" enterprises themselves. At that time, the labour market also changed – the employer's market changed into the employee's market, which also changed the self-government policy towards entrepreneurs. While the city used to focus on providing new jobs for its residents. Today it depends on the quality of this job and it is about both, the right level of earnings and the quality of work from the point of view of the employer.
JURASSIC ECONOMIC CONGRESS
This year, in October, the city will organize the third edition of JEC and has invited neighbouring municipalities to cooperate.
In Częstochowa, from a long time, it has been focusing on cooperation with busi ness in the process of educating staff, considering business as an indispensable element of the education process and the best partner when educating young cadres. There are many projects in the city supporting both: employers, students preparing to start their adult life and RTI should do complementary projects employees who want to raise their quali combining support from several priority fications. The Better Job Now Program, axes RPO WSL 2014–2020, including the "PROFESSIONAL" project and the "Avail interventions of two funds: the Euro able Doctor" program were created, pean Regional Development Fund and the "Academic Częstochowa" is still func the European Social Fund. tioning – these are all actual and real activi ties of the Częstochowa local government. The RTI support areas defined in the RPO are in line with the priorities and objec In 2017, an idea to create a place where tives of the Development Strategy all activities related to the labour market of the Northern Subregion. Therefore, in the city can be summarized and they are one of the instruments enabling improved was made. In this way, the idea the implementation of the Strategy. of the Jurassic Economic Congress was created by the Częstochowa City Hall, As part of the RPO WSL for the years the Provincial Office in Katowice and 2014-2020, the amount allocated for the Regional Chamber of Industry and the financing of Regional Territorial Commerce in Częstochowa, which distrib Investments of the Northern Subregion uted the Jurassic Product of the Year was EUR 104 160 606 (PLN 452 285 595.81). awards during the evening congress gala.
Since the location of the real estate within the area of impact of Special Economic Zones in the city, Częstochowa is no longer seen only as a city for tourists. The infrastructure is expanding and developing, new companies are starting new investments and the city joins new areas to the zones of economic activity.
JURASSIC AGREEMENT
In September last year, during the II Jurassic Economic Congress, four communes signed an Agreement for the Devel opment and Promotion of Communes of the Macroregion of the Kraków-Często Since the signing of the tripartite agree chowa Jura. It meant taking joint actions ment, concluded between the Munic in the area of: ipality, the KSEZ and SEZ Euro-Park • Joint economic promotion of invest ment areas, Mielec, five years have passed and a lot has changed in the city. Capital • Increasing the tourist attractiveness of the Kraków Częstochowa Upland, expenditures amount around one and a half billion PLN, thirty tenders were • Development of sustainable transport carried out and more than seven thou and improvement of communication sand jobs were maintained or created in the region.
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The signatories of the agreement were: Mayor of the City of Częstochowa – Krzysztof Matyjaszczyk, Mayor of the City of Zawiercie – Witold Grimm, Mayor of the City of Myszków – Włodzimierz Żak and Mayor of the City of Ogrodzieniec – Andrzej Mikulski. These cities were chosen for a reason, because (on the basis of the previous Act on Special Economic Zones) within these cities were zonal areas. Jurassic cities have decided to coope rate, among others when creating a joint offer for investors and companies inter ested in development in the macrore gion. It is about increasing the oppor tunities for development and develop ment of further investment areas in cities, both covered with the status of a special economic zone, as well as those offered outside of zonal areas. They also want to jointly work for communication solu tions that will contribute to the develop ment of the northern Jura area and make full use of its tourist potential. The city authorities – signatories are also interested in preparation of qualified staff based on the profiles of education in line with the needs of the local labour market. This idea is guided by projects implemented by Częstochowa vocational schools and universities.
The theme of the Jurassic Economic Congress is to be always devoted to the labour market in the Silesian Voivodeship, which by the structure of the region is very diverse and diversified, as well as educating personnel for the needs of entrepreneurs.
More information:
Investor Assistance Center Department of European Funds and Development City Hall of Częstochowa Waszyngtona 5 Street, 42-217 Częstochowa Phone: +48 34 3707 212, +48 34 3707 213 e-mail: coi@czestochowa.um.gov.pl, fer@czestochowa.um.gov.pl www.czestochowa.pl
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The agreement expands the sphere of cooperation between centres which are already operating, among others, in the Jurassic Communities Association, the Silesian Union of Municipalities and Poviats or within subregions (Myszków with Częstochowa as part of the northern subre gion, Zawiercie and Ogrodzieniec within the central subregion). The theme of the Jurassic Economic Congress is to be always devoted to the labour market in the Silesian Voivode ship, which by the structure of the region is very diverse and diversified, as well as educating personnel for the needs of entrepreneurs. It will be the same this year – the city is planning to organize the congress on October 23rd. This year's edition will be much more varied because the City invited the Pro Progressio Foundation which deals with the development of the outsourcing industry and modern business services in Poland. The Foundation cooperates with the public sector (cities, regional develop ment agencies, special economic zones,
science and technology parks, indus trial and technology parks) and private sector in Poland as well as international organizations in the outsourcing sector, including the Global Sourcing Associa tion. The Foundation will host a discussion panel on employer branding. At the same time, Pro Progressio organizes The BSS Tour on the next day – October 24 th – in Częstochowa, whose subject matter (similarly to the last year) will be a contin uation of the panel on the subject of employer branding.
PARTNERS, NOT COMPETITORS The Northern Subregion is – to a large extent simplified – areas of the former Częstochowa Province. This results in the fact that connections and part nerships between municipalities are not artificial creation but rather a system of action developed over fourty years. The specificity and structure of the subre gion is so diverse that, in principle, none of the municipalities can function as a "lonely island", neither in the context of economic, tourism, or – and maybe above all – without an integrated commu nication system, both public and cycling, as well as roadside. In the context of changes on the labour market, this system also proves to be inval uable. Every day, 40,000 employees come to Częstochowa. To improve communi cation and integrate all available means of public transport with individual trans port, the city is building, just for the amount of almost PLN 70 million – interchange nodes connected with the bicycle path system. Częstochowa, however, is not limited to the role of the leader – "employer". The role of the city in cooperation with smaller entities also consists of helping to retain potential investors within the subregion. Not only large corpora tions invest in the city, small and family businesses are also expanding and relo cating, often looking for lower property taxes than in the capital of the subregion. Finding places in neighboring municipali ties for such companies does not limit the city's development potential while stimulating the development of other entities and with good communication, the flow of employees does not have to be one-sided anymore. Translation from Polish: M. Wytrzymała
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INVESTMENTS
CONSTRUCTION OF IT PARK TO START IN LVIV THIS AUTUMN On June 28, during Lviv IT Jazz 2019 conference, signing of contracts with future residents of the business park Innovation District IT Park took place. Investors and developers of the project officially announced the start of the project’s construction – autumn 2019. Innovation District IT Park already has its first residents – five Lviv IT compa nies have decided to move their offices to IT Park. The future residents include companies such as SoftServe, Intellias, N-iX, Perfectial, GlobalLogic. On Friday, June 28, company representatives had officially signed preliminary lease agree ments (PLA) with one of the investors and the developer of the project – Galereja Centre. – IT Park – is a big and a very ambitious project. A project of this scale to be implemented successfully, requires a lot of work to be done before construction. It is important to carry out all the preparatory work correctly, scrupulously and clearly: architecture, floor plans, etc. I’d like to note that the constuction will start already this fall, and the first stage of construction is estimated to be completed by the end of 2021. IТ Park – is not about floors and square meters, but about ambitious and growth of the local IT industry – tells Volo dymyr Zhenchak, Investor and Developer of IT Park, Galereja Centre. – The Lviv IT Jazz Conference is traditionally a platforam for implementing our ideas and new projects of the Lviv IT Cluster. The idea of Innovation District IT Park was
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first presented here back in 2016, last year, the project has officially broke ground with our international investors present, and this time we would like you to meet the first residents whose companies wil work there. I’m grateful to all partners, residents, and investors who were ambitious and bold enough to take up such a project – says Stepan Veselovskyi, СЕО, Lviv IT Cluster.
