IBA Group successfully delivered an Identity and Access Management (IAM) solution for the insurance sector in Croatia. The solution complies with the requirements of the EU Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA).


Based on a detailed assessment of regulatory, security, and operational requirements, IBA Group implemented an IAM platform that follows modern IAM best practices and ensures strong authorization controls, high security standards, and readiness for regulatory compliance in highly regulated industries such as insurance.


The solution is built on an open source architecture, which enables flexibility, scalability, and long-term sustainability without vendor lock-in. The solution’s design allows for seamless integration with existing enterprise systems and supports future expansion as regulatory and business needs evolve.


IBA Group implemented IAM solutions in financial, insurance, and public institutions in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and now in Croatia.


Ales Hojka, Managing Director at IBA CZ & IBA Slovakia:
”IDM is a fundamental security and operational platform that protects the organization, accelerates its processes, and enables regulatory compliance — and without it, a modern IT environment grows in an unsustainable way. Without IDM, it is practically impossible to meet NIS2, DORA, or ISO 27001 requirements in the area of access management. IDM provides an audit trail, automated controls, and clear rules. Organizations must address transparency and oversight, reduce security risks, and above all save time and costs — and our IAM solution delivers exactly that by covering all these challenges.”


Miloš Surla, Managing Director at IBA Croatia:
“As cybersecurity becomes increasingly critical, the importance of working with a reliable and trusted IT partner continues to grow. We are pleased that Allianz Croatia has entrusted IBA with the implementation of its IAM solution.”


With extensive experience in IAM implementation, IBA Group continues to support financial and insurance institutions in strengthening their digital operational resilience, improving security governance, and meeting evolving EU regulatory requirements.


About Allianz Croatia
Allianz Croatia (Allianz Zagreb) is a prominent insurer based in Zagreb and operating as part of the global Allianz Group. The company offers a wide range of insurance and asset management products. Allianz Group is one of the world's leading insurers and asset managers with private and corporate customers in almost 70 countries. The solidarity, service, and competence of Allianz is based on the commitment of more than 156,000 employees worldwide.


About IBA Group
IBA Group is a leading IT service provider, performing software development, migration, maintenance, support, and IT consulting services with 2,000 IT and business professionals. Headquartered in Prague, Czech Republic, IBA Group has offices and development centers across Eastern Europe, North America, and Central Asia. IAOP recognizes IBA Group as one of The Global Outsourcing 100 in the Leaders category. IBA Group is a winner of IT Europa Channel Awards, of CEE Business Services Awards by the European Business Services Association, and of GSA Awards by the Global Sourcing Association. For more information, visit http://ibagroupit.com

American industrial automation giant Emerson is expanding its operations in Hungary through a new research and development investment.
Implemented with the support of the HIPA Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency, the EUR 1.9 million project will be carried out in Debrecen (eastern Hungary). It focuses on the development of next-generation testing solutions aimed at reducing measurement time and improving diagnostic accuracy, ultimately enhancing manufacturing efficiency.
The investment will be implemented by NI Hungary Kft., one of the largest employers in Debrecen, and is set to create 14 new jobs. This marks the second R&D project launched by NI in Debrecen within a year. In 2025, the company initiated an automotive-focused software and hardware development program, creating 16 new positions.
NI – formerly known as National Instruments Corporation – develops and manufactures test equipment and software. Since 2023, it has been part of Emerson, one of the world’s leading industrial automation groups, where it operates as a dedicated business unit under the name Test & Measurement.
Both Emerson and NI have a strong presence in Hungary, with operations in multiple locations.

