Sanofi is now continuing its operations on the ultimate site of its international competence centre in Budapest. Initially, 200 persons will assist the European and North American Sanofi units in seven languages from the centre. The headcount, however, is planned to be increased to 350 colleagues by 2022 in the leading French pharmaceutical giant's newest Hungarian unit.
Sanofi considers the new office not as a simple SSC, but as a Centre of Excellence, which will perform tasks with specifically high added value. The new office, which currently has 200 employees, supports the Sanofi subsidiaries in seven languages in the field of accounting, HR and finance, and is at the same time working on further improvements in business data management and process optimisation. With the new centre Sanofi will have five premises in Hungary, giving work to over 2,000 people. The new unit will be one of the group's two global facilities of this kind, and is planned to extend its activities to other business lines and regions in the future. US life insurance group MassMutual will open a global business service center in Romania’s capital Bucharest. The company has leased 1,300 sqm of office space on the top floor of the Orhideea Towers office building.
“Starting 2020, the company will be performing in Romania the software developing and technology related activities of the group. With this move, they will gain access to a great talent pool in an upcoming world-class technology hub. The insurer plans to recruit at least 100 people this year, especially tech-savvy professionals,” reads a press release issued by local real estate consultancy firm Griffes, which brokered the lease. French stationery supplies producer BIC inaugurated a new shared services centre in Bulgarian capital Sofia, in which it intends to hire 230 employees by the end of 2021.
BIC also plans to invest over 10.5 million euro in Bulgaria by the end of next year. With the opening of the new centre BIC has established a new unit - BIC Services Sofia, to consolidate the French company's administrative tasks and activities in the field of finance, accounting, transactions, supply and other corporate functions across Europe. BIC did not disclose the value of its investment in the new service centre. Earlier this month, the Bulgarian economy ministry said that the investment in the project amounted to some 2.0 million levs ($1.2 million/1.0 million euro). The shared services centre is part of BIC's global business transformation plan for 2020, aimed at increasing efficiency and creating a structure of sustainable growth maintenance. "BIC Services Sofia will manage activities ranging from logistics to human resources, as well as financial processes, customer relations and supply to Societe Bic," Georgi Menev, executive director at BIC Services Sofia, said in the statement. At present, the Sofia-based centre provides services to the markets of France, Italy, Germany, Benelux, Portugal and Spain. It plans to expand its operations towards Romania, Ukraine and Russia as well as a number of African countries where BIC is present. BIC, based in Clichy, France, produces stationery, lighters and shavers, which it sells in more than 160 countries worldwide. The TMF Group, a leading company providing administrative business services for companies in the area of international development, will be joined by another 300 specialists over the next two years. They will form a team working directly with the world's largest Fortune 500 companies. The recruitment started in October.
The TMF Group's Polish branch with offices in Warsaw and Katowice – where the TMF Group's European Center is now being launched – currently employs nearly 500 people and is one of the TMF Group's largest branches in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. “TMF Group operates in 80 locations worldwide, with Poland of particular strategic importance. The Polish branch is one of the largest in the company's structures, and the local specialists are extremely valuable in our global structures," Juraj Gerzeni, TMF Group's director for EMEA, covering Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said. "This recognition will be reflected in the responsibilities of the specialists at the Katowice Center, who will work directly with representatives of the world's largest companies,” he added. Billionaire investor Steven A. Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management is opening the $16.2 billion firm’s latest satellite location in Warsaw and moving some back office operations to lower-cost Poland.
Point72, based in Stamford, Connecticut with 1,500 employees around the world, expects to hire 150 people in Warsaw by the end of 2021. Some jobs will be moved to Poland from the United States, but the move would impact less than 5% of the workforce, a Point72 spokeswoman said. Point72 plans to build technology, finance and operations teams in Poland, capitalizing on the country’s highly educated workforce and geographic location. The firm, which employs teams of traders to invest in stocks, bonds and other instruments, does not expect to move investment professionals to Poland. “The Warsaw office will be instrumental in supporting the firm’s continued strategic growth and strengthening our investment services functions,” the spokeswoman said. Point72 has 10 offices, including New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney, Palo Alto, San Francisco and its Stamford headquarters. Many financial services firms, including hedge funds, have scaled back on real estate recently to cut costs as investors are especially sensitive to high fees. Rafa Lopez Espinosa, Point72’s U.S.-based global head of strategy, will move to Poland where he will continue in his current role and lead the local office. Point72 says it plans to run a local graduate recruitment program focused on campus hiring and entry level employees in Warsaw, and that it wants its new recruiter to create a strategy that will, "attract and retain the best local talent." Point72 didn't respond to a request to comment on its Warsaw hiring intentions, but the fund's growth in Poland could be bad news for technologists hoping to join in London or Connecticut, who have historically been extremely well paid. Last year, for example, interns joining Point72’s market intelligence group – those typically with educational backgrounds in data science and analytics – were offered a prorated salary of $80k plus a $5k signing bonus. Speaking in 2017, Goldman Sachs said the reason it built a technology hub in Warsaw was the broad range of excellent technology students in the Polish capital. At that time, GS was targeting at least six Polish universities (AGH (Krakow), Tadeusz Kościuszko University of Technology (Politechnika Krakow), Warsaw University of Technology (Politechnika), Kozminski University (Warsaw), SGH (Warsaw), and Warsaw University) and pulling in students from Italian universities like Bocconi too. Dexcom, Inc., (NASDAQ:DXCM), the global leader in continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) for people with diabetes, has announced opening a global business services (GBS) centre in Vilnius, Lithuania. The new hub is set to open its doors in 2021 and will expand the company’s patient support, customer advocacy and finance and accounting operations in Europe.
