Lviv

City of possibilities and perspectives

About the city

Lviv today is a city of opportunities and perspectives open to innovation and creative solutions. Over the past few years, Lviv has emerged as a center of Ukrainian information technologies and become one of the top three IT-cities of Ukraine alongside Kharkiv and Kyiv.

In 2009, international company KPMG named Lviv one of the most promising cities in development of IT-outsourcing. Lviv was the only Ukrainian city to get into the ranking which included thirty other locations all over the world.

Tholons’ rating of 2014 only strengthened the status of the city placing it among top-100 European outsourcing centers. International recognition goes alongside practice: more and more Ukrainian and international companies started opening their offices in Ukraine, and now IT industry is represented with almost two hundred companies.

The advantages of the city on the international IT market

Economic attractiveness

Lviv IT market is financially attractive for the foreign investors since they can hire experienced professionals and open new offices for reasonable prices. The city offers many opportunities for the potential businesses since it provides them with the high-quality services that are economically profitable and position the city as one of the most competitive IT centers in Europe.

Highly-qualified human capital

The city has eight high-end universities with more than four thousand talented IT-graduates every year. Academies and schools of IT companies support the students and others wishing to learn the IT profession while professional schools and courses provide the people with an opportunity to retrain for future employment.

Cultural and geographic proximity

Thanks to its historic past and location, Lviv is very connected to the European culture and mentality. More than one-third of Lviv IT specialists knows a second European language alongside English. The fact that the city is located in the very heart of Europe also makes it a convenient destination for outsourcing: flying from Lviv to major business centers in Europe will take approximately three hours. Thanks to this, one-third of the customers Lviv IT-companies have are Europeans, and half of them are Americans.

Positive dynamics

Over the past five years, Lviv IT-market has increased threefold. 90% of IT-companies’ directors consider Lviv a favorable place for business, and more than 83% of them plan to continue investing in it. Many local companies open offices abroad, the export market is growing, and a large number of Ukrainian IT-specialists is moving to Lviv from other cities. Lviv hosts large-scale IT-events as well as experiences positive trends thanks to the Association Agreement with the EU.

Location

Lviv is located close to the key European business centers such as Berlin, Zurich, and Amsterdam.

Infrastructure

Thanks to hosting UEFA Euro 2012, Lviv significantly improved its infrastructure; in particular, the city built a new airport. According to IT Research, Lviv IT industry turnover is around $300 million which makes this sphere one of the most important areas for the city development.In 2010 City Development Strategy, the City Council named IT sphere’s development one of its priorities.

Lviv IT Cluster is among the main economic clusters in the city. IT industry is one of priorities of the city development according to the Lviv Competitiveness Strategy

ІТ Specialists

Human capital

According to IT Research conducted by IT Cluster, more than 15,000 employees work in IT sector, and these numbers are growing every year. New educational centers and programs begin to train specialists, and the city receives many professionals from the Eastern and Central Ukraine.

Students

Every year, Lviv universities graduate more than 4,100 IT professionals. Also, in recent years Ukrainian students constantly win in international competitions. The amount of students is growing thanks to the constant demand within the industry.

Network

Alongside nearly 200 IT companies, the city has eight coworking spaces. Cooperation between leading companies is established via Lviv IT Cluster that now unites 35 organizations with more than 6,500 specialists. Cluster’s unique projects strengthen the professional network and establish the contacts between IT experts. Cluster organizes a large-scale conference IT Arena which is one of the biggest events for IT professionals while other Cluster’s initiatives such as IT House and IT Club improve the cooperation between the IT professionals in the city.

Development rates

Industry development shows a positive dynamics. According to IT Research, the projected annual growth of IT-sphere is 20%, and the size of the IT-market has tripled in five years. Experts predict further improvement of Lviv business environment and accelerated pace of IT development.

Dynamics of the industry development in 2010-2015

Training centers

Lviv also offers nine IT training centers:

SoftServe IT Academy annually graduates up to 600 professionals

Eleks University graduates up to 250 specialists every year.

Computer Academy «SHAG» (STEP) organizes professional and individual courses.

Lohika training center teaches up to 30 specialists each year

MS in Technology Management (LvBS) is focused on teaching IT management.

Lviv IT School annually graduates over 2000 specialists in different areas.

Two EPAM labs annually educate around 100 IT specialists.

GlobalLogic BaseCamp teaches the students to work with C++

Ostware Services Training Center provides training for Embedded Software Engineers (C/C++) and Test Automation Engineers (Python)

IT environment in Lviv

Local companies are mostly working with international customers who make up 98% of all clients. Most IT companies have experience working with European and American partners; the US customers account for half of Lviv IT-market sales. Over the past few years, the number of Western companies that cooperate with the region has increased dramatically.

The most famous Ukrainian-owned Lviv IT companies include SoftServe with more than 4000 workers, Eleks with around 1000 specialists, and N-IX with over 300 employees. All of them are participants of Lviv IT Cluster. Alongside other members of the Cluster, they often cooperate with leading international companies such as IBM and Pearson.

Among the foreign companies that are active in the city, there are such American organizations as Lohika Systems, Inc., EPAM Systems and GlobalLogic. Only those companies employ about 1,000 workers.

Lviv IT Environment is extremely important for the city because it is not only involved in outsourcing for foreign companies, but also provides services for the internal market. Lviv expects a rapid growth and development of it IT sphere thanks to the powerful inflow of new IT workers and constant increase in demand.

Lviv is a city with a huge IT potential and opportunities for businesses. No wonder that Financial Times has named Lviv one of the top ten cities of the future adding that it is one of the most attractive investment IT centers in Europe. The positive development dynamics and continuous growth of IT sphere in the city make it an attractive center for investing, studying, and working in the IT-environment.

The geographical location, cultural proximity and economic potential all contribute to the IT development of the city, and more international IT companies and customers choose Lviv as one of its partners. In recent years, Lviv has managed to achieve rapid growth indicators in IT sphere, which, in turn, generate huge profits for the IT industry and create a positive business climate for potential investors and companies.

Stepan Veselovskyi

CEO Lviv IT Cluster

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