Citi Service Center Budapest has been recognized by CEE Business Media, publisher of the most-comprehensive directory of Shared Service Centers in Central & Eastern Europe and founders of European Business Services Association, at the 2nd annual USA-Europe Shared Services Summit & Awards Gala 2018 – held in June in New York.

Nearly 130 top executives from 67 companies attended the gala, from more than 21 countries. The VIP Jury voted to award 9 companies for their high-performance operating models and delivery excellence.

Citi received the leading award in the Top US SSC Investor in Hungary category. Citi was among the first international companies to establish a Service Center in Hungary in 2005. The Citi Service Center in Budapest has grown over the years from one stand-alone IT-function with 49 people to being amongst the largest service centers in Hungary. Today, more than 1,700 employees are providing services in various areas for Citi-entities in 52 countries in EMEA and for certain functions globally.

Photo: Kevin A. Murray, Citi CEO for Central-Europe, Country Head for Hungary. Jane Ellis, Regional Head (EMEA) of Citi Shared Services, Enterprise Supply Chain and Head of Budapest Service Center

CGI Group, one of the world’s leading providers of IT and business process outsourcing services has announced that it is to open a software consulting and development centre in the Romanian capital Bucharest. The centre will be CGI’s first incursion into emerging Europe.
Located close to the Politehnica University, which specialises in IT and engineering, the centre will provide expertise in the field of assistance and maintenance of application software solutions based on a whole range of technologies (Java, DotNet, BI). More than 300 people will be employed at the centre. A third will be hired immediately, the rest over the next three years
The centre, which will exclusively serve CGI’s French clients, will be included in the existing network of production centres located in France, Spain, Portugal and Morocco.
“By opening our first software consulting and development center in Romania, we aim to provide our French customers with innovative digital services that meet international quality standards,” said CGI Operations President for Western and Southern Europe Jean-Michel Baticle. “Organised on the basis of a proven model, the centre aims to support the development and growth of our activities in France.”
The choice of Romania as CGI’s first emerging Europe site has been driven by the multiple requirements of CGI and its customers. A member state of the European Union, Romania is subject to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and so the French organisations are guaranteed an identical level of protection and ensure the storage of their data in the European territory. 

Vilnius, an award winning location for shared services, is to host the Autumn Edition of the biannual European Shared Services and Outsourcing Week. The event, which runs from September 11-13, is set to attract over 300 guests and will feature 70 expert speakers from companies such as Siemens, Western Union, Danske Bank, Adidas, Discovery Communications, Booking.com and GSK. Having been named Most Dynamically Developing City at the CEE Shared Services and Outsourcing Awards for the last four years, Vilnius is adding further impetus to its vibrant Shared Services ecosystem by hosting this major event.
investlithuania.com/news/vilnius-hosting-europes-biggest-shared-services-event-this-september/

The space leased by LSGE allows the company to hire around 300 people in the new Romanian headquarters.

“We are pleased to announce the opening of our new shared services center in Romania. Romania offers LSEG a highly-skilled workforce, a strong education system and good infrastructure. CBRE has been our strategic consultant through the process and we look forward to being an employer in the country”, James Nunn, head of Group Property, London Stock Exchange Group, said.
London Stock Exchange Group is a global markets infrastructure business.

“We are very happy to have played a role in a very important transaction, not only for the local office market, but for the Romanian economy altogether. The simple fact that London Stock Exchange Group has chosen our country to establish a strategic operational hub is a great accomplishment. We believe this reinforces Romania’s international image among foreign existing and potential investors,” stated Razvan Iorgu, managing director of CBRE Romania. Campus 6 is the newest office complex developed by the Swedish real estate developer Skanska, in Romania.

According to CBRE’s consultants involved in this transaction, the main reasons that led LSEG to choosing Romania as the location for its new center are the growth opportunities offered by our market and the well-qualified workforce.

