2014BULGARIAN ICT WATCH

2014
BULGARIAN
computerworld.bg/inenglish ICT WATCH
STATISTICS
National Statistical Institute:
A glimpse into the ICT usage
in enterprises in Bulgaria in 2013
The NSI observed enterprise social media usage
in Bulgaria for the first time in 2013
I
n 2013, the National Statistical Institute
of Bulgaria carried out the tenth consecutive survey on information communication technologies (ICT) usage and e-commerce in non-financial enterprises with 10
or more employed. The same survey was
conducted in all European Union member
states, based on a common methodology,
which ensured international comparison
of the results.
In January 2013, the relative share of
enterprises having Internet access reached
89.1%, or with 1.7 percentage points more
in comparison with the previous year.
There were improvements of the type and
speed of connections used – 77.9% of the
enterprises were using fixed broadband
connection. Mobile broadband connection
via a portable device was used by 33.3% of
the enterprises. In comparison with 2012,
this indicator showed growth of 7.9 percentage points.
ICT were the most widely used by the
largest enterprises (250 or more employed),
99.1% of them had Internet access, while
in small enterprises (10-49 employed) this
relative share was 87.4%.
In 2013, 27.8% of the persons employed
used a computer at least once a week for
executing their work duties and 23.9% of
the employed have been granted access to
the Internet, as there have been an increase
in comparison with the previous year, respectively 1.2 and 1.4 percentage points.
Small enterprises had the highest relative share of employed who were using
computer (30.0%) and the highest relative
share of employed using Internet – 26.8%.
More than half of the enterprises
(52.3%) maintained their own webpage or
website. Of the largest enterprises 78.7%
had their own website while for the middle
sized ones this relative share was 64.7%,
and for the small ones it was 48.6%.
E-exchange of information
and services with the public
administration
Enterprises intensively used Internet
for interaction with public authorities, according to the NSI.
ICT Bulgaria 2014
From all enterprises with Internet access, 82.5% electronically obtained information from public authorities and the relative
share of enterprises using the possibility to
download official forms (tax, accounting,
statistics, etc.) was 86.4%.
The interest in submitting completed forms electronically increased, and a
growth of 2.0 percentage points was registered in comparison with 2012, and the
share of enterprises using this service
reached 89.0%.
There was still a small relative share
of enterprises that were using Internet for
accessing tender documents and specifications in electronic procurement systems of
public authorities. Although there was an
increase of 0.9 percentage points in comparison with 2012, only 11.1% of enterprises used such services.
Almost all large enterprises used electronic services provided by public authorities – 96.2% returned filled in forms, 94.4%
obtained forms and 93.0% obtained information via the Internet.
E-invoicing
In January 2013, 28.2% of the enterprises sent electronic invoices, and one third
of them sent them in a standard structure
suitable for automatic processing.
Enterprises that received e-invoices
suitable for automatic processing were
43.5%, which is with 16.2 percentage points
more in comparison with 2011.
Social media
The NSI observed enterprise social media usage in Bulgaria for the first time in
2013. The research referred to the usage of
web-based applications or communication
platforms for connecting, creating and ex-
changing content online with customers,
suppliers or partners, as well as within
the enterprise.
According to the NSI, every third enterprise (33.4%) maintained some social
media presence on networks like Facebook
and LinkedIn.
The share of enterprises using multimedia content sharing websites (YouTube,
Picasa, etc.) was 10.2%, and this opportunity was mainly used by large enterprises
(15%).
The usage of blogs and wiki based
knowledge sharing tools was not as widespread. They were utilized by 5.4% and
4.9% of the enterprises, respectively.
Large enterprises were the leaders in
social media usage – 15% of them used
multimedia content sharing websites, 8%
took advantage of blogging or microblogging platforms, and 7.8% leveraged wikibased tools for sharing knowledge. However, they were a little less active than medium enterprises (50-249 employed) in social networking, as the relative shares were
respectively 35.9% and 36.4%.
A total of 52% of all enterprises used
social media to develop their image or for
marketing, 42.8% relied on it for interacting with customers, and 18.7% used social
media to involve customers in product and
service development or innovations.
E-commerce
More and more enterprises use the
Internet to improve their business and
to facilitate customers and suppliers, the
NSI said.
The survey showed that enterprises’
online sales increased their share by 0.2
percentage points in comparison with the
previous year, as 8.0% of all enterprises
received orders online. The total value resulting from online sales was 4 409 million BGN.
A decrease of 0.56 percentage points
was observed in the share of those enterprises which made online purchases – 6.8%
of enterprises purchased goods or services,
but the total value of online purchases increased in comparison to the previous year
and was 2 285 million BGN.
3
BUSINESS
Bulgarian Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Agency:
The Bulgarian ICT business
is poised to grow fast
T
he information and communication technologies (ICT) sector in
Bulgaria is contuning its progress
as one fo the most dynamically developing sectors and has a growing share in
the state economy. Despite the crisis, it
has been performing pretty well and has
a serious potential for innovations and
export-oriented growth. In this context,
the cooperation between state institutions, sector organizations and companies is really important.
Supporting the development of Bulgarian companies’ export potential and
identifying and reaching new market
segments are exatly among the main directions in the activities of the Bulgarian
Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Agency (BSMEPA). The main components of that support are company
trainings and organizing: national stands
for specialized international fairs; trade
missions abroad; and domestic business
forums. Such initiatives allow Bulgarian enterprises show the best of their
production, create new business partnerships, learn about best practises and
strengthen their positions both on the domestic market and abroad, noted Evgeni
Ivanov, Executive Director of BSMEPA.
The participation of Bulgarian companies in large international fairs, such
as CeBIT Bilisim in Turkey, CeBIT Hannover in Germany and Gitex in The UAE
ОАЕ, has gradually become a tradition
with the help of the agency and the number of domestic firms taking part in them
has been growing.
Specifically for the companies in
the ICT sector,
BSMEPA has organized a trade mission to Israel during which the participating Bulgarian companies had the
chance to make direct contacts with potential partners and strike new deals.
Additionally, in 2014, the agency plans
to organize a trade mission to The USA
in a cooperation with the Bulgarian Association of Software Companies (BASSCOM).
Bulgarian ICT companies, which are
mostly small or micro companies, usually have high-level R&D achievements
4
and well educated personnel. Among
the more significant of them, some are
subcontractors in foreign projects, while
others are specialized in importing, assembling, packaging and selling hardware products and solutions, as well as
offering and implementing foreign software products and solutions. Most companies that develop software are micro
or small sized.