offices in Lviv. – We are glad to finally start the project, which has long been awaited by the local tech industry. We’re happy to be among the first 5 residents of IT Park. I'm very optimistic about this project. IT Park will have a positive impact not only on the already existing IT companies, but thanks to modern labs, also on the development of technical education in the city. And this means even more qualThe signing of lease agreements is ified specialists, more competition, rapid new jobs will be created, the project will a 100% guarantee that the construction growth of the industry – shares Andrew generate a flow of talented people from all of the IT Park will begin this autumn. Pavliv, Co-Founder & CEO, N-iX. over the country to Lviv. Innovation District The first stage of construction is expected IT Park is the basis for further accomplishto be completed by the end of 2021. IT Park will become the most comfort ments and I am sure that the project will It will include six 8-story office build able and innovative technological center have a positive impact on the city and all ings, an 18-story business center and of Lviv: around the offices there will be its inhabitants as soon as the first stage a separate complex of computer labs a huge green recreation area, offices will of construction is completed – commented of 2,000 sq m, a multifunctional center be equipped with an energy efficient Andriy Skoropad, Co-Founder & CEO with food courts, a gym, an entertainment system that will save 30% of all energy at Perfectial. and shopping area. consumed by offices. Finally, the problem of lack of parking space will be solved Innovation District IT Park officially broke The idea behind the project is to create as well: about 3,200 parking lots will be ground in June last year. The ground a comprehensive platform for the devel provided on the territory of the park. breaking ceremony was attended opment of the Lviv IT industry, which will by the project’s investors – Galerija include not only office space. Technology – This project is based on genuine trust Centre, Brookfield & Partners, and Horizon education is a priority for the develop and anticipation of fruitful cooperation Capital. The overall amount of attracted ment of the IT industry, and the city needs in the future. We are not competitors in this investments totals $180 million. a research center where students from project, but partners. Being a part of such local universities will have the opportu a large-scale project is important for us, Author: nity to realize their scientific and inno because it means being a part of the changes vative potential. That's why 10+ training in our city. We are looking forward to IT laboratories with the latest equipment Park being implemented – Oleh Denys, VP were designed in the IT Park. of SoftServe, told at IT Park Agreement Signing ceremony. – IT Park is a big step Iryna Zubenko, IT Park is designed for 10,000 IT specia forward for the economy of Lviv, as the develCommunications lists and also intends to solve the problem opment of the technology industry affects Manager, with lack of modern and comfortable the development of other industries too: Lviv IT Cluster
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
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BULGARIA BECOMING RECOGNIZED HIGH ADDED-VALUE SERVICES DESTINATION
Few noticeable trends in the outsourcing industry form the current market and the growth prospects nowadays and lead to the stable positioning of Bulgaria as preferred high added-value services destination. First, the drive towards robotic process automation will keep disrupting the industry globally. This has two major implications on the outsourcing market in Bulgaria in particular. Call center support and back-office operators, data collection officers and the like will become increasingly involved in operations that require complex digital skills, including software coding and even data modeling. The demand to provide higher value-added services (e.g. risk analysis, due diligence research, IT engineering) has been constantly increasing, offsetting the loss of contracts and operations belonging to the lower segments in the value-chain. The country is well-known for its IT talent which is now becoming increasingly engaged
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in the development of AI and automa tion solutions. The development of the local AI ecosystem looks promising, spurred by foreign inves tors, a booming outsourcing sector and the growing awareness of the benefits of using AI technologies. Companies developing AI technologies are strength ening their collaboration with universities to find the specialists they need. There is a growing interest on the part of universi ties and state research institutes towards the development of the Bulgarian IT field. According to market experts, the current number of university graduates suitable for the AI field is between 200 and 250 per year in Bulgaria. In the past years, the state has made substantial investments in hightech infrastructure.
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
increasingly optimize (organizationally or via automation) their own processes to stay competitive. The vendors who win market share are those that provide a more diverse range of services (e.g. both IT and linguistic operations), more professionally (in terms of available domain-specific, linguistic or engineering expertise) and quicker. The price, while still remaining important, now seems less relevant as compared to the flexibility and the value you bring to customers. As compared to other potential out sourcing destinations the Bulgarian outsourcing sector is really well posi tioned to answer such type of demand. Just in the past 6 months there has been a wave of new announcements that will drive the double-digit growth of the sector in 2019 and beyond. In January Facebook announced its intention to open a 150 people center for content review in Sofia in cooperation with Telus International Europe which is the largest BPO provider in the country. Simultaneously the World Bank opened a 300+ center for support of its internal So this is actually great news for Bulgaria, and IT operations in Bulgaria. The country especially in view of its reputation was selected against Croatia or Serbia. as the preferred choice for boutique The Financial Times is also developing outsourcing services and SSC operations. a center for software engineers and busi ness analysts in Sofia. As a result of this shift towards more analytical and expert services, the term The third factor to be pointed out is "outsourcing" itself becomes obsolete. the feeling of instability of the global Today the vendors on the market provide economy and politics. This may lead IT-development and knowledge-based to a certain outflow of services as clients content and consultancy services to solve will strive to save cash, or, on the contrary, specific customer problems that have to an influx of requests and contracts with little to do with following predefined the suppliers who can provide optimal procedures. Rather, the sector is involved solutions that bring both value and cost in product development, process optimi savings. People expertise and quality, ziation and market-improvement opera innovative approaches, automation & IT tions, shifting the focus from operatio optimizations as well as healthy client nal support deals to tactical and stra relationship, will be the most signifi tegic partnerships. cant factors for keeping the momentum of Bulgarian outsourcing industry growth. The second major trend is that all markets globally witness the combined pressure Author: of shrinking times-to-market and shorter product lifecycle terms. As as result, our clients seek readily available solutions and expertise with virtually no capacity Ilia Krustev, Member of the building reaction times. Combined Managing Board with lower commitment to long-term of the Bulgarian contracts, this has transferred the pres Outsourcing sure to the service providers, who will Association
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INVESTMENTS
BUILDING A TIGHT-KNIT COMMUNITY Lithuania’s strategic approach to RPA development. Despite its proven value, one issue is holding back the implementation of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in GBS – the fact that centres are basically on their own when it comes to getting funding, creating strategies, finding talent, and training it up. Support from mother companies can be erratic. This is sometimes due to lack of awareness, or trust in, automated systems. But most often it results from the misplaced fear that RPA inevitably leads to employees being laid off. Meanwhile, assistance and support from governments and other partners remains minimal. However, driven by its goal of becoming the regional hub for RPA, Lithuania is following a different approach, one that revolves around community and support.
