BSS SECTOR IS GROWING. WARSAW IS CATCHING UP WITH CRACOW
The number of business services centers in Warsaw that specialize the use of advanced financial accounting for global companies is growing.
Among the 40 locations in Poland, where the BPO / SSC sector is developing, Warsaw has the largest number of modern business services centers. According to the latest data from the Polish Agency for Information and Foreign Investment, 160 shared service centers are currently operating on the Warsaw market. They employ 36 664 people. This gives the capital the first place in terms of the number of centers and the second, after Cracow, when it comes to the employment in this segment of the Polish market.
Warsaw is a globally recognized location, which continues to become more popular among the international companies form the modern business services sector. Wiktor Doktór, CEO of Pro Progressio foundation which is engaging in the development and promotion of the outsourcing sector in Poland, admits that Warsaw has always been and will continue to be on the list of preferred locations for BPO / SSC sector in the region of Central and Eastern Europe.
Warsaw's position is growing.
Pro Progressio’s CEO emphasizes that Warsaw has long been one of the three Polish cities (apart from Cracow and Wroclaw) present on Tholons TOP 100 BPO locations.
Doktór admits that BPO / SSC sector is constantly growing and evolving.
Servicing the largest financial institutions
Warsaw with the largest in the country access to qualified personnel and more than 5 million square meters of modern office space has the greatest capacity to attract new investors and tenants. Its advantage when it comes to the number of university graduates in Poland is a particularly important asset for companies from the modern business services sector. The agglomeration is an attractive location for foreign companies, mainly from the USA, UK, France, Germany, Scandinavia. Also, Swiss companies have recently begun to show more interest in our capital city.
In 2015 and at the beginning of this year such companies as Bain & Company, DLA Piper, F5 Networks, Groupon, KMD, Raya Contact Center, William Demant invested in Warsaw. Whereas Swiss bank Credit Suisse and Luxoft opted for reinvestment. US giant Goldman Sachs, who launched the facility in Warsaw in 2011 is currently redeveloping their Warsaw headquarters.
A significant number of the world's largest financial institutions and banks including, among others, UBS, ING, BNP Paribas, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, Citibank, RBS, UniCredit, Santander and Nordea are getting their service in our country.
Such companies as Cola Poland Services, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Oriflame, Avon Global Shared Services, Pandora Jewelry Shared Services, Procter & Gamble, Roche Global IT Solutions Center, Schneider Electric, Siemens, and Xerox located their service centers in Warsaw.
Dedicated office projects
Bartłomiej Zagrodnik, CEO of Walter Herz observes that Warsaw real estate market benefits from the development of the modern business services sector. He gives an example of one of the largest office space lease agreements concluded by the company from BPO / SSC sector, signed last year by Samsung for approx. 22 thousand sq m in Warsaw Spire.
PAIIZ report also confirms that the Masovian province attracts the largest number of foreign investors. The agency acknowledged Masovia as a national leader in terms of investment appeal of provinces in 2015. It is largely thanks to Warsaw, with its central location, good transportation in the country and with Europe, due to the airport operating half of the passenger traffic in Poland, and also the highest GDP per capita in the country, high performance and numerous universities and research centers. PAIIZ also chose the so called sectors of high opportunities, pointing to the food industry, construction sector and modern business services sector BPO, as the most promising.
A global leader in outsourcing
According to ABSL, foreign service centers operating in Poland increased employment in 2015 by 25 per cent. Not only savings have been the incentive to seek outsourcing providers in our country. International companies are now mainly looking on the Polish market for partners, who are holders of high competence and extensive knowledge, who can suggest the best solution. Polish specialty has become a service for companies in the financial services and accounting as well as IT outsourcing.
If we manage to attract further projects to our county and take over the advanced processes which are provided mainly for financial institutions and international investment funds, Poland would become a global provider of outsourcing, especially in the field of accounting and financial controlling.