There are only 15 Polish companies in this year's Fast 500, of which Future Processing is the highest ranked software business.

David Halstead, Deloitte United Kingdom and partner in charge of the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA programme, congratulated the finalists saying: "Making the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA ranking is a testament to a company's commitment to technology and innovation."

The Deloitte Fast 500 Awards recognise technology companies that have achieved the fastest rates of revenue growth in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa during the past five years. Now in its 11th year, the Fast 500 programme uses data from the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 local initiatives, which rank high-growth technology companies by location or specifically defined geographic area.

Jarosław Czaja, CEO of Future Processing said, "This was the first time that Future Processing has entered this ranking and to come within the top 250 companies across EMEA is a great result. Everyone at Future Processing works hard to make the company successful and it is fantastic to get some recognition for our efforts."

The Deloitte Fast 500 Awards recognise technology companies that have achieved the fastest rates of revenue growth in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) during the past five years. Now in its 11th year, the Fast 500 programme is supported by the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 initiatives, which rank high-growth technology companies by location or specifically defined geographic area.

The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Program in Central Europe is a prestigious annual award that ranks the fastest growing Central European technology companies, based on the percentage of revenue growth over a five-year period.

Future Processing, which entered the competition for the first time this year, experienced 664% revenue growth between 2006 and 2010. To participate in the ranking it also demonstrated that it uses and develops its own, innovative technologies and invests in research and development.

Jaroslaw Czaja, CEO of Future Processing, commented on the result, "The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 shows that we are the fastest growing software company in Poland and the 22nd fastest growing technology company in the whole of the Central European region. We have focused on delivering high-quality, technically-excellent software, that more than meets our clients' expectations, at affordable prices. This strategy has paid off as we have experienced very strong growth, despite the recession - and continue to do so. I am very proud of our achievement."

This year's edition of the Technology Fast 50 is dominated by companies from the software (22 companies) and internet sectors (21). The largest group of participants came from Poland (20 companies), followed by the Czech Republic (9) and Hungary and Romania (6 companies from each).

According to the report that accompanies the Index, "Poland is one of the big gainers in the 2011 IT Industry Competitiveness Index, having risen five places to 30th since 2009 and broken into the top half of the table. IT infrastructure and the R and D environment are particular areas of improved performance, with noteworthy progress also evident in the legal and business environments."

The Index shows that Poland has risen ten places in the rankings for its R and D environment. In contrast to most other countries, Polish public sector spending on R and D has grown sharply while private sector R and D spending has increased too. In terms of the operating environment for businesses, the country has moved up three places. This is attributed to an improvement in regulation. In addition IT-specific patent generation has also increased; it now accounts for over 7% of total patent applications.

Commenting on the Index, Jaroslaw Czaja CEO of Future Processing said, "The results show that Poland has improved its IT competiveness in a time of economic recession - a big achievement. We remain ahead of key outsourcing competitors and are improving in areas that are key to the long term success of an offshoring destination, like R and D, intellectual property protection, infrastructure and regulation. I think our improvement in competitiveness has a lot to do with the fact that we haven't been affected by cost cutting in the same way as other countries, and have been able to use this to our advantage. The IT industry in Poland is now in a very strong position."

First published in 2007, The IT Industry Competitiveness Index gauges the IT industry environment of 66 countries by assessing the enablers of competitiveness and determining their relative importance to the IT sector's performance. The independent study is undertaken by the Economist Intelligence Unit on behalf of the Business Software Alliance every two years.

World Usability Day, marked in 43 countries across the world, promotes the concept of user oriented solutions - projects that are simple, understandable, easy to use, but also stimulate creativity and imagination.

In Silesia an interdisciplinary event is planned which aims to present ideas and projects, both modern and traditional, that significantly impact quality and way of life, interpersonal interactions and communication. The day will feature practical activities, lectures, art installations and music, emphasising the connections between IT, design, ergonomics, architecture, medicine, human sciences, ecology and cultural studies.