ROBO-TOPS…
This skills gap feeds in to a second issue – strategy. Deciding which fun ctions to automate, and how, is proving challenging. Consultants are one option, but they are expensive, especially for pilot projects. Instead, RPA is typically developed ad hoc, with team members optimising their workflow using hot keys or Excel macros and then rolling out these solutions. This bottom up approach has merits, but needs to be complemented by a clear strategy. Ultimately, because centres lack support when training specialists or developing strategies, RPA implementation is taking longer and costing more than it should.
BUILDING CONNECTIONS FOR RPA SUCCESS
community meet ups, where attendees will get an introduction to RPA’s advantages, plus examples of technical use cases. This eventually will kickstart knowledge exchange, with RPA know-how made available to everyone involved in GBS industry. In support of this initiative, the government is investing into tools and incentives to help GBS centres adopt best RPA practices. The second step is to ensure a supply of high calibre talent trained in RPA. To achieve this, Invest Lithuania is partnering with two universities and a software provider to launch a dedicated programme for RPA. This programme is aimed at both current students and professionals looking to become RPA developers. By boosting the availability of talent, this programme aims to make it easier for local GBS centres, especially smaller ones, to start RPA initiatives. It will also provide added impetus to the field, accelerating the development of the whole process automation ecosystem.
The solution is to facilitate knowledge sharing and develop expertise. Recogni sing this, Invest Lithuania, the country’s FDI agency, has partnered with Create Lithuania, a program for professional development and the applicability of best foreign practices to create a future of modern Lithuania, to develop a concentrated RPA hub that brings in all players, from GBS centers to various “OPTIMIZED AND service providers, as well as leading ACCELERATED PROCESSES” universities. While Lithuania’s strategic approach to RPA is recent, it is already bearing Its first step was to have in-depth fruit. 34% of centres have implemented …OR ROBO-FLOPS? conversations with key GBS players. RPA solutions, and over one third Yet implementation remains slower than This revealed some important insights: of these are moving towards full IPA, expected. The reason? Recent research a strong business case is key for starting having already deployed autonomic by Invest Lithuania and Create Lithu- the RPA journey; companies are disin- and advanced automation systems. ania identified two problem areas for centivized from training talent for risk In total, 85% of the centres in Lithuania centres – talent and strategy. of losing it; and support is needed for are developing RPA solutions in-house. the entire journey to Intelligent Process And there are already notable success Regarding talent, centres have diffi- Automation (IPA), not just the RPA stage. stories. One centre in Lithuania has culties finding RPA specialists. Many already saved close to 100,000 human of them train up talents only to see them Armed with this understanding, they hours through its RPA, freeing up staff snapped up by competitors. are now organising the first of many to work on higher value tasks. RPA is the hot topic in GBS. This use of software programmed to carry out repeatable tasks offers centres a huge range of benefits, including reduced costs and increased productivity. No surprise then that, according to KPMG, 72% of GBS leaders have made RPA their top service delivery priority. Everest Group’s survey found that around 25% of centres have successfully implemented RPA. The RPA ball is clearly rolling.
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And one of Lithuania’s largest GBS centres, Western Union, managed to automate over 1 million tasks last year. As Gintautas Jonutis, Director of Automation and Robotics, explains, the benefits have already been significant. – The technology has optimized and accelerated our internal processes, and reduced errors and even risks. – Unsurprisingly, the centre is already looking at next steps. – We are actively increasing our investments in automation and going beyond RPA in order to impact a wider range of processes, especially end-to-end work flows, where you are dealing with unstructured data and human interaction – Mr. Jonutis explains.
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TRANSFORMING GBS TOGETHER What is driving Lithuania’s focus on RPA? The answer is its potential to transform the way GBS works, and the country’s desire to be at the forefront of this seismic shift. McKinsey and KPMG forecast that these technologies will fundamentally alter the role of centres. They will become value creators driving digital transformation across whole organizations. As a result, the strategic value of these offices will increase, as will the level of competence required to work in them. And Lithuania believes this will make them valuable contributors to a maturing economy. Supporting centres through this transformation and helping them
climb the value chain will create new employment opportunities and positively impact the economy. Lithuania’s aim is to become the region’s best-in-class process automation hub. And its efforts to nurture the RPA ecosystem are a very important step in realizing this ambition. Author:
Monika Vilkelytė, Senior Investment Advisor, Invest Lithuania
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Poles under the age of 26 who are employed full-time and earn less than PLN 85,528 (19,610 euros) a year will no longer pay income tax. The new law came into force on August 1, 2019 in an attempt to keep young people in the country and attract those spurred on by higher wages who might otherwise have been tempted to pursue opportunities in Western Europe. With uninterrupted high growth aver aging 4.2 per cent per year between 1992–2019, an unemployment rate of 5.2 per cent in July – the lowest since 1990, Poland needs a larger work force. In Q2 2019, there were over 142,000 job vacancies, 2.3 per cent more than in Q1 2019. The shortage of workers is already being felt by more than half of Polish companies.