The larger companies include:
Datecs, Daisy Technology, Tremol, Eltrade, Persy, Dinex, SET PCB Technology, Micron-20 and CKA, which, to a large
extent, are in the business of producing
own stationery, office and ICT equipment оборудване; JAR Computers and
Risk Electronic, which are active in assembling, developing and selling hardware products; Specialized Business Systems, Bianor Holding, Orak Engineering, Latona Bulgaria and MicroAccount,
which are specialized in developing both
own and other companies’ software.
The share of ICT export in total
ICT production
is higher than the respective ration in Bulgarian manufacturing, which is a clear sign
that the ICT sector is strongly export-oriented. The top five countries which Bulgarian ICT companies export to are Germany,
France, Italy, Spain and Turkey. Other important markets are Romania, The USA,
China (including Hong Kong), Taiwan and
Japan. The following ICT products and services are noticeable with their strong business potential and growing exports: educational software; software for insurance
companies; ERP software; manufacturing
MES software; data processing software;
and innovation center set-up services.
Another major trend in the ICT business in Bulgaria is outsourcing, which
has been gaining momentum in the recent years.
ICT Bulgaria 2014
LEGISLATION
Invest Bulgaria Agency:
FDI are up again, and changes around
the Investment Promotion Law will
make Bulgaria even more attractive
A
fter several years of slumps, foreign direct investments (FDI) in
Bulgaria finally went up again in
2013 when they totalled 1 092.4 million
euro, up from 1 070.3 million euro in 2012,
according the latest preliminary data by
the Bulgarian National Bank, published
on 17 March 2014. It is noteworthy that
the FDI 5-year decrease trend did not only
cease but even reversed in 2013 and the
year was marked by an increase of 22.1
million euro. Only 2-3 years ago, there
were slupms of over 40%.
The Invest Bulgaria Agency (IBA) expects that the total amount of FDI in Bulgaria will stay relatively flat year-on-year
in 2014 and perhaps increase by up to 1015% on the back of the torpid European
economies and the competition with our
neighboring countries, mostly Romania
and Turkey.
By countries, the most significant
foreign direct investments in Bulgaria in
2013 came from The Netherlands (815.2
million euro), Germany (135.5 million
euro), The Czech Republic (80.7 million
euro) and Russia (75.9 million euro). The
largest net negative flows were from Austria (-58.8 million euro) and Switzerland
(-51.5 million euro).
By industry, Transport, storage and
communication marked a serious net
FDI jump in 2013 versus 2012 (412.2 million euro), Manufacturing investments
followed with 188.5 million euro, and
Mining and quarrying went up by 110.8
million euro.
The IBA also saw a high growth in
investment activities
in 2013. The investment certificates the
agency issued increased by 1/2 in comparison with the previous year. The number of these certificates was 15, which
corresponded to a total of more than 1
000 new jobs.
According to the IBA, in the short
term, foreign investments in Bulgaria will
mostly be export-oriented and will be in
high-tech manufacturing and services,
for example automotive production, information and communication technologies (ICT) and electronics, more specifi-
6
changes in the Investment
Promotion Law
cally medical and electrical equipment,
as well as outsourcing.
The largest foreign investors in ICT
and business process outsourcing (BPO)
in Bulgaria in 2013 came from The USA
and The UK. The IBA has reported a redirection from IT support and call centers to more diverse services with more
highly qualified employees and more
added value.
The latest successful example
for this was the aquisition of Sofica Group
by American giant TeleTech, which was
aided by the agency. The new owner
plans a triple increase of job positions
in Bulgaria.
Recently, the IBA has issued Class A
investment certificates to two companies.
One of them is Experian Bulgaria with its
project for optimization and development
of business processes and high-tech solutions which created 150 new jobs. The
other one is IBM Global Delivery Center
with a project called Sears that opened
300 new jobs.
In ICT and outsourcing, the
agency is currently working on
five new projects
where investments are not very big but
only within several months will create
over 1 500 new jobs for highly qualified specialists. Service centers in the
areas of accounting, finance, human resources and data base processing will
open soon.
The growing interest of foreign companies to invest in Bulgaria is largely
on the back of the new stimuli they got
with the
in February 2013. These modifications
were in several directions:
 there was a drastic cut on the
minimum sums for issuing investment
certificates, which are a prerequisite for
receiving the benefits of the state incentive measures;
 new economic activities from the
services sector were encompassed by the
law, so that they can also reap these benefits. These included releasing program
products, accounting and combined office
activities and call center services;
 investors received new options to
recover their social insurance costs for a
period of two years.
Furthermore, very soon the new
changes in the Rules for Applying
the Investment Promotion Law
will enter into force. They are aimed at
decreasing the administrative burden
for investors applying for certificates for
high-class investments or priority projects through relieving the requirements
for the applicants, the investment projects
and the application documents.
Following the changes, there will be a
single application form that will include
information about the investor, the project and the required declarations. In addition, there will be a new obligation for
the IBA to immediately issue a statement
that will help investors to get the necessary aid by the executive authorities.
Moreover, the minimum investment
threshold will be lowered for priority
projects in manufacturing and in building and developing industrial zones and
tech parks, and the requirements to the
applicants with industrial zone projects
will also be releived.
After these changes enter into force,
they will optimize the procedure for issuing investment certificates and will
shorten the deadlines for reviewing projects, which even now are shorter than
in some countries in Central and Eastern Europe.
ICT Bulgaria 2014
– the easy
anti-skimming protection
In Europe, there is constant talk about a serious problem
that affects every user of bank cards. The right word for the
problem is bank card skimming. This is the most common
offense in transactions and bank cards usage. In practice, it
can be carried out quite easily. On the card slot of an ATM,
an additional reader can be mounted (skimmer), which can
copy the information on the banks cards magnetic stripe.
Simultaneously a micro camera or a parallel keyboard will
record the PIN number. This is all the information that is
required to create a duplicate bank card and use it without
the authorization of the real owner. In most cases, such
equipment is undetectable by the users and they figure out
that they have lost their personal information, only when it
is too late.
