Business process outsourcing Bulgaria
The term service outsourcing and business process outsourcing are relatively new and to some it is still new and unknown in Bulgaria. Nowadays, Bulgaria tries to develop and get into this market niche. Foreign investors are already making huge investments in Bulgaria, outsourcing their services here.
The country is more and more often presented in international classifications and charts as an attractive destination for call center services and busines process outsourcing. The consultants from Deloitte, who were hired by Bulgarian government, recommended that our country should focus on three perspective spheres for attracting of foreign investors, one of which is business process outsourcing.
The Beginning for Bulgaria
Most business activities outsourced to Bulgaria are in the call center service sector, such as data processing, lead generation, foreign customer support provided by call centers and software development. Regardless of which type of call center services or business process outsourcing we are talking about, the benefit for Bulgaria remains the same – the country attracts businesses which India, China and other East European countries compete for.
There is no official statistics announced for the call center services and business processes outsourcing to Bulgaria. There is a constant tendency of growth in this segment. The interest and the number of foreign investors inquiries increases as well.
Services, offered by the call centers:
Call centers offer a broad range of outsourcing services and business process outsourcing which can be classified as follows:
Database processing: Data entry; Data cleaning;
Document management: Documents’ scanning and indexing;
Order taking: Live and online via Internet;
Outbound calls:
- Telemarketing;
- Lead Generation;
- Market researches;
- Telephone presentations;
- Meetings’ organization;
- Customer satisfaction surveys and many others.
Advantages of the Call Centers in Bulgaria
The worldwide competition is violent for the last few years and Bulgaria is not among the leaders. According to different international researches, the country has a potential of becoming a serious participant in the competition for similar projects.
The representatives of the foreign business, who had already made investments in the country, explain that Bulgaria is attractive for call center service outsourcing and other business process outsourcing, because the country is close to Western Europe, it has relatively low remuneration and salary standard and well qualified personnel, especially concerning language skills.
The location is one of the biggest advantages due to the variety of convenient routes for travels of the management team for center monitoring and management. In addition, we should mention as another advantage the important fact that Bulgaria does not have problem with the technical infrastructure, including traditional and internet-based telecommunication services.
Bulgaria is stronger in attracting outsourcing services and business process outsourcing for European clients. The reason is that here are not only professionals with perfect English proficiency but also with other European languages in our country. Furthermore, the time difference between Bulgaria and other countries of the continent is smaller.
According to the bigger part of the industry representatives, the direct competitors of Bulgaria are Czech Republic and Romania. The most serious East European competitors are Slovakia, Hungary and Poland. There are also other competitors on the market map: Baltic Republics, Russia and Ukraine.
Globally, the biggest business deals for call center services and business process outsourcing are made with India and China. The trend shows outflow from these counties in favor of Bulgaria. The reason is the linguistic capabilities of the Bulgarian staff and the fact that the Bulgarian culture is closer to the European countries.
In financial aspect, the result of the competition is also positive and in favor of Bulgaria. The advantage is in the working time which is closer to that in Europe, because the time difference between Bulgaria and United Kingdom is 2 hours, and with India is far much more.
The Future
Almost all forecasts are oriented to the forthcoming mini bang of the call center services outsourced to Bulgaria in short, middle and long-term. Most of the foreign representatives who already invested in Bulgaria speak about constant inquiries of other foreign clients, especially for call center services.
There is a tendency for call center services outsourcing in other business spheres as well. Many companies look for a proper place to outsource computer animation as stated by the industry representatives.
Having in mind the expected business development of the call center service outsorcing market niche, it is a good idea that Bulgarian universities start programs in Direct Marketing as it is done in Western Europe (for example in Germany). In this way, there will be more professionals and experts to meet the business needs and specific requirements of the business investors in Bulgaria.
Please contact us when you would like to receive more information on the possibilities of outsourcing to Bulgaria.
A small country but yet an interesting destination attracting many foreign investors. Bulgaria is a small country but a real hidden gem when it comes to economical growth. The last years the Bulgaria gets more and more attractive for foreign companies to extend in it. Some of the numerous benefits are low tax rates, developing infrastructure, strategic location, more flight connections to different countries, culture, good climate, delicious food, and these are just some of the few benefits why it is interesting to start a business in Bulgaria.
