FINANCIAL technology consultancy Vox Financial Partners in Belfast has committed to investing £1 million in its Service Delivery Centres (SDC) in a move which will lead to the creation of 30 jobs.
Vox, established in 2015 and whose chief executive is Omagh-born but New York-domiciled Terry Robinson, launched its SDC offering last year and quickly developed an industry reputation as a centre of excellence for data-intensive project work.
The latest investment will be primarily in additional staff to service new and existing clients' nearshoring and business process outsourcing requirements.
“We're looking for ambitious, data-literate people to join our rapidly growing team,” said Neil McComiskey, head of the SDC.
“The roles our clients require are technical in nature and typically carried out in their London or New York offices. But Belfast has the talent pool and track record of delivering high-quality work as a nearshore alternative.”
Following Vox's acquisition of Delv Global in January, it added a cutting-edge data practice capability to its industry-leading risk and regulatory change management consulting services.
Delv's Poland-based project teams in Ludz complement the Belfast-based service delivery centre to create a deeper pool of highly skilled specialists to support a broader range of projects and business processes for financial institutions.
Vox says it is also researching North American locations for a third SDC to provide time zone-aligned capabilities for clients in the US and Canada.
Last year Vox unveiled plans to double its Belfast workforce to 50 as part of a £1.5 million investment backed to the tune of £175,000 by Invest NI.

Source.

The COVID-19 pandemic is driving digital transformation, which in turn accelerates technology outsourcing.As COVID-19 brought the worldwide economy to a sudden and screeching halt, businesses of all shapes and sizes found themselves adrift in uncharted waters. To stay afloat, most businesses dramatically accelerated their digital transformation efforts. 
In typical times, this also would have led to an increased reliance on IT outsourcers, according to a survey by the Boston Consulting Group of 200 selected companies across industries. 
"Many companies were forced to take unprecedented steps to survive: 79% said that they asked service providers for help in some form, such as longer payment terms (47%), price reductions (45%), or free support for more processes or additional services (41%)," the survey authors said in a blog post about the survey.


But, like most everything else in 2020, what one would expect to happen, did not. Because of the fear, uncertainty and doubt sowed by the pandemic, businesses began hoarding cash, while cutting expenses to the bare minimum. These efforts were not uniform, however. 
To manage the transition to remote work and online customer engagement and order fulfillment, many businesses increased spending on cloud, particularly software as a service (SaaS). (The now-familiar headlines of video conferencing provider Zoom growing by 300% almost overnight were hard to miss.) 
This continued through the first three quarters of 2020 but began to turnaround late last year, as the global economy became more predictable, said Kevin Parikh, CEO of Avasant, an outsourcing advisory and management consulting firm.
"Shock and awe and fear happened in [first three] quarters of 2020. And then there was a recognition that big investments were needed in the fourth quarter to transform, to survive. I have one client who told me they went from zero to 50,000 global video calls a day — 50,000 a day — by flipping a switch," he said.
Cuts in IT outsourcing spend due to the pandemic eased from $83 billion in the spring to $31 billion at the end of 2020, said Gunjan Gupta, a principal research analyst at Gartner.
"Some of the service providers, they are reporting even double-digit growth," she said. "I think the acceleration is going to continue for the rest of 2021 and 2022."
Global IT spending on end-user services is forecast to grow 4.4% to $1.19 trillion in 2021, according to Gupta. This is compared to a spending reduction of 2.6% in 2020. That is just the tip of a very big iceberg. 
After contracting 4.6% in 2020 to $490 billion, worldwide IT spending on consulting and implementation services are predicted to experience a 4.5% CAGR through 2024. While worldwide spending on IT-centric managed services, infrastructure, and application support, which decreased 1.1% in 2020 to $475 billion, will see a CAGR of 5.3% through 2024. 
Source.

Ford Motor company announced in early April the establishment of Ford Business Solutions Europe in Budapest, according to a report by state news wire MTI.