The San Diego-based medical device manufacturer will be joining the booming GBS community of Vilnius. Currently, the city is home to more than 80 centres, including those operated by numerous Fortune 500 companies. Lithuania’s capital was picked after a diligent selection process, which involved sorting through a long list of locations throughout central-eastern Europe. “Vilnius proved to be an exceptionally attractive location in terms of available qualified talent. The multilingualism of the local talent pool was one of the strongest selling points for us, as fluency and language competencies are crucial in serving our customers from all around the world,” said Quentin Blackford, executive vice president, chief operating officer and chief financial officer at Dexcom. “We were also impressed by the excellent support provided by Invest Lithuania, who quickly became a valuable partner for the project.” The Vilnius office will support Dexcom operations and its customers across the EMEA region. The new branch is set to be multifaceted and will focus on customer and technical support related to Dexcom products and on providing finance and accounting support for the organization, including accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll, billing and more. “The decision by Dexcom to locate its new GBS centre for the EMEA region in Lithuania marks another victory for our medical devices sector,” said Remigijus Sinkevičius, Lithuania’s minister of economy and innovation. “It also serves as proof of the quality of local talent available to the growing global business services community. I believe that Dexcom will feel right at home here.” Dexcom is implementing robotic process automation (RPA) in its new centre as part the service offering across EMEA. There are also plans to collaborate with local universities and other educational institutions. “Lithuania sees life sciences as one of the most crucial sectors of the future. The arrival of an industry player of such importance will help us – as a country – to further develop the competencies necessary to excel in this field,” said Mantas Katinas, general manager of Invest Lithuania. Banking platform Curve has announced the establishment of a subsidiary in Lithuania. The move will help Curve continue to serve customers across the EEA, following the end of the Brexit transition period, and to scale its operations. In addition to passporting rights, Lithuania was chosen as an EEA base for its strong AML competencies, fintech friendly regulator and diverse workforce.
Curve was founded in 2015 with a mission to simplify the way people spend, send, see and save money. Its mobile platform allows users to manage their spending on all linked cards, and access a growing number of features including contactless and mobile payments. These include Go Back in Time, cashback, competitive FX rates and free ATM withdrawals. With Curve, users can modernise their banking without changing their banks, keeping their hard earned money with the banks they know and trust. As with many other UK-based fintechs, Curve was searching for a European base to continue operating on the continent post-Brexit. According to founder and CEO Shachar Bialick, Curve initially looked at countries like Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, but ultimately Lithuania made much more sense. Shachar Bialick, Founder and CEO, Curve says: “We chose Lithuania as a gateway to Europe because of the ease of business there, its welcoming culture and world-class AML standards. On behalf of everyone at Curve, I’d like to thank those involved in making Curve’s application a success, including the Bank of Lithuania and Invest Lithuania. I’m excited about the huge boost to the Curve platform that our license in Lithuania will give to our growth and ability to serve customers around Europe.” Curve intends to invest in scaling up its AML, Compliance and Risk management operation from their Lithuanian base. The company is also assessing what other business streams can be established in its Vilnius office, as it grows across Europe. “The fact that Curve chose Lithuania testifies to our strengths, which include innovation-friendly regulation and one of the most vibrant Fintech communities in Europe. We are certain that Curve’s seal of approval will encourage other disruptive companies in the field of Finance to tackle the EEA market from Lithuania,” states Mantas Katinas, General Manager of Invest Lithuania. Since launching in 2015, Curve has attracted a significant level of external interest and support. Curve OS has completed four successful funding rounds, accumulating close to £70.7m in total funding to date. Investors include Santander InnoVentures, Investec, Oxford Capital, Breega Capital, Speedinvest, Seedcamp and Connect Ventures. Curve OS also broke Crowdcube’s crowdfunding records with the fastest raise ever, raising nearly £6 million in 4hrs and 42 minutes, and with the largest number of investors on the Crowdcube platform ever in that time. Curve has already integrated its platform with Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay. Apple Pay has already been rolled out across 30 countries. Curve’s integration with Google Pay enabled customers with BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole in France, Deutsche Bank and DZ Bank AG in Germany, and Santader and CaixaBank in Spain access to these platforms for the first time. Curve is also rolling out compatibility with Garmin, Fitbit and Wena smartwatches in some European countries. The company has more than 270 employees working across offices in London, Bristol and the US. Leadership positions include managers with experience at Amazon, PayPal, Amex, Samsung, and Uber. Nike opens IT competency centre in Gdansk
10/10/2020
While the news is not yet official, we at EBSA have learned that Nike is well underway in hiring tech talent for its new IT centre. The new office, still operating under the radar, is led by Arek Chylinski, previously Software Engineering Manager at Intel. Local engineering squads at Nike will be hired to work on data transit and transformation, as well as working with Nike tech peers and partners in other geographies to define and standarize tech landscape for Enterprise Platforms.
