Business Process Outsourcing Expands in Poland.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 23, 1999--

PricewaterhouseCoopers, the international professional services organization, has opened a new Centre of Excellence(sm) for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) in Krakow, Poland, to cope with the increasing demand for BPO services in Central and Eastern Europe. The guest of honour at the official opening on 26 May 1999 was Mr. Tomasz Szczypinski, Vice President of Krakow.

Business process outsourcing (BPO) is defined as the long-term contracting of a company's non-core business processes to an outside service provider. According to industry estimates, the global BPO market in 1998 was valued at $80 billion and is expected to more than double in size to $200 billion over the next five years. A leading BPO services provider, PricewaterhouseCoopers is recognized as a market driver in providing "end-to-end" process solutions coordinated on a multi-process basis to enhance shareholder value.

The original PricewaterhouseCoopers BPO Centre of Excellence in Krakow was opened as recently as 1996, but rapidly increasing demand has necessitated the move to a new, state-of-the-art office, in the heart of Krakow, using leading-edge technology, systems and communications to meet the needs of clients such as BP, Citibank and GM (Opel). PricewaterhouseCoopers' investment in Krakow has created state-of-the-art facilities, more than capable of functioning as the Global Back Office(R) for major multinational companies.

The Krakow Centre of Excellence is a key element in PricewaterhouseCoopers' growing network of such centres around the world. Each centre employs highly-trained specialists to provide BPO services to multinational companies. The professional staff at Krakow is fluent in nine European languages, and the business processes offered to clients include finance and accounting, human resources, procurement, real estate, tax compliance, internal audit and applications process and maintenance.

Andrew Friars, BPO Leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Central and Eastern Europe, explains, "Investment in the transitional markets of Central and Eastern Europe requires great care. Companies can take some of the pain and risk out of such ventures by outsourcing the establishment and running of their back office functions to us in Krakow. This is of particular benefit in areas requiring local business and regulatory knowledge. The simple fact is that non-core business processes outsourced to PricewaterhouseCoopers in Krakow can be managed faster, better and less expensively than most companies can achieve internally.

"While we provide the essential support services, clients can concentrate their management time and investment capital on developing their core activities that create shareholder value."

PricewaterhouseCoopers believes that Krakow is a business centre that makes excellent commercial sense. As a seat of learning, with ten universities, the levels of education, language capabilities and skills are high and operational costs are relatively low.

Richard Smith, European Leader of BPO for PricewaterhouseCoopers, said at the opening ceremony for the new Krakow Centre, "PricewaterhouseCoopers' investment in Krakow recognises the key role that Poland plays as a gateway economy to Central and Eastern Europe. Our new and expanded Krakow Centre of Excellence is strategically placed as a hub for businesses to expand their sphere of operations eastwards."

Through its core process expertise, unique approach to empowering people, ability to build a winning culture for its clients, and world-class service delivery, the PricewaterhouseCoopers Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) group helps companies manage business processes that support their strategic business plans and build shareholder value.

In recognition of PricewaterhouseCoopers' successful client relationships and global leadership role, InfoServer, the Journal for Strategic Outsourcing Information, awarded the BPO group two prestigious honors - Most Visionary Relationship Award in 1998 followed by Best BPO Relationship Award in 1999. The group also recently won GartnerGroup's Dataquest Business Value Award for market education and thought leadership in the information technology services industry.

PricewaterhouseCoopers has developed a number of thought leadership initiatives designed to promote global awareness of and insight into the use of BPO as a critical management strategy. One of these initiatives is the Outsourcing World Achievement Awards program. Presented annually in conjunction with The Corbett Group, these awards honor academic and business leaders who have made significant contributions to the outsourcing industry.

Currently, PricewaterhouseCoopers manages outsourcing programs for more than 500 multinational corporations and other large organizations around the world - leveraging the core process expertise of outsourcing professionals in finance/accounting, internal audit, tax compliance, applications process, procurement, human resources and real estate.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (www.pwcglobal.com) is the world's leading professional services organization. Drawing on the knowledge and skills of 150,000 people in 150 countries, we help our clients solve complex business problems and measurably enhance their ability to build value, manage risk and improve performance. PricewaterhouseCoopers refers to the U.S. firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and other members of the worldwide PricewaterhouseCoopers organization.

Note to Editors: The name PricewaterhouseCoopers is one word, with upper case P, upper case C, and all other letters in lower case.