Krakow, Poland:
A Technology Hub for
Central & Eastern
Europe
Ramon Tancinco
Chairman, High Tech Committee: American Chamber of
Commerce Poland
Head of Strategy Central and Eastern Europe: Cisco
Systems
Version as of 28 May 2010
THIS WORK IS LICENSED UNDER THE CREATIVE COMMONS ATTRIBUTION-SHARE ALIKE 3.0 UNITED STATES LICENSE.
Agenda
Speaker Intro
Krakow Primer
Krakow by the Numbers
Krakow Trends
Who is in Krakow?
Multinational R&D: Google, IBM, Motorola, ABB, SABRE, Delphi,
Fujitsu
Offshore BPO: CapGemini, IBM, Motorola, Shell, ACS, Fortis Bank,
UBS, Comarch, Unicredito Bank, Tesco, International Paper, HSBC,
Lufthansa, State Street, HCL, Philip Morris, Hewitt, Alexander Mann,
Hitachi, Accounting Plaza, EDF Energy, UPM-Kymenne
IT Services: concentrations in video game design and development,
web design and development, mobile applications, bioinformatics, and
other areas
Startups such as iLoopMobile, Volantis, Synkia, X-Formation,
Test4Load, PipeJump, and many others
R&D Headquarters for Small and Medium-Sized Companies from
Ireland, Israel, UK, Denmark, Norway, and US
Why Krakow?
Large technical/engineering talent pool
Low cost + stability of European Union
Multilingual, educated work force
Great place to live: Beauty, culture, and recreation
Krakow Multinational
Employment
TOTAL
IT
Accountint & Finance
Customer Support
R&D
Sales
Telemarketing
HR
Telecom
Logistics
inne
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
Kraków – employment in Major IT
Companies and SSC (ITO)
IT Company
Approx. no. of employees
Comarch
1000
Motorola
800
Sabre
800
Capgemini IT
500
IBM IT
450
Ericpol
400
Dreamlab (Onet IT)
200
Quantum Int.
150
HCL IT
250
TP S.A. IT
60
Google
80
Electrolux IT
40
Total
4730
Student numbers – Kraków and Katowice (one labour region)
Katowice, located very close to Krakow, create one labour makro region with the highest no. of
students in Poland, with min. 2,5 times higher students potential compared to Poznań
Source: National Statistics Office
Kraków and Katow ice
Warszaw a
Poznan
Wrocław
Łódź
Lublin
Gdańsk
Bydgoszcz
Szczecin
Rzeszów
Olsztyn
Kielce
Białystok
Opole
Zielona Góra
0
100
200
300
400
500
Growing population in Kraków
Positive net migration by region – Krakow on 2nd position in
Poland (number per 1000 inhabitants)
Warszawa
Kraków
Poznan
Gdańsk
Łódź
Bydgoszcz
Wrocław
Szczecin
Zielona Góra
Rzeszów
Białystok
Lublin
Kielce
Olsztyn
Katowice
Opole
-5
-4
-3
-2
-1
0
1
2
3
Polska
Krakow’s Transformation into
an R&D Center
IBM Launches
their Software
R&D Laboratory
in Krakow
Sabre reaches
340 Engineers
2000:Sabre
purchases
Gradient
2002: IBM Buys
PwC’s Finance
BPO Operations
2002
1989
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2006
2002
1998
Motorola Office
Opened in
Krakow at
Jagiellonian
Campus Tower
Poland emerges
from
Communism
Rafal Styczen
sets up IIF, the
first Venture
Capital fund in
Krakow
2004
2005
2005
2004
Poland joins the
European Union
Sabre reaches
100 Engineers
2006
2007
2007
Google Opens their
first and only Central
and Eastern European
R&D Center in Krakow
Sabre reached 600
Engineers
Trend Snapshot: The Krakow Mobile
Cluster
Motorola
EricPol
Google (Android)
Volantis
iLoop Mobile
Trend Snapshot: International Startup Back-Office R&D (last 2 years)
Synkia (Norway)
X-Formation (Denmark)
iLoop Mobile (USA)
Test4Load (Israel)
PipeJump (USA)
Krakow success stories
•
Google
•“For
years, Western technology firms have come to Eastern Europe to lure away talented computer-science graduates...but now, the
region's universities are producing so many top programmers that many firms are changing tack – and setting up shop at the source. IBM,
Motorola, and Google have all opened research labs here in Krakow in recent years.
•Eastern
Europeans have dominated international programming competitions in recent years, attracting the attention of tech firms. "When we
saw these trends, of people from Eastern Europe winning these contests, we decided to take a closer look," says Kannan Pashupathy,
Google's head of international engineering operations. "People have a huge interest in software, and there's a much deeper grounding
in mathematics in the curriculum in these countries"...Cultural, geographic, and economic proximity to Western Europe has given
the region an advantage over global competitors like India.”
(Christian Science Monitor, “Why Google put a research lab in Poland”, 3/13/07)
•
IBM
•“For
Big Blue and other IT services companies, Poland's skilled workforce makes up for rising wages with skills that offset
Bangalore's low costs. Krakow, Poland, is a nice place to live and work, with a charming old quarter and a lively club scene driven by the
city's population of more than 150,000 students. In fact, Krakow seems almost too nice to compete with the raucous, traffic-jammed cities of
India as a location for outsourcing...
•Since
2002, IBM has boosted staff in Krakow tenfold...Part of the reason Krakow makes sense for IBM, as well as for Cap Gemini,
Motorola, KPMG, and other multinationals is that the university town churns out a steady supply of well-qualified graduates.”
(Spiegel Online, “As Good as Bangalore: Why Krakow Still Works for IBM”, 9/26/07)
•
CapGemini
support in 25 different languages. “Krakow has a rich history, but today’s city has a modern face with the kind of infrastructure
you’d expect from any European commercial hub...Importantly, it gives us access to the skills we need – 180,000 graduates (30,000 from
Krakow) leave Poland’s universities every year.”
•Provides
(“Krakow Centre of Excellence”, CapGemini)
Krakow, a university city
200,000+ students in higher education
400,000+ students within 100 km
Over 30,000 new graduates each year.
~8,000 IT sciences students; ~5,000 mechanical engineers currently
enrolled
Leading universities in the country
Jagiellonian University, AGH University of Science and
Technology, Krakow University of Technology, Krakow University
of Economics, and others.
8 universities in Krakow with IT degrees
SOURCE: TESTHR.PL, CAPGEMINI
Krakow culture and lifestyle
“Eastern Europe’s new bohemian capital”
(New York Times)
EU Capital of Culture 2000; “considered by many the
cultural capital of Poland”.
Entire Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
With 7 million+ visitors per year, convenient
transportation links and infrastructure.
7 national parks within 200 km; world-class skiing 100
km away.
Support for investments
EU subsidies for service sector job creation
Polish government support
Direct aid for R&D and BPO job creation
Corporate and real estate tax exemptions
Poland has a large and growing economy:
ranked #21 in global GDP, low inflation.
Krakow/San Francisco
SISTER CITIES, AS OF JULY 2009