The Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) centre US-based Accenture company opened in Bucharest last year may become the company's biggest European outsourcing centre, according to Alasdair Glen, the former Center Lead, who has recently handed over the top position to a Romanian, Aurelian Sima.
"At present, Prague is the biggest and oldest centre we have in Europe, which we opened six years ago. We estimate Bucharest may gain the top position," says Alasdair Glen, who ran the Bucharest services centre for 15 months.
Accenture now has around 200 employees domestically and will reach 2,000 people on medium term. "We will reach 2,000 employees, but how long this will take depends on projects, customers and the labour force market," says in his turn Aurelian Sima, the new head of Accenture's BPO centre and also the first Romanian to run such a business on the domestic market.
The main arguments Accenture officials' projections are based on are related to the advantages the domestic labour force market is offering and on Bucharest's close proximity to the company's customers. In Europe, Accenture owns centres in Prague, Bratislava and Warsaw and an IT centre in Riga, and Bucharest is the biggest European city where the Americans have an outsourcing centre. "There's room for growth. We are counting on the advantage offered by the high number of students Romanian universities are turning out," says Aurelian Sima.
On the other hand, the positive estimates are also related to the development of the economic environment. "The high interest investors have in Bucharest proves this is the place to be," says Glen.
With regard to the shortage of specialised personnel for BPO centres, Accenture officials say that despite the race for people getting fiercer, there are no signs for the time being that the market could collapse due to the shortage of people.
The BPO industry is now booming domestically. BPO processes are related to the outsourcing of those non-core parts of the business.
After having worked together for six weeks, during which the role transfer was achieved, Aurelian Sima late last week took over the Center Lead position at the BPO centre Accenture has in Bucharest.
Glen says that when deciding to recruit Sima, Accenture took into consideration his international and multinational experience, as well as his robust leadership style, which plays a vital role in such a standardised industry as the BPO one is.
"Our goal is to always appoint a local manager to run a centre as soon as it is established. This happens as it's very important for us to have solid relationships with the domestic economic environment and also to have a good understanding of domestic legal stipulations. Also, it is often very difficult to manage the employees of an entirely different culture," says Glen.
Accenture
The BPO centre it opened in Bucharest last year could become the company's biggest outsourcing centre owing to the advantages of by the domestic labour force market and Bucharest close proximity to the company's customers
Currently has around 200 employees domestically and may reach 2,000 employees on medium term
Since last week, the Bucharest centre has been run by a Romanian, Aurelian Sima, with a strong international track record
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