A strong IT sector in Łódź

Close to 30,000 IT specialists; over 200 companies delivering IT services and processes; more than 1,000 graduates with an in-depth understanding of business entering the local market each year; over 600,000 square meters of modern office space. The City of Łódź boasts strong foundations which will enable it to continue forging its strong position within the IT market and the BSS sector

Current state of play and prospects for the future of the Łódź IT market are reviewed in the #LODZfeelsIT – Lodz IT Ecosystem Report 2022 prepared by the City of Łódź Office together with Content Partners – Grafton Recruitment, CBRE, and the ICT Central Poland Cluster. Containing a plethora of up-to-date data compiled by market practitioners and supplemented by expert commentary covering all relevant segments of the IT and BSS landscape, #LodzfeelsIT is among the most comprehensive studies of the