South-Eastern Europe as an outsourcing destination offers great advantages to companies interested in the industry. Maybe you don’t know much about Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, or Romania, but these countries are emerging as top outsourcing destinations in Eastern Europe. In general terms, they share some main common advantages such as cost reduction due to the cheap labor cost, highly- skilled workforce, cultural affinity, strong educational backgrounds, multilingual populations, no time-zone changes for European sellers, and much more.
Companies outsource their functions and services to other companies and not to countries. However, there are many factors that make a country a better option for outsourcing compared to its own neighbors.
However, some of these countries offer greater advantages for specific outsourced functions if compared to each other. Many businesses pay attention to A.T Kearney Global Services Location Index for more details about countries ranking. Yet, it does not include Albania, even though the country has an experienced and long-established BPO industry. Here you can find the missing piece of the jigsaw.
Factors to consider when outsourcing to Eastern Europe
The Eastern Europe region and especially the Balkan countries share common traits in terms of historical, social, and economic development despite their size and population. Yet, each of them has specific features that make a difference in the eyes of international businesses.
Population
Companies looking for an outsourcing partner pay special attention to people skills and their availability. In general, capital cities are those that attract the most talented and skilled individuals and at the same time, foreign investors. In most cases, the median age of a population is more important than the total number of people living in a country.
The median age in 2018 in:
Bulgaria: 42.7
Hungary: 42.3
Romania: 41.1
Poland: 40.7
Ukraine: 40.6
Slovakia: 40.5
Macedonia: 37.9
Albania: 32.9
Businesses and investors pay attention to such features as they look for expanding options at a lower cost. They also consider factors such as:
foreign language proficiency, especially English and other languages are spoken in Western Europe, the number of students and annual graduates in computer sciences and information technology, the number of certifies IT, specialists,
Taxes
Net wages and charges
Real estate costs
Connectivity
Location
Expanding prospects
So far, based on all these factors, Bulgaria, Romania, and Albania are the top three countries in Eastern Europe for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). The first two are members of the European Country, while Albania as a candidate country is developing its legal framework in line with the EU law.