Definition:

Poland is an eastern European country that has become known for outsourcing in recent years. India is the world's leader in BPO, with $11 billion in revenues in 2012. While Poland is not as well developed or as well known an outsourcing location, Poland was nonetheless, able to generate a respectable $3.4 billion in BPO services is the same year.

Generally, the cost of BPO is higher in Poland and other Eastern European countries, than in India, China or Asian centers.


However, the top outsourcing centers have gained popularity because of their ability to work as English outsourcing centers. This works well for the US and the UK, but for Western Europe, these locations have been unsuccessful in providing support for non-english outsourcing. For many BPO and KPO functions... work processing, call centers, research... language skills are essential for success. In other popular outsourcing locations, the language is tightly tied to the colonial history of the country. England colonized many countries, and converted them to English-speaking cultures. As did France. However, Germany, and Italy had little success in converting colonies to European languages. Spain and Portugal were more successful, but their success is primarily limited to South America.

Poland, however, has a significant number of workers who speak languages other than Polish and English. This makes it a natural choice for call centers and other services from countries that speak German, French, Italian, and Spanish.

Since Poland's inclusion in the European Union (EU) in 2004, outsourcing from other European countries to Poland has become considerably easier due to the regulatory uniformity of EU countries.

In the past few years, clients of offshore vendors have become more concerned about Intellectual Property rights. In China, there has been rampant theft of intellectual property, largely because Chinese law is far less protective of these rights than European or American law. As a member of the EU, Poland is a signatory to all EU regulations and follows the same Intellectual Property law as the rest of the EU.

Offshoring work to Poland is still in its infancy, but the combination of cost, cultural similarity, physical proximity and adherence to EU regulations makes Poland an attractive location for many types of work, especially if the work provides access to proprietary work processes or other intellectual property. The rate per hour may be higher than more well known outsourcing locations, but the unique features of Poland make it quicker (and therefore, less expensive) to set up a working BPO facility in Poland than in more distant locations. If your work includes functions that must be performed in German, French or other non-English languages, offshoring to Poland can be a more cost-effective solution than competing locations.