Top 5 Reasons for IT Outsourcing to Serbia and Macedonia

Based on our own experience, we can say that Serbia and Macedonia are the best places to look for amazing programmers. They are the perfect IT outsourcing destinations in Europe as both of these countries have an excellent supply of well-educated and experienced IT professionals and experts. We believe that the secret lies in their educational system. It develops the student’s ability for logical thinking through mathematics and natural sciences. Moreover, this development begins from primary school and it continues to expand right up until high school graduation. With this approach, students in Serbia and Macedonia are well prepared to step up to the challenges of further university education, especially in the fields of engineering and computer science.

Most of the software developers and other IT professionals from Serbia and Macedonia are curiosity-driven and eager to learn more. They are ambitious to improve their expertise in areas of their interest and always strive to keep up with the latest technologies, and that is very important in IT outsourcing arrangements. The combination of these characteristics makes them outstanding problem-solvers who can handle various assignments with ease. Their hard skills are simply impeccable. At the same time, most of these IT professionals have mastered a wide range of soft skills as well and grew to be fantastic team players and reliable collaborators.

Professionals from Serbia and Macedonia are fluent in English, so there is no language barrier within teams. The English language is one of the compulsory subjects in their primary and secondary schools, as well as in university education. Children usually start to learn English from age seven. However, it’s not unusual that parents enroll their youngsters into English courses while they are still in kindergarten. Plus, the English-language media are very popular and heavily consumed by middle and younger generations both in Serbian and Macedonian societies.

The cultural affinity is another strong factor why Serbia and Macedonia are such an excellent choice for IT outsourcing. Situated in southeastern Europe, both cultures nurture the values and standards of western civilization. Their understanding of professional and ethical responsibility perfectly corresponds with our own (Canadian and North American), making the collaboration easy and efficient.

Serbia and Macedonia are both in the process of joining the European Union. For this reason, the laws in these countries are adapted to the laws of all European countries. In addition to that, Macedonia is also a NATO candidate country with macroeconomic stability and excellent infrastructure. According to the Doing Business list of the World Bank for ease of doing business for 2019, Macedonia is one of the top ten business destinations, and 5th best country in Europe right after Denmark, Georgia, Norway, and the UK, while Serbia took the 48th position among 190 countries. 

Another economically driven reason for opting these two southeastern European countries to set up our IT operation centers is their good ranking in Developer Skills Reports such as SkillValue ranking, for example. These reports help create an idea of the value for money each country offers, and if it’s ranked above 20 in SkillValue’s list or 30 by Hacker Rank, it is considered an excellent destination for finding outstanding developers. For example, Serbian developers are ranked #16 in the world with 89.39% score index (by SkillValue), and also take the 6th place in Top Elite Classification list with a fantastic index result of 99.90%.

Serbia and Macedonia have great geographic locations. Both countries are practically at the doorstep of the EU, bordering Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece (among other countries). Traveling to and from Serbia and Macedonia is relatively fast and easy. It takes up to three hours from most major European cities to reach their capital cities, Belgrade and Skopje. For example, direct flight from London to Belgrade takes about 2h 30 mins, Amsterdam 2h 45 mins, and Berlin only 1h 45 mins. 

Serbia and Macedonia both belong to the Central European Time Zone. That means daily coordination and communication is very easy. All the meetings can be organized and held within working hours. However, the time difference with North America is slightly more challenging. The US East Coast is six hours behind, which still leaves a couple of overlapping hours for everyday communication. With good organization, this time gap could easily be transformed into an advantage – our teams in Serbia and Macedonia perform their tasks while our clients’ headquarters are still not fully functional.

Our experience has proven that Serbia and Macedonia offer the best price-quality ratio we could find, especially for IT outsourcing. Considering all the above facts – exquisite expertise of Serbian and Macedonian IT professionals, their excellent work ethics and communication skills, in addition to the numerous and ongoing business opportunities and continuously improving business environments in these two countries, we can say that outsourcing to this European region is a smart business decision.

Regardless of whether a company wants to develop an entirely new product, improve or just maintain the existing one, or is in need of any additional services, Serbia and Macedonia are the right places to turn to and free up your resources for other investments.