At Stefanini, we’re very proud to be a global company. With 70 offices in 40 countries, our extensive international presence puts us in prime position to deliver our services and products to customers in all four corners of the globe. However, there are still territories in which we can grow our influence.
With that in mind, we are delighted to announce our expansion into an exciting new location. In the coming months, Stefanini will establish a base of operations in Kiev, Ukraine.
Why Ukraine?
The fact that Ukraine is a region in which Stefanini doesn’t already have a physical presence makes this is an incredibly exciting move for our team, with various factors contributing to our decision to establish a permanent site.
For one thing, Ukraine is home to a thriving IT sector, and access to a skilled local workforce means that once we have our feet on the ground, we will be able grow our operations quickly. Recent reports show that there are over 1,000 IT companies in Ukraine and that the sector employs close to 100,000 workers. The industry is growing rapidly though, and this number is expected to surpass 200,000 by 2020.
There are also a significant number of English speakers, with 78% of Ukrainian tech workers having an intermediate or higher level of English proficiency. As a global organisation, with an international customer-base, having access to a multi-lingual workforce will prove invaluable to our operations in the region.
What will Stefanini be doing?
Establishing a site in any new country is always an enormous task, but our plan is to have a team of at least 50 local people working in Ukraine by the end of 2019. This team will operate in a variety of roles, but there will be a particular focus on application support and development. However, it’s likely that over time, our work in the region will expand to also include a service desk function.
As with any expansion into a new territory, our first ambition won’t be to break into the local market. We are working hard to assess what business opportunities there might be for us in Ukraine itself, but as many of our customers are global organisations, in the first instance, the primary function of most new Stefanini sites is to remotely support other regions.
When will the office open?
Our plans for the Ukraine site are moving quickly, with our ambition being to officially launch the site by the end of 2019.
That isn’t to say that there aren’t challenges for us to overcome, though. As with any expansion into new territory, we are in the process of establishing new legal, HR and financial processes, as well as gathering comprehensive analysis on the local market. We will also need to be mindful of Ukraine’s relationship with other regions. For example, while Ukraine is not a member of the European Union, as most of our customers are international organisations, we will still need to ensure that our activities are in accordance with regulations such as GDPR.
We are embracing these challenges though, and once we have our feet on the ground, we expect our presence in the area to grow significantly within just a few years. This is a hugely exciting opportunity for Stefanini, and if the insight that we gathered so far is any indication of things to come, Ukraine will be a fantastic location to expand our operations.