Capgemini, a French-based company and one of Europe's biggest providers of IT consulting services, is set to open a services centre in Iasi and intends to recruit around 2,000 IT specialists in the coming period.
Constantin Neculau, deputy mayor of the municipality of Iasi, told ZIARUL FINANCIAR he had been contacted by the representatives of Capgemini, who wanted to inform the city hall of their development strategy.
Capgemini, which provides consulting, outsourcing and IT support services in more than 30 countries, in the first quarter of this year (ending March 31) registered revenues worth 2.21 billion euros, compared with 1.87 billion euros in the same period last year.
"At the moment, all we know is that they have acquired a building on the outskirts of Iasi, close to Pacurari and plan to recruit around 2,000 specialists," specified Neculau.
The main university centres outside Bucharest have caught the attention of IT companies that intend to launch software development, outsourcing or IT support centres in Romania.
Accenture and Genpact, two of the biggest players in the outsourcing sector, have also started to focus their attention on major cities in Romania.
"Given the high level of training students receive, the fact that Iasi was chosen does not come as a surprise. Siemens' arrival has also probably boosted their confidence, as well as the fact that Iasi is less crowded than Bucharest," highlighted the deputy mayor of the municipality of Iasi. Besides Iasi, another French-based company, Genpact, has also considered other potential locations, such as Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca.
"Iasi delivers almost 12% of university graduates from the state education system, which positions it just ahead of Cluj, and at a small distance away from Bucharest," stated Eugen Schwab-Chesaru, a managing director with Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC) Romania.
Another positive factor mentioned by Schwab-Chesaru regards the total costs of an IT centre, which are 25-40% lower in Iasi than in Bucharest.
In addition, Capgemini also coordinates Romania's largest IT project, namely the implementation of a company resource planning system by SAP for Petrom, which is worth approximately 50 million euros.
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