It is important to note that this type of theft can happen
only through stealing of the information from the magnetic
stripe. Worldwide, transactions occur
through bank cards, which have
a magnetic stripe or through
bank cards, which have
a m agn e t i c st r i p e
and a chip. In
comparison to
the magnetic
stripe, the
Chip is extremely
secure and there is
no recorded case of the
EMV chip being hacked. The
two technologies coexist, because there is not a 100%
coverage of chip reading hardware on a global scale and
until those migrate, the two types of information carriers will
exist on the bank cards. Until such time arrives, the unsecure
magnetic stripe on the bank cards will continue to exist.
For 2013 the estimated losses due to skimming on a
global scale exceed 5 500 000 000 USD. The concentration
of fraud is dispersed and there is no single country where
it is not a problem.
In Europe the average loss per skimmed ATM is around
36 000 EUR, while for the US it is around 50 000 USD based
SkimProt OOD,
Bulgaria, Sofia 1138,
Gorublyane, Abagar 16
003592 930 7899
[email protected]
www.skimprot.com
o n i n fo r m a t i o n
from EAST. This
is a 20%
increase in
comparison
to the statistics
for 2012 for Europe
and a 66% increase for the
US. On the other hand the ATM
Industry Association registered a 50% increase in
investments for additional hardware security against skimming,
which brings the total amount of equipped hardware to 41%
of all machines in Europe. These statistics show a worrying
trend and no real solution to the serious and continuous
problem skimming.
Regardless of all the investments and innovations in
the sphere of anti-skimming devices, the battle against
skimming is not going in the rights direction, as shown by
the statistics. The problem is that all of those solutions
are dependable on the hardware that exists and are not
universal. This is why SkimProt is a great way to protect
your own bank card and all of the control is with the end
user, regardless of bank issuer, card type, country or ATM.
SkimProt is a protective sticker, which is applied over
the magnetic stripe of your bank card and guarantees
protection against skimming. This occurs by hiding your
personal information encoded on the magnetic stripe and
the ATM will only use the information that is encoded on
the SkimProt sticker. SkimProt instructs the ATM to use
the information on the chip and not to use the one on
the magnetic stripe. The information that is encoded on
the sticker is absolutely non-personalized and if there is a
skimming device, it will record that information, rather than
your one. Even with the right PIN number, the information
from our product is useless for the vigilantes.
SkimProt functions with full transparency, it is absolutely
passive and does not alter or change in any way the
original information on the bank card. Its effect is instant
and it does not require any activation or include any
hidden expenses.
MARKET OVERVIEW
Bulgaria’s ICT business went down
3.6% in 2012
The ICT market heavily relied on export and EU funding for
various projects in the private and the public sector
T
he overall 2012 revenue in the ICT
sector in Bulgaria declined by 3.6%
year-on-year in to 3.955 bln Bulgarian levs (just over 2 bln euro), according
to the financial results of the 126 companies which submitted data for Computerworld Bulgaria’s ICT Топ 100 2013. The
drop was on the back of the weakening
revenues of all three mobile operators
and the decreasing overall revenue in the
telecommunication business by nearly
7,1% in 2012.
It is important to notice that the results in the telecom sector are influenced
by fact that it is devided into two parts
– a large group of small businesses with
annual revenues of 10-20 mln Bulgarian
levs and another group of the leading five
telecoms in the country with revenues of
over 100 mln Bulgarian levs (BGN). The
latter group includes Bulsatcom and Blizoo which have not publicly announced
their financial data, nor have they revealed it in Bulgaria’s Trade Register in
the last two years. NURTS Bulgaria is
another important player whose 50 mln
Bulgarian levs in revenue in 2012 is ex-
IT Market Segments
pected to grow with the start of the TV
digitization in the country.
At the same time, the information solutions and communication equipment
market was marked by a slight growth
of 4.3% in 2012 versus 2011. This positive overall result was mostly influenced
by the leading 20 players, including ITA
Engineering, Asbis Bulgaria, Solytron,
HP Global Delivery Center, ITA Trade,
Experian Bulgaria, Kontrax, and IBS
Bulgaria, which together increased their
revenues by over 111 mln Bulgarian
levs. From a percentage point of view,
ITA Trade achieved the highest growth
of 680%, and ITA Engineering’s revenue went up by 609%. High percentage
growth were also achieved by Telenova,
IBS Bulgaria, Bianor, Balkan Services, Persy, Kontrax, and Methodia (all between
40% and 70%).
A total of 71 from the 124 IT companies, which took part in Top 100 2013,
managed to increase their total annual
revenues in 2012, and the rest suffered declines, including large players, like CAD
R&D Progress, Techno Pro, and Vilmat.
Unfortunately, big companies, such as
Most Computers, Printec, and Smartcom,
did not submit data to participate in the
ranking. On the other hand, Top 100 2013
saw some newcomers and returning companies, like S&T Bulgaria, ProxiAD, Software AG Development Center, Infragistics, Scale Focus, and Gravis Bulgaria.
The telecom sector
saw an overall revenue of 2.65 bln
Bulgarian levs, or about 3.7% less than in
2011. Like we said, there is no data about
Bulsatcom and Blizoo, which occupied
the 4th and the 5th place, respectively,
in 2010. Megalan and Spectrum Net,
which were also among the larger telecom players in the past, are now merged
into Mobiltel.
The main negative factors on the telecom market in 2012 were the lower rates
of interconnection between mobile operator’s networks, which were axed by the
regulator, as well as the lower roaming
revenues, again affected by regulatory
1,30%
13,48%
15,18%
19,80%
20,64%
2,62%
4,12%
7,06%
1,95%
1,85%
0,75%
1,79%
5,46%
2,58%
0,58%
24,18%
26,36%
23,93%
25,02%
0,80%
0,50%
8
Training&Consulting
Hardware sales
Software sales
E-services
Other
Software Developers
Distribution
Telco from ICT
Outsourcing
SCS
System Integration
ICT Bulgaria 2014
Scalable IT solutions
for small to mid-sized business
Founded in 1995 in Varna, Bulgaria, our company has a rich
experience in the development and integration of Business software
solutions.
Our clients rely on the flexible and integrated software, which includes
the whole process of marketing, management and control of the
organization.
The research and innovations in the company have a significant
influence on the systems developed through the years. Our latest
products target improved efficiency in planning, management and
supervision of online stores and the related warehouse infrastructure.
The collaboration of ERP EXPERT M and the MAGENTO online store,
enable highly effective online trading.
