Last week I attended Systems 2007, one of the major IT exhibitions in Germany located at the massive Munich Messe. The two observations surprised me: a staggering number of ERP implementation companies in Germany and a stunning fluency of Romanian companies in speaking German. But forget about ERP.
Apparently, there are as many as 45 000 German speakers in Romania. According to Wiki, there are many different groups of Germans, the largest of whom have historically been known as the Transylvania Saxons. Germans once constituted a much larger portion of the Romanian population than they do today, though they are still the fourth largest ethno-linguistic group. In 1938 there were 700,000, and in 1992 there were 111,301 but the numbers are steadily on decline. Since 1989 Germans in Romania were represented by the Democratic Forum of Germans which functions in the German language.
On a separate subject. Whilst at the exhibition, I have conducted a short market study. Having spoken to over 20 representatives of German IT Mittelstand (many of them Geschäftsführers – Managing Directors) I learned that many are concerned about the quality of the code developed by an outsourcing provider, and prefer to keep the development in house. They believe that they retain a unique competitive advantage by doing so, as no one can do it better, or they rely on too specific a skill set to outsource.
Having lived in Germany now for over a year, I can see how much value Germans put on quality. It is almost impossible to convince a diligent German who takes pride in his or her work, that someone else can do the work just as good. A leading drills and saws manufacturer allegedly refused to outsource altogether for the same reason: “If we have managed to remain a leader in this field for so long, we must be doing something right”.
German market certainly represents an opportunity for the outsourcing companies. However it is a significant challenge for those suppliers that will have to break the wall of scepticism in what outsiders can achieve, fuelled by some negative experiences. But let’s start by speaking decent German first, shall we? Needless to say that we are now discussing collaboration with a number of Romanian companies who are already good at it.
