BSS, or modern business support services, is the fastest growing market throughout Poland. There are over 650 companies (both foreign and Polish capital) and 150 thousand people in the industry. These data were published at the end of 2014 in the report "10 Years of BSS Sector in Poland" by Hays Poland and the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency. The document was presented at the Wroclaw Agglomeration Development Agency in a meeting held to discuss the role of Wroclaw in the BSS sector.
Business support services leader
With 24 thousand employees in the BSS sector, Wroclaw is the third largest business support services leader in Poland behind Kraków (30 thousand) and Warsaw (27 thousand). The largest proportion of jobs in Wroclaw's BSS sector (33%) is in R&D.
"Our city's main assets are prestigious R&D centres such as Nokia, Dolby Laboratories, Viessmann, UTC Aerospace Systems, 3M or Diehl Controls. The fact that these brands have settled in Wroclaw only goes to show how vast potential there is in the city, and the availability of qualified candidates is another edge of ours," says President of the Wroclaw Agglomeration Development Agency Dariusz Ostrowski.
The authors of the report point out a number of factors that promote R&D in Wroclaw: stable Polish economy, safe conditions for research and low overheads and qualified personnel offering both technical and language skills.
"Wroclaw's success is based on a long-term strategy to win key investors. The city's open atmosphere also plays its part," says Łukasz Czajkowski, Head of the Business Support Centre at the Wroclaw Agglomeration Development Agency.
Academic city
Wroclaw is one of the eight major academic centres in Poland (with Warsaw, Kraków, Lublin, Poznań, Upper Silesia, Tricity and Łódź). The city boasts 24 universities and colleges and 125 thousand students. Additionally, 33 thousand new graduates enter the market every year. Many industries decide to set up their R&D centres at universities or in collaboration with universities, the best example being Nokia and the Wroclaw University of Technology.
"A growing number of people choose studies that guarantee future employment in BSS centres. Over 27 thousand people study business and administration in Wroclaw, and another 20 thousand engineering or technology," says Magda Wójcik, Talent Acquisition Team Leader at Hays Talent Solutions, and she hastens to add that over 90% and 46% of Wroclaw students report English and German language skills, respectively. Other popular languages among students in Wroclaw are: Russian, French, Spanish and Italian.
A good place for investment
Wroclaw is the favourite destination for American, Polish and German companies. 18 American, 17 Polish and 11 German business centres are located in the city.
"International companies are now beginning to recognise Poland as an attractive investment destination, especially for R&D. They can find reliable, qualified and motivated employees in the country," says Iwona Chojnowska-Haponik, Head of the Foreign Investment Department at the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency.
BSS centre types
There are several different service types:
- BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) centres deliver services to external clients in the following areas: finance and accounting, payroll and human resources and purchase administration.
- IT centres deliver IT services to external clients (home and abroad) in the following areas: equipment outsourcing, infrastructure, software development, system implementation and integration as well as software development, implementation and sales.
- SSC (Shared Services Centre) companies are created as part of one corporation to deliver services in the following areas: finance and accounting, payroll and human resources, purchase management and IT support for internal clients.
- R+D centres focus on research and develop new products, applications and software. They act as subsidiaries to large multinationals focusing on software development and sales, e.g. Nokia Networks (Wroclaw).