Ford said several existing financial, planning, sales, marketing and HR functions, serving both Ford's European business and some global activities, had been transferred to Ford Business Solutions.
The company has expanded its shared service center operations in Hungary over the past 10 years and now employs 624 highly qualified professionals in a wide range of areas, the company added.
Ford noted that it has 40 suppliers in Hungary, while it controls over 9% of the local market for passenger vehicles and has 32% share in the commercial vehicle segment.

Bosch is establishing another site for important tasks in Hungary: the Company will establish its service centre in Vecsés, from where HR support will be provided for five Central-Eastern European countries as a first step. The investment will create 225 new jobs in the town located in Pest County and will be implemented by a spending of almost EUR 19 million.

In 2019 the Bosch Group structured its organisational units providing processes in support of its core activities into a new global division. The set-up of the Central-Eastern European SSC organisation is a further step in that transformation, which will be linked and connected to the organisational unit of similar ones established worldwide previously.
Due to its innovative, digital solutions and automated processes, the Vecsés Service Centre provides simpler, more efficient and more convenient services for Bosch associates. At first, the centre will carry out HR and customer service work in the fields of labour administration, project management, payroll, international assignments, HR-IT, as well as recruitment and training. The centre will also support the colleagues in all HR administration-related topics in a quick and easy way with new digital solutions.
The investment will further strengthen the presence of the Bosch Group in Hungary. The scope of services and countries may be expanded later, thus the Hungarian centre may become one of the leading European SSC locations within the Bosch Group.
A strategic aim of the project is to centralise processes creating high added value, besides administrative activities, in the Central-Eastern European Service Centre, such as IT developments for the HR systems, automation (RPA) development, HR support for compensation and change management, and other supportive activities, not falling within the scope of the HR domain.

Source and Video: HIPA

Roche, a company based in Switzerland, is going to increase the number of its collaborators in positions creating high added value in its service centre located in Budapest. The 250 new employees will provide support to the subsidiaries of Roche in 60 countries in the fields of finance, purchasing, HR and information technology.

Roche is a worldwide leader and pioneer in pharmaceutical research and production, as well as in the field of the development and distribution of diagnostics instruments. The world's largest company engaged in biotechnology has 3 service centres worldwide: in Budapest, San Jose and Kuala Lumpur.
The largest one is located in Budapest: Roche Szolgáltató (Európa) Kft. which was founded in 2006 and which provides full-scale support for more than 120 Roche subsidiaries in the entire EMEA region by a staff counting almost 1,300 employees, in the fields of finance, purchasing, HR and IT.
The service centre located in Budapest has been extended continuously, it launched its IT Global User Services in 2017 that caters for global user needs and provides IT support services in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

In the light of the positive experiences gained in Hungary, the company strengthened its presence in Hungary further in 2019 and established its European Pharmaceuticals Security Centre in Budaörs.
Roche is going to increase the SSC headcount (that has been raised from 900 to 1230 in the past four years) by 150 employees in the field of complex HR functions, and plans to enlarge it further by 100 people in the field of finance functions by the end of 2021.

Source and Video: HIPA

• What was the most challenging thing your company, people, and you, personally, had to face in 2020?
  

2020 can be described in many ways, but for me it will remain as the year full of unexpected, in the already happening VUCA reality. This says a lot.

Thus, it’s difficult to name the most challenging thing, as a whole list comes up; I would rather say the big challenge was to do most of the activities in a completely new way and find this new way to adapt in a very short time.
As any business services company, OMV Petrom Global Solutions had as priority the safety of the employees, as well as stable efficient operations and reliable support for our customers. In addition, we are a service center dedicated to the oil and gas industry, industry that was highly impacted last year, and which is a critical sector for the economy. In this context, all our business units contributed heavily to deliver in the new reality and, for our entire OPGS team, all solutions meant higher effort than in a regular period: IT ensuring the infrastructure and tools for thousands of colleagues to work safely, for example almost overnight IT had to expand Citrix licenses up to some thousands or to virtualize applications so that the employees in the group get their work done remotely. In Finance or Employee Services the month-end closing activities and payroll were performed fully remote and we turned a difficult moment into an opportunity for digitization adopting paperless solutions at an accelerated peace impossible to imagine at the beginning of 2020. As for the Facility and Asset Management, the teams made huge efforts to ensure the necessary protective materials arrived fast and safely around the country where OMV Petrom has employees, to identify the best transport conditions or accommodation to those commuting to work or to adapt the workplaces in the offices to the new safety needs.
Without any doubt, 2020 was a tough year with highs and lows along the way, that challenged us in so many ways, privately or professionally. Managing its many complexities demanded not only a hard work but also commitment, resilience, creativity and teamwork.

