In my last post I blogged about Future Processing’s success in 2010. In this one I’m going to examine the Polish IT outsourcing market. Future Processing wasn’t the only offshore development company to do well in 2010.

Many other Polish software companies reported good results. In fact IDC reported the total value of the Polish outsourcing market in 2010 was approximately $500m which represents 7% growth on the previous year.  This growth means that the percentage of the total IT market made up by outsourcing services now lies at 17%. Put another way, nearly one in every £5 spent on IT in Poland last year was spent on outsourcing. For someone like me who has been involved in the industry for over ten years, this seems incredible, but in a delightful way. It also means that Poland has one of the highest proportions of the IT market made up of outsourcing, in Central and Eastern Europe. All these signs of growth are very encouraging and I believe they will continue for the next few years at least.

Computer science remains a very popular university subject and therefore we continue to turn out good numbers of highly skilled programmers to meet the rising demand from companies wanting to outsource. This is a key point. Poland’s reputation in outsourcing is largely built on the quality of products and services our highly skilled workforce turns out. As industries grow they can sometimes become a little slacker with their quality assurance. The challenge in Poland, and one that I think we are easily meeting, is to not take our eye of the quality ball as we expand.