Stay tuned for a more official update in late October. 7N, an IT consultancy agency with more than 30 years of market experience in serving all aspects of critical IT projects both within the public and private sectors, has opened an office in the Tricity.
Operating in 9 countries, with almost 1400 high-end IT professionals who specialize in programming, project management, and quality management, 7N plans to hire 100 experts in the Tricity by the end of 2021. When asked about why Tricity, Grzegorz Pyzel, Vice President at 7N said, It has always been our motivation to diversify into different locations to have access to more IT experts. Our Polish head office is located in Warsaw, but we also have operations in other cities – Wroclaw, Poznań, Lódź, and Toruń. Opening offices in every place where we operate has never been our goal. Tricity is an exception due to the scale of its operations. When the number of consultants with whom we cooperate in the Tricity exceeded 50, the management on an on-and-off basis became time-consuming and therefore pointless. Having a local office gives us confidence that 7N will continue to grow strongly on the Tricity market. 7N has been operating in Tricity since 2012, before deciding to open a permanent office here. At present, the office provides services to 9 clients from different industries: financial, medical, energy as well as software houses. They are also starting a new project and launching a competence center in Tricity, which provides services for their foreign customers. GFT expands in Poznań, with grant support
10/10/2020
GFT, an international company delivering software solutions to, among others, the largest banks in the world, located in Łódź, Poznań, Warsaw and Kraków, is expanding its Poznań team. The company received a grant from the Ministry of Development in the amount of PLN 2.3 million to create 210 new jobs in the R&D center, including 75 in Poznań. GFT is looking for specialists who will carry out highly advanced tasks for global financial institutions, as well as for the insurance sector and industry.
Currently, GFT employs in Poznań 230 experts from over 850 all over Poland. The Wielkopolska branch is the second largest in the country. In the first half of the year, 40 people joined the Poznań team, some of whom underwent remote onboarding. - Lockdown contributed to a temporary slowdown in business development, but our client structure ensures stability even in such a difficult time for everyone. We have kept the team in an unchanged composition and we can return to the implementation of plans related to the received grant - says Wojciech Mach, Managing Director of GFT Poland. - GFT is another company that invests in new jobs in Poznań - says Jacek Jaśkowiak, mayor of the city. - This proves that our city is one of the best locations for IT business in this part of Europe. We provide companies with extensive support, we have a well-qualified team of experienced specialists, graduates of Poznań universities. This enables to efficiently combine science with business in Poznań and makes the IT sector grow very dynamically, guaranteeing high quality services. The obtained grant will allow for new investments in the qualifications of the organization and the exploration of technologies that may soon become key ones to the development of innovation and business transformation of GFT clients. The programmers sought at the moment are people experienced in programming in Java, JavaScript or.NET, as well as DevOps engineers. - In order to stay ahead of the market, we set up our own technology incubators. These are the so-called practices - Big Data, Blockchain, Cloud or AI, which bring together enthusiasts and experts actively developing projects in these areas. As part of the grant, last year we launched training programs for young experts in cloud technologies. A new Virtual Banking practice was also established at GFT last month. It was created on the basis of a pioneering project implemented by Polish GFT teams on the Asian market. It is the world's first fully virtual bank in which our experts had to apply a combination of solutions never before used in banking, based on Amazon Web Services tools. Today, young adepts of our training programs are working on their own GFT product in this area - says Maciej Paszta, Executive Delivery Manager of GFT Poland. Other recently implemented projects at GFT in Poznań include, among others, a risk calculation engine that processes millions of daily transactions with 1000 different market scenarios, a decision-making system limiting the risk of concluded transactions, a system that optimizes the bank's capital management or a set of tools that allowed the bank to migrate to an external cloud and a system for coordinating factoring services based on blockchain. At the moment, almost all GFT experts work from home. The company has allowed those employees who do not have the appropriate conditions to return to their offices on a conditional basis. Additionally, the three-month period of fully remote project implementation resulted in an evolution of the approach to work organization. |
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