11 tech firms in Ukraine among world’s top outsourcers

Eleven tech companies that work in Ukraine have made it onto the list of the best tech firms in the world — the 2020 Global Outsourcing 100.

The list includes local information technology companies Ciklum, Eleks, Infopulse, Innovecs, Intellias, Miratech, Nix, N-iX, Program-Ace and Sigma Software listed in alphabetical order. These firms have offices in the country’s biggest cities — Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv and Dnipro.

According to the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP), which has been compiling the list for 15 years in a row, these companies are the best in their region because they are innovative, responsible, popular among customers and received many awards that recognize their work.

Globally, according to the estimates, Ukraine is considered one of the world’s hottest countries for outsourcing software development.

The IAOP designed the list to help international businesses, including Ukrainian find local outsourcing companies by highlighting the best of them. “Now, more than ever, outsourcing end-users need to be able to easily identify and select the right company for their outsourcing needs,” said Debi Hamill, chief executive at the IAOP.

Brian Merlehan, chief marketing officer at Eleks, which has made it onto the list every year since 2015, said the Global Outsourcing 100 list proves that his company hires “exceptionally talented staff.” “We are proud to satisfy the IAOP’s rigorous criteria,” he told the Kyiv Post. Eleks exports its services globally but its biggest clients are in the United States, Europe and the U.K.

Intellias, a firm employing 1,500 techies in seven offices located in Ukraine and Poland, was first included in the list in 2018. Last year the company continued its growth despite the pandemic: it attracted new clients, offered a record number of vacancies and ramped up its revenue by 5%, said Vitaly Sedler, chief executive of Intellias.

Another nominee, Ukrainian tech company N-iX, has entered the list for the fifth time in a row. Last year, the company that employs over 1,200 techies grew by 33% and attracted new clients in the automotive, fintech, telecom, health care and gaming industries. “We are pleased to see that our commitment to providing top-quality engineering services is acknowledged not only by our partners but also by the leading industry ratings,” said Pavlo Deshchynskyy, chief operating officer at N-iX.

Over the last few years, Ukrainian IT companies have made considerable progress — only four firms made it onto the list in 2015. The number grew to 10 in 2016, to 13 in 2017, to 18 in 2018, to 16 in 2019 and 20 last year.

Although the number has declined this year, local tech firms said it has nothing to do with the quality of their services. One of the reasons is simply that the IAOP’s list is opt-in, meaning that companies must apply each year to be evaluated by the organization, according to Merlehan from Eleks. 

Another reason is the uncertainty prompted by the coronavirus crisis in the first months of the pandemic, said Sedler from Intellias. “I am sure that in the future we will see more Ukrainian companies in the ranking because Ukraine is well-known for its engineering talents,” he told the Kyiv Post.

According to Sedler, outsourcing is the most popular business model among Ukrainian tech firms because Ukraine has many qualified tech specialists — about 200,000 — while few understand how to start and run their own business in the global arena.

The Ukrainian tech industry grew by 20% and exported the record $5 billion in 2020. Judging by this statistics, IT is the most exported service in Ukraine — it accounts for 8.3% in the country’s $60.4 billion export of goods and services.