With over 40,000 searches in the last year, a potential city pair from Gdansk to Zurich has been identified as this week’s “Skyscanner-anna.aero Unserved Route of the Week” – a powerful analysis based on aspirational data captured from the Skyscanner.net flight comparison site used by +70 million unique visitors per month. “From Gdansk there is no air connection to Switzerland,” states Iwona Tomczynska, Marketing Manager at Gdansk Airport.
www.anna.aero/2018/07/25/xxx-yyy-skyscanner-unserved-route-week-zz000-searches/

Law firm Dentons has announced it is joining up with former Big Four consultants in Hungary to launch Impact Advisory, a joint venture able to offer consulting services that extend beyond the law firm’s legal services.

The JV is being piloted in Hungary, with the long-term goal of expanding it to other CEE countries and beyond. Impact Advisory will offer legal and non-legal support in a number of areas, advice on investments and reorganizations in Hungary, and services related to global business services.

The venture’s CEO will be Balázs Tüske, who has more than two decades of consulting experience as an advisory services leader and transaction support leader at EY Hungary. Tüske will focus chiefly on buy and sell-side due diligence, mergers and acquisitions, and large transformational projects.

Also in the team is Arjen Sader, another former EY partner. “As part of our vision to always be the law firm of the future, Dentons is continuously challenging the status quo, and the services offered by this talented team of consultants will complement both our core legal services and our Nextlaw offering,” added Tomasz Dąbrowski, CEO of Dentons Europe.

In early August, technology consultancy company BearingPoint announced that it is expanding its Security Advisory Center of Excellence (CoE) in Romania.

"Cyber Resiliency is a major focus of the Security Center of Excellence, whilst the demand for information security services is increasing globally", says Christian Gurny, Partner BearingPoint Romania. "We have the advantage that there is a continuous flow of talents from the universities to the Romanian cyber community, constantly of the highest level in Europe, as proven at the European Cyber-Security Challenge (ECSC).

In addition, Romania is already providing cyber stability in the region and has success stories in the areas of cyber threat defense and Managed Security Services."

"I've been engaged in the international cybersecurity community for many years, and I think the market is more than ready for the next step in deploying and operationalizing next generation cyber resilience concepts. The Romanian Cybersecurity community is highly advanced, and we're currently attracting top talent that is building the backbone of our CoE", said Sergiu Zaharia, Cybersecurity Center lead at BearingPoint Bucharest.

BearingPoint is an independent management and technology consultancy with European roots and a global reach. The company operates in three units: consulting, solutions and ventures. The firm has a global consulting network with more than 10,000 people and supports clients in over 75 countries.

Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered said in mid-July it was setting up a new global business services hub in Warsaw, the latest expansion by a major bank outside London, Europe’s biggest financial center. 
Standard Chartered’s new office, which is expected to open in September, will house a range of operations serving the bank’s growing European and U.S. client base, including technology and finance services, cyber security, as well as traditional banking activities.

The Warsaw operation - which joins a network of similarly structured hubs in China, India and Malaysia - will be run by Rowena Everson, who has been promoted to chief executive of Standard Chartered Global Business Services in Poland from her current role as a managing director and head of business support, risk and governance for Europe based in London.

Thursday’s announcement follows speculation late last year that StanChart had shortlisted Warsaw as a base for up to 500 members of staff.

A spokesman for StanChart said the Warsaw office was likely to house as many as 750 staff within the next five years, as functions normally performed by its Asian global business hubs migrated to Warsaw.

The decision to set up its first European global business services hub in Poland, rather than Britain - where the bank has its European headquarters - had nothing to do with Brexit, the spokesman added.
The bank employs 19,000 people globally in these service hubs, the spokesman said.
“As the Bank increases its focus on clients based in Europe and the Americas, we believe it has become essential to create a western hub that can support them fully in a more beneficial time zone,” Stephen Sheridan, Chief Operating Officer in Europe & Americas, said in a statement.
Source: Reuters