The outsourcing industry is developing very dynamically in Poland and forecasts are very good. Shared services centres are being established not only in large cities, but also in completely new locations. Thanks to its attractive location and well-educated employees, Poland has started to win with cheaper countries.

Over the last 10 years, nearly 700 operational centres providing outsourcing services for companies from all over the world have been established in Poland. They already employ over 150 thousand people, and in the opinion of experts this is not the end of it.

- The prospects for growth are quite high,' says Wiktor Doktór, President of the Pro Progressio Foundation, Newseria Biznes news agency. - The last 10 years show that this sector continues to develop dynamically and does not slow down its growth. We can safely assume that this growth will be at the level of 15, 18 and maybe even 20 percent in the coming years.

Still, Warsaw, Kraków and Wrocław are the most frequently chosen cities to locate such investments in Poland. However, it can be seen that investors are beginning to change their attitudes and a group of other cities is emerging, which are developing very dynamically in this area.

- Katowice, £ód¼, Poznañ and Tricity are popular - says Wiktor Doktór. - These are definitely emerging markets, developing very quickly and dynamically and catching up with the first three, but again not the only ones. We also see that such centres as Szczecin, Lublin, Rzeszów and Bydgoszcz are also interested in this sector. The first few, a dozen or even several dozen investments from this sector are already located in these cities.

When choosing Poland as an investment destination, the outsourcing sector is not only driven by the price, but above all by the quality of staff and the quality of work that can be found in Poland. Therefore, new centres are most often established in academic cities, where there are universities, relevant faculties, both economic, banking, financial and foreign philology.

- If this sector was only guided by low prices and low costs, it would probably never come to Poland,' points out the President of the Progressio Foundation. - There are much cheaper locations around the world, e.g. India or China, where one can provide such services in peace. Poland stands out in terms of quality, accessibility to client markets, i.e. Western Europe, Scandinavia, or direct connections with the United States.

Until now, Polish joint centres have mainly provided financial and accounting, insurance and logistic services. With the development of this market, one can expect a more and more specialized offer.

- The outsourcing of legal services, the so-called LPO, or legal process outsourcing, and knowledge-based services, the so-called KPO, or knowledge process outsourcing, are entering Poland - emphasizes Wiktor Doktór from the Pro Progressio foundation, which deals with the development of the outsourcing industry in Poland. - We see that these processes are becoming more and more advanced, that they require much more competences and that they are not repetitive. While previously these were processes that could be performed by anyone or a lot of people, at this point we are beginning to specialize.