Once they graduate, the majority would like to work for corporates, non-govern mental organisations or for small and medium-sized companies. Every fifth student would be happy with a salary between 500 and 1,000 euros and 10 per cent would like to make at least 3,000 euros a month. Currently, an average salary across emerging Europe ranges from about 500–1,200 in the EU member The preliminary findings (the final results states to less than 300 euros in the South Since 2004, Poland has lost 21 per cent of will be announced in October 2019) are Caucasus countries. its young people, Slovakia and the Czech not very positive. Over 80 per cent say Republic – 19 per cent each, Hungary Central and South-Eastern European Are incentives such as that recently – 14 per cent and Romania– a third of its governments should do more to catch up introduced in Poland enough to reverse with the economic standards of Western the migration trend, or is it just wishful young population. Europe. They also identify corruption thinking? Migration is not the only issue: Poland, as the biggest challenge both in their Author: like much of Europe, also has an ageing country and in the entire region. population. According to the Polish Statistical Office, in 2017, there were 2.2 million About two thirds of all respondents plan people aged 20–24, compared to more on leaving their countries for at least Andrew Wrobel, Founding Partner, than 3.1 million in 2000. In 2020, 30 per cent a few years and a third are planning Strategy & Content, of Poles will be over 65 and in 2080, on emigrating for good. Most of them Emerging Europe, as many as 14 per cent will be over 80. would like to explore their options, they and Leader of the think they can have a better life elsewhere Alliance for Business Services, Innovation Emerging Europe, a news, intelligence or they are dissatisfied with the current and Technology initiative and community platform focused political situation in their country.
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on 23 countries of Central and South Eastern Europe, is currently running a survey among university students (young people aged 19–24) to find out how they see the political, social and economic changes that are taking place in their countries, what challenges they identify in their countries and the region as a whole and where they see their future.
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ROMANIA IN THREE WORDS: CULTURE, VALUES, AND INNOVATION Over the past two decades, Romania has continuously developed and turned into one of the most attractive countries for outsourcing. Not only IT services were targeted here, but also financial services, human resources and marketing. Still, IT outsourcing remains the leader, representing 6.2% of GDP in 2017, with an increase of 5.5% compared to the previous year. In the next years, the sector will grow by 15–20% each year, turning Romania into an even more appealing region for international companies. Still, what are the competitive advantages that Romania is leveraging in the race for a better position? Many analysts have highlighted that several aspects are helping Romania be a suitable place for outsourcing. The most important ones rely on advanced soft ware development skills, strong educa tion and IT hubs, or communication skills. However, the greatest asset for Romania is its own culture, with people extraor dinarily resourceful and creative, that set a goal and work to accomplish it no matter what.
which was marked on many occa sions by other dominant powers, such as the Roman Empire or Ottoman Empire. Each historical event that happened in this space left some marks and shaped the current culture. Still, the most signifi cant impact was the communism regime, that dominated the country for almost half-century. However, after the Romanian Revolution in 1989, the modernism was embraced by Romania like a spring breeze. And even if many traditions are still present here, the contact with the western values and cultures changed the overall dynamic of society. Today, the Eastern European values and lifestyle are very similar to the ones found in the United States or Germany, two countries that can be called the early adopters of modern thinking.
speakers, but also extremely creative and resourceful. The generations born after the Romanian Revolution went through a different educational system, and received a modern mindset. Moreover, English started to be a primary language in schools shortly after the politic al change, creating new development opportunities for students that began to have the needed knowledge to access external resources.
Besides, many people wend abroad to study or work in European coun tries and even in the USA, which helped in developing an excellent intercultural understanding and communication. This is why it is easy to work with Romanian developers, that usually have exten sive experience in working for global companies. In 2019, a CEE study high lighted that Romanian companies have 74% of clients from Europe and 22% from LEVERAGING THE CULTURAL FIT On many occasions, foreign visitors tasted the USA. Therefore, the culture and values Compared to other regions in Europe, the similarities. Romanians are generally of the software developers are created Romania is highly driven by its history, educated, cultured and fluent English by western influences.
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According to the latest national reports, Romania has 353 IT startups, 12 accelerators, and 52 startup related events. Even more, the Best Fintech Startup in 2018 prize went to a young Romanian company, that built an educational application used now by 30 million people in 190 countries across the globe to learn new languages interactively.
FROM STRONG VALUES TO INNOVATION
culture powers, in fact, the innovation This new mindset that Romanian people wave that transforms the outsourcing got after interacting with new cultures into remote software development. led to significant IT innovations. IT profes sionals are ofter recognized by interna WHERE AHEAD? tional institutions through certifica There is no doubt that Romania has tions and have experience in working an excellent reputation now when it on sophisticated projects that use comes to IT outsourcing services. But the latest technologies and program besides the unique talent pool, the proper ming languages. English skills, the national policies that support IT development, the mature level According to the latest national reports, of technical knowledge that allows IT Romania has 353 IT startups, 12 accel professionals to work independently and erators, and 52 startup related events. efficiently, the timezone that can sustain Even more, the Best Fintech Startup the communication with various conti in 2018 prize went to a young Romanian nents, Romania has turned its culture into company, that built an educational appli a competitive advantage. It is no longer cation used now by 30 million people a place to go to lower the production in 190 countries across the globe to learn costs, it became a place where global new languages interactively. companies look for high-quality products and innovation. This new startup wave changed the perception that many companies Here is where Romania is heading to. And had about Romania. From a simple maybe, one day, it will have the second outsourcing hub, Romania turned Silicon Valley, where great things happen, into an innovation culture. That is why and the world gets better day by day. foreign entrepreneurs choose Romania Author: as the place to start a new business, as the innovative spirit is present in every developer, and not only there. We are all driven by ideas and development goals. Even though the concept of outsourcing seems to be the opposite of innovation, being seen as repetitive labor in the form of code lines, the Romanian startup
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
Loredana Niculae, CEO NNC Services Romania
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INVESTMENTS WINNER OF 2019
OUTSOURCING STARS
I AM DEEPLY SATISFIED OF MY CONTRIBUTION TO POZNAN DEVELOPMENT
Bartosz Guss, Deputy Mayor of the City of Poznan, tells us about the new infrastructural projects in Poznan, initiatives for the BPO/SSC sector, sustainable urban planning policy supporting city development and about the new sports plans for the future.
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The spectrum of projects and investor in Poznan is extensive. We are now benefiting from economic prosperity. Poznan holds the top position in terms of investment attractiveness.
Outsourcing&More: What departments of the Poznan City Hall are your responsibilities? Which areas of Poznan development do you control? Bartosz Guss, Deputy Mayor of the City of Poznan: My professional experience covers nearly 20 years of working in the City Hall, primarily in real properties. I was anxious to fo cus my tasks on the position of Deputy Mayor on the same area – that is why my responsibilities include opera tion of the Real Estate Department, Urban Planning Office, Urbanism and Architecture Department and Geodesy and Land Registry Management Board i.e. GEOPOZ. All these competences con verge in the tasks of the Investor Relations Department, which also operates under my supervision. In addition, my duties cover the related areas – housing policy and municipal economy in Poznan. These compound a general picture of my chal lenges for this 5-year term. During your work in the Real Estate Department you have cooperated with the investors. How these earlier experiences affected your current duties? I have already performed the coor dination functions before. Any investor reaching the City Hall needs both com plex support and instructions. Business decisions are affected by many factors, while the scale of challenges is enormous.
