It’s that time of year again. Here at Stefanini, we’re awaiting a well-earned Christmas break and looking eagerly ahead to 2020.
While we’re excited to see what the new year holds though, it’s important to take a moment to reflect on the many successes that we have enjoyed over the past 12 months. Whether it’s the Gartner digital events that we have proudly represented our company at, the 10 digital workshops that we have organised for our customers around Europe or the strides that we have made in the financial, retail and manufacturing industries, I am incredibly proud of the journey that Stefanini EMEA has embarked on this year.
So, to help you celebrate our success with me, here are some of my highlights from 2019.
The Stefanini Digital Transformation Roadshow
2019 was the year that Stefanini went on the road. Throughout the year, we took the Stefanini roadshow across Europe, hosting 10 workshops to analyse some of the most disruptive delivery models available to businesses today. Together with our European customers, we addressed a number of the challenges that come hand-in-hand with digital transformation, offering advice and solutions that will help to help ease the process.
Expansion in Ukraine
A particularly exciting moment for us in 2019 was seizing the opportunity to expand our operations in Europe by opening our first site in Ukraine. A country with a thriving IT sector, Ukraine is home to more than 1,000 IT companies and employs about 100,000 workers, making it the ideal place for Stefanini to set up shop. Our local team has a particular focus on application support and development, but our work in the region may expand to also include a service desk function.
New offices in Bucharest
Our Ukrainian site isn’t the only new facility that we’ve opened in Europe this year. We were also proud to open a new office in the Romanian capital of Bucharest. Romania is home to one of our most important service centres in Europe, accounting for 44% of EMEA revenue, so we were hugely excited to be able to expand our operations in the country even further.
Prizes and Awards
While I like to make a point of recognising the achievements of our team internally, I have been incredibly proud to see the outstanding work that we deliver for our customers has also been recognised with a number of prestigious industry awards.
In April, our team in Romania won first place in the Customer Experience Category at The Association of Business Service Leaders in Romania (ABSL) Gala event, an organisation representing the business services sector in Romania. The team was also awarded third place in the Business Excellence category.
Then, in May, our team was celebrated again at the Fifth Annual Romanian Outsourcing and Shared Services Awards, organised by Outsourcing Today magazine. Our Romanian office was awarded second prize for Employer of the Year, second prize for the Digital Transformation of the Year and third prize in the Best Workplace competition.
Hard work and determination really do pay off, and I can’t wait to see what our team achieves next year.
Partnership with Agora.io
Real-time video is an area that’s growing rapidly and generating huge demand. So, to explore this exciting new space, we have been very pleased to announce a new partnership with Agora.io, the leading voice, video and live interactive streaming platform. As our new partner, Agora will allow us to give our customers access to cutting-edge, real-time video solutions, all powered by its global real-time communications (RTC) network.
Joint Venture with Infinit
Our new partnership with Agora isn’t the only union that we have forged in 2019. We have also turbocharged our digital marketing offering through the launch of a new joint venture in Romania, Stefanini Infinit.
The new organisation, a full-service digital marketing company, combines our business and technology solutions here at Stefanini with the creative marketing expertise of digital agency, Infinit Solutions. Stefanini Infinit fully incorporates the former Infinit Solutions team into Stefanini, allowing it to seamlessly continue its local business operations while also providing the scale and global resources of Stefanini Group.
My first year as CEO EMEA
Finally, on a personal note, I am very proud to have served this year as Stefanini’s new CEO EMEA. Together, we have achieved a huge amount in 2019, and I can’t wait to see what 2020 holds for our team here in Europe.
