Insights

Why Ukraine might be the best IT offshoring option you never thought of

Author: MengKhong Tong

Offshoring is a cost-effective way to expand your IT expertise and scale your talent pool without having to hire additional employees. It can also be a great way to lower project costs, therefore maximizing your IT budget.

As a global IT partner with more than 25 years’ experience, Beyondsoft has been helping major corporations around the world drive innovation and help meet business goals through offshoring. With highly skilled technology professionals in locations like Malaysia, Singapore, India, China, and Mexico, Beyondsoft provides plenty of options for offshore support in multiple time zones.

In April of 2020, Beyondsoft announced the acquisition of Boyle Software. Headquartered in New York, Boyle Software brings to the table a deep expertise in applications development. It also brings a growing presence in Ukraine, an up-and-coming destination for IT offshoring.

Discover why Ukraine is considered an excellent location for offshore support and why it may be the ideal option for you.

Why choose Ukraine for your offshoring needs?

There are many benefits to offshoring IT work, whether you want to save money, accelerate a project, or tap a specialized skillset. And each offshoring destination offers unique advantages.

Ukraine is a rising tech star amongst Eastern European countries, quickly gaining traction as a prime option for offshoring. With an IT industry expected to top $5.4 billion in 2020 and a rigorous educational system that emphasizes STEM learning, it’s no surprise that approximately 20% of the world’s leading companies, including Siemens, Samsung, and Microsoft, have a presence in Ukraine.^[i] With 185,000 IT specialists in Ukraine, approximately 53% are software developers.^[ii] In fact, GSA UK named Ukraine as Offshoring Destination of the Year in 2017.

One reason Ukraine is so popular is that it’s an economical choice for offshoring. SkillValue ranks Ukraine in the top ten countries and notes that Eastern Europe offers a good value for money.^[iii] Thanks in part, to a lower cost of living, the average IT salary is slightly less than the global average of $54,000 and far less than the average US salary of $109,000.^[iv] Meanwhile, because IT careers in Ukraine pay much more than other professions in the country while offering opportunities such as travel, IT is a highly coveted and competitive profession. Additionally, the Ukrainian government has adopted friendly tax laws in recent years, creating favorable conditions for companies that wish to offshore.

Time zone and geographical proximity to Europe also make Ukraine more appealing for offshoring. For example, Kiev is ten hours ahead of Seattle and just seven hours ahead of New York, which can make project collaboration easier, especially compared to locations in Asia, such as India and Philippines, which are 15 hours or more ahead. Furthermore, Ukraine does not require a visa for US or EU citizens to enter the country, which makes business travel from the United States much easier.

With exceptional levels of education and in-country expertise, we find that Ukraine is particularly suited for high-end consulting work which can be a fraction of what the same work would cost in the United States. Our typical client experiences long-term cost savings of 40-65% when offshoring to Ukraine. According to HackerRank, Ukraine is listed as number 11 amongst countries with the best developers which makes Ukraine an exceptional value. The most popular programming languages amongst their IT professionals include Java, Javascript, C#, PHP, Python and C++.^[v]

Why American Media, Inc. chose Ukraine

A great example of a Ukraine offshoring success story is American Media, Inc. (AMI), which owns and operates leading celebrity and health and fitness media brands such Star and Muscle & Fitness. In 2015, AMI was paying increasing amounts on website hosting, while getting decreasing value for their money. They needed to get their costs under control while still providing a stellar online experience for their customers.

Based in Ukraine, HeartyHosting is an AWS hosting solution offered by Beyondsoft subsidiary, Boyle Software, that provides performance and stability at highly competitive rates. By switching key brands to HeartyHosting, AMI has been able to save substantially over the past five years while delivering faster page-load times and better uptime.

Offshoring to Ukraine can be an excellent choice for many corporations. If you’d like to learn more about our offshore services in Ukraine or in other locations, contact us today.

[i] UNIT.City (2019) ‘Tech Ecosystem Guide to Ukraine,’ available at: https://tech-ukraine.com/ (accessed July 23, 2020)

[ii] N-iX (2019), ‘Ukraine: The Country that Codes,” available at: https://www.n-ix.com/software-development-in-ukraine-2019-2020-market-report/ (accessed July 23, 2020)

[iii] PentaBlog (2019) ‘IT Ranking: Where to Find the Best Developers,’ available at: https://www.pentalog.com/blog/IT-ranking-world-top-developers (accessed July 23, 2020)

[iv] HackerRank (2020) ‘HackerRank Developer Skills Report,’ available at: https://info.hackerrank.com/rs/487-WAY-049/images/HackerRank-2020-Developer-Skills-Report.pdf (accessed July 23, 2020)

[v] N-iX (2019), ‘Ukraine: The Country that Codes,” available at: https://www.n-ix.com/software-development-in-ukraine-2019-2020-market-report/ (accessed July 23, 2020)