I am truly glad, since the new functions provide me with vast majority of tools enabling better and more effective co operation with the investors and de veloping comprehensive solutions for the real problems. How do you intend to leverage on development of the new investments in Poznan? One of my first decisions was to rede fine the urban planning policy, which is of key importance for the investors and boosts development of many crucial in vestments in Poznan. I believe that we should focus on the projects of strategic importance for the city, which was not al ways the case in the past. Our current priorities are primarily the inner downtown (Święty Marcin Street, Wiosny Ludów Square, Apollo Passage), the areas towards north from Ostrów Tumski and investment areas around the Old Brewery and Wolne Tory – activation of these areas will affect sustainable urban development. Our priorities include also boosted sales of real properties near the Posnania shop ping mall, since this massive building has excessively dominated the whole area. I hope that rapid development of surrounding lands will allow us to see this place differently – as the new and attractive district of Poznan. The spectrum of projects and investor in Poznan is extensive. We are now bene fiting from economic prosperity. Large investment brands, such as Skanska, Vanstint, or Garvest both enter the Poznan market and develop dynamically on it, increasing employment and acting as our ambassadors. Poznan holds the top posi tion in terms of investment attractiveness. Poznan initiates also many differentiated projects for the advanced services and IT sectors. What can we expect in near future? On September 26, the International Poznan Fair will host the pozitive technologies conference dedicated to the IT sector. The conference is organi sed by the Investor Relations Depart ment in cooperation with 8 companies (Capgemini, Egnyte, GSK IT, Sii, TomTom, Allegro, Sonalake and Cognifide), which actively operate on the Poznan market.
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
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INVESTMENTS
Their joint efforts contributed to organisa tion of the event in Poznan that addresses current needs of the specialists work ing in the IT segment. The conference will provide necessary technical know ledge, act as a platform for experience sharing and opportunity to get insight into the details of the Poznan IT market. I warmly invite also people living outside Poznan to attend the conference and see the opportunities provided by our city.
point for the leaders of this sector from throughout the Central and Eastern Europe. In 2018, we organised the 9th an nual ABSL (Association of Business Service Leaders) conference. As a multi-time win ner of Outsourcing Stars in the City cate gory we are looking forward to cooperate with the Pro Progressio Foundation and organise this unique gala and conference of highly essential content. I am proud to be a host of this event – this demon strates the position of Poznan in the ad At early July, I signed the agreement vanced business service sector. launching the EU project „ZaGRAjmy w Wielkopolsce” (Let ’s GAME in Poznan is strongly focused on workWielkopolska Region). The potential life balance promotion. What are your of game development sector, on which methods for reaching this balance and our promotional activities will be focused, your private plans for the future? has been observed at the example Taking the position of Deputy Mayor of development of events organised of the City of Poznan is another great at the Poznan International Fair – Pyrkon stage in my professional life. I am deeply and PGA are among the top popular ones. satisfied of my contribution to Poznan This demonstrates that, as a self-govern development. This promotion increased mental authority, we must keep up with my leverage on development of specific this market. I am really satisfied that areas in the city and cooperation with spe together with the Marshall Office we cific investors. can establish a truly pro-developmental project. The total value of funds allocated As for my private plans, I must admit that for development of the Poznan gamedev sport takes a prominent position in my life. studios reaches nearly PLN 2 million. It has given me a great energy for years, Under the project, the best 10 gamedev which I now really need to complete my studios from Greater Poland will present professional challenges. I am an active their products at the international arena. triathlete and runner and will debut on long-distance route of Ironman The Outsourcing Stars gala is an es- in Barcelona on 6 October. The competition sential event for the advanced service includes 3.86 km of swimming, 180.2 km sector. We may already announce that of cycling and 42.195 km of running, in 2020 it will be held in Poznan. so please – keep your fingers crossed. Yes, we act truly consistently and want Poznan to become a meeting Good luck!
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More information:
Investor Relations Department City of Poznań Za Bramką 1 Street, 61-842 Poznan Phone: +48 61 878 54 28 e-mail: inwestor@um.poznan.pl
www.poznan.pl
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
INVESTMENTS
5 REASONS TO INVEST IN BYDGOSZCZ Bydgoszcz has been striving for the right climate for the development of economy and creation of entrepreneurship for years. Recently published rankings confirm the strong position of Bydgoszcz on the map of the most attractive cities to run a business in Poland. What attracts new investments to the City? Let's look at the key reasons why it is worth investing in Bydgoszcz.
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GOOD BUSINESS CLIMATE Bydgoszcz is successfully changing its image from an industrial centre to the centre of modern technologies, production and services. The strong industrial traditions connected with its history are now an important context for creating the contemporary character of the City. Diversified economy, deve loped on the basis of various sectors and industries, provides stable pillars for economic growth. For many years, the number of entities with foreign capital and headquarters in the City of Bydgoszcz has been growing systema tically (from 535 companies in 2009 to 675 at the end of 2017). Currently, Byd goszcz is the seat of many renowned and important global companies realising projects on a global scale. The advantage of the City is also a rich investment offer, under which Bydgoszcz
provides access to investment areas, offices, halls, or warehouses within its administrative borders. This allows locating business with an urban address (giving many benefits, such as access to urban communication and infra structure, as well as to a wider group of potential co-operators, employees, or clients), while limited property resources in other major agglomera tions force investors to locate their offices in neighbouring municipalities. This is confirmed by the June ranking of busi ness-friendly cities prepared by Forbes on the basis of data from the Central Economic Information Centre regarding the migration of companies and regis tration of new entities in Polish cities. The report concludes that large metropo lises in Poland are beginning to weaken, i.e. fewer companies register in those cities, and some businesses start leaving
large urban centres for smaller ones. In opposition to this trend, only three big cities remain – next to Gdańsk and the undisputed leader, which is Warsaw, there is Bydgoszcz. Convenient location on the map of Poland, access to an international airport, availability of human resources, investment areas and office parks, allows the City to effectively compete for further investment projects. The consist ently implemented policy of supporting the economy through a dedicated muni cipal company – Bydgoszcz Regional Development Agency, which continues to seek to obtain further investments into the City, provides comprehensive invest ment services in the area in a one-stopshop system, and facilitates cooperation on the business-local government level is also of great importance.