Our System for warehouse logistics, control and automation optimizes
the process of collecting goods and saves costs and time. It offers
management and zoning of storage areas and workers, monitoring for
activities and availabilities in real time, optimization of work process and
much more.
L A G O S W&E
MAGENTO Extensions
Integrated software solution for warehouse logistics, control and
automation.
LAGOSW&E is a multilingual software, developed to cover all processes
and activities in the manual or automated (robotic) warehouses.
All extensions for a successful online store
This shop is one of the leading shops for online trading in the
global Internet space and the best thing is that this product is OPEN
SOURCE solution.
We will briefly introduce the most common functionality of MAGENTO,
and made further development of our company:
Connection to ERP Expert M, send and confirm orders; Additional
functionality to products import and export; Module for products attributes
translation; Setting and adding supplier companies; Create specific
prices for specific customers; Module RMA; Caching and accelerating
the system; Module for creating user groups with specific prices and
terms of payment; Adjustable content blocks, such as menus, pages,
ads, blocks with products, promotions etc; Module allowing customers
to change the design of the online store themselves; E-bay § Amazone
connector (Afterbuy); EU Compliance & Regulations; Products 3D model
display; Additional taxes; Additional modules and customization.
Brief description of the main activities and functions:
Work process speed up and tasks optimization; Highly parallel and
scalable teamwork strategy; Optimization criteria considering the
company profile and the goods on stock; Differential task list for each
employee; Smart worker control; Automatically compiling and updating
the task queues for optimal speed for carrying out the tasks; Fast
interface for barcode readers for each operation; Wide range of methods
for visualization suitable for different purposes and devices Desktop,
mobile; Management and zoning of storage areas and workers; Real
time activity monitoring; Real time statistics for every node; Table reports;
Chart reports; Different methods for checkin products into warehouses.
address: "Angel Kanchev" 11Str., ap. 13A
Varna 9000, Bulgaria
tel: +359 52 637125, +359 52 979510,
+359 52 614777
е-mail: web: [email protected]
www.expert-m.net
MARKET OVERVIEW
interventions. Another negative factor
was end users’ and businesses’ weaker
consumption.
It is important to notice that during
2012 two of the largest telecom players –
operators Vivacom and Globul – were in
conversations to change ownership. Vivacom changed its owner at the end of
2012, and the management of the company was shaken in the middle of 2013.
Globul was acquired from OTE by Norwegian telecom group Telenor. The deal is
still pending regulatory approval in both
Bulgaria and the European Commission,
but no one expects any problems with it.
If everything goes as planned, the acquisition will be closed in September and
telenor will take over. The Globul brand,
however, will not change, at least not in
the short or the mid term.
Among other telecom players in the
chart, NURTS, NET1, Borica-Bankservice,
and Cable SAT Zapad had growths.
A total of 9,867 employees worked at
the companies which were active on the
telecom market and took part in Top 100
2013. The average efficientcy in the sector (revenue per employee) was 121,700
Bulgarian levs (62,200 euro), and the average monthly wage remained high at
2,261 Bulgarian levs (1,156 euro), including insurances and bonuses.
Since we did not receive any data
about the revenues from the different
types of services telecoms offered in 2012,
we used the report of The Communications Regulation Commission (CRC). It,
however, only shows the overall growths
or drops in the separate segments and
does provide information about where
some telecoms do better than others.
The electronic communications market in 2012 was 2.822 bln Bulgarian levs,
according to the CRC, which calculated
the result on the basis of the data of 1,027
companies, or 89% of all registered companies on the telecom market. However,
only 869 firms did provide e-messaging
services in 2012, or fewer by 4% than in
2011.
Some segments, like data transmission and/or Internet access services, packaged services, channel network services,
access to satellite systems, and collocation services, enjoyed revenue growths.
According to the CRC, the total volume of the electronic communications
market was 3.6% of Bulgaria’s GDP in
2012.
Voice communication services (fixed,
mobile and other telephony) kept their
leading share in the e-communications
market in 2012. It had a share of 65.2% but
suffered a drop of 4.8 percentage points
versus 2011.
Data transmission and/or Internet
access services were the second largest
revenue generator on the market in 2012.
They had a share of 12.3% and went up
by 1.6 percentage points.
The third most important segment
were packaged services, which made up
11.01% of the e-communications revenue
in 2012 and increased by 2.9 percentage
points.
Radio and TV channel transmission
and/or distribution services totalled 235
mln Bulgarian levs and had a 8.33% share.
Top 20 Bulgarian ICT exporters by revenue in 2012
№ Company
1 HP Global Delivery Center
2 Datecs
3 Stanga
4 Fadata
5 Sirma Group Holding
6 DZU
7 Experian Bulgaria
8 Proxiad Bulgaria
9 Software AG Development Centre
10 Nemetschek
11 Musala Soft
12 LIREX BG
13 Interconsult Bulgaria
14 Seeburger Informatik
15 Solytron
16 APCOM
17 Telelink
18 Scale Focus
19 VALI Computers
20 Microinvest
Total ICT export revenue in Top 100
2012 (35 companies) vs the respective total revenue in Top 100 2011
10
2012 export in
thousands EUR
117 048
29 728
7 989
7 427
5 741
5 338
5 243
3 800
3 634
3 583
3 467
2 932
2 898
2 388
2 214
1 307
992
757
698
411
€210.0 mln
2012 export in
thousands EUR
Change
109 648
39 845
7 906
6 977
4 858
6 281
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
3 105
2 953
1 559
2 378
2 076
3 110
1 009
1 093
n.d.
549
234
€202.4 mln
6.7%
-25.4%
1.1%
6.4%
18.2%
-15.0%
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
15.4%
17.4%
88.0%
21.9%
15.0%
-28.8%
29.5%
-9.3%
n.d.
27.2%
75.8%
3.8%
Line lease services generated 42.41 mln
Bulgarian levs, down 3.11% on the year.
Total IT revenue went up
by 4.3% year-on-year to 1.296 bln Bulgarian levs in 2012. This is also higher by
7% compared to 2010.
The growth is logical given the slightly better results of the large IT players
and the fact that some companies that
had a bad year decided not to share their
financial data. On the other hand, this
year a number of newcomers and returning companies appeared in the ranking,
such as ProxiAD, Experian, Software AG
Development Centre, Infragistics, etc.
