IT Outsourcing in Ukraine: the real reasons behind the success

How much do you know about Ukraine? 

Each country is characterized by a number of factors that make it recognizable around the world. The primary recognizable feature of Ukraine today is the IT sector in the business environment. It is known for IT outsourcing, which has made it the destination of any company wishing to save development dollars. 

According to the CEE Software Development Report, approximately 245 Ukrainian IT Companies with over 50+ employees have generated 2.07B$ annually, the majority of them are outsourcing companies catering to global companies. 

As previously indicated, in 2019 the Ukrainian IT-sector is contributing approximately 4% to the GDP of Ukraine. This is projected to double by 2025. 

‍“Ukraine is most attractive startup on Earth” said the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Kyiv International Economic Forum 2019

Software development in Ukraine: overview

Originally the term IT outsourcing meant providing cheap development services of secondary importance. Ukrainian developers have completely destroyed this concept because nowadays when companies want to outsource software development they look to IT Outsourcing in Ukraine. This indicates the experienced offshore development has fostered an environment of successful collaboration which has led to creating powerful end-to-end solutions.

Public and private companies worldwide have chosen IT companies in Ukraine because of their uncompromising quality and results of work. At Axon, we have provided reasons why Ukrainian software outsourcing has become so attractive:

Experienced IT professionals 

General facts

Today approximately 170+K software engineers work in Ukraine, 44% of them are employed by IT Outsourcing companies which is quickly followed by Product and Outstaffing companies. The number of Ukrainian developers has grown steadily. According to the IT Ukraine Association, it's gonna be rapidly growing over the next couple years. 

Education

Ukrainian universities have long provided strong theoretical and practical foundations that have allowed Ukrainian developers to be more open-minded and ready to conceptualize innovative ideas working in Ukrainian IT companies.

In 2019 approximately 150 universities are scheduled to graduate tech talent across every region of Ukraine and produce another 23K technical graduate per year for the IT industry in Ukraine. 

“83% of IT Specialists in Ukraine have completed higher education at a university, of which 56% focused their studies on either programming or specific sciences” CEE Software Development Report

Several IT companies in Ukraine have created educational programs and courses designed so that everyone willing to try technology development can have the opportunity and find a place to work. 

Popular programming languages 

According to DOU, web portal of Ukrainian developers, indicates the most popular programming languages in Ukraine 2019 are Java, JavaScript, C#, PHP, Python, C++ developers. TypeScript, Swift, Ruby, Kotlin, Go and C follow them. 

English Skills 

International collaboration with clients has made English necessary for career growth in the Ukrainian IT-sector. Not only for software engineers but also management personnel at Ukrainian IT outsourcing companies that speak English at an upper-intermediate or advanced level. Candidates are usually interviewed in English and professional business English skills include speaking and writing which is a requirement for most employees. 

Many Ukrainian IT outsourcing companies  hire native speakers as English teachers so that employees have free English classes at least two-three times per week to retain their fluency. 

Active tech community

In recent years a well-developed tech community has formed in Ukraine. Ukrainian tech industry created conditions favorable enough for the growth of IT professionals in the field. 

There are 14 IT clusters in Ukraine which have provided future growth possibilities by creating a fertile technology network. The biggest is the Lviv IT Cluster that has united 81 Ukrainian software development companies, The Kyiv IT Cluster follows next with 24 members.

Several biggest tech events take place in Ukraine gathering thousands of enthusiasts from the IT world, for example, IT Arena, IT Forum, PyCon Ukr, JEEConf and others. 

Favorable business climate 

The Ukrainian government has made its concern to create a favorable business climate in Ukraine by making the market as fair and transparent as possible by reducing regulation to minimum levels as a key objective of tangible improvement of the business climate.

International R&D Centers

Ukraine attracts international IT companies with talented and skilled personnel. A lot of giants, such as Huawei, Snapchat, Siemens, Oracle, Samsung, etc. have R&D centers here. 

Ukrainian startups

This is the country of unique minds where incredible ideas become well-known startups around the world. Some of them have radically changed our understanding of familiar things. TripMyDream, Petcube, Myhelix, SolarGaps - this is only a partial list of the most famous startups created by ambitious Ukrainian professionals.

Effa, UATAG, CamTouch, EdPro.Amperia, Bicovery - these Ukrainian startups will represent Ukraine at Consumer Electronics Show 2020 that will take place in Las Vegas according to UVCA.

Quality vs. Price 

The distinguishing features of collaboration with Ukrainian software outsourcing companies are high-quality results and acceptable prices comparing IT services costs in other countries. The average hourly rate for software development varies between $25 to $50, and depends largely on experience level, the scope of technologies and frameworks that the software developer is able to utilize as well as programming abilities. If you decided to hire Ukrainian developers, you need to take into account that the location of the company also affects the price.  It will be cheaper to hire software developers in regions compared to software developers located in Kyiv. Accordingly, outsourcing companies based in Kyiv, the capital offer the most abundant talent pool of skilled and experienced IT professionals available to be hired. 

Conclusion 

Ukraine continues to strengthen its position on the international market as being one of the most attractive destinations for software development outsourcing. We at Axon look forward to the further growth of its economic and social indicators, as well as to the successful result of the reforms that are implemented by the Ukrainian government.

“Yes, important reforms were imitated for 28 years, built by a shadowy opaque system. As a result, Ukraine had become a kind of economic underdog. But the new Ukrainian government is too ambitious to put up with such a very unattractive status, and when they say that our chances are slim they underestimate us, all which only feeds our adrenaline, determination, strength to make a powerful economic leap” said Mr. President on KIEF 2019.