GLOBAL TRENDS
OUTSOURCING IN CENTRAL EUROPE
“We checked over 100 possible locations and opted for Hungary, due mainly to the quality of the work force, the country's political and economic stability, and the positive experiences we have gained from our existing Hungarian research unit.”
Jonathan Chenevix-Trench
Chairman, Morgan Stanley International
CBW Business, July 31, 2006
For decades, businesses worldwide have achieved significant market advantage by outsourcing work in select practice areas. As the legal industry enters this frontier in search of the same competitive advantages realized by its corporate pioneers, quality of the professional workforce and geographic proximity to the client are being examined as closely as the potential for financial gain.
While India has traditionally been the primary location for such work, the region's infrastructure is beginning to deteriorate as India's major outsourcing locations suffer from frequent power outages, population congestion, rising labor costs, political instability, and above all an impending shortage of qualified professionals. Major corporations are turning toward Central Europe, several time zones closer to the U.S. and aligned with the European Union in legal and economic policy.
Hungary's operational cost advantages and profusion of young professionals, fluent in English and trained in knowledge-based sectors - including science, banking, law and technology - has led a number of multi-national corporations to relocate their outsourcing operations to the greater Budapest metropolitan area.
General Electric, ExxonMobil, Morgan Stanley, IBM, and even Indian corporations like Satyam Computer Services, are among the companies currently benefiting from the superior quality and increased efficiency of their Hungarian operations.