Romania Enters EU With Strong Showing in Strategic IT Investments.Romania's IT sector strengthens position as target for foreign direct investment and new business opportunities in 2006, as global IT leaders announce plans for further growth, expansion and acquisitions ORLANDO, Fla. -- Romania's IT sector will end 2006 with a strengthened track record of continued growth and expansion, announced Romania's General Director for Export Promotion, Minister of Commerce & Economy, Costin Lianu. Lianu noted significant market activity was generated by global IT companies entering Romania's thriving market. "As the fastest growing IT market in Europe, Romania is rapidly becoming a favored destination for IT investments," said Lianu. "Our 2006 investment record demonstrates the optimism global IT companies have about the new business opportunities, as well as the quality and availability of the labor force, the level of education and the competitive labor costs offered by the Romanian market." In addition to new market entrants, many market leaders already present in Romania have announced plans for acquisitions of local IT companies and expanding existing business operations Business operations are those activities involved in the running of a business for the purpose of producing value for the stakeholders. Compare business processes. The outcome of business operations is the harvesting of value from assets . The latest developments in Romania IT in 2006 include: * Adecco Group acquired Romanian company IP Devel. IP Devel provides advanced IT outsourcing services. Adecco S.A. is a Fortune Global 500 company and a global leader in HR services. Adecco's plans for its new Romanian acquisition include creating a cutting edge competency center in embedded systems Embedded systems Computer systems that cannot be programmed by the user because they are preprogrammed for a specific task and are buried within the equipment they serve. and software testing Software testing is the process used to measure the quality of developed computer software. Usually, quality is constrained to such topics as correctness, completeness, security, but can also include more technical requirements as described under the ISO standard ISO 9126, such solutions. * Microsoft announced plans for opening a new service center in Bucharest. The new service center will begin operations with approximately 100 employees, and will be tasked with providing consulting services Noun 1. consulting service - service provided by a professional advisor (e.g., a lawyer or doctor or CPA etc.) service - work done by one person or group that benefits another; "budget separately for goods and services" to customers across the Europe, Africa and the Middle East (EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) Refers to that region of the world. For example, one might see products packaged differently for the UK, EMEA and Asia Pacific markets. ) region. * Hewlett-Packard opened a new business process outsourcing Business process outsourcing (BPO) is the contracting of a specific business task, such as payroll, to a third-party service provider. Usually, BPO is implemented as a cost-saving measure for tasks that a company requires but does not depend upon to maintain its position in center in Bucharest. The new center will be tasked with providing high-value services, such as order management support, sales force support, back-end support and credit and collection services to clients and partners across the globe. * Infineon Technologies For the raceway, see . Infineon Technologies AG (ISIN: DE0006231004, FWB: IFX, NYSE: IFX) was founded in April 1999 when the semiconductor operations of parent company, Siemens AG, were spun off to form a separate legal entity. opened a new development center in Bucharest. The staff of 60 employees will focus on intelligent power semiconductors for automotive and industrial applications. The new center will play a significant role in the company's global operations Global Operations is a first-person shooter computer game developed by Barking Dog Studios and published by both Crave Entertainment and Electronic Arts. It was released in March of 2002, following its public multiplayer beta version which contained only the Quebec map. , and is expected to conduct research and development efforts in security controllers for chip cards. * Adobe Systems Adobe Systems Incorporated (pronounced a-DOE-bee IPA: /əˈdoʊbiː/) (NASDAQ: ADBE) (LSE: ABS) is an American computer software company headquartered in San Jose, California, USA. acquired InterAKT, a Romanian software company which develops extensions for Adobe's core group of products. Adobe believes its acquisition will enhance existing product lines, including Macromedia Dreamweaver and Adobe Flex Adobe Flex is a software development kit and an IDE for a group of technologies initially released in March of 2004 by Macromedia to support the development and deployment of cross platform, rich Internet applications based on their proprietary Macromedia Flash platform. . The new development center will also provide Adobe with greater access to and expertise in the Eastern European market. * SAP, worldwide leader for business software, opened a near-shore consultancy center in Romania in 2006. The new delivery center will implement SAP projects across the EMEA region. SAP estimates the total investment at four million Euros by the end of 2007 and says it's comparable to a similar center in India. * Siemens opened its second software development and research center in Romania in 2006. The first Siemens research center in Romania was opened in 2001 in Brasov. The new center is in Cluj Napoca, and is expected to double in size by the end of 2006. * IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) now employs over 500 people in the company's IT support centers across Romania. The company recently announced that in addition to two existing facilities in Bucharest, IBM plans to open several additional centers across the country. This move could drive the number of employees to several thousands in the near future. * In May, 2006, Oracle opened its new services and technology centers headquarters in Bucharest. Oracle centers provide around-the-clock support and consulting services for the company's customers and partners worldwide, with a particular emphasis on the EMEA region. There are currently 10 Oracle Centers in Romania, employing more than 350 specialists, and covering global product support for Oracle product users worldwide, support for Oracle partners in EMEA region, software development for Oracle, support renewals services, and Oracle University Sales for the EMEA region. * Transaction Systems Architects (TSA TSA See tax-sheltered annuity (TSA). ) recently opened its new division in Romania. The company announced the opening of a new division in Iasi and plans to hire 50 software developers initially, expecting to grow four-fold by the end of 2007. TSA is a supplier of software services and solutions for e-commerce clients. Its new division will be developing software solutions for ATMs and point-of-sale products. Romania's strong showing in the IT investments is supported by a recent report from AT Kearney, a global management consulting Noun 1. management consulting - a service industry that provides advice to those in charge of running a business service industry - an industry that provides services rather than tangible objects firm. AT Kearney's 2005 Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index ranked Romania among the top 25 most attractive FDI FDI See: Foreign direct investment locations in the world. Lianu believes the positive trends will continue with the upcoming accession to the EU on January 1, 2007, and adds that new entrants and investors into IT industry are expected to follow in the footsteps of global market leaders. About Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Gartner Symposium/ITxpo is the IT industry's largest and most strategic conference, providing business leaders with a look at the future of IT. For more than 10,000 IT professionals from the world's leading enterprises, Gartner's annual Symposium/ITxpo events are key components of their annual planning efforts. Attendees are responsible for more than $35 billion in IT spending for their respective companies, and rely on Gartner Symposium/ITxpo to gain insight into how their organizations can use technology to address business challenges and improve operational efficiency. For more information, please visit www.gartner.com/symposium/us. About Romania's IT Industry Romania is one of the strongest markets in Europe for technology investment and trade, with a strong domestic market, successful top-tier investors, a large skilled technology workforce, strong foreign language skills, a friendly business environment, and a culture and tradition of technical excellence. Leading Romanian companies This is a list of companies from Romania. Telecommunications
BPO Benevolent & Protective Order (of Elks of the USA) BPO Benzoyl Peroxide BPO Business Process Optimization BPO Broker Price Opinions BPO Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra ), contact center, and product development and are strong players with their own products in the information security, eCommerce and communications markets. Romania's most competitive service categories include outsourced product development; complex BPO especially in financial and supply chain; R&D especially in information security and communications networking; multilingual contact centers; and technical support and maintenance. Links: Romania National Export Strategy (http://www.dce.gov.ro/SNE/National_exp exp abbr. 1. exponent 2. exponential _strategy.html) World Bank Doing Business 2007 (http://www.doingbusiness.org/) |
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