key standpoints and perspectives of Radu Pinzaru, Endava European Head of Data & AI
Core values: Open, Thoughtful, AdaptableThe AI-based technologies changing the company’s competitive edge in 2026
The AI era found us in a strong position, built on over 20 years of experience in Data Science and Machine Learning as a client services company working across many industries. When the hype accelerated, we already had the right expertise to guide clients effectively and form meaningful partnerships with major players in the market. Examples include Microsoft, Amazon and Google from a large cloud provider perspective as well as more AI specific partnerships with Open AI over 2 years ago and more recently what we announced with Miro and Cognition.
This allowed us to separate real value from noise early on. We proactively transitioned all of our workforce including our technical Endavans – developers, data engineers, testers – toward becoming more AI-native. After several years of sustained effort, we now have specialized capabilities across most relevant AI technologies, seamlessly integrated with software engineering. Another important thing to mention is how we have developed and now leverage our native AI methodology Dava.Flow to deliver for clients in this fast paced AI led world, more info on Flow can be found at www.endava.com/dava-flow . This combination gives us a significant competitive advantage: we can both advise strategically and deliver efficient, production-ready AI solutions.
Misconceptions about AI
One of the most common misconceptions is treating AI as a self-sufficient entity.
In reality, AI is part of a broader ecosystem that heavily depends on data. While AI receives most of the attention, there’s comparatively little discussion about data platforms, engineering practices, company readiness and governance.
How an organization manages its data is often the strongest predictor of AI success. That’s why any serious AI conversation must be anchored in the underlying data ecosystem.
AI-led business decisions this year
Today, most data informing our decisions is supported by using AI systems, always under the supervision of experienced engineers.
Over the past year, a growing share of decisions has been supported by supervised AI agents that continuously learn through feedback loops. However, final accountability remains with our people. We see AI as very much human in the loop (HITL) with our people working alongside AI to deliver business value.
Key examples include workforce allocation and RFP (Request for Proposal) handling – areas where AI enhances speed, consistency, and insight quality.
AI changing customers’ expectations
Initially, expectations centered around cost reduction and faster time to market. These perspectives have matured. Clients now seek a balanced approach – optimizing cost and speed while ensuring safety, ethical use, reliability, and trust. Our strong foundation in data, our partnerships and cloud technologies, combined with early AI adoption, enables us to meet these evolving expectations and deliver solutions that are both effective and responsible.
Staying differentiated in the market, leveraging tools and competitive advantages
Our key differentiator is efficiency – both in decision-making and delivery. Alongside that as referenced above is key partnerships and our own native AI delivery methodology Dava.Flow.
We combine deep expertise in cloud, data, and AI infrastructure with the ability to evaluate and select the right solution for each client’s context. This means not just delivering end-to-end systems, but delivering the right systems – optimized for cost, performance, and scalability that solve the well understood pain points for our clients
In addition, our strategic partnerships with major technology providers give us early access to new capabilities. By the time these tools reach the broader market, our teams are already experienced in applying them effectively.
Balancing rapid innovation with responsible and ethical AI use
Responsible AI is embedded in our foundation, not added as an afterthought.
We invested early in ethics training and governance, supported by colleagues with advanced academic expertise in the field. Our practices align with frameworks such as the EU AI Act, and we’ve established clear processes and guardrails for AI development and deployment. We have a company wide AI Policy alongside training for our teams. In addition we have a centralised AI Committee that has a strong focus on responsible and ethical AI.
This strong ethical baseline allows us to innovate rapidly and confidently, knowing that responsibility is already built into how we operate.
Technology trends emerging this year
While AI continues to dominate, its progress is accelerating adjacent fields. One area to watch closely is quantum computing. The momentum generated by AI could significantly speed up breakthroughs in this space, potentially triggering the next major technological shift.

In the near term, I would also highlight the rapid evolution of data platforms. We’re already seeing major advancements from partners like Databricks and Snowflake. This layer will be critical in enabling scalable, enterprise-grade AI.

See Full Interview Here.

mindit.io, a leading Swiss-Romanian data engineering and AI transformation organization, announced a formal partnership with SAP to deliver next-generation data solutions leveraging SAP Business Data Cloud (SAP BDC).


