Who is Outsourcing to Bulgaria and Why

It is well known that during the past few years Bulgaria has leapfrogged other countries and is currently ranked first in Europe as the best outsourcing destination. A T Kearney described Bulgaria as a ‘top location for IT centres, providing services for many multinational companies as well as domestic ones’.

We can outline just a few of the great advantages Bulgaria has to offer to any companies that are looking to engage outsourcing at the moment:

• A highly qualified work force – over 50% of the population has attained a university degree
• Well positioned location wise – 2 hours away from every major European Capital by air
• Very high number of qualified IT professionals and engineers
• Excellent language skills, over 85% of students study English and over 45% of the entire population speaks a foreign language
• Over the past few years there has been robust growth of the Business Process Outsourcing Sector with many foreign companies opening offices – more than 22,000 people are employed by outsourcing companies.

There is now a significant number of large international companies that have chosen Bulgaria as a suitable destination for opening up outsourcing offices. For most of them this turned out to be very lucrative as they have quickly expanded their operations and also moved most of their back office processes in order to further cut costs. This has allowed them to get on with the important task of concentrating in expanding into new markets. Here we can see just a few of the international organisations that operate in the country today:

1. Hewlett Packard – Being one of the largest IT companies on the market and operating in more than 170 countries worldwide, HP have been present on the Bulgarian market for more than 30 years. Currently they are a large employer there with a total workforce of more than 3500 professionals. In the publication `Fortune 500` HP are ranked in the top 10.
2. Sutherland Global Services – Sutherland was incorporated in May 2008 and in Sofia Bulgaria they currently employ close to 500 employees, providing support to Fortune 100 clients working in some 16 different languages.
3. Coca–Cola – Coca-Cola HBC Bulgaria is one of the largest companies in the non-alcoholic beverage industry in the country and is a franchised bottler of the product for The Coca-Cola Company. Starting it operations in Bulgaria in 1992, Coca-Cola HBC Bulgaria has now established itself in the marketplace and the company has benefited the Bulgarian economy by investing over 500 million BGN since it opened up.
   Within time Coca-Cola slowly moved most of their administration for the European market to Bulgaria and today it is all performed from their office in Sofia.
4. IBM – IBM is reputed to be the largest information technological company in the world today. They employ over 530 professionals in their location in Bulgaria and their facility grows every year.
5. ProcessFlows – ProcessFlows has been on the Bulgarian Market for over 5 years and has three offices facilities and over 120 people working for the company in Sofia. Among the multinational companies that have been present on the market, ProcessFlows grows every year and continues to develop a strong presence, with experienced professionals working in the fields of Information Technology, Customer Support, Sales and Marketing, Data Processing and Web Development.

Whilst HP and others have mainly outsourced their internal processes, ProcessFlows is not only saving money internally, but also providing services for many customers that are looking for outsourcing possibilities abroad.

If you are interested in looking at Bulgaria to outsource some or all of your business processes, talk to ProcessFlows, we’ll be happy to show you our setup and introduce you to our outsourcing services. Or maybe take a trip to Sofia to see for yourself the new offices and Business Centres that are springing up and whilst you’re there, check out the relaxed café culture and all round cheaper economy than Western Europe.

Whatever you decide, you’ll need to act quickly to avoid missing out on this great opportunity to cut costs and develop your business.

For more information please call us on +44 (0) 1962 835053 or email enquiries@processflows.co.uk.