When you need to grow your R&D department efficiently and quickly, but you experience difficulties attracting the best tech talent in your area of operations, probably it is time to look somewhere else. There are a number of software development hubs across the globe you could choose from, and each of them has its pros and cons that should be carefully considered before making the decision. Let’s take a look at one of the top choices for near/offshoring development teams in recent decades – Bulgaria.
The country has a longstanding reputation of a centre for tech excellence. Many technology giants (such as Microsoft, VMware, SAP and others) have successfully set up dev offices here, some within their own entities, others with the support of local providers of dedicated teams & BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) services. Either way, Bulgaria is among the most attractive places for expanding dev teams. Let’s take a look why!
High-class talent availability
Several very important factors should be considered when deciding where to locate your remote development team. One of the most important aspects is the availability of highly-skilled professionals.
Bulgaria’s IT market is very well suited to respond to the constantly growing demand for tech talent with more than 65,000 full-time employees (as of February 2020) and around 6,200 new graduates entering it each year.
But as we know it’s not only the quantity that matters. According to a Hacker Rank’s study, Bulgarians are among the top-performing software developers. These great results are due to the well-developed and highly ranked schooling system in the country. The advanced education is very competitive especially in the fields of computer science and engineering. As a result, a strong infusion of well-educated tech talent is entering the economy every year.
Competitive employment costs
The well-developed IT market of the country comes with yet another very important advantage – the ability to source the right talent at a competitive cost. Our practice shows that companies that have been already working with dev teams in Bulgaria, observe a 30-50% decrease in employment cost while achieving 95-100% of the productivity of in-house staff. For more detailed information about the employment costs for various tech positions, request the latest issue of our IT Industry report here.
Strategic location and cultural proximity
Bulgaria is an Eastern European country, located in the centre of the Balkan’s Peninsula. The country’s strategic location defines its geographical proximity and easy access to major European cities and allows fast connections with the main economic centres.
Furthermore, strong similarities in terms of business attitude, ethics and processes are also observed. They are a result of the continuous collaboration between the constantly increasing number of European and US companies operating in the country and the local workforce.
Advanced technology infrastructure
When growing a dev team in a distant location, the well-developed IT infrastructure is a defining factor. With an average consumer download speed of 54.92 Mbps according to Ookla’s Global Index, and almost 80% of 4G availability according to a survey by Opensignal, the country ranks highly on the global map of technology infrastructure.
Bulgaria is a little gem in the heart of the Balkans where you could achieve incredible results in terms of quality, productivity and cost when expanding your development team. Should you need more detailed information about the country’s economic system and labour market insights, make sure to request our IT Industry Report here.