Through this partnership, mindit.io will be among the first in Romania and Europe to interact with SAP’s cutting-edge BDC ecosystem, allowing clients in the DACH area to accelerate data-driven transformation with dependability, governance, and AI readiness.
In an era where scattered data landscapes and siloed analytics limit business agility, SAP BDC provides a unified, semantically-rich foundation that harmonizes enterprise data and unlocks the full potential of analytics and AI across operations, finance, supply chain, and customer experience. By integrating SAP’s vision for contextualized business data with its own deep expertise, mindit.io helps organizations enable faster insights, greater data automation, and more actionable AI outcomes.
“We are delighted to welcome mindit.io into our SAP partner ecosystem” said Nicoleta Teodorovici, SAP Partner Office CEE. “Their strong expertise in data‑driven technologies and AI‑powered solutions brings exactly the kind of innovation our customers are looking for. By combining their engineering capabilities with SAP’s intelligent enterprise portfolio, we can accelerate adoption, unlock new business value, and help organizations move faster on their digital transformation journeys. We look forward to building impactful outcomes together.”
As companies move towards data transformation, combining SAP BDC’s managed data cloud features with mindit.io’s advanced engineering skills helps clients overcome data silos and make the most out of their AI investments.
mindit.io’s team has strong technical knowledge and deep experience in the retail and banking sectors, where real-time analytics, customer insights, and AI-driven changes are essential competitive differentiators.
 “Working with SAP BDC is a direct extension of how we help enterprises become AI-native,” said Roxana Staneiu, Partnerships Director at mindit.io. “An AI-native organization runs on clean, governed, connected data. SAP BDC gives our clients in the DACH region exactly that foundation; the kind you can actually build autonomous agents and real AI workflows on, not just dashboards.”
The partnership enhances mindit.io’s ability to support clients in designing, implementing, and optimizing data-centric platforms that span from foundational engineering to operational intelligence.
mindit.io’s services help organizations transition legacy data systems into strong, scalable architectures that support real-time decision-making and foster long-term competitive advantages.
“Data is what makes an AI-native organization actually work,” said Irina Arsene, Chair of the Board and CEO of mindit.io. “Our collaboration with SAP BDC is a concrete step in how we help enterprises get there — not by declaring AI-readiness, but by building the data infrastructure that makes it real. Unified, governed, ready for agents. That is the foundation every enterprise needs before AI can deliver anything meaningful.”

Cognizant, one of the world’s largest IT companies, announces its Great Place To Work Certification in Romania, part of a global recognition granted across 31 countries, representing approximately 98% of the company’s total employee population worldwide. The Great Place To Work Certification is based entirely on direct employee feedback regarding their workplace experience and the trust they place in their employer. This distinction, recognised globally by employees and employers alike, represents the international benchmark for identifying and acknowledging outstanding professional experiences.

“The Great Place To Work Certification means a great deal to us precisely because it comes directly from our people. We are proud that our 2,500+ colleagues in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Iași, Timișoara and Baia Mare confirm, in their own words, that Cognizant Romania is a place where it is worth working and growing. Romania is one of Cognizant’s most important centres in Eastern Europe, and this certification reflects the maturity and strength of our local professional community. Being part of the 31 countries recognized globally confirms that we are on the right path, building a workplace where Romanian talent can excel in technology projects of global scale,” said Raluca Dolan, HR Director, Cognizant Romania.

OAG, the essential intelligence partner transforming global travel, is expanding its technology and data teams in Lithuania, with plans to hire up to 25 new employees in 2026. The company will be recruiting data engineers, software engineers, as well as infrastructure and operations specialists across its offices in Vilnius and Kaunas. 
Lithuania has been central to OAG’s global operations for nearly a decade. The company first established a development centre in Kaunas in 2018, and significantly grew its Lithuanian footprint in 2023 with the acquisition of airfare data provider Infare, which had been operating from Vilnius for over ten years. Today, OAG’s Lithuanian teams are responsible for the bulk of the company’s global technology and data operations, playing a key role in developing and maintaining the platforms and data products that power aviation insights worldwide. 

“Lithuania continues to play a central role in OAG’s global operations, particularly in technology and data. The strong local talent pool in data engineering, software development, and analytics, combined with excellent technical universities and a vibrant technology ecosystem, make Lithuania an outstanding environment for building high-performing teams. It is why the country remains a key location for our future growth.”
Jo Mills, VP of People & Culture at OAG.

The company will be looking for data engineers with experience in designing and implementing data pipelines and building reliable data models, as well as software engineers with backend systems expertise. OAG also collaborates with local talent development initiatives, including Turing College and Women Go Tech. 
With teams in both Vilnius and Kaunas, Lithuania now hosts over a third of OAG’s worldwide workforce. The company employs several hundred people globally, with headquarters in the UK and offices in the USA, Denmark, France, Germany, Singapore, China, and Lithuania. 
OAG works with a wide range of organisations across the global aviation and travel ecosystem, from airlines and airports to travel technology companies and financial institutions, with particularly strong demand across Europe, Middle East and Africa, North America, and Asia-Pacific. The company is now investing in expanding its data platform capabilities and exploring how artificial intelligence can unlock deeper insights from aviation data – work that will be supported by its Lithuanian teams. 

