Miasto Stoleczne Warszawa

There is probably no other sector in Poland like business services market that grew by about 50% within 2 years (the crisis years). Poland became the indisputable leader in the region, beating the Czech Republic and Hungary twice in the level of employment. Service centres with foreign capital in Poland employ about 70 thous. persons (in 2008 there were about 45 thous. persons employed).

This is yet not the end of good news: most of the already existing companies forecast growth in the coming years, and the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIiIZ) informs about a long list of investors planning to open their service centres in Poland. The number of employees of the sector at the end of 2011 can be safely estimated at 75.5 thous. persons. Poland is on the best way to become the European hub for business processes and IT services, as well as the cluster of R&D centres.

Offshoring of services (which is referred to as detachment and relocation of selected business processes abroad, to other part of the world) is one of the key features of the globalization process. Among the most important advantages gained by countries capturing services subjected to offshoring, one can count i.a. increasing export incomes, creating new jobs, higher salaries and improving qualifications of the labour force.

The companies form the business services sector (about 300 in Poland) are reliable providers of world-class services for international corporations. Not the “invoice-settlers” or “phone-callers”, as many people who did not understand this business used to name it. 

Almost all researched centres (91%) provide services for clients from Western Europe. This concerns, of course, both external and internal clients (mother corporations). Enterprises active in Poland are serviced by 70% of centres subjected to analysis. Slightly above 60% of the centres provide services for companies from Central and Eastern Europe. The share of centres servicing companies from other geographical areas is significantly smaller.