They develop software and work primarily on foreign markets by which they
leave a positive mark on Bulgaria’s image of a regional software development
(and outsourcing) hub, also developed
by companies like HP Global Delivery
Center, Musala Soft, InterConsult Bulgaria, Nemetschek Bulgaria, Seeburger
Informatik, Sirma Group Holding, Scale
Focus, and of course Datecs and DZU,
which are 100% Bulgarian companies and
produce and export a lot of own software
and hardware products.
The IT firm that reported the highest revenue jump in percentage terms –
900% – is EOS Electronics, followed by
ITA Trade, ITA Engineering and several
newcomers (see chart on page 70).
The average efficiency of the IT companies stayed relatively flat in 2012 compared to 2011 – 96,300 euro versus 97,700
euro revenue per employee, with the top
five firms being POLYCOMP, Asbis Bulgaria, APCOM, Solytron, and ITA Engineering. The first four companies are
distributors, which is typical in this category. The other firms in top 10 include
ITA Trade, CAD R&D Center Progress,
Mnemonica, Lancom Bulgaria, and MD
Electronics.
The overall profit on the IT market
was over 102 mln Bulgarian levs in 2012,
which means that these companies contributed more than 10 mln Bulgarian levs
to the country’s treasury, given the 10%
profit tax. Ordered by absolute value, the
leaders were as follows: HP GDC, Borica-Bankservice, Datecs, ITA Engineering,
ITA Trade, Fadata, Sirma Group Holding,
Stanga, Lirex BG, and Global Consulting.
Two smaller companies, however,
took the lead in terms of having the highest profit marginin 2012 – IPT, Vida Electronics – followed by Global Consulting,
and Quality House. Other firms that did
well include Mistral Software, BoricaBankservice, ITA Trade, AS Systems, and
Lema Trading.
The average monthly wage in the IT
sector in 2012 was exactly as high as in
2011 – 1,517 Bulgarian levs.
ICT Bulgaria 2014
ICT MEDIA EVENTS Business and Technology in One!
Save the Date!
http://events.idg.bg/en
Thursday r
Septembe
2014
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10th National
Conference on
E-Education
Sofia, Bulgaria
Latest Trends
Outstanding Keynote Speakers
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Events for Successful Business
Octobe
2014 r
Intelligent City
Transformation
Sofia, Bulgaria
Thursday r
Novembe
2014
20
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4th Na ence on
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Cloud ologies
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For more information:
Yanka Petrovska
Business Development Manager, International
T.: +359 2 400 10 92;
М.: +359 888 499 004; F.: +359 2 988 01 17;
E-mail: [email protected]
http://events.idg.bg/en
HUMAN RESOURCES
The winners and the organizers of TOP ICT Employer 2013
Meet Bulgaria’s TOP ICT Employers of 2013
SAP Labs Bulgaria was the best
ICT and ITO employer
in the country in 2013
I
n 2013, for a second consecutive year,
ICT Media and carreer web site and
HR company JobTiger organized
the TOP ICT Employer annual event
in Bulgaria.
The project, emcompassing a thorough survey, a ranking, a paper-issued
annual magazine and a round table,
followed the success of the initiative
in 2012, and was carried out with the
methodological competence of Audit
Advice Associates (ААА) and with the
assistance of the Ministry of Labour and
Social Policy, the American Chamber of
Commerce in Bulgaria (AmCham), the
12
Bulgarian Association of IT (BAIT), the
Bulgarian Association for People Management, and the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria
(KRIB).
velopment category, while Ericsson
Telecommunications Bulgaria was announced the best in Telecommunications, Bulpros Consulting won the IT
Services category, and 60K became first
in IT Outsourcing.
The contest had four categories
and an overall TOP ICT Employer
prize,
The 2013 survey covered a total
of 26 companies
which was won by SAP Labs Bulgaria
with a significant lead. The company
was also crowned in the Software De-
(as much as in 2012), and the number of
polled employees went up to 2 151 from
1 771 in 2012.
ICT Bulgaria 2014
HUMAN RESOURCES
“We are happy that our company
won the best employer prize three times
in the ranking of Aon Hewitt Bulgaria.
Now, for the first time, we have the honor and the pleasure to become a TOP ICT
Employer. We represent the ICT sector
and this is the greatest recognition we
can get, I wish everyone the same,“ said
Plamen Tilev, Managing Director of SAP
Labs Bulgaria.
“I think we offer good IT services
and, inspite of being a young company
– only three years old that launched with
five employees – we are now more than
155,“ said Marin Raykov, Shared Services Manager at Bulpros Consulting.
“I am happy to receive this award. It is
important to us that this prize will show
everyone on the market that everything
that is happening is not bothering us,
that growth is possible.”
“This award is not new to us because
we are winning it for a second year in a
row,“ commented Georgi Nozharov, HR
Manager at Ericsson Telecommunications
Bulgaria. “We consider it a very serious
prize since we have been trying for many
years to position ourselves in this sphere
and be a provider of ICT solutions, not
just a telecom vendor. The award is the
same as last year’s, but the things are not
the same because our employees are now
twice as more and probably by the middle of 2014 they will triple, as we are developing our team extremely fast. We are
successful at this, despite the Bulgarian
market, which is rather tough in terms of
human resources, and the telecom sector
is really challenging. However, I believe
the things are positive for us.”
“It is a great honor to receive this
award,“ said John Gladwish, cofounder and CEO of 60K. “We got this prize
thanks to the efforts of our entire young
HR management team, as well as due to
the culture we have been trying to build
in the organization. This year 60K won
several international awards, but I think
this one here will be the most valuable
to us, the entire team of 650 people.”
The TOP ICT Employer
project aims
to identify the preferred ICT employers
in Bulgaria, as well as to outline the major trends in HR management and development in the sector and to pinpoint the
key zones where managers could improve their employees’ efficiency.
In order to take part in the ranking,
companies have to permanently employ
at least 50 people, and a certain minimum percentage of them have to fill in
the survey sheet.
The initial methodology in 2012 was
based on assessing three key factors and
the interconnections they have: company results; the integration of a company’s strategy within its own organization; HR management policies and procedures and employee engagement. In
2013, a fourth key factor was added – the
proactivity of a company following the
results of the survey. The weight these
factors in the final ranking in 2013 was:
1. Employee engagement poll – 45%
2. HRM poll – 20%
3. Company results poll – 10%
4. Follow-up action plan – 25%
The best ICT employer of all participants was the one that achieved the
highest overall score. The same goes for
the winners in the four categories.