ICAP People Solutions, a member of ICAP Outsourcing Solutions Group, one of the leading providers of integrated Human Resources solutions in Southeastern Europe, announces the launch of its new offices in Romania, further strengthening its international footprint and supporting business growth in one of the fastest-growing markets in the region.
Mr. Sotiris Karagiozidis takes on the role of Country Manager of ICAP People Solutions Romania, leading the company’s strategic development in the country and being responsible for delivering  the full range of ICAP People Solutions services to organizations and businesses in the local market.
“ICAP People Solutions’ expansion into Romania marks a significant step in strengthening our presence in Southeastern Europe. The local market demonstrates strong growth  prospects and an increasing demand for modern HR services. Our goal is to become a trusted strategic partner for businesses in the country, offering solutions that enhance the attraction,  development and retention of talented professionals,” he stated.

Full Article

Romania has a real chance of becoming the second-largest data center market in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), trailing only Poland, fueled by a favorable climate for investment growth. According to industry estimates, European data centers are expected to attract investments of approximately €176 billion between 2026 and 2031.
While the FLAP-D region (Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris, Dublin) continues to dominate the market with an estimated IT power capacity exceeding 6,600 MW for 2026, Central and Eastern Europe is rapidly closing the gap, projected to reach approximately 883 MW this year. Poland leads this dynamic, with capacity estimated to grow from 197 MW in 2024 to 511 MW by 2031, maintaining an accelerated pace in the hyperscale segment as well. Alongside Poland, Romania has the potential to double or even triple its capacity in the coming years.
This trend is confirmed by studies such as “State of European Data Centres 2026” (EUDCA) and “The Data Centre Investment Outlook for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)” by Platform Insight, which highlight Romania as one of the fastest-growing colocation markets in the region.

A Summary Transcript of last week's Video Interview with: Mariano Andrade Gonzalez, Director Global Business Solutions at Johnson Matthey (Vilnius).

Thom Barnhardt (European Business Services Association): Today we continue our series of GBS Director interviews with Mariano Andrade Gonzalez, Global Services Director at Johnson Matthey, based in Vilnius. We’ve seen you a few times over the years at some of our events in Warsaw. Thanks for taking a few minutes with us today.
First of all, give us a bit of background on what Johnson Matthey is doing globally, and particularly in the Vilnius office.

Mariano Andrade Gonzalez: Yeah, sure Thom, thanks for having me. It’s a pleasure to be working with you, and hello everybody.
Johnson Matthey is a 200-year-old British company. To simplify what we do: next time you’re on the street anywhere in the world, count the cars—one, two, and the third car with a combustion engine will likely have a catalytic converter from Johnson Matthey. We invented it in 1974, and in gasoline we probably have around 30% market share. In diesel, it’s even higher.
Anywhere you go—heavy-duty vehicles, tractors—anything with a combustion engine uses catalytic converters. Moving forward, you’ll also see our technology in energy production, especially in data centers that need cooling and additional energy supply.
We also operate in healthcare, providing catalysts and equipment used in cancer treatments and brain surgery. A lot of our applications are based on platinum group metals, which is the core of our business.

Okay. And in Vilnius, tell us about your support for that global business.

The Vilnius office is relatively new—just over two years old. We don’t have manufacturing plants in Lithuania; those are located across Europe, including Poland, North Macedonia, Germany, Sweden, and the UK.
Lithuania was chosen as part of developing a GBS model. Historically, Johnson Matthey was highly fragmented, with four major business sectors operating independently. Functions like finance and HR were not unified.
The goal of the GBS model was to break down silos and unify the company under one umbrella—which, as we’ve seen many times, is easier said than done.
We started in Lithuania with core functions: HR, finance, and later procurement.
HR was more advanced because Johnson Matthey had already implemented Workday as a global ERP platform about four years ago, so processes were relatively well mapped.
Finance was a different story. We had 32 different ERPs—ranging from old JD Edwards systems with green screens to multiple SAP instances, none configured the same way. There was no standardization, making it very difficult to get accurate financial data in a timely manner.
Today, from Lithuania, we provide record-to-report, FP&A, controllership, accounts payable (partly from Kolkata), and accounts receivable.
Previously, month-end closing took 12–14 days. Today, we’ve reduced it to around five days—significant improvement, though there’s still room to improve.
In accounts payable, we initially faced issues where payments were consistently late. We had to identify root causes, but without proper tools, it was nearly impossible. We had teams analyzing data manually, but they were only identifying symptoms, not root causes.

