Why You Should Consider Outsourcing Business In Prishtina

Assembling Kosovo’s economy is every Kosovar’s dream, but, what does Kosovo need? Ask anyone out on the streets of Prishtina, the country’s capital, and they all will have the same answer to your question, “A better and a more sustainable economy.”

That said, boosting the private sector, and generating employment from the private sector [Read: the highest percentage of the already employed are employed by Governmental Institutions], is a priority for Kosovo’s economy to grow. And, keeping in mind, outsourcing is now a permanent feature of business life, the selection of this article’s theme is no coincidence.

What’s Happening Now?

Kosovo’s main priority is economically sustainable development. 60% of Kosovo’s population, which is around 2 million, is under the age of 30. 30.2 % of the young generation (15-24 years) is unemployed, but half of them speak at least one foreign language. Although, the perpetual reminder that Kosovo has the youngest population has become somewhat monotonous, there are no means to ignoring it when considering the benefits of business process outsourcing within our national confines.

To our disadvantage Kosovo is not a member of the European Union, so Kosovars cannot work outside their country. That is one of the major reasons Kosovar software developers stay in their homeland where prices are low. Moreover, Kosovo’s labor market policies are generally right on track, accounting for flexibility that characterizes well-functioning labor markets in market economies, such as the low level of payroll taxes, which is extremely important in keeping the cost of labor down, and keeping the cost of labor highly competitive in the region.

And we all know that as companies search for cheaper and more effective ways of working, handing over non-core functions to lower cost experts can be an appealing prospect. However, while traditionally, the key driver for outsourcing activity is cost reduction, a few other important factors related to what Kosovo can offer as an outsourcing hub are:

Speed Of Development

While a new business entity can use outsourcing to cut the costs, in Kosovo this process can also be done more quickly than developing an in-house capability from scratch. Kosovar companies are highly adaptable and tend to provide talented, responsible and skilled labor with a very open mindset.

While, the government and other NGO jobs may be considered less competitive and personal connections can play a great role in landing those jobs, the private sector in Kosovo (which was virtually non-existent in 1999 and has grown steadily since), has a natural selection for job candidates in place, which means that it effortlessly leaves out the less dedicated, less capable and less motivated candidates but instead focuses on high qualified people who are compensated and treated well. In this way, Kosovo offers a unique combination of high-quality and low-cost skill-set employees.

Flexibility

Considering businesses are often ought to keep pace with the changing demand, outsourcing in Kosovo can provide a company with the flexible capacity, as the availability of labor force is always there. Moreover, Kosovo’s workforce is widely recognized as strong business performance drivers. There are many university educated professionals looking for a stable job (Kosovo offers classical education in natural and technical sciences to its students, while a broader knowledge and notable logic are practiced with students throughout higher education).

Specialized Skills

Many young Kosovars are open to experimenting with new business ideas, and looking to bring foreign business into the country, but while they are heavily educated in math, there still is a lack of practical business experience among young Kosovan engineers, who at times leave university with few real job skills.

On the other hand, Kosovo has a good solution for specialized areas such as IT, which is often a challenge to retain under lower prices. For the small country it is, it sure does provide a great number of IT specialists with programming skills. As such, despite salaries increase in software development services worldwide, Kosovo has much to offer to customers abroad, for more than a decent price.
After all, a broad programming knowledge and the remarkable logic of IT professionals have to be outstanding recommendations for offshore IT outsourcing arrangements to Kosovo.

Communication

Competitive advantages such as lower costs, IT expertise, economies of scale and labor flexibility may become a company’s core strengths through the cooperation with Kosovo. One thing you do not have to worry about when business process outsourcing in Kosovo is transferring jobs to Kosovo and language differences, poor communication or lack of in-house knowledge of critical software development operations – and – of course – there is no language barrier as Kosovars have a very good knowledge of the English language.

And For The Future?

So, whether you are planning to outsource short-term or long-term, Kosovo is a great option. In the end in such a small country, after the development is finished, the product becomes a part of the offer to clients and various companies in the Balkan. In that context, Kosovo can be, not only an outsourcing center for a potential company to cut its internal expenses, but also a point of sales for the Balkans.
Worldwide popular services such as online payment systems, e-commerce, business listings and online advertising, are in its initial phases of development in Kosovo, and in other parts of the Balkans – thus the market lacks dominant solutions for a large number of occurring problems. Deficiencies like these may be noted as a right set of circumstances by some to enter this market (especially a market that hasn’t had these sort of positions filled by global players like Google and others).

However, Kosovo, and its capital Prishtina are a step away from attracting more companies to outsource there, because of a lack of policies that keep Kosovo from becoming a prominent manufacturing, trade and services hub for foreign marketplaces. Moreover, while Kosovo may appeal to companies that are not interested in going beyond mere cost-cutting of their production/service costs in the short-term, it ought to be interested in attracting companies that are eyeing for tangible strategic development in the long-run.

That said, let’s remain hopeful that soon enough business process outsourcing ventures will become a significant part of Kosovo’s sustainable economic development strategy, by hosting new prospects through policies that incentivise modernization, cost savings and innovation. And until then, let’s assure the creation of an army of Kosovar educated young people ready to take part in the high-skilled outsourcing activities, and have their innovations compete in the global markets.

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