A STRONG POINT ON THE MAP OF MODERN BUSINESS SERVICES SECTOR Dynamic development of the modern business services sector in Bydgoszcz, which currently employs over 10,000 people, is constantly changing the local economy and strengthening the City's position on the domestic BPO/SSC market. It generates new, well-paid jobs in the City, builds an increasingly stronger specialization in the IT industry, and contributes to increasing the resources of modern office infrastructure. The main representatives of the sector in the City, such as Atos or Nokia, carry out projects for the largest global IT, telecommu nications, insurance, or automotive companies, confirming the highest level of services and competences of their Bydgoszcz branches. They develop specialist business processes and many of them have their own R&D departments in the City. For international companies with a recognised position on the global market, it is important that the envi ronment in which they operate reflects
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
the global nature of their work, while providing access to technical knowledge, skilled resources and excellent infrastruc ture. All of this is available in Bydgoszcz. The office market is also developing at a rapid pace and is currently exceeding 108,000 sq m with another 82,000 sq m under construction and in nearby plans. New office buildings attract with a high standard, location in the City centre, easy access to public transport, as well as numerous technological facilities, or the possibility of arranging space according to individual expectations of even the most demanding tenants. This is not without impact on the attractive ness of jobs, offering increased comfort to employees. To encourage devel opers to further invest in modern office space, the City authorities have intro duced, among others, special real estate tax exemptions.
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INVESTMENTS
HUMAN RESOURCES TAILORED TO INVESTORS' EXPECTATIONS Investors also appreciate Bydgoszcz for the potential of the local human capital. The presence of over a million popu lation within a radius of 50 km from Bydgoszcz puts the City in a privileged position in terms of the availability of the staff. Bydgoszcz has an attractive educational offer and an academic base. More than a half of the total number of students in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship study at universities located in Bydgoszcz. As the largest academic centre in the region, Bydgoszcz actively supports cooperation between science and business. The profile of education is also impor tant and it is adapted to the needs of the local economy to a large extent. Bydgoszcz is constantly developing its potential in creating IT expertise. Almost 3,000 people are studying in fields related to the IT industry and each year this number is constantly increasing.
An additional advantage for investors is often the fact that already at the level of secondary schools. Bydgoszcz has clearly focused on education with a technical profile. Bydgoszcz pupils and students benefit from attrac tive programmes of patronage classes and courses created in coop eration with companies investing in the City – courses geared to prac tical skills desired by local employers. On the other hand, qualified mana gerial staff can expand their skills in postgraduate studies in finance and accounting, IT, logistics, or manage ment realised by universities in close cooperation with companies such as iQor, Nokia, Asseco, Atos that repre sent particular industries. The City therefore has a well-developed tech nological and scientific base, which is an important argument for further companies considering locating their branches in the City on the Brda River.
A FRIENDLY PLACE TO LIVE In the City with a very dynamically growing economy, you can also find a work-life balance, space for family life and the realisation of individual passions which are so valued today. Bydgoszcz is attracting an increasing number of investors and tourists with its offer, but at the same time it cares about being a place that is friendly to live in. Bydgoszcz is not only an important and energetic business and academic centre, but also a centre of culture and sports. It is also the greenest city in Poland. Resi dents and guests actively use numerous parks and forest complexes every day, charming spaces located in the heart of the Mill Island, as well as the largest city park in Poland – "Myślęcinek". One can also get some healthy relaxa tion and positive energy on the banks
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of the Brda River flowing through the City centre, where numerous cultural, sports and entertainment events take place, attracting residents and guests from all over the world. Next to the bustling main streets and squares, in Bydgoszcz one can also find a lot of quiet side streets and alleys, offering unique places which more and more often win prizes in industry compe titions. These include alternative cafes, small pubs with local breweries, restau rants serving delicacies from various corners of the world, Art Nouveau archi tecture, or unique museums related to the industrial history of the City. Here, everyone has a chance to find something for themselves.
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
Invested in the city
CITY APPRECIATED IN BUSINESS RANKINGS
Numerous international awards for Bydgoszcz in business and industry rankings testify about the investment attractiveness of Bydgoszcz and proper approach of the City, focused on open ness and ensuring the best possible conditions for business development. One of the most important awards can be considered to be the 1st place in the World Bank's report "Doing Busi ness in Poland 2015", in which inde pendent experts recognised Bydgoszcz as a place where it's easiest to run a busi ness in the country. Twice has Bydgo szcz received the CEE Shared Services and Outsourcing Award (2016 and 2019) in the category of new locations for shared service centres. As the most inves tor-friendly city, Bydgoszcz has also been awarded in other prestigious real estate opinion polls, such as CIJ Awards Poland, or Eurobuild Awards.
Name of the investor: deepsense.ai Country of origin: Poland Number of workplaces: 70+ in Poland Sector: IT – Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning Company's residence in the city: Łęczycka 59 St. Occupied place: 75 sq m in Bydgoszcz, 900 sq m in Warsaw
deepsense.ai is a team of business-oriented problem solvers. We use our outstanding technical proficiency to identify, analyze and solve problems with AI-powered solutions. Our data scientists and business team take
Recently, Bydgoszcz has also been located among the leaders of the fDi Polish Cities of the Future 2019/20 ranking, in which the analytical team of Financial Times – fDi Intelligence – once again took a closer look at Polish cities in terms of indicators of attractiveness of foreign direct invest ment and decided to award Bydgoszcz distinctions in the Top 10 Overall cate gory – Best for Human Capital and Life style. The above list is complemented by a good position of the City in the latest ranking of business-friendly cities from Central and Eastern Europe, prepared by Emerging Europe, where Bydgoszcz was in the forefront in such categories as business climate (2nd place), economic potential (7th place), and business support from local authorities (7th place).
company’s weaknesses and reforge them into strengths. We help our clients optimize spending, augment business processes and maximize performance. In addition to commercial projects, we place great emphasis on continuous learning. That’s why we have built a Research & More information:
Development Hub, where we work on cuttingedge technologies with top universities and institutions, such as Google Brain.
4C Unii Lubelskiej Street 85-059 Bydgoszcz Phone: +48 52 585 88 23 e-mail: barr@barr.pl www.barr.pl
Tomasz Deptuła Site Leader, deepsense.ai
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
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HR NEWS JOANNA MANIKOWSKA JOINED 4SYNCHRONICITY For the last three years, Joanna has implemented the concept of the Polish Tech-Bridges project, managing budget of PLN 170 million dedicated to Polish SMEs to build their expansion strategies into non-EU markets.
the longstanding practice in the area of construction and optimization of Shared Services Centers and business process modeling.
Joanna will be responsible for business developing comply with 4Synchronicity From September, she joined 4Synchro- strategic assumptions, as well as taking nicity international advisory alliance care of building and maintaining busi of business driven advisors with ness relations.
A NEW IMPETUS FOR BPiON POLAND Rafał Nadolny has joined BPiON Group in July 2019 as country manager, partner of the Polish operation. Joanna Manikowska is graduated in economics with strong business driven expertise in project manage ment and multifunctional team supervi sion and development. Joanna has over twenty years of professional experience in governmental agencies and public sector where she was responsible for loca tion advisory and active support of entire lifecycle of foreign investment projects in Poland such as: Thyssen Krupp, HP, IBM, JP Morgan, UBS, Credit Suisse, Acxiom, Atos, Swarovski, Geoban, Kainos, Tieto, JCommerce, SMT.
