How to find a good IT outsourcing provider in Ukraine?

January 21, 2015
How to find a good IT outsourcing provider in Ukraine?

When Googling “IT Outsourcing Company Ukraine”, how can you be sure that all those companies at the first Google page you see are indeed good? Of course, some of them indeed are reliable, client-oriented and not very expensive.

Those companies invest lots of money in their marketing activities, and every business owner surely knows how much it costs.

However, a part of them do invest way more money in being at the first Google page, than in finding a good IT-specialist, who will be developing your software system. How to be sure in the IT outsourcing partner you find in Ukraine?

Why not to be scared of Ukraine?

Although the country itself is now experiencing challenging times at the East, the life is not stopping in other parts of the country and IT outsourcing business keeps working with their customers and attracts new ones.

This fact confirms the Ukrainian Hi-Tech Initiative website, which is full of news about completed projects or signed contracts by Ukrainian IT companies.

In addition, Ukrainian outsourcing companies are becoming more experienced in the business continuity. The ones located in the Eastern Ukraine, have moved their offices either to Kyiv or to Western part of the country.

Some bigger companies have opened new locations in CEE or Western Europe, and relocated there some teams to be sure that situation in the country would not influence their business. Ukrainian IT companies are same interested in doing good business as before.

Furthermore, Ukraine is keeping its fourth place in the world by the official number of IT professionals (230,000 according to the government). The annual number of technical graduates is still around 15,000.

This number does not include junior specialists using non-formal education like online courses, webinars and schools for developers, which is becoming enormous (in 2014 we have counted up to 20 course/training providers only in Kyiv).

Independent resources on IT outsourcing providers in Ukraine

As it was said before, first page in Google search does not always equal to reliable partner. There are traditional methods of checking if the company is good for you, like requesting customer testimonials or projects portfolio from the potential outsourcing provider.

Another option is to request contacts of a real customer, who have completed a project with the outsourcing services provider in the last 10-12 months. This may also prove that the company is not influenced by the situation in the country and still providing high quality service to its customers.

Option number three is proved useful if you do not want to look for a potential IT partner in Ukraine via Google or word of mouth yet. Contact Ukrainian IT or business associations with the request to provide an advice on services provider. These communities usually have the list of companies they cooperate with, or who are their members.

The European Business Association unites 916 companies in Ukraine, and 41 of them are in IT & Telecommunications sector. At the same time the official number of IT companies in Ukraine exceeds 15,000 with 164 million results in Google by “IT Company Ukraine”.

The biggest business association in Ukraine includes only 41 of them. One of reasons for that is the rule that candidate to EBA members must be recommended by another current member of the association, which helps the EBA to include only reliable companies as the members.

IT Ukraine Association and Ukrainian Hi-Tech Initiative are the two biggest and the oldest associations of IT outsourcing companies in Ukraine.

They will not only consult you on prices, but also help with finding the best provider for the services you need.

Option No.4 is for those, who do really want to probe deeper, but you will need Russian-speaking helper. The Developers of Ukraine (DOU.ua) is one of the biggest and most popular communities of IT professionals in Russian-speaking countries.

They have almost all Ukrainian IT companies in their company’s list. In each company profile there is feedback section, where former or current employees can leave their feedback about the company. Thus the reader can find out that a popular IT company is not fulfilling its salary obligations or faking its projects portfolio.

Useful links with information in English:

Source: Softengi