Forum, Lithuania, Markets and Companies
International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics
Friday, 26.04.2024, 15:36
Baltic Strategic SSC Conference returns to Vilnius as sector rapidly expands throughout Baltics
From strength to strength
The presence of Lithuania’s President, Dalia Grybauskaitė, at the recent inauguration of
Outokumpu’s new shared services centre in Vilnius highlighted two key elements
of Lithuania’s economic success story. Firstly, it shows that the most dynamic
economy in the Baltic states is investing a lot in attracting business
services. Secondly, high-end multinational companies start to understand that
the region has much to offer in terms of both the quality of the workforce and
cost competitiveness.
The Finnish stainless steel giant
announced one year ago that Vilnius would be home to its first (and only)
Global Business Center in Europe. At that stage, the region’s business services
sector was already in robust health.
Bringing together Business Services experts
This dynamism led to the inaugural
Baltic Strategic SSC Conference that took place in Vilnius last October. The
international event brought together 65 top level executives from SSCs
operating in the region and internationally to discuss the challenges faced and
the solutions to overcome them.
The event was a great success, and this
year’s is set to be even better, says Jules Hudry-Prodon, Director of Connect
Minds, the event organizers.“The feedback received after the first conference,
coupled with the strong and steady growth of the industry in 2016, convinced us
to put even more efforts into the organization of the second edition, which
will take place in Vilnius again, on 17-18 October 2017,” explains Mr.
Hudry-Prodon.
Saturation not a problem
The global interest that is being shown
in the region’s business services sector is yet another example of the positive
business outcomes the industry brings to the Baltic states. And whilst traction
from a rapidly growing market could potentially raise the question of
saturation, as experienced in many other areas in CEE such as Poland, Hungary
or the Czech Republic, the Baltics currently offer plenty of capacity for
further expansion. Mantas Katinas, General Manager of Invest Lithuania
(strategic partners of the conference), has a very direct answer to the
question: “Whilst the shared services sector is growing strongly year on year,
there is still plenty of room for growth”.
This topic will certainly be discussed
during the autumn event in Vilnius, along with many other strategic and
operational issues relating to areas such as HR, robotics, process optimization
and transformation.