Lab-H9 Announces Expansion to Lithuania
10/6/2024
In partnership with IT company Be Smart, the Italian private venture capital fund Mirai has established Lab-H9, an IT innovation hub, in Lithuania. Recently, the firm opened its headquarters in Vilnius and plans to expand operations to Kaunas. It aims to hire up to 40 specialists over three years who will contribute to developing and providing innovative products and services across various sectors.
Lab-H9 in Lithuania will develop artificial intelligence (AI) solutions intended for thorough testing in the Lithuanian education system, with plans for subsequent expansion across the EU. The company seeks to unify all systems used by educational institutions into a single, optimally functioning platform. While maintaining a strong focus on educational technology (EdTech), Lab-H9 is pivoting to encompass more B2B and B2C solutions. The company’s investments in the Smart Manufacturing industry, managed through its Lithuanian headquarters, aim to integrate technologies such as Machine Learning (ML), Large Language Models (LLM), IoT, Cloud Computing, and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES). This integration seeks to support a 40% reduction in company waste and unplanned downtimes, while boosting productivity and energy savings for more sustainable, eco-friendly, and efficient factories. The decision to establish Lab-H9 in Lithuania was driven by the country’s high-quality IT landscape, particularly its technological expertise, business-friendly environment, and well-balanced lifestyle. Vilnius was chosen over Tallinn due to these compelling attributes. The 3rd annual Budapest BSC Charity Beach Volleyball Tournament took place 6 June 2024 at Lupa Beach in Budapest. This year, we were lucky with wonderful weather: sunny and hot.
1st place went to Process Solutions, 2nd place Grundfos Shared Services, and 3rd place to Albemarle Magyarorszag. Wiktoria Bela from Eaton took the “Top Female Player” Trophy; Tesco Business Solutions won “Best Attitude Team” Trophy; IFF won the “Best of the Rest” Trophy and Eaton Business Services won Trophy for “Top Cheerleading Support”! The Budapest tournament was the 1st of 6 Tournaments during this summer, with next cities coming soon:
Registration for next cities can be done here. Hundreds of photos from Budapest here. The 9th edition of the ABSL AWARDS GALA is set for 13 June.
ABSL RO member companies will showcase their most innovative, impactful, and valuable projects and initiatives by participating in the competition. The outstanding projects will be applauded and awarded during the ABSL Gala, that will take place on June 13, at The Tent by Clubul Diplomatic, Bucharest. ABSL Awards Gala inspires the business services community to continuously strive for excellence and by this, to strengthen the sector’s position within the Romanian economy. More details here. In partnership with IT company Be Smart, the Italian private venture capital fund Mirai has established Lab-H9, an IT innovation hub, in Lithuania. Recently, the firm opened its headquarters in Vilnius and plans to expand operations to Kaunas. It aims to hire up to 40 specialists over three years who will contribute to developing and providing innovative products and services across various sectors.
Lab-H9 in Lithuania will develop artificial intelligence (AI) solutions intended for thorough testing in the Lithuanian education system, with plans for subsequent expansion across the EU. The company seeks to unify all systems used by educational institutions into a single, optimally functioning platform. While maintaining a strong focus on educational technology (EdTech), Lab-H9 is pivoting to encompass more B2B and B2C solutions. The company’s investments in the Smart Manufacturing industry, managed through its Lithuanian headquarters, aim to integrate technologies such as Machine Learning (ML), Large Language Models (LLM), IoT, Cloud Computing, and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES). This integration seeks to support a 40% reduction in company waste and unplanned downtimes, while boosting productivity and energy savings for more sustainable, eco-friendly, and efficient factories. The decision to establish Lab-H9 in Lithuania was driven by the country’s high-quality IT landscape, particularly its technological expertise, business-friendly environment, and well-balanced lifestyle. Vilnius was chosen over Tallinn due to these compelling attributes. “The success of our business will hinge on the talent we find in Lithuania. We are actively hiring and seeking dozens of diverse, AI-savvy programmers to foster their growth through our training academy,” says F. Farella, emphasizing that the company has already begun actively recruiting. The creation of 22 centres should be financed from the Recovery Plan.Many smaller municipalities in Slovakia struggle to perform certain tasks and duties effectively. There are now plans to solve several of these problems by establishing shared service centres at the local level.
