Call Centers in Hungary
More and more foreign companies recognize nowadays that it is worthwhile operating regional centers from Budapest or other Hungarian cities. Such service centers are established for diverse activities on the basis of various considerations. Experience shows that the parent company’s considerations for consolidation are one of the reasons similarly to cost saving. This is no accident: in their experience re-locating regional service centers to Hungary leads to cost savings of approximately 25 %. The list of such companies is long and is getting longer. What they look for and find here is ranging from a stable and reliable political and economic environment through our EU membership to favorable taxes and competitively priced labor force. In addition the advanced telecommunications network, excellent computer technology and telecommunications background of great traditions, a property market favorably priced even in international comparison, required for regional service centers, are all available for the companies whose activities are also supported by the state through various incentives.
World-Famous Education
Companies bringing their regional service centers to Hungary get an outstanding labor force at the same time. A labor force that, besides being highly qualified, is rightly world famous for its creativity and innovativeness. The 13 Hungarian Nobel prize winners (a number not only high if compared to the 10 million inhabitants of the country), the numerous world-wide used Hungarian inventions and developments all bear evidence of this. An example: Ernő Rubik’s Rubik-cube, a creative invention known all over the world these days. The basis of their success is the rightly world-famous Hungarian educational system which has managed to retain its values while continuously renewing and expanding in line with development and demand.
Excellent Telecommunications Environment
One of the most important criteria for choosing the location for a regional service center is how developed telecommunications are in the given country. Hungary not only boasts the most advanced telecommunications infrastructure and service in the surrounding region but can also stand the test in international comparison. It is not by chance that in the region Hungary offers the most developed financial system, consisting of 42 commercial banks, operating in the country from their Budapest bases. All large international law firms are present in Hungary too and the majority of international auditors are also here. For them it is essential to have an online connection to any place in the world and the conditions for such a connection are available owing to the ongoing developments. The IT sector continues to grow by approximately 8 % annually and accounts for roughly 8% of GDP. Outsourcing plays an ever larger role in fixed-line telecommunications as well as information technology. Companies settled in Hungary increasingly tend to re-locate some of their R+D activities here too (for instance Nokia, Ericsson, Siemens, Avaya, Motorola, Philips, TATA TCS, HP-Compaq). The majority of these companies have extensive relationships with universities and colleges.
Larger corporations that that have set up their regional service centers in Hungary:
Company-Activity
General Electric-Back-office and IT support
Diageo-Financial transactions
General Motors-Regional call-center
Alcoa-Regional financial and back-office center
British American-Tobacco Company Financial center
Sykes-Call center
EDS-IT and data processing services
Zenon-R+D center
Bosch-R+D, supply and sales center
ING Bank-Financial center
Flextronics-European administration and accounting center
Source: ITDH
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