Krakow – history and modernity
Krakow is a place where history meets modernity. On the one hand, it is rich in cultural and architectural terms and has an enchanting history, featuring Wawel Castle, Krakow Old Town with its Market Square, St Mary’s Church, Florianska Street, Grodzka Street and many more. Whenever visiting Krakow, you may find a melting pot of languages due to the number of foreign visitors and tourists.
On the other hand, Krakow is often called the technological center of Poland. Rich office infrastructure, foreign investments, technological incubators and hubs, and new startups make Krakow a perfect example of a place where the past meets the present. Companies that decide to locate their business in Krakow will benefit not only from the rich cultural infrastructure, but also from access to academic potential and the sheer number of office facilities available for IT projects.
Read also: Why it is worthwhile outsourcing IT services to Poland
The city of IT centers
The local BSS centers employ almost a quarter of all employees in the sector on the Polish market. Krakow is one of the major destinations for Tier1 services and the 2nd largest destination in Poland for investments, according to ABSL report. The report emphasizes that many of these are reinvestment projects. In 2020 there were 234 centers in Krakow and 9 new investments (ATFX, Billennium, Equiniti, GFT, Havi, JIVR, Oanda, and PepsiCo).
BSS has a significant influence on the Polish labor market and the number of jobs generated by this sector in Krakow is the largest in Poland. This is also where JCommerce’s story began in 2005 and where we developed our first application: JFitnessOne. Nowadays our office in Krakow is an important point on the map of our services, and here we provide support of Java, PHP, QA, .NET and PLC developers, as well as support for ERP and Business Intelligence specialists. Some of our clients here are Roche, CORE, Aras and Solita.
Major business investments and initiatives
- Krakow Technology Park (KTP)
- Service hub for investors Business in Malopolska Centre
2nd major Polish city for IT specialists
The area of Katowice and Krakow is well-connected thanks to highway and buses from one city to another every 15 minutes. Over time, people in Poland have started to use term “Krakowice” as so many employees commute from Katowice to Krakow and vice versa.
EXPERT KNOWLEDGE
Discover the city of Katowice! Find out more!Academic potential of the city
Krakow is a huge academic base, especially of technical and IT specialists. There are 30 universities, of which the most recognizable are:
- Jagiellonian University,
- AGH University of Science and Technology,
- Krakow University of Technology
- Krakow University of Economics.
There are almost 12,000 people studying philology and foreign languages and another over 12,000 studying IT and ICT. Most impressive is the number of engineering and technology students: 26,000.
When assessing location attractiveness, the number of skilled workers is a decisive factor for investors and they indicate Krakow as the number one in this area.
Important facts
- 2nd highest growth of regional GDP in 2014-2018
- 6th place in the FDI Intelligence ranking ‘European Cities and Regions of the Future 2018/2019’ by FEmployment in IT sector equals to 39% and in SSC – 34%,
- Advantageous business infrastructure – over 1 350 000 sq m of existing A/B+ class office space and over 214 600 sq m under construction,
- There are about 77,700 people working in the IT sector in Krakow,
- 26,400 jobs created in the city since 2016,
- The city has access to international airports in Krakow-Balice (25 min) and Katowice (45 min).
Summary
Krakow and the region of Lesser Poland have been a favorable location for investments for many years and its position gets stronger every year. The city is home to startups, IT centers and entrepreneurs, and its multicultural atmosphere as well as modern infrastructure make it a perfect destination for IT nearshoring projects.
Sources:
- https://www.paih.gov.pl/investment_support/sez/krakow
- ABSL Business Services Sector in Poland 2020
- Pro Progressio Report: Focus on Krakow
- https://businessinmalopolska.pl/files/Doing_Business_in_Malopolska_Guidebook_for_investors.pdf
Business Development Manager at JCommerce. Michal has been a manager for over 5 years, with management experience in the IT area. His goal is the continuous development of the business for which he is responsible, but also – and perhaps most importantly – competences in this field. In his spare time, Michal is keen on cycling, in particular, riding a bike in difficult terrain. The motto that guides him both at work and in private life is "Nothing is impossible, there are only things that are difficult to do".