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Danish media giant Berlingske Media is in the process of building a development centre in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, in order to develop a number of functions to be used in present and future online solutions.
The primary advantages are the time zone, the short distance and the culture. By placing the assignments in Ukraine Berlingske Media can expand capacity in order to develop faster and at fair costs. A 24-year-old project manager in Kiev has already been hired, but the plan is to build a staff of 20 that together with the IT department in Denmark is meant to drive Berlingske towards the online success.
Everything is done in a partnership with Danish-owned Ciklum that was founded 8 years ago by a Dane who moved to Kiev, and who today has around 700 employees in the 4 largest cities in Ukraine. According to Danish Country Manager, Arne Djernæs Hansen, more than half of the approximately 100 clients that develop software through Ciklum, are Danish.
”I don´t know if Ukrainians can do something we cannot do in Denmark, but facts are that they go for the heavy sciences – computer science and well-educated mathematicians and physics. Ukraine claims to hatch 20,000 computer science and engineer candidates every year. That is 15 to 20 times more than in Denmark,” says Arne Hansen.
Ciklum recruits employees directly from the Ukrainian universities, and they make more money by having a Western employer, while they still get to stay and work in their own country.
Ukraine has indeed become increasingly attractive in recent years. It is not only Danish or Scandinavian companies that choose Ukraine. Central- and Eastern European companies do it too. Costs are important and in this respect, Ukraine has proven to be more attractive than Russia. Scandinavia has previously used the Baltic countries, especially Estonia, but Estonia is very small compared to Ukraine.
ITEK, Danish industry’s trade union for IT and Telecommunications still believe in outsourcing to Ukraine as long as it is possible to hire new and skilled workers in the country.
”In 1999-2000, when companies outsourced IT assignments to the Baltic countries, the countries quickly ran out of skilled people because the countries were small. We have also looked at the new EU countries such as Romania and Bulgaria, and here are indeed a lot of skilled workers. But one tends to forget how big Ukraine is, – and then it is not as far to Kiev than to Bangalore and Malaysia, so it is much easier to bring people back and forth,” says ITEK’s Jan Zneider.
About Ciklum
Ciklum (ciklum.net) is a Danish IT outsourcing company specializing in nearshore software development by establishing and servicing clients’ own development teams in Ukraine with an option of extending them further to Pakistan. The environment of services and knowledge sharing within the company helps clients to market quickly and with less risk and minimal investment. Established in 2002, Ciklum employs more than 800 specialists with more than 100 global client teams. Ciklum has six development offices in Ukraine and two in Pakistan, as well as representative offices in Denmark, Sweden, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands. Ciklum is a winner of the Red Herring 100 Europe 2009.
About Berlingske Media
Berlingske Media (berlingskemedia.dk) is one of the largest Danish media publishers and supplier of both printed and digital publications. Some of the most famous print is: Berlingske Tidende, BT, Urban Enterprise magazine, Weekend newspaper Businessworld Magazine and the Business Recorder.
The press release is the summary of the article “Berlingske lægger IT i Ukraine” written by Thomas Breinstrup, dated 12 April 2010, and posted on evb.dk.
Ciklum media contacts:
Arne Hansen
Country Manager – Denmark
E: aha[.]ciklum.net
M: +45 40 82 27 66
Ivan Pohrebniyak
Marketing Manager
E: poi[.]ciklum.net
P: +38 044 545 77 45 x225.
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poi[.]ciklum.net 