– I am really happy to join our forces with Rafal at BPiON, I am sure his experience in optimizing accounting, payroll & HR administration will strengthen the diversity of BPiON’ management team and our Client satisfaction in Poland, Hungary and
across Europe – said Béla Kakuk, CEO of BPiON. BPiON is a new wave accounting and payroll outsourcing company focusing on process and technology-driven services, supporting SSCs as well. The novelty of their service affords they access to best practice processes of various industries around the world.
Joanna played a vital role to finalize projects creating over 17,000 new job positions in Poland with a total invest ment support exceeding PLN 155 million. She’s been involved in foreign inves tor’s service standard process design and implementation and robust growth of business services sector (Shared Services & BPOs) in Poland within the last decade.
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A NEW HUMAN IN A COMPANY FULL OF ROBOTS New Head of Business Development has joined Digital Teammates – a company offering extensive rental of software robots for routine process automation. Justyna Turkowska and her team will promote the concept of automating boredom at work and take care of current and new clients. Justyna started her career in HR, but she quickly got involved in technology. She has a 10-year experi ence in sales of technological solutions – from telecommunication through data safety to software development. At the moment she combines her skills and competences, promoting technology that supports people’s daily work.
NEW FACES IN ADAPTIVE GROUP TEAM! Lately Adaptive Group Team has been joined by several new experts with vast experience and knowledge.
Justyna brings in her knowledge about Finance & Accounting, Internal Audit, Improvement Projects, Transitions. Apart from other roles, Justyna was Krystyna Zakrzewska, Project Manager a Senior Project Lead and LEAN Cham – she has over 8 years of overall expe pion in Infosys. rience in shared services financial Anna Kraska, Process Consultant – over processes including being a O2C Coor 13 years of overall business experience dinator / Subject Matter Expert in Arla including the roles of Process Specialist Global Financial Service Centre. in procurement and P2P processes Justyna Rak, Project Manager – with over in Infosys and Logistics Specialist focusing 11 years of overall business experience, on order service & invoicing in Teknos.
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
Olga Kozłowska, Consultant – Olga has over 5 years of overall business experi ence gained through positions of Junior Financial Business Controller in Fujitsu, RTR Specialist in Infosys and other. Olga has significant knowledge within process optimization. Anastasia Kotvytska, Junior Consultant – she has 1,5 years of overall business experience including the roles of Project leader in GFK Ukraine, Customer Service specialist in Adelina.
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7 CAREER & DEVELOPMENT
TRENDS IN RECRUITMENT The job market has gone through major changes over the last couple of years. Employers have realised that the old recruitment methods are no longer enough to attract top talent to the organisation. Unsuccessful recruitment means not only a waste of time, but also a waste of money, and sometimes it’s tens of thousands of zlotys down the drain. Meanwhile, according to research by Wynhurst Group, a consulting company, as many as 22 percent of the employees might quit during their first 45 days at work. So, what is the future of recruitment, and how can companies improve their talent acquisition effectiveness? Agnieszka Marciniak, senior manager at Michael Page, a recruitment company, looks at 7 recruitment trends that seem to meet the challenges set by the modern job market. EMPLOYER BRANDING, AND INTERNAL RECOMMENDATION The staff are the best brand ambassadors who can also play a significant role in talent acquisition. They are a reliable source of information about a given organi sation: they know what the job description for a given position is, and what skills will come in handy. Thanks to wide contacts in the industry – e.g. from previous places of employment, or from the university/college – they can find a person who fits best into the culture of the company, and the team. Research has shown that 36 percent of companies are already using a variety of recommendation programmes that allow them to better match candidates both in terms of their professional skills and soft competences, as well as to build a well-coordinated team, which ultimately translates into an increase in the brand’s competitiveness on the job market. However, one of the main advantages of this solution is the speed of reaching and identifying a potential candidate. It is worth remembering, however, that building employer branding starts within the company itself. For employees to become a showcase of their company and be willing to recommend it outside, they have to, above all, be satisfied with their employment conditions, see clear growth opportunities, and feel good in the organisation.
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EMPLOYEE RELATIONS Employers have noticed that people are the key to achieving success in business. In today’s job market, this relationship is of unquestionable importance. Once, employees used to fight for a job; nowadays, businesses vie to attract a particular candidate. In order to acquire and maintain top talent, i.e. people with the potential for growth in the organisation, it is simply not enough to present them only with a good offer. This is also clear to see from the findings of the Michael Page Confidence Index for the first quarter of 2019, which prove that a higher salary can only convince 43% of the respondents to change jobs. Companies should, therefore, also take care of the employer relations, i.e. the relations between the employee and employer. The “Life at Work” Michael Page 2018 study shows that almost 95% of respondents pay attention to this particular factor. Also, 6 out of 10 respondents have admitted that positive relations with their superior translate into higher productivity at work.
ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE
One of the main tasks of leaders is to build a committed team, i.e. one that is able to passionately carry out their professional duties. Many companies have noticed that increasing happiness and job satisfaction affect efficiency and productivity, and, as a result, employers have started to attach greater importance to creating a friendly workplace that stimulates growth and willingness to work. From “Confidence Index”, a study conducted in the first quarter of 2019 by recruitment company Michael Page, it is clear to see that nowadays over 90% of the respondents pay attention to the atmosphere in the company, and the relations between employees and the supervisor. One person in three (34%) has also admitted that willingness to work in a more ethical business enterprise could influence their decision to change the employer. Thus, the organisations that care about the atmosphere and relationships are much more competitive on the market, and may even become the employer of the first choice.
GOAL, SENSE AND MISSION AT WORK Candidates are less and less satisfied with performing only a set of commissioned tasks. Employees want to see that the work they do makes sense, and really affects the implementation of the organisation’s strategy. Therefore, they look for places where they will feel fulfilled professionally, and even proud of their duties. Candidates should be made aware of the goals and values of the company at the recruitment stage so that they can decide if they identify with them. Thanks to this, there is a greater chance that their future work will give them joy, which will affect their effectiveness and creativity. In Western companies, “increasing the satisfaction” of employees is more and more often entrusted to happiness specialists, who are sometimes called Chief Happiness Officers. Although their job description may vary considerably, they share a common goal: to make the staff happy, to help them to understand the company’s mission, and to let them see the meaning of their tasks.
TAILOR-MADE RECRUITMENT The first step to acquiring a valuable employee is to carry out effective recruitment. This starts by defining the employer’s needs, and the profile of the candidate you are looking for. In a race for top talent, it is also important to stand out from the crowd. This means that it is vital to know the needs of future employees, and create a position tailored to the expectations of the group of specialists you are searching for. – It is also crucial to find candidates who are well suited to the culture of a given organisation, and the team which they will be working with. Another major thing to bear in mind is also to carry out a successful onboarding process, which will allow the new employee to fit into responsibilities. Statistics of O.C. Tanner show that people who have experienced the onboarding scheme are much more likely to stay longer in the company. Almost 70 percent of them associate with the company for an average of about 3 years. At Michael Page, we consider such recruitments a success – says Agnieszka Marciniak.
