Though Romania has seen IT labour costs rise in recent years, its advantage over the Western countries from this point of view will persist over the next 20 years, Alfonso Di Ianni, Oracle Senior Vice President for the EMEA region-Europe, the Middle East and Africa, told ZIARUL FINANCIAR.
"It is true that Romania''s integration into the European Union will bring higher salaries, but research shows that the income of an Eastern specialist will match that of a Western expert in 20 years," said Di Ianni, who came to Bucharest to celebrate the US company''s 10 years of presence on the Romanian market.
Oracle, the world leading database software company, will almost double the number of employees working in the outsourcing centres it owns in Romania by May this year, announced Stefan Cojanu, managing director of Oracle Romania. The US company currently has 350 employees in its services and technology centres, and will have 600 in four months. On top of this figure, there are also the around 100 employees representing Oracle''s staff in Romania.
"The reasons why we are increasing our personnel number are Romania''s geographical closeness to western Europe and the language skills of young Romanians," explains Di Ianni. At the same time, he reckons the advantage of the lower salary costs has also weighed a lot in the decision to add more employees in Romania. On the domestic market, the average salary of an IT specialist is three times lower than that of a Western specialist.
Oracle in 2004 opened the first services and technology centres in Romania providing support and consulting services to customers of Europe and around the world.
Considering the constantly rising number of employees, the company decided to rent 7,000 square metres in Floreasca Tower business centre. Given that the area rented by the IT company accounts for 90% of the total space, the building was renamed Oracle Tower. "With the 600 employees, Romania becomes one of the most important Oracle centres in the EMEA region," states Alfonso Di Ianni.
During the 10 years since Oracle has had a representative office in Romania, the company has increased its business volume 40 times.
Over this period, Oracle has drawn customers from the public sector, finance, telecom, utilities and production sectors, with the most important beneficiaries of Oracle products and services including the Ministry of Public Finances, the Administration and Interior Ministry, BCR, Orange, Connex, Rompetrol, Romgaz, etc.
According to the Finance Ministry, Oracle Romania ended 2004 with turnover worth around 9.85 million euros.
"We registered 75% growth in 2005 as compared with 2004," explains Stefan Cojanu. More than 60% of the revenues Oracle Romania gets from sales of licences and support services are derived indirectly, through partners.
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