• What pleasantly surprised you last year? / What are you grateful for?
  

I was positively surprised that all previous concerns about implementing some major changes in the way we work were removed. I do believe that this unfortunate pandemic crises situation accelerated the implementation of new initiatives, and I am very proud of how fast we understood to concentrate on what are the new priorities, to be flexible and to take advantage of any opportunities. Thus, we no longer brainstorm about the feasibility of working from home or flexi desk, we just adopted them.
And I am grateful that we have such a strong and committed team in OPGS that proved once again to be a trustworthy partner for its customers; and equally I am grateful that we are part of a strong Group: in difficult moments like these it’s like an anchor that keeps you grounded.

• What are your plans and expectations for 2021? What do you foresee it will be different this year and what impact it will have on our industry/Romania/your company/your people?
  

We are ready to embrace 2021…as all in one, last year set a new pace for implementing new ways of working (mobile, remote), for paperless (digitization) and embedding technology (smart automation) in our activities to support and reduce our effort and to improve the users experience. I think that the focus for 2021 should be on speed, flexibility, adaptability as we could consider 2020 as a tough stress test year for what is laying ahead.
In the same time we need to acknowledge that everything that we succeeded to do in 2020 required higher effort, as we were all taken out of the comfort zone and had to react to numerous changes. In 2021, the leaders have to stay alert to protect the mental energy of their teams. I heard the concept of mental energy from Gartner, and it comprises three areas: be positive, manage stress and avoid burnout. So, when it comes to people, I see a couple of new priorities such as keeping an eye and providing full support to the teams in these three areas, together with managing remote teams and speeding up the digital dexterity adoption.
As a conclusion on looking back to 2020 while stepping in 2021, my message is that behind any success and difficulty overcome are always the people. And collaboration between people makes strong teams, that find a way to perform together and stay close, even when physically apart.

Revel Systems, a leading cloud-based point of sale (POS) and business management platform, has announced plans to expand its Lithuanian division. Revel is looking to add more than a dozen specialists to its Vilnius team this year.
Revel Systems launched its Lithuanian operations in 2015. Initially serving as a European sales office, Revel’s division in Vilnius expanded in 2017, becoming the company’s European operational centre of excellence with staff in fulfilment, support, engineering, billing, and quality assurance departments.
Due to strong client demand and global company growth, Revel will continue expanding its employee footprint in Lithuania this year. Additional product engineering talent will help Revel support ongoing product innovation and further develop its enterprise capabilities.
“The technical talent in Lithuania sets the bar very high, and we continue to be blown away by the development and technical support work that comes out of our Vilnius office,” said Leslie Leaf, Chief Customer Officer at Revel Systems. “Last year, we announced plans to expand our European centre of excellence in Lithuania, and we’re thrilled to keep the momentum going as we open additional product engineering roles this year.”
Revel has expanded to 210 employees in its Lithuanian office after a significant headcount growth during the past year. This year, Revel’s recruiting team in Lithuania plans to continue hiring dozens of employees to support software engineering, quality assurance, product design, database maintenance, technical support, and scrum needs, bolstering its product engineering and customer success team.
“Revel’s team in Lithuania plays a vital role in the development and evolution of the company’s product. The engineering and development work carried out at our Vilnius office supports critical components of Revel’s platform—including UI/UX design, quality assurance, software engineering, and more,” explains Rasa Berskienė, Human Resources Director at Revel Systems.
According to Gediminas Koryzna, acting general manager of Invest Lithuania, Revel’s continuous expansion in Lithuania is a sign of the high level of IT competencies the country offers to foreign investors. “The talent of Lithuanian developers is something that fast-growing tech companies can build their long-term success on. Over the last five years, Revel has become a valued member of the Lithuanian tech ecosystem, and I believe that local specialists will continue to support the company’s growth and develop its world-class products.”