The award ceremony, which took
place in October in Sofia, was preceded
by a round table on the topic of “Training, development and communication
– the main challenges in the IT sector!“.
2014
Become
JobTiger and ICT Media
are searching for the leading
ICT employers in Bulgaria
For more info:
topictemployer.bg
tel: 02 491 80 14, 02 400 10 90
ICT Bulgaria 2014
Organizers:
With the support of:
13
SOFTWARE BUSINESS
BASSCOM:
Bulgaria’s software industry is
prospering but needs more people
T
he software industry is among the
few Bulgarian industries which
have a high added value, are competitive worldwide and provide exceptional opportunities for professional development. During the recent years, it has
proven itself as one of the most successful
industries in the country, recognizable
as a reliable partner at an international
level and offering high added value to
its clients. One of the key trends continuing from 2013 and previous years is
increasing the share of the software companies offering their own products as opposed to those working on outsourcing
projects. The most successful examples
include Bulgarian products in perspective sectors like semantic technologies,
mobile apps, business software, e-government, etc.
In order to aid the development
of this prosperous sector, a Bulgarian
Association of Software Companies –
BASSCOM – was established in 2001. It
is a non-profit industry association representing more than 50 leading companies developing software products and
systems and offering comprehensive IT
solutions, as well as over 60 associated
members, among which universities,
foundations, venture capital funds, etc.
The main objectives of BASSCOM
are to promote the Bulgarian software
industry, to develop professionalism
and competitiveness, to work for the
improvement of the education system
and to actively participate in creating
and implementing policies for effective
IT investments for the benefit of the entire society.
Last year, BASSCOM continued its
activities focusing on the
education system reforms, human
resources development
in the ICT sector, etc. Further to the „Strategic requirements of the software industry to reform the education system“, outlined in 2012, the association also took
part in the execution of three projects,
which were funded by the Operational
Programme Human Resources Development, co-financed by EU’s European Social Fund. They aimed at improving the
quality of education in accordance with
the needs of the business:
14
BASSCOM patnered with the Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA) for the IT
sector in a project called „Development
and implementation of a competence assessment information system“. Among
the main tasks within the project is defining workforce competence requirements
in view of the European, national and
sector-wide requirements and standards.
BASSCOM was also in a partnership
with the Plovdiv University „Paisii Hilendarski“ and Varna Free University „Chernorizets Hrabar“ on two projects aimed
at creating and implementing a sustainable model for modernizing curriculums
and educational programs according to
the requirements of the labor market.
In addition, in 2013 the association issued its fifth consecutive annual research
“Barometer of the Bulgarian
IT industry“,
covering member companies of BASSCOM and the Bulgarian Web Association (BWA).
The main purpose of the barometer
was to offer quality and quantity information about the condition and the development of Bulgaria’s IT sector, as
well as the expectations and the challenges domestic IT companies are facing. The results of the research outline
the trends in the IT sector and allow for
better planning.
BASSCOM was also involved in a
project, managed by the World Information Technology and Services Alliance
(WITSA), aiming at the elaboration of a
comprehensive concept for the joint development and implementation of an IT
industry barometer (ITIB) with a global
perspective (harmonized core module)
and regional adaptability (additional
modules). In this regard, the association’s
yearly study of the Bulgarian IT industry
was one of the success stories serving as a
basis for the development of the concept.
Another significant project BASSCOM took part in last year was „FORSEE – Regional ICT foresight exercise for
Southeast European countries, co-financed by the EU under the South East
Europe Transnational Cooperation Programme. The project, which involved 14
organizations from eight countries, was
aimed at reforming R&D policies and in-
novation development in the area of ICT
in the countries in Southeast Europe. This
was accomplished through the first foresight exercize in ICT in the region, during
which have been created four scenarios
for the development of digital content
and information technologies by 2025.
They are based on different aspects and
factors – from governments and regulations, through technological platforms, to
entrepreneurship and innovations – and
their common purpose is to reveal the
possible future of this industry
As a whole, BASSCOM was a partner
of all significant events in the ICT sector
that were held in Bulgaria in 2013.
As for 2014 and ahead, the
labor shortage is still one of the
most serious problems
for the software sector and the most serious issue in the long term. This deficit may doubly limit the business of
the companies within the next decade.
We expect that in 2015 the sector will
need over 20 000 more software specialists than the available ones will be. This
means that the annual output capacity
of the education system needs to grow
to 6000 from the current 2000 university
graduates a year (in the sphere of IT). The
conclusion of BASSCOM is that there is
no connection between the actual needs
of the economy and the quality, as well
as the quantity of the human resources
that the education system produces. The
outcome is a situation in which there is
simultaneously high unemployment and
high deficit of well qualified workforce
in some segments, including the software
segment. The solution to these problems
is in a total educational reform, a significant increase in the quality of education
and its targeting at the real needs of the
business and the society.
The long-term goal of the association is reforming the education system
towards meeting the needs of the business, in particular ICT as a fast growing
segment with high added value.
BASSCOM will also continue its activities in the development of a national
ecosystem for encouraging entrepreneurship and innovations and increasing the
competitiveness of the sector for the benefit of the entire society.
ICT Bulgaria 2014
ISSUES
The Bulgarian Association of IT:
The problems the IT business
had to battle (and still is)
T
he IT business in Bulgaria was faced
with several serious problems in
2013 but was able to get over them
and grow further. However, this growth
was not easy, especially for the companies relying more or only on the domestic market, including state administration
projects, said Petar Ivanov, Chairman of
the Board of the Bulgarian Association of
Information Technologies (BAIT).
There were significantly fewer IT
projects by the state in the recent years
compared to earlier years, he noted.
Moreover, the slow and partial law
changes around the Public Procurement
Law made many public procurement
procedures opaque. This lead to a large
number of appeals and slowed down by
more than a year the implementation of
really imprtant ICT projects in the state
administration, Petar Ivanov said.
In addition, the hardly exsiting e-government makes the administrative burden
even heavier.
Another big problem was the bad
discipline of the central government and
the municipalities with timely payments
for orders. This had an impact on yet
another issue – intercompany indebtedness, which has been rising, Petar Ivanov added.
At the same time, law enforcement
is still too slow and ineffective with debt
collection, especially in the case of insolvency of a debtor, he stressed.
The rise of the maximum social security threshold did not make it easier for
the business either, as it effectively moved
up the tax burden around the current average wages, Petar Ivanov commented.
