8 reasons to collaborate with an IT company from Poland

If I had to name just one thing that has become visible in the current crisis, it’s the prominence of remote work in the IT sector. In the next few weeks and months, we’ll see a surge in companies from different countries working together and at least a few collaborations that wouldn’t be imaginable and possible otherwise, before the Covid-19 pandemic. By now, even the remote work sceptics seem to be realising that this means remote working is the future, and there’s no way of escaping it. 

With the last stance against remote work gone, it may be time to look at IT companies from Poland and start collaborating with them on your projects. For the past decade, Poland has been a hub for all things technology and the country to turn to for software services. It is also well-known for its high standards of work and the dedication of its developers. 

In today’s post, let’s go through some of the reasons that now is the ideal time to search for your next technological partner in Poland. 

So, why outsource software development to an IT company from Poland?

1. Poland has a stable economy with a dynamically growing IT market 

Due to the pandemic, the Polish government has recently had to lower its GDP rate predictions, but the Polish market is one of the most stable in the EU. The rate has also been growing firmly since 2017. 

It’s also worth mentioning that after the economic crisis in 2008, the Polish GDP growth rate was still set at 1.7%, and Poland was the only member, out of the 27 EU members, that was able to sustain the momentum and wasn’t hit as hard as other European countries by the financial downturn. 

2. The value of the Polish IT market keeps growing

The value of the IT market has been growing steadily since 2011, and it’s currently valued at more than 36 billion PLN. 

Although this rate is likely to slow down as a result of the pandemic, the IT industry is also the sector that has been able to switch to remote work most easily, compared to the other sectors, which means that it’s unlikely to be heavily affected by the current crisis. 

3. Polish IT companies have experience in collaborating with foreign businesses 

The Association of Business Service Leaders conducted a survey to establish how many Polish companies collaborated with businesses abroad. The result was a report based on answers from 61 representatives from IT companies in 12 different countries.

It shows that 49% of IT companies in Poland collaborate with foreign businesses (10% with a company from one country only). A majority (80%) of these provide services for external clients from Eastern Europe, with Poland (74%) ranked 2nd and Eastern Europe ranked 3rd (51%). This means that even if the Polish companies may lose some of the customers from industries being affected by the crisis, their pool of external collaborators is quite diverse, which makes the situation a lot more stable than it would otherwise be. 

4. There are 254,000 experienced developers in Poland 

According to the data shared by StackOverflow and Infoshare, Polish developers now account for 24% of all programmers located in Central and Eastern Europe, and the number is at 254,000. With the number of IT/CS graduates at 80,000 every year, it’s likely to increase even more in the next few years. 

5. Polish programmers are ranked 3rd in the world 

In 2016, HackerRank published the results of thousands of programming challenges posted on their website showing which ones were the most popular, which country had the best score and which developers never gave up on the challenges. In these Programming Olympics, Polish developers were ranked 3rd, with China and Russia leading the pack. They ranked 98 on average (out of 100) across all challenges published on the HackerRank website. 

6. Polish developers are young, yet experienced

Although Polish developers are not the youngest, they scored second, topped only by India, with the average age of programmers standing at 25.9 years old. The current average age of Polish developers is 28.4 y.o., so the market is still quite young and with Computer Studies currently being the most popular course at most of the universities in Poland, this average age is likely to lower in the next few years. 

7. Polish developers start gaining experience from a young age

Although Polish programmers are still quite young, they also started writing code early, averaging at 14.6 years old, right after Germany, with their average age at 14.5 y.o. Looking at the structure of the educational system in Poland, this means that developers in Poland get into programming when they are still in primary school or in their first year of high school, and while their peers are probably just thinking about the professional directions they could take, they already know what they want to do when they grow up. That’s impressive! 

8. Polish programmers are dedicated and hard-working employees 

Phew, Polish programmers really do work a lot! This StackOverflow survey shows that developers from Poland currently rank 1st on the list of weekly hours spent at work, with 44.6 hours on average. India and the United States currently hold the second and third positions, with 42.2 and 42.1 hours a week, respectively. 

It’s worth mentioning that with GBP to PLN currency exchange rate currently being low, in the second quarter of 2020, Poland is still the best country in Europe to outsource your IT services to.  

We highly recommend today’s LinkedIn story from our UK-based CEO and co-founder, Andrew Radcliffe, who shares the details of our collaboration from a few years ago and highlights our methods of cooperating with external partners.