KPMG has announced plans to establish an IT services hub in Vilnius. In a step to consolidate IT functions, the company is looking to hire 10 to 20 specialists in 2021.
A member firm of the KPMG global organization, KPMG in Lithuania and Latvia has recently become part of KPMG Sweden. The merger is part of the company’s business development strategy that seeks to strengthen KPMG’s competitive position in the region as well as enable future investments and continuous digital transformation.
“The new IT competence centre in Vilnius is part of our integration process,” explains Rokas Kasperavičius, CEO at KPMG in Lithuania. “Since KPMG in Sweden, Lithuania and Latvia started to manage the KPMG in 3 different countries together, moving the IT function to Lithuania has emerged as the optimum solution for our newly combined business.”
Lithuania became the chosen site for KPMG’s regional IT centre due to its skilled and multilingual IT talent pool. The new centre will provide back-office IT services for KPMG operations in Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania and other Nordic countries. Along with performing daily IT operations, KPMG’s IT team in Vilnius will work in cybersecurity and data analytics domains.
“The key factor that differentiates KPMG is that it is a services company itself,” says Mr. Kasperavičius. “Working at our competence centre in Vilnius, IT specialists will not only address KPMG internal needs but will also have the opportunity to participate in projects with KPMG clients – key business leaders in different countries.”
KPMG is looking to onboard up to 20 IT professionals by the end of 2021. The company will be hiring IT support specialists, computer infrastructure engineers, cybersecurity and data analysts, and experienced team leaders. With over 200 IT back-office specialists in the Nordics, the company expects to steadily expand its Vilnius IT team to support the growing needs of KPMG in Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania and other countries in the Nordic region.

197 top execs from 57 Business Services Centers across CEE attended the 9th annual CEE Business Services Summit & Awards, held for the first time 100% online via Hopin platform, and broadcast live from the Concordia TV studio in Wroclaw.

147 top companies were Short-Listed as finalists in 29 Awards categories.

In a tight competition among world-class firms, votes from our 22-member VIP Jury were combined with our first-ever Popular Vote from all attendees. The combined voting distinguished the following winners:

• Most “Dynamically Developing” City – CEE: RIGA
  
  
• Most “Dynamically Developing” City – Poland: POZNAN
  
  
• Emerging City of the Year – CEE (ex-Poland): DEBRECEN
  
• Best University-Business Cooperation of the Year: MOODYS
  
• Top Process-Automation Implementation of the Year: Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. Hungary
  
• New-entrant BSC: ALCON Polska
  
• Business Services Firm – Lithuania: NASDAQ Global Technology and Business Services
  
• Business Services Firm – Latvia: DNB Bank ASA Latvijas filiale
  
• Business Services Firm – Hungary: Roche Szolgáltató (Európa) Kft
  
• Business Services Firm – Romania: NESS Romania
  
• Business Services Firm – Czech: Deutsche Telekom Services Europe Czech Republic
  
• Business Services Firm – Slovakia: SwissRE
  
• Business Services Firm – Warsaw: Marsh European Business Support Center
  
• Business Services Firm – Kraków: HEINEKEN Global Shared Services (HGSS)
  
• Business Services Firm – Wrocław: Credit Suisse (Poland)
  
• Business Services Firm – Poznań: GSK TECH Poznan
  
• Business Services Firm – Gdansk/Gdynia: DNV
  
• Business Services Firm – Katowice: PWC Service Delivery Center
  
• Business Services Firm – Ukraine: ELEKS
  
• Top Digital Transformation Services Provider – pan-European (BPO): Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. Hungary
  