In addition, the state has not been
very conssitent in its approach to communicating new financing oppportunities
through EU programs for modernization
and innovations.
Then there has been another very
serious issue in the ICT sector which is
apparently here to stay for quite a while
– companies have been having a hard
time finding enough people to employ.
According to Petar Ivanov, right now the
sector could employ several tens of thousands of people more, but they simply do
not exsist. This is why the state needs to
urgently think and act fast by not only
making technical education better but
also by attracting more students, university teachers and specialists from other
ICT Bulgaria 2014
Petar Ivanov, Chairman of the Managing Board of BAIT
The two most urgent problems
troubling the ICT sector in
Bulgaria are the shortage
of specialists and the hardly
exsiting, unintegrated e-services
at a central and municipal level
countries to live and work here.
Another sphere the state needs to be
more proactive now is e-services, according to Petar Ivanov, including e-administration, e-health, e-education, e-procurement, etc.
Last but not least, Bulgaria should
make more about being part of the single EU market, said Petar Ivanov while
mentioning the Single Market Act by the
European Cimmission, which lays the
foundations of a business-friendly legal
and fiscal environment.
Since 1992, the Single Market has
brought tremendous benefits and created
new opportunities. But free movement of
goods, services, capital and people does
not always happen smoothly. There is no
truly integrated European market in some
fields. Pieces of legislation are missing.
And administrative obstacles and lacking enforcement leave the full potential
of the Single Market unexploited.
The Single Market Act, presented by
the European Commission in April 2011,
set out twelve levers to boost growth and
strengthen confidence. In October 2012,
the Commission proposed a second set
of actions (Single Market Act II) to further develop the Single Market and exploit its untapped potential as an engine
for growth.
15
OUTSOURCING BUSINESS
Bulgarian Outsourcing Association:
Bulgaria is becoming a top
outsourcing destination
D
uring the recent years, Bulgaria
has risen as a more and more
preferred outsourcing destination, and in some segments it has even
surpassed large peers, such as China,
Egypt, India and The Philippines. Competitive advantages, like the labor quality-payment ratio, our geographical proximity to Central and Western Europe, the
highly qualified workforce, Bulgaria’s EU
membership, its economic stability and
the relatively low infrastructure costs
make the country an excellent and preferred outsourcing destination. Due to
all these advantages, the number of the
people employed in the sector went up to
over 22 000 in 2013, according to the Bulgarian Outsourcing Association (BOA).
Of them, more than 17 000 work in Sofia.
The BOA expects the number of the employed in the sector to more than double
to 48 000 by 2018.
In Bulgaria, language education is
strong,
which is a major factor in outsourcing customer care services, as well as in processing data and enabling processes. Right
now, services in tens of languages are
being offered from the country, which
is a major advantage compared to other
outsourcing destinations, such as North
Africa or Asia. Companies like HP, IBM,
Coca Cola, AIG, INGRAM Micro, Experian and many more have global services
centers in Bulgaria.
People’s high language skills are not
their only plus. These centers are usually
specialized in specific areas, for example
finance and controlling, HR, sales and
marketing, etc. Other outsourcing services offered from Bulgaria cover data processing, business content, and media research. Making all that work is only possible with highly qualified workforce. A
research made by the BOA in Sofia shows
that more than 85% of the population between 19 and 35 has at least secondary or
higher education.
IT outsourcing (ITO) is another
specific area where Bulgaria is a
leading market.
The country has the highest number
of engineers per capita and long engineer-
16
ing traditions. During the recent years,
a lot of companies, many of them from
Fortune 500, opened research and development centers in Bulgaria. Some of
them are SAP, VMware, Cisco and Johnson Controls.
Different kinds of IT outsourcing services are offered in Bulgaria. That covers
anything from developing products and
applications throughout the entire production cycle to taking care of specific
sections of this cycle, like design and architecture, development, extended development, QA & testing, etc. There are different models for offering such services
which vary according to clients’ needs. A
lot of the market players also offer technical support for various platforms, operation systems, apps, etc. The specialists in
the area cover all levels of technical support, which requires knowledge, skills
and competences in order to solve highly
complex problems.
The success of all international
enterprises with centers
in Bulgaria
has been attracting more interest to invest
in the country as an outsourcing destination. A fresh example is the acquisition of
domestic Sofica Group by American giant TeleTech, which was announced at the
end of February. A year and a half earlier
Canadian TЕLUS had scooped another
local company – CallPoint New Europe.
In 2013, the BOA
was mainly focused on ranking its priorities, enabling a working organizational
structure to allow achieving them and
starting to act on it. More specifically,
the association put the stress on several
main directions.
The first is influencing the policies
and instruments for improving workforce
quality and the potential for growth in all
segments of the fast developing outsourcing business. This virtually included another aim of the association – researching
the market and informing the public. After the members of the BOA calibrated the
business needs assessment model, the organization carried out the largest and the
most representative research of the sector
in Bulgaria. The research was made by
SeeNews Research & Profiles, whose job
was to identify the condition of the labor
market – the supply of qualified human
resources that meet the association members’ busines needs.
In addition, the BOA was joined by
two leading Bulgarian universities – Plovdiv University „Paisii Hilendarski“ and
the St. Cyril and St. Methodius University
of Veliko Tarnovo. The association concluded that rising the level of education
in view of the competences required by
the market is a key priority for Bulgaria.
Another direction the BOA worked
its way in 2013 was proactively presenting Bulgaria abroad as an outsourcing
destination. In this context, it sealed a
strategic partnership with its German
peer Outsourcing Verband. Together they
produced a series of articles and specialized researches, including those that were
presented in the specialized Outsourcing
Journal regarding outsourcing in Southeast Europe.
The BOA is also in talks with NOA –
one of the globally leading oursoursing
organizations – to deepen the cooperation
between Bulgaria and the UK.
Moreover, in 2013 the BOA organized the first presenting of Bulgaria at
the World BPO/ITO Forum in New York.
In 2014, the association plans
to expand its member network, to organize national conferences and seminars
about best practices and know-how, and
to participate in international fairs and
forums.
In addition, the BOA is going to release a series of researches, including one
about the separate regions in the country
in order to get up-to-date market data that
can help making investment decisions on
the basis of the pros and cons of these regions, like human resources availability
and language and IT competences.