That’s typical—layers upon layers.

Exactly. And this was a major issue for a company spending over £1 billion annually in procurement. Some services, like gas and water for metal processing plants, are critical—any disruption stops operations entirely.
We needed better visibility. While I don’t believe technology solves everything—bad processes will just create bigger problems—in this case, we needed technology to identify issues.
We implemented a process mining tool, Celonis. It allowed us to connect all ERPs and quickly identify where payment failures occurred.
We found recurring issues:

• Poorly structured contracts
• Purchase orders dating back decades (1990s still in use)
• Inconsistent payment terms
• Excessive access to master data (over 2,000 employees with access in a 12,000-person company)

We’ve improved significantly—now critical payments are on time, and about 90% of payments are executed correctly. However, we are still standardizing vendor terms and improving governance.
We were losing money both ways:

• Paying too early (working capital loss)
• Paying too late (damaging supplier relationships)

Now we’ve largely stabilized that.

Importantly, GBS didn’t create these problems—it surfaced them. That’s a key point. The issues already existed; we just made them visible and actionable.

We’ve also started using basic AI capabilities, mainly through tools like Celonis:

• Generating SOPs
• Mapping processes
• Linking risks

But this is still very early-stage. AI is not replacing jobs—it’s helping us move faster and operate more efficiently.

Let me ask—are you getting a lot of AI vendors pitching solutions?

Yes. We are working with Genpact in a hybrid model for some services.
They are already deploying agentic AI solutions. I visited their operations in Kolkata to see this firsthand. My honest view: it’s not yet transformative.
For a company like ours—with fragmented systems and processes—AI won’t solve foundational problems. First, we need to standardize data and systems, which requires significant investment.
Also, deploying agentic AI would require giving full data access to a third party. That creates dependency risks I’m not comfortable with yet.
So we’re being selective. AI will improve, but its effectiveness depends on organizational maturity.
Accounts payable is one area where AI can work well—if inputs are standardized. But that’s not fully our case yet.
In record-to-report, automation is already strong. The question is: do you need AI everywhere, or is traditional automation sufficient? Right now, automation is often cheaper and more practical.
We’ve seen similar hype cycles before—like RPA. Many companies invested heavily, but adoption didn’t always follow.
So we’re cautious—testing selectively, not scaling prematurely.

Looking ahead, what’s next for your GBS model?

We’re still early. Only about 25% of roles suitable for centralization are currently in the GBS model.
The next phase is eliminating “shadow organizations”—duplicate roles across the business. That’s actually harder than building the GBS itself.
We need:

• Clean end-to-end process ownership
• Clear accountability
• Strong upstream and downstream integration
• Supporting technology

Over the next couple of years, the focus will be:

• Optimizing what we’ve built
• Strengthening processes
• Implementing the right supporting technologies

Only then will we determine where AI or further automation adds value.

Final question—how are geopolitics and supply chain disruptions affecting you?

Significantly. Energy costs, logistics disruptions, and supply chain instability are major challenges.
However, there’s not much we can control there. The focus is on maintaining operational stability.
GBS will continue to add value, but supply chains are an area to watch closely—they will be heavily disrupted in the coming years.

Germany-based Brenntag SE is expanding its business services footprint in central Poland, with growing Shared Services activity in the Łódź region (Zgierz).

Zaneta Leduchowska is taking the role of Head of the Center.

Recent job listings confirm Brenntag is building out core SSC functions, including:

• P2P (Accounts Payable & T&E) roles
• Order-to-Cash (Credit Control) analysts
• Senior finance positions with SSC experience required
  

From the Brenntag side, the project was led by Marco Mattijssen, Matthias Bredenbruch, Ignacio Arizon and María de los Ángeles López Alemán.

From the City of Łódź side: Mateusz Sipa and Monika Kmin - with post-investment support to come from Aleksandra Cebelińska and Karolina Matejko.