Production in Ukraine

Why in the Ukraine

Availability of resources
Ukraine has a substantial reserve of software development resources waiting to be tapped. Its institutes of higher learning and universities continue to turn out thousands of graduates in IT, IT-related or engineering fields. Notwithstanding a continuous brain drain, these specialists are still growing in number, especially in regions far removed from the capital of Kyiv. In addition, the study of programming languages has made it down to the approximately 10 to 15 thousand high school graduates, who are studying various aspects of computer science as part of their education. Both international and local recruiting agencies operate on the domestic HR-market, so that the hiring process is rather efficient for companies wishing to avail themselves of IT-resources throughout Ukraine.

Availability of programming specialists
The Ukrainian Association of Software Developers (UASWD) estimates that there were 40,000 – 60,000 people in 2003, which were potentially capable (under condition of short period restoring of skills, re-qualification and improvement of professional skill) to be engaged in programming. A study involving the heads of software development companies in Ukraine, estimated that there are currently between 5,000 – 6,000 persons who are engaged in programming as a primary activity, for both the local Ukraine market and the export market.

Labor Costs
Although we recommend looking beyond the low cost of Ukrainian IT resources to the additional arguments in their favour, cost factors are undeniably a key consideration in any company's decisions around outsourcing. Costs for software development depend on a set of factors: needed skills, project size, commercial renown of the provider, the geographical location and experience of a provider, the provider's pipeline, fixed overhead costs whether included in the base price or not, the specific type of contract under negotiation (development or maintenance), ratio of onsite to offsite work, guaranteed workload and other factors.

Technical excellence
Ukrainian programmers possess all the needed up-to-date technical skills, as well as those needed for legacy migration. Within Ukraine all the latest worldwide technical literature is available, both in English and in localized versions. Over recent years Ukrainian student and school programming teams have consistently beaten their competitors from all over the world in closely watched international competitions. Local providers understand the meaning of keeping abreast of all developments in the field and take the requisite preparatory steps: they organize specialized technical libraries and invite leading specialist to give special lectures on the latest trends and technologies. In addition, there are a number of certification centres from Sun, Microsoft, Novell as a well as independent authorities.

R&D focus
Unlike India, which is well-known for the ability of its IT-companies to undertake routine coding and do the job with a consistent and predictable level of quality (recently put in doubt by trends noted by NASSCOM), Ukrainian companies have a strong advantage in R&D. By R&D we mean not only scientific research, but also all the software development that requires creativity and strong skills in adjacent domains.

Strong fundamental education
It may seem paradoxical, but the main advantage of Ukrainian programmers is said to come from the fact that they are often not programmers by education! Quite commonly a Ukrainian programmer gets a strong fundamental education in such fields as mathematics, physics and other domains, then switches over to computing when he or she graduates and looks for a job. Ukraine has a well-educated and skilled labour force, with a 98 percent literacy rate, rate compared to 52% for India.11 Despite difficult times, Ukrainian educational institutions keep producing well-qualified graduates, especially in the areas of fundamental technology sciences. For many institutes the end of the Soviet Union required them to institute tuition charges. While initially decreasing the number of students entering programs, the availability of jobs in IT means that students still enter these disciplines, often beginning work in the industry during the 3rd year of their studies. For the institutes tuition means that they can now purchase new equipment and licensed software for the students to train on. There are many cases when software development companies work close with Universities to improve and adapt educational process to the demand on the market. Motorola has worked with Kyiv Polytechnical Institute to establish a lab to train specialists in Digital Signal Processing (DSP), microprocessor and micro-controller equipment.12 Multi-national companies such as Hewlett Packard and Dell are also providing equipment enabling the institutes to establish training labs.

Experience with complicated projects
Despite current problems in Ukraine and the widespread notion in the press that science is dying, Ukraine remains a scientific superpower. Past achievements in space and military production have left solid traditions of working through complicated projects that are IT dependent. Higher education remains strong in the areas of mathematics and theoretical physics, which rely heavily on IT-technologies. Recently the international IT-majors have begun to realize the opportunity posed by opening full affiliates in Ukraine and engaging them in their global and complicated projects.

European culture
Whatever else one may say about Ukraine, geography and centuries long tradition place it firmly in Europe. Today's young and middle age managers and specialists who work in hi-tech companies have the same or higher levels of education, English language skills and motivation as their European colleagues.

Location
The majority of software development firms today are located in the capital city of Kyiv. Kyiv is approximately 2 to 2.5 hours from the major Western European capitals with flights arriving almost daily. For Western European companies this means a near shore relationship with software developers in Ukraine.

Availability of Local Professional Organizations
Ukraine has several professional organizations that support software developers on a daily basis, thus helping companies to resolve issues and obtain profession growth. The most prominent is the Ukrainian Association of Software Developers (UASWD) (http://www.uaswd.org.ua/) - a collaborative group formed to promote sustained and significant growth of the computer software industry and affiliated industries in Ukraine.