Technology moves the outsourcing services industry - as it does all service industries - towards new horizons, not all of them known. Companies are willing to outsource more, as they are challenged by an increasing need for transparency and fast response to market needs, and the desire for more value at lower costs.

Ten volunteers working for SAP company together with Cartea Daliei association will organize a Scratch programming teaching club to function at Emil Isac school based in Cluj-Napoca, the company announced.

Yonder is the first Dutch company to start work in the Cluj market on an outsourcing model. That was back in 1993 with a small team of IT enthusiasts

After entering the Romanian market in 2007, British company Xoomworks Outsourcing grew its operations to 100 staff, tells Outsourcing Today company's managing director, Christophe Bajc.

"I have set up the first software development and outsourcing team in 1998. Since then, we went through many changes and the investment itself has spread across the years and projects," recalls Levente Szélyes – founder & CEO of Codespring tech brand, from Cluj-Napoca.

If you're a Swiss private bank client, most likely your account is managed through Luxoft's Romanian team of experts' designed applications. UBS, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse are just a few of the plethora of clients Luxoft's Bucharest centre serves in Europe and US, tells Outsourcing Today the company's country manager, Bogdan Pelinescu.

RES, a company specializing in enabling, automating and securing digital workspaces, has entered the Romanian market by opening a Research & Development center in Bucharest, says the CEO of RES, Al Monserrat.

The IT professionals market is undergoing a fierce competition, which in most cases means a salary growth not always backed by performance and productivity increase, a move that can have a boomerang effect on a medium term and a decrease in the interest of doing business in Romania, says Monica Jiman, deputy CEO of Pentalog.

Luxoft Romania, a provider of software development services and IT solutions to global customers, last year recorded a turnover of 222.3 million lei, up 56% compared to previous year.

Romania moves forward adopting technologies such as the Cloud, The Internet of Things (IoT), Geographic Information System (GIS) or Unmanned Aircraft Vehicle (UAV), which will most certainly lead to technological innovation that will drive Romania's development in the next two decades, says Bogdan Padiu, CEO, Teamnet Group.

When Marco Stefanini established his training company in 1987, he would have never imagined that about 20 years later his company will be present in Romania. Stefanini's Romanian operations grew about 25 per cent last year and another 20 per cent upswing is expected for this year, Andreea Stanescu, senior director of Service Delivery EMEA, Stefanini Romania, tells Outsourcing Today.

Romania now holds the top position in Endava's personnel figure, with 56 per cent of the company's 2,500 employees located here, according to Valentin Metzger, CEE Delivery Director, Endava.

Oracle officially opened its first office in Iasi, a project that is part of the expansion of the company nationally. Sorin Mindrutescu, country leader & director CEE Cloud and Hans Klemm, the US ambassador to Romania were present at the new Oracle office inauguration.

Atos will expand its Romanian operations and intends to reach about 2,000 employees nationwide by the end of 2016, tells Outsourcing Today the Atos country manager, Catalina Dodu.

Early stage Romanian IT &C companies are summoned to join Microsoft Accelerator Bootcamp, one of the biggest events for start-ups and entrepreneurs organized by Microsoft and now hosted for the first time in Central and Eastern Europe, at TechHUB Bucharest.

Xerox sees the document services and outsourced management markets growing in 2016, keeping with the upward trend of the economy, says Gabriel Pantelimon, general manager of Xerox Romania.

While the world's IT giant Microsoft plans the takeover of the biggest professionals' network for 26 billion USD, it will also get control to Romania's more than 1.8 million users database.

Romanian companies must understand that each euro invested into IT rolls into several euros of revenue, Rumyana Trencheva, managing director SAP for South Eastern Europe (including Bulgaria and Romania) tells Outsourcing Today.

Following a successful journey in Bacau's IT outsourcing segment, ISSCO opens a new office in Iasi and ups its team by more than 75 new employees.

Rockwell Automation, the world's largest company dedicated to industrial automation and information, expands its business in East and Central Europe and has opened two new offices in Bucharest, Romania and Budapest, Hungary. Both offices will have experienced industrial professionals who have worked extensively with manufacturers in the country.

While Optima Group closed 2015 with a turnover of 4.8 million lei, an increase of over 40% compared to 2014, it also plans for this year a further growth of 20%

SCC Services Romania started activity in 2006, with a team of just 24 people. Now it has about 1,000 and by 2018 about 30 per cent more will join its team. "By the end of 2015 we've reached close to 1,000 employees and we plan to increase our headcount to over 1,200 by the end of 2016," tells Outsourcing Today the company's general manager for Romania, Adina Tapalaga.