• Top Employer Branding Initiative – CEE: Danske Bank Lithuania
  
• Top Employer Branding Initiative – Poland: ABB Business Services (Krakow)
  
• Top CSR Initiative – Poland: „Webex4 for Teachers”: Cisco
  
• Top CSR Initiative – CEE: „Save the Children”: AmerisourceBergen/World Courier Lithuania
  
• Top BSC HR Director – CEE: Avis Budget Group BSC – Marta Berzsenyi
  
• Top BSC HR Director – Poland: PwC Service Delivery Center – Jolanta Woś-Farouni
  
• Business Centre Director – BSC – CEE: Societe Generale Global Solution Centre – Matthieu Pasquier
  
• Business Centre Director – BSC – Poland: thyssenkrupp Group Services Gdańsk – Mirta Hegedušić and dr Ralf Sonnberger
  
  
• Most Transformed Workplace – Exceptionally awarded to the full BSC Sector in CEE for its unrivalled leadership in adapting its highly-talented workforces to the new envivonment.
  
  

This 9th annual event, MC’ed by Thom Barnhardt of CEE Business Media, was supported by the Hopin technical support team of Wolves Digital and TutekMedia.

The Awards were preceded by the 2-day Summit and Intelligent Automation Workshop, with 19 highly-interactive Roundtables on topics top-of-mind for BSC execs . Nearly 200 top execs from the region's leading Business Services Centres attended, including from Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria. Additional guests joined from UK, USA, France, Germany, Austria, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, and Finland.

Partners and sponsors of the event included: Tata Consultancy Services, AICPA-CIMA, SCC, City of Iasi (Romania), Invest Lithuania, Latvian Investment Agency (LIAA), Adaptive SAG, Winshuttle, and AmerisourceBergen.

Companies attending included:
3M Global Service Center, ABB Business Services (Krakow), Adaptive SAG, AICPA – CIMA, AGCO Hungary Kft, Alcon Global Services Regional Center, Allnex Lavia SIA, AmerisourceBergen / World Courier, ASPIRE, ATEA, Avis Budget Group BSC Kft, CEE Business Media, CIRCLE K Business Centre, City of Debrecen, City of Iasi (Romania), City of Poznan, City of Riga, Cognizant, Colliers, Danske Bank, Deutsche Telekom Services Europe Slovakia, DNB Bank ASA Latvijas filiāle, EPAM Systems (Poland), EuropaProperty, Extind (Romania), ExxonMobil, FRISTA, GlaxoSmithKline TechGlobal Centre in Poznan, Heineken Global Shared Services, ING Bank, Intrum Global Business Services, Invest Lithuania,Kemira, Latvia Investment Agency (LIAA), Linklaters Poland, Lundbeck BSC, Malecki Executive Search, McKesson, Miele Global Services, MMC Group Services (Marsh), MSC Shared Service Center Riga, Moody's, Nasdaq, NESS ROMANIA, Nilfisk, Norian Accounting, Novacon, Olympus Business Services, PKP ENERGETYKA CUW, PWC Service Delivery Center, Roche Services (Europe) Ltd., Rocket Software, SARIO Slovakia Investment Agency, SCC, Schaeffler Global Services Europe, SEB, Societe Generale Global Solution Centre, SoftServe, Swiss RE, TCS, Telia, TietoEVRY, Trivium Packaging, Western Union, Winshuttle, and Worldline.

Save the Date: 2-3 February 2022 for the 10th annual CEE Business Services Summit & Awards.

www.CeeOutsourcingAwards.com

The vaccine manufacturer will open a global service center in Warsaw. For now, he is looking for his boss and HR department employees.
It will take a while for the production of the coronavirus vaccine in Poland, but the American manufacturer of the mRNA vaccine has chosen our country as the location of a global service center. It is to deal with, inter alia, finance, pharmacovigilance, HR, digitization and compliance.

Source: PB