Paweł Nowak, head of the User Experience Experts Group at Future Processing, is in charge of World Usability Day Silesia. He explained, "This is the second time we are organising a World Usability Day conference in Silesia. Encouraged by our achievements last year, we have decided to go further and have booked a wide range of speakers and performers, including artists and musicians to reflect our theme."

Nowak continued, "Even the location we have chosen, the Silesian Culture and Recreation Park, is an example of social change in design. Previously the park was a post-industrial wasteland. Today it is 400 hectares of green space. We hope every aspect of World Usability Day in Silesia will educate attendees on how to user orient their work, whatever field it may be in."

The event is free to attend and should be of interest to students, researchers, scientists and all interested in usability conception. It is generously supported by the Consortium of Silesian Public Universities. More information is available at the official website: wudsilesia.pl

Nalepa, in his master's dissertation written under the supervision of Prof. Zbigniew Czech at the Silesian University of Technology, created a parallel algorithm, that helped him to find the best answer to this question to date: "How to deliver goods to 800 clients in the most efficient, manner - with the smallest number of cars, the shortest routes and within a certain time?"

At first, using a heuristic algorithm he minimised the number of cars. Then, using a memetic algorithm he optimised the route. For one of the variants of the problem, designated by the codename c1_8_2, Jakub managed to cut the number of needed trucks to 73 and the route they need to drive to 29.589,70 km.

"This vehicle routing problem with time windows is actually present in many aspects of our daily lives: we plan bus timetables or goods deliveries from producers to customers," explained Prof. Czech. "Minimising the number of vehicles implies a reduction in employed drivers. This means lower fleet maintenance costs too. Taking into account current petrol prices, reducing the routes seems equally important. Nalepa's improvement has important strategic and financial implications for all of us."

Jarosław Czaja, CEO of Future Processing commented, "We are very proud of Jakub Nalepa's achievement. His work sets an example for Polish computer science students to aspire to and demonstrates the high level of skills available in Poland and at Future Processing."

Nalepa's solution improves upon the best known result in the world for benchmarking problem instances found by Gehring and Homberger. His solution has been published on the SINTEF website, along with other world-leading results.

Michael Stock, NOA board member responsible for offshoring, said at the event, "These are the most interesting times that the industry has seen for both buyers and sellers. The recession coupled with new technologies like cloud computing mean that it is hard for both sides to predict the environment they will be operating in, in twelve months time."

Other speakers discussed new trends impacting the industry and best practice. Key trends were identified as cloud computing, Agile development, growing maturity in the industry new legislation like the data protection act and the bribery act.

Jaroslaw Czaja, CEO of Future Processing commented, "The NOA Offshoring Day indicates that the offshoring industry is in good health and moving towards a new phase in its lifecycle. This movement is something that we feel in Poland too, with increased FDI attractiveness and growth in the IT industry. Future Processing has been preparing for these new trends, technologies and increased growth and we are looking forward to the next few years."

The Conference's annual FDI survey, published in World Investment Report at the end of July this year, also shows that Poland has moved up to sixth place in the world in terms of the most attractive FDI host countries as perceived by multinational corporations. The Czech Republic is the only other EU member state from Central and Eastern Europe in the top 20, in 17th place.

The top five countries for FDI attractiveness are: China, the United States, India, Brazil, and Russia.

Jaroslaw Czaja, CEO of Future Processing commented on the news, "I am delighted that Poland is the top EU country for FDI attractiveness. This indicates that across all industry sectors, outsourcing, or more specifically - offshoring - to Poland is becoming increasingly attractive. This news underlines the growth that we at Future Processing are seeing as we gain not only new customers but also customers from new markets in Europe."

Czaja continued, "The survey shows that while overall levels of FDI are still lower than they were prior to the 2008 crash, Poland now has a larger share of FDI than many other countries that out-performed it in this area in 2000 - 2007. This is particularly good news for our outsourcing industries as in its survey report UNCTAD predicts that global FDI flows will recover over the next two years. In preparation for this expected, continuing growth, we are building new offices and rolling out new initiatives like FP Lab and FP Academy."