When Ratmir Timashev graduated from the "Moscow MIT" at the beginning of the 1990s, he would have never imagined he will found and lead a half a billion USD-revenue company that will expand globally in under 10 years.

HR managers in ITO companies may have thrilling news, as Intel may close down its local office, laying off more than 150 employees.

Endava, one of the IT services companies with rapid growth in the region, has expanded during the recent months its local team in the biggest center it has in Romania, located in Cluj-Napoca, reaching 700 full time employees.

Teamnet Group will provide UAV technologies in the Italian market as a result of a strategic partnership with Geocart.

While Sorin Mindrutescu, Oracle's general manager for Romania, added up to its functions the leadership of the central and eastern Europe's Cloud division, the company grows solidly to about 4,200 employees, about a third more than last year's.

SCC Services Romania started activity in 2006, with a team of just 24 people. Now it has about 1,000 and by 2018 about 30 per cent more will join its team.

The Romanian software company Qualitance has been included on the 2016 Inc. 5,000 list of fastest growing private companies in Europe over the past three years, owing to the 283% growth rate of Qualitance from 2012 to 2014.

Less than half of the Romanian companies currently use a customer loyalty scheme, according to a poll amongst more than 100 local major companies.

Xerox sees document services and outsourced management market growing in 2016, keeping up with the upswing trend of the economy, says Gabriel Pantelimon, general manager of Xerox Romania.

After entering the Romanian market in 2007, British company Xoomworks Outsourcing grew its operations to 100 staff, tells Outsourcing Today company's managing director, Christophe Bajc.

Wizrom Software looks for 40 consultants that not only have technical, but also soft skills, says a company release.

Atos will expand its Romanian operations and intends to reach about 2,000 employees nationwide by the end of 2016, tells Outsourcing Today the Atos country manager, Catalina Dodu.

Stefanini's Romanian operations grew about 25% last year and another 20% upswing is expected for this year, Andreea Stanescu, senior director of Service Delivery EMEA, Stefanini Romania, tells Outsourcing Today.

TiVo Inc., the US TV programs management service company, announces the first year anniversary of the establishment of TiVo Romania software development center in Iasi with plans to double its size by year-end, Outsourcing Today has learned.

Raiffeisen Bank has initiated its digital transformation in improving the way the bank's employees collaborate and communicate.

Regardless of its definition, IT outsourcing is a type of business operating strategy that will, sooner or later, significantly influence a reorganisation of corporate operations. It is not without significance that I use the word reorganisation here.

Luxoft Holding, Inc. (NYSE: LXFT), one of the providers of software development services and IT solutions to global customers, continues its local expansion and employs 100 more IT professionals in its automotive division.

The Association of Business Services Leaders in Romania (ABSL), the leading organization representing the local business services, announceed a new member service provider in the field of information technology and communications (ICT) UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions.

Managing a nearshore development project for a US client creates its own challenges; doing it in a three-party ecosystem requires even greater management of potential issues and a creative approach to project development.

Two giants in the solution provider space began the new year by boosting their cloud capabilities through their acquisitions of two European-based salesforce partners.

The data center is transforming -- modernizing to meet business demand as technologies such as software-defined architecture, cloud and virtualization take hold.

Luxoft Holding, Inc., a leading provider of software development services and IT solutions to a global client base, announced opening new offices in Tricity - Poland, Munich - Germany and Stockholm - Sweden.

As traditional software outsourcing evolves, cloud service management brings new challenges for organizations.

2015 was the year that IT outsourcing companies welcomed standardization, outcome-based contracts grew, while RFPs dimmed its pace.

Wizrom Software is forecasting an increase of 30% in revenues for 2015 due to special projects – design and implementation of customized, turn-key solutions.

Two of Teamnet shareholders, International Finance Corporation and the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank invested 1.5 million euro by purchasing additional 2,782 new shares of the Teamnet Group, according to a release.

Centric IT Solutions, a global provider of software solutions, has reached a total of 200 employees at the location in Palas Iasi center, where is present since 2012.

After finishing the Cluj Napoca 4.5 million euro investment last year, Siemens keeps on hiring more and more personnel for its Cluj and Brasov ITO centers, says George Costache, CEO Siemens for Romania.

A new analysis by Deloitte shows that 48% of current Swiss jobs could be lost to automation. Administrative, secretarial, agricultural and production jobs are most at risk.

In Cluj, Tech and outsourcing companies doubled staff transforming the Transilvanian city into second-largest IT investment destination in Romania.

About 7% of the Romanian companies have implemented Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, with 21% of the respondents to an IDC survey planning to adopt similar technologies during the next period, said Milan Kalal, program manager IoT, IDC CEMA, during a conference.