Their creation is also part of Slovakia’s Recovery and Resilience Plan, with €11.4 million being allocated for this purpose. The Association of Towns and Villages of Slovakia (ZMOS) announced in early February that in cooperation with the Interior Ministry, they are working on a call to create such centres in 22 areas in central and eastern Slovakia. Four should be situated in Banská Bystrica Region, 10 in Prešov Region and eight in Košice Region. “The aim is to support municipalities that search for ways to provide better services to their inhabitants, on the basis of joint provision of certain agendas,” the Interior Ministry’s press department told The Slovak Spectator. ZMOS representatives added that they are starting pilot projects. The plan is to test and implement the basic elements of integrated public administration in the least developed districts, said Gabriel Mihály, mayor of the village of Jesenské, in central Slovakia, and head of the public administration section at ZMOS Council. Source: Slovak Spectator The salaries in the local business services industry have seen a 4% increase in March 2024 compared to September 2023, according to the HR Barometer conducted by the Business Service Leaders Association (ABSL) and PwC Romania.
Bucharest leads in salary increase levels at 4.7%, while the region of Banat - Transylvania witnessed an increase of only 2.1%. The staff categories that have seen increases are those of executive manager (9.8%), team leader (3.8%), specialist (3.9%), administrative staff (4.4%) and operator (1.9%). The employees working in sectors such as finance, accounting, HR, and support positions received the highest increases. The business services industry is estimated to see an increase of 8% in the payroll budget this year, in line with the market trend. One in three companies has already implemented this in the first quarter of the year, the survey found. The increased taxation on benefits popular in the industry, such as meal or holiday vouchers or sport subscriptions, had a negative impact on HR policies. Four out of five employers now grant the benefits in gross value, with the taxation passed on to the employees. A smaller percentage of employers plans to compensate totally or partially the loss incurred by employees for various benefits (4% in the case of holiday vouchers and 34% in that of meal vouchers). The companies in the industry plan to continue offering benefits such as sports or medical subscriptions and private pensions. While parental benefits start to look appealing to employees, only 4% of the companies in the industry offer additional days off for employees who are parents, and three out of four companies offer paid days off over the legal limit allowed in the case of fathers. At the same time, only 18% of the companies in the business services industry are considering reducing their HR costs, with most reductions to be made in the payroll (capping). The rest of the companies in the industry continue to allot resources for training and development, but also for employer branding and employee retention. More than half of the companies in the industry require a minimum number of days worked in the office (between one and three days), while flexibility remains important for a third of survey respondents. “The salary dynamics records a slight decrease compared to previous years, even in industries where the competition for talent remains high. Against the background of macroeconomic uncertainty and the expansion of automatization to an increasingly higher number of processes, the workforce demand is decreasing, as is the individual mobility at the employee level. In the short term, we are seeing a normalization of labor market relations, which had turned extremely difficult for employers in recent years,” Oana Munteanu, director, People & Organization with PwC, explained. “The quality of the labor force compared to its cost has long represented a competitive advantage in attracting investors to Romania. In this context, the increasingly frequent talks about the progressive tax without talks with the business sector, predictability, and a national strategy that would support economic growth and retaining a highly qualified workforce can impact us negatively,” Cătălin Iorgulescu, VP of ABSL, said. The HR Barometer was conducted by PwC Romania in partnership with ABSL at the end of March among 50 companies. Visma Tech, a leading IT firm and a key division of the Norwegian Visma Group and one of the largest IT companies in Lithuania, announced its move to a new office in Vilnius, accompanied by ongoing team expansion in Lithuania, aiming to attract top-tier talent within the country.
Visma Tech chose the Artery building at the heart of Vilnius’ central business district to foster innovation and collaboration. The new office features state-of-the-art technological resources and versatile workspaces that match the company’s values of innovation and collaboration. With the addition of this office, Visma Tech aims to bolster its workforce, focusing on attracting and retaining top-tier talent, particularly in specialized roles such as software development, DevOps, and quality assurance. According to Agnius Paradnikas, the company’s Managing Director, the decision to continuously strengthen its presence in Lithuania – the company has offices both in Vilnius and Kaunas – was made for several reasons: "Our trust in Lithuania as a strategic location is primarily motivated by the quality talent, work culture, and growth opportunities. Here, at Visma Tech Lithuania, we attract outstandingly motivated and loyal employees resulting in the average duration of employment at Visma of 5+ years. If this positive trend continues, I am pretty confident we will reach 300 employees shortly and even go beyond", said Agnius Paradnikas, Visma Tech's Managing Director. Bulgaria's Telelink Business Services Group, or TBS Group, [BUL:TBS] signed an agreement to acquire 100% of the shares of Croatian IT, communication and software solutions provider Sedam IT for 9 million euro ($9.7 million).The final purchase price will be paid in stages, based on the agreed company value and depending on its financial debt, cash and net working capital at the date of transfer of company shares, as well as its financial results for 2024 and 2025, TBS Group said in a bourse filing on Tuesday.
