Krakow, Poland:A Technology Hub for Central & Eastern Europe

J.P. Allen, University of San FranciscoRamon Tancinco, Cisco Systems Poland

Version as of 26 January 2010THIS WORK IS LICENSED UNDER THE CREATIVE COMMONS ATTRIBUTION-SHARE ALIKE 3.0 UNITED STATES LICENSE.

Who is in Krakow?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

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 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•Provides 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.”

(“Krakow Centre of Excellence”, CapGemini)

Krakow, a university city200,000+ 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

An emerging tech ecosystemIT Associations

ASPIRE - Association of IT and business process services companies in Poland

ITK - Information Technology in Krakow portal

ITSBA - IT Small Business Alliance Krakow

User Groups

PJUG - Polish Java Users Group

kgd.net - Krakow .NET User Group

KRUG - Krakow Ruby User Group

Polish Adobe Flex User Group

Pykonik - Krakow Python Users Group

Polish Scrum Users Group

TCPIP - Technical Communication Professionals in Poland

Events

Academic IT Festival - Annual student-organized conference across four major universities

KrakOpen Team Programming Challenge

CodeCamp - Annual .NET programming event

CONFidence - Annual IT security conference

Java Developers’ Day - Annual Java conference

GeeCON - Java/JVM/Groovy/Ruby conference

Polish Network Operators Group - Annual Service Provider Conference

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.

For more informationTholons Top 50 Emerging Outsourcing Cities - Krakow ranked #4 globally, highest city in Europe, 2009

PwC report on BPO in Krakow

Jones Lang LaSalle report on Offshoring and Near-shoring in Poland

CapGemini Krakow Center of Excellence brochure

Directory of Krakow IT Companies by the Krakow Network

Relevant links• City of Krakow – City website

• Krakow Technology Park – Government Incentives and Special Economic Zones

• Business in Malopolska – Regional Government Incentives

• South Poland Business Link – Local Business Association serving multinationals in Krakow.

Krakow/San Francisco

SISTER CITIES, AS OF JULY 2009