Black Book estimates the demands of data security, population health and value based benefits solutions, and revenue cycle modernization to drive the evolving payer ITO market in excess of US 60 billion by Q4 2017.

Ymens, the first cloud broker in Romania, launches Ymens ERP, an Enterprise Resource Planning cloud application powered by one of the ERP and cloud service providers, SoftOne.

CIOs are under increasing pressure to execute new technological demands on ever-tighter budgets.

Forecasters predict that the booming managed security service provider (MSSP) industry will grow from $8 billion in 2015 to $30 billion by 2020.

Innovative technologies will accelerate the digital transformation in the coming years, say industry leaders at Microsoft Summit 2015.

Teamnet, an IT system integrator with regional presence, was ranked fourth in the Big 5 2015 edition of the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Central Europe.

Healthcare IT outsourcing, the process of contracting IT-related services in hospitals and clinical laboratories to a third-party service provider, is expected to grow at a compond annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.17% by 2019, according to a report published by Technavio.

Activision Blizzard is purchasing King Digital, maker of the popular mobile game Candy Crush, for a total equity value of USD 5.9 billion. King also has an office in Bucharest.

Romania ranks 2nd in Deloitte's CE Technology Fast 50 2015 top, after Poland, with ten businesses present in the competition of the most dynamic companies in the field of technology, in terms of revenue growth over a period of four years. Romania registered a significant increase for the third consecutive year, with 29 companies registered (compared to 18 in 2014), of which ten in Fast 50 (compared to six in 2014) and the leader of

Veritas, the data management unit of Symantec recently bought by Carlyle Group, intends to expand its operations and team in Romania, says Vasile Aniculaesei, Territory Manager of the company.

A spectre is haunting Silicon Valley - the spectre of a Silicon Dragon. These may be tough times for the Chinese economy, the tech city of Shenzhen is playing its fiddle as Rome burns to the ground.

Enhancing its credentials in designing, building and running digital platforms for some of the world’s leading companies, Endava announces the acquisition of Nickelfish, a New Jersey based UX and interactive design firm.

Indian technology and services industry is on track to reach its goal of USD 200 billion to USD 225 billion in revenues by 2020 and furthermore, to reach revenues of USD 350 billion by 2025, said NASSCOM in its latest report, quoted by firstpost.com.

As innovation and technology develop at the speed of light, IT outsourcing grew by leaps and bounds, promising efficiency in terms of time, costs and productivity. Romania is well-known for its IT specialists, but, as the market becomes competitive, they become a needle in a haystack. Alexandra Lopotaru talked to major players to find out their projections in the coming years

At the beginning of this year, the US giant retailer Amazon was said to rent around 10.000 sqm office spaces in Bucharest, where they might hire some 1.000 professionals, according to sources close to company q

IT company Levi9 will open its new Iasi office at Iasi, Soseaua Nationala 31. The new office will be a modern, open and attractive working environment for the 150 employees and facilitate the expected growth to

US-based IT giant IBM announced it would open a new business center in Cluj-Napoca this July, the fourth center operated by the It company in Romania, after Bucharest, Brasov and Timisoara.

SAP, leading company in digital transformation, ranked 1st among Europe's most valuable brands, according to the 2017's edition of BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands, with a brand value of 45.194 billio

Avangate, the global eCommerce and subscription billing platform for software, SaaS, and digital solutions, with Romanian roots, which recently acquired the 2Checkout global payment processor, will hire 45 IT s

The global technology innovation company with headquarters in Romania, US and Australia was ranked 612 on the list of 1000 European fast-growing firms, with a revenue growth of 165 per cent between 2012 and 201

According to a joint PwC Romania and Microsoft Romania survey launched recently, "Security in the Digital World", investments in cybersecurity are mostly driven by regulatory requirements instead of the organiz

Belgian IT solutions provider Cegeka Romania posted a turnover of 19 million euro (85 million lei) in 2016, a 40 per cent boost compared to 2015, the company announced. Cegeka operates two offices in Bucharest

IT solution provider Stefanini, operating in 39 countries and 88 offices, names Olga Botusan as HR director for EMEA region.

IT solutions provider Stefanini announced it officially launched its office at Chisinau, in the presence of local representatives such as Sabin Gîrlea, Operations Director for Application Development division

The third issue of our Customers First magazine is now available! The latest edition is all about travel and hospitality, featuring insights from industry experts and top brands like JetBlue, Turo, Joie de Vivr

Romania delivers services in 25 languages with more than 100,000 specialists employed in the outsourcing industry and business services, and based on an estimated growth of 15-20 per cent, it is estimated to re

Shibu Nambiar has over 18 years of experience in the services industry, covering roles in operations, project management, service delivery, product development, domain management and training.