Zagreb-based Sedam IT, founded in 2003, is a leading Croatian provider of ICT solutions and services, according to its LinkedIn profile. The company has completed over 400 projects in the telecommunications, finance, retail and public enterprises sectors. The BMW Group and NTT DATA Romania have signed an agreement to establish a Joint Venture (JV) in Romania. The BMW Group is thus continuing to expand its global network for its corporate IT and is securing talent and experience in the software sector. The execution of the JV contract is subject to review and approval by the relevant authorities.
The JV benefits from NTT DATA’s many years of experience in agile software development and its excellent network in the local Romanian IT community. The new location in Romania is intended to support the BMW Group IT in Europe and drive forward IT-projects and innovations for production, development, human resources, sales and BMW Financial Services. “With NTT DATA, we are relying on another strong partner that has an excellent network in a lively technology region and enables us to build up additional software competencies quickly and in a targeted manner. In collaboration with companies like NTT DATA we can establish strong IT hubs and thereby give an answer to the shortage of IT experts,” says Alexander Buresch, CIO and Senior Vice President of BMW Group IT. “We are proud to announce our plans to open a new software development center for software solutions in Cluj-Napoca together with BMW Group. This collaboration aims to assist the carmaker in leading the digital transformation," says Maria Metz, CEO at NTT DATA Romania. The JV is to be set up in Cluj-Napoca in Romania. The university town offers a strong ecosystem for innovation with solid entrepreneurship, startups and a high number of talents in the tech scene. This creates high potential for long-term growth of the JV. The JV is expected to employ around 250 software developers at the end of 2024 and plans to grow to a four-digit number of employees by 2027. German multinational Bosch said it will establish a new legal entity, a new company named Bosch Global Business Services, in Timisoara, western Romania, where it will transfer approximately 1,400 employees from Bosch Service Solutions SRL.
"Bosch is expanding by establishing a new legal entity in Timisoara, Bosch Global Business Services SRL, a decision that will impact approximately 1,400 employees. The Global Business Services division will be transferred from Bosch Service Solutions SRL, a company present in Timisoara since 2007, to a new legal entity. This organizational change will not impact the working conditions of the transferred employees," the company stated in a press release. Bosch Global Business Services is among the largest Shared Services centers in Eastern Europe. The division in Timisoara offers a range of administrative services, enhancing the efficiency of Bosch's internal operations. The controlling department in Timisoara manages a range of services, from financial data extraction, budget estimation and planning, to reporting to Bosch management. Additionally, the division provides financial, HR, and accounting services for the Bosch Group. Logistics and procurement are also handled from Timisoara, optimizing Bosch's supply chain operations. The entity also manages travel orders and reimbursement request processes. With over 10,000 employees worldwide, Bosch Service Solutions is an international provider of technology-based services. "We continue to heavily invest in expanding our service portfolio to cover all shared services areas and manage the complexity of tasks for established teams," said Martin Gladigow, General Manager of Bosch Global Business Services in Timisoara. Since 2007, Bosch Service Solutions in Timisoara has been providing services to the Bosch Group and the Romanian market. In 2010, the collaboration with Global Business Services began. At the end of last year, there were approximately 2,000 employees in the two entities in Timisoara. The Bosch Group has been present in Romania for 29 years and has approximately 9,830 employees in six entities. In 2022, Bosch generated consolidated sales of EUR 512 million on the Romanian market. The total net sales value, including sales to unconsolidated companies and internal deliveries to affiliates, reached EUR 2.1 billion. The Bosch Group comprises Robert Bosch GmbH and its approximately 470 subsidiaries and regional companies in over 60 countries. At 136 locations worldwide, Bosch has approximately 85,500 associates engaged in research and development, nearly 44,000 of whom are software engineers. |
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