The growth in employee numbers is principally due to two factors:

• An increase in both the number of customer and the size of projects Future Processing is completing for them.
• A new company strategy with expansion in the people, marketing and team management departments.

To ensure that employee growth goes smoothly and that the unique Future Processing culture is not diluted, the company has also established a people department. The department goes beyond the usual human resources function, providing a highly co-ordinated personal development experience, tailored for each employee.

Jaroslaw Czaja, CEO of Future Processing commented on the landmark figure saying, "Future Processing has become a well-known employer in the region, famous for its high quality software development and positive company culture. This helps us to recruit the best talent. In addition we do not use recruitment consultants, but rely on word of mouth, close alignment with technical universities and a rigorous interview process. This strategy has paid off with new recruits settling in quickly and we have an exceptionally low staff turnover rate of just 5%."

The vast majority (95%) of the new hires are developers or quality assurance experts. The remainder are marketing, human resources, finance and administration professionals.

Any employee can use the FP Lab in their free time to hone their skills and investigate ideas they may have. Additionally employees can propose business ideas that they would like to work with Future Processing to develop, sharing the risk and the profits. Successful proposals will have a team of developers and QA experts assigned to them, as well as business development guidance and sales and marketing advice as required. FP Lab will also take on not-for-profit projects like open source tools or ground-breaking areas of research.

Jaroslaw Czaja, CEO of Future Processing explained why he has set up FP Lab, "We have a fantastic workforce, full of great ideas. It is hard to access the right facilities, finance and mentoring required to turn these ideas into businesses, and so most of them would previously never have seen the light of day. FP Lab gives employees the chance to change this. It gives them access to experienced people as partners and a high quality laboratory. It offers to cover all the expenses related to developing these ideas and avoids the arduous search for investors. We do ask for a share of the profits but we are not greedy. We try to give our people the opportunity to work on their own projects and realise their own potential."

The Lab team is led by Marcin Drobik, known as the FP Lab Guy. He has just has approved the first idea for development and work will commence on it next week.

The Academy will deliver training to computer science and engineering students across Poland. This programme includes lectures, conferences and participation in external events. It also provides ongoing professional development for Future Processing employees including mentoring, coaching, training, knowledge transfer and the creation of new human resources solutions.

Jaroslaw Czaja, CEO of Future Processing commented on the new FP Academy, "We aim not only to provide the best professional development for our employees, but at the same time, improve the skills and knowledge of graduates entering the Polish technology industry.

Quality is at the heart of Future Processing and I believe it is also vital to the survival of the Polish IT industry as a whole. Essentially the FP Academy should contribute to the ongoing quality achieved by both of these entities." Underlining this, Future Processing has appointed Michal Sztanga as head of FP Academy: he is also in charge of quality assurance for the company.

All employees, regardless of job function, and all relevant students are eligible for the FP Academy. Students can register to attend FP Academy lectures held at their university for free. They can also apply for scholarships and company-based training.

Jaroslaw Czaja, CEO of Future Processing, comments, "We have launched this service to help our employees and partners travelling to New Gliwice to get to there or to the University more easily. It underlines both our commitment to the development of the area and our ethos of creating a better work-life balance for employees."

The bus runs on a timetabled service from Monday to Friday between: 8.00-16.45. At present the circular route has stops in front of the Faculty of Computer Science at the Silesian University of Technology and at the Future Processing building in New Gliwice.

The inaugural service, which started at the University was launched by Professor Jerzy Rutkowski, Vice-Rector for International Cooperation at the Silesian University of Technology.

Future Processing once again sponsors the Programming League. Money prizes and training periods will be funded for the four best contestants.

The NOA is focused on promoting and sharing best practice in outsourcing.

The new offices are located in close proximity to Silesian University of Technology, which should strengthen our partnership with the university.

The company asked us to make its Home Care product more attractive to users by rewriting the code to make it more up-to-date, introducing a new graphical user interface (GUI) and adding web-based functionality. It chose to outsource to Future Processing because, as an experienced company with a highly-skilled workforce, we were able to deliver the quality of service it required at a competitive price.

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