Another goal of the association for
2014 is to provoke a change in Bulgaria’s
higher education in order to improve the
quality, applicability and varierty of the
types of knowledge and skills that students get. The BOA plans to organize a
series of round tables with higher education representatives from the country.
The first of these events has already took
place and was followed by the set up of
a work group for analyzing and suggesting changes in the new strategy for higher
education development.
ICT Bulgaria 2014
SECTOR ANALYSIS
IDC & KPMG:
Where Bulgaria was on the ICT map in
2013 and where it is heading by 2020
T
he Bulgarian ICT market in 2013 was
marked by several positive growing
trends that had been gaining momentum during the previous years, as well
as by a couple of serious problems, one of
of which will become even more threatening in the future.
According to Nikola Nyagolov, Management and IT Senior Manager at KPMG
Bulgaria, 2013 was not too different from
the several previous years in terms of the
ICT trends in Bulgaria. The growth of the
IT market was mainly attributable to the
software companies, while harware sales
suffered.
There was a clearly growing trend in
outsourcing and shared services
centers,
the latter being opened by large international companies. This has made Bulgaria a
top outsourcing destination both in Europe
and globally, and has made the segment the
greatest pretender for the fastest growing
ICT Bulgaria 2014
ICT segment in Bulgaria, he pointed out,
adding that this will be a huge trend in at
least the next three years.
Offering infrastructure and software
as a service in the cloud with local support
will also be big, Nikola Nyagolov expects.
There is also a hope for considerable
development in
e-government and e-health,
two areas that need a lot of action to integrate all existing systems, as well as to implement new ones. In 2013, there was very
high interest towards e-administration projects by the government and the municipalities. The effect of these initiatives is yet to
be evaluated.
In the meantime, the market will need
to pay some serious attention to developing
own software products and stimulate that.
This perspective could keep and even further boost the market momentum gained so
far, according to Nikola Nyagolov.
Another positive trend was the
growing interest of small businesses to-
wards complete technology solutions,
he added.
Neli Vacheva, Country Manager of
IDC Bulgaria, saw 2013 full of contradictions, obscurity and tense for the business,
mostly because of the political crisis. The
most positive thing seems to be the gradually growing awareness of the corporate
segment regarding good IT process organization and looking for more complex solutions for long-term benefits.
The mobile hype
was also representative of 2013. „Mobile
apps development got a big boost in 2013’”,
Neli Vacheva said. “The market is still very
fragmented though, and the usage of mobile versions of enterprise applications is
still low. In the following years, I expect
that mobile apps penetration in the enterprise will continue, and more attention will
be paid to integrating mobile and existing
systems, as well as security. On the other
hand, developers will have trouble making enough revenue from mobile apps.“
17
SECTOR ANALYSIS
„Mobile devices – smartphones and
tablets – also had a strong momentum on
the Bulgarian market in 2013. Despite it
had some negative impact over the mobile
computers market, I expect the latter will
recover along with the improving economy,“ she added.
Moreover, in 2013 the financial sector offered various mobile services to
its customers, and this will continue
in 2014.
Content will also play a more significant role in the future. We will see both
global and local content creators compete
in this race.
IaaS, storage, SMB
IDC also sees the business with infrastructure as a service growing bigger in
Bulgaria. „The IaaS business in Bulgaria
doubled and I expect it to grow further in
2014 with the help of new vendors,“ Neli
Vacheva noted.
Storage was another impotant business, and still is. In 2013, organizations
paid more attention to software-based storage/software-designed storage. „It is clear
that we are heading to the opportunities
to store data on any physical or logical resource, as well as to move it without any
effort. IaaS will offer more improvements
in terms of creating an abstract layer that
can facilitate the management of systems
by different providers and will make it
easier to scale and dedicate resources according to the current or planned needs,“
Neli Vacheva explained.
The storage business in 2013 in Bulgaria was also interesting for the emergence
of new solutions targeted at SMBs which
come with features that were previously
typical to higher-end solutions. This helped
vendors increase their sales revenues.
Looking fruther into 2020,
the Internet of Things will get more important. We need to pay attention to events
like Google bying Nest – a deal that will
relatively quickly clear the path for home
intelligent systems. We cannot expect miracles, but such technologies are very likely
to enter our homes by 2020. „I expect that
many of these solutions will use geolocation, despite its privacy-related ambivalence,“ Neli Vacheva said.
More and more efforts will be put into
securing IT resources as well. There will
most probably be accidents that will lead to
more control over data and system protection. A second line of defense will be continuously developed, which will analyze
systems for unusual behavior. Their task
will be to shorten the time between problem identification and reaction.
Small and medium businesses will feel
a higher need to use more than basic de-
Bulgarian ICT Watch
Managing Director :
Nedyalka Yolovska, [email protected]
Publisher:
Vladimir Vladkov, [email protected]
Editor-In-Chief:
Konstantsa Grigorova, [email protected]
18
Editors:
Tihomir Ivanov, [email protected]
Aleksandar Glavchev, aleksandar_glavchev@ idg.bg
Sales:
Bistra Neicheva, [email protected]
Elena Dimkina, [email protected]
Petya Lukasheva, [email protected]
Tsvetan Hinkin, [email protected]
Yanka Petrovska, [email protected]
Yordanka Slavcheva, [email protected]
fense mechanisms and will more often rely
on cloud security services.
Mobile security will also be a growing
trend, especially in the Android ecosystem.
„I would also like to say that smart
grid technologies will be among the hits
in the near future but the ambiguous signs
make me think we can expect some more
serious movement around 2020. We must
not forget that the real benefit of smart
grid technologies is when there is an entire
ecosystem, not just isolated smart islands,
which means the trend will go along with
the usual interests and lobbying,“ Neli
Vacheva pointed out.
„I also believe more and more companies will take advantage ot analytics technologies, including bid data. In Bulgaria,
big data analytics will become a reality
within 1-2 years,“ Neli Vacheva added.
The two main problems
for the ICT sector in 2013 were the political crisis, which nearly knocked the newly
elected government down, and the shortage of technical specialists.
Now, as the political crisis is moslty
gone, the market needs to deal with finding enough good employees.
„The ICT market has been suffering
from a hunger for qualified people and
this issue will become eve more serious in
the future,“ Nikola Nyagolov pointed out.
Address: Bulgaria, Sofia 1000,
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office phone: +359 2 400 1111,
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ICT Bulgaria 2014
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