Ukraine’s IT Association has launched a representative office in Germany to help attract more software development contracts for the nation’s talented yet inexpensive web of programmers.
Experts said the development could help Ukraine, which has in recent years sharply boosted export-oriented software development services in excess of $1.5 billion, tap into a new clientele market. The lion’s share of orders currently comes from the U.S., Canada and Nordic countries.
“In opening the representative office, we thought it would be foremost useful for small and medium companies, as big domestic IT firms are already fully loaded with orders coming from Northern America.
Smaller companies are in need of new clients”, said Igor Lisitski, the head of HUB Concept GmbH, a company, established by the Ukrainian IT Association to act as its branch office in Hamburg, Germany.
HUB Concept will organize events and meetings in Germany between representatives of domestic IT business and German companies.
“The first event is scheduled for February 2012. We’ll take representatives of 2 or 3 Ukrainian companies, those that will be prepared the best by that time” to make proper presentations and proposals, Lisitski said.
Accuracy is essential, as reputation means everything in this highly competitive market. That is why Dmitry Belich, head of Ameria Ukraine, an IT company with long-term relationships with German partners, is still interested in working the new Ukrainian-Germany IT representative office.
“I can’t master this huge market alone. I need allies. It is important that Ukrainian companies do not make any mistakes at this market level, because after we make one, it is very hard to regain a good image again and make clients trust you,” he said.
According to Belich, the German IT market is estimated to be worth 14.6 billion euros annually, with 6 billion euros of the work being outsourced to software developers in other countries.
With so much money up for grabs, the stakes are high for Ukraine.
“Germans are very careful about giving the chance of developing software for their expensive business to someone they don’t know. So our mission is to make them trust our IT companies, instead of trying to steal our IT specialists,” said Lisitski. “What they are afraid of is poor discipline.
They know that getting our specialist under their control will make him work most effectively. So we must care about our discipline here.”
Ukraine’s IT companies are sharing the cost for of promoting their potential in Germany. According to Lisitski, organizing an event for 20-30 representatives typically leads to two or three contracts being signed.
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Kyiv Post staff writer Olga Rudenko can be reached at [email protected]