CAREER & DEVELOPMENT
THE MEANING OF SOFT COMPETENCES In recruitment, more and more candidates are assessed both in terms of their technical skills and professional experience, as well as their soft skills. This is due to the fact that the personality traits of employees in the long run affect the potential adjustment of a given candidate to the culture of the organisation. – In the current labour market, the most desirable soft skills are: communication, being well organised, and team work. The individuals who combine hard substantive skills with flexibility are also sought for. One should also appreciate candidates who have a great potential to acquire knowledge and new skills, as well as the ability to think critically and analyse a particular situation. Such employees are able to bring more to the development of the company and improve its overall performance – adds Agnieszka Marciniak.
ATTRACTIVE JOB OFFER A job advertisement is the first form of contact with candidates. It should, therefore, become the showcase of the company. It is worth presenting the key elements of this person’s role in a transparent way, and set out the expectations of the potential candidate in the best possible way. A good solution is also to include the most important information about the company – its values, goals, or the path of employees’ growth. Most importantly, however, the job advertisement should first of all catch the attention of a particular group of candidates. Therefore, many companies use non-standard methods to reach potential future employees. For example, they launch interactive recruitment tasks, or special applications. – In the future, job advertisements will probably be even more personalised and based on modern technologies, such as artificial intelligence, or VR. It is possible that, following the example of Western European organisations, domestic companies will also start to include information about their earnings more often – notes Agnieszka Marciniak. Today, companies compete with each other to acquire top talent, so the modern job market sets even bigger challenges ahead of employers. Those organisations that do not adapt to the changing job market will lose their competitive advantage over others in the quest for top talent. The result can be increased staff turnover, including the loss of the best employees, who will, in turn, be tempted by the competition. In the long run, this can cause serious problems in achieving business goals, and ultimately translate into the company’s financial outcomes. Author:
Agnieszka Marciniak, Senior Executive Manager, Michael Page
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NEW STANDARDS IN RECRUITMENT Global leaders in personnel consulting and specialist recruitment
WHAT DO WE OFFER? •
Over 40 years of experience.
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Personnel consulting and the recruitment of top class specialists, middle and senior management.
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Focus on specific areas of expertise.
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140 branches located in 36 countries on 6 continents, including 3 in Poland.
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Support to both our partners and our candidates throughout the entire process.
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Global standards in specialist recruitment.
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Excellence certified by the Top Employers Institute in Poland and Europe.
GET IN TOUCH WITH US
michaelpage.pl facebook.com/MichaelPagePoland linkedin.com/company/michael-page
WE SPECIALISE IN THE FOLLOWING AREAS:
Shared Services Centres
Banking & Financial Services
Engineering
Sales & Marketing
WARSAW (HQ) ul. Złota 59 00-120 Warszawa
Finance & Accounting
Manufacturing & Supply Chain
Digital & e-Commerce
Retail
KATOWICE ul. Uniwersytecka 13 40-007 Katowice
IT & Technology
Human Resources
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WROCŁAW ul. Łaciarska 4B 50-104 Wrocław
CAREER & DEVELOPMENT
THE HR SIDE
OF ALD An interview with Justyna Boreczek, HR Director at ALD Automotive Polska. Outsourcing&More: ALD Automotive Polska, which has been operating since 2003, is part of a global organi sation providing long-term rental, financing and fleet management services in 43 countries around the world. In Poland, you operate a fleet of almost 13,000 vehicles. How many people are there in your team and how many branches do they service? Justyna Boreczek, ALD Automotive: Indeed, we have already been present in Poland for 16 years. During this period, we have significantly developed our busi ness and have had a significant impact on the development of the CFM sector in our country. The ALD community is cur rently built around a strong team of 100 employees with various competences and extensive experience in the auto motive and finance industries. Our main (and only) office is located in Warsaw in the Elektrownia Powiśle office com plex, right next to the Copernicus Science Centre. This is our new office which we moved to a year ago. We invite everyone to visit us. Thank you for the invitation. On the ALD Automotive website it states that by working with us you become a part of a dynamic international company for which the greatest value is the employee. What does that mean in practice for employees? ALD operates in 43 countries and has more than 6,500 employees. We consider ourselves as a community. We believe that the commitment and motivation of our employees will be achieved through a cul ture focused on people and mutual trust. We are open to the voice and needs of our employees. We provide a lot of flexibility and freedom. Flex office, the flexibility
Outsourcing&More | September–October 2019
of working hours, the possibility of work ing from home, a friendly policy for work ing parents, the atmosphere, relation ships, support in difficult situations, un derstanding and, what is very important for us, respect.
Is working in HR in the Car Fleet Management industry a bigger challenge compared to other businesses? What do you like and value the most in your work and what brings about the biggest problems? HR is about being close to people and organisations. It means being a part of an employee's evolution and develop ment, it is a constant process of learning and expanding competences from dif ferent areas of the organisation's acti vity. This is what motivates me the most. I am glad that in my current role I have the pleasure of cooperating and talking to every person in ALD regardless of their position. Working with people is a great motivator to work and develop relation ships between people and generations.
What kind of people are you looking for? What do you pay attention to during recruitment? In the process of recruitment and the selection of employees, attitude is the most important element for us hence we focus on behavioural ques tions. Interpersonal skills, teamwork, communication skills, willingness to take on new challenges and openness to change. When selecting employees we take the whole ALD team into account. We are looking for someone who will want to take care of our values, culture ALD Automotive is strongly commitand atmosphere. ted to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Do you involve your employees As an international company you have in CSR activities? the opportunity to take a global look CSR and charity activities are in our at the competence of your employees DNA. Crossing the threshold of our of around the world. How do Poles stack fice, you can immediately feel ECO. up in these comparisons? What compe- Digitalisation of document circulation tences do they lack? has minimised paper consumption – we Each generation brings different skills do not buy or use plastic bottles and and values to the organisation. Each na have bins for waste segregation. CSR is tionality has its own characteristics which not only about the environment, it is also translate positively into the achievement about an eco lifestyle and respect for hu of the organisation's global objectives. man rights. We provide employees with We are very well-educated technically, fruit, vegetables and healthy high-fibre we are creative and observe highly de snacks every day. We run workshops veloped markets and eagerly learn on healthy eating habits and financially from them in addition to taking what is support sports initiatives of our em good from the world. I do not like com ployees. We have implemented a num parisons – comparing oneself to others ber of procedures in the field of ethi means complexes, which Poles should cal behaviour, including counteract not have at all. If I can give anyone a piece ing mobbing. of advice, it would be that we should learn languages and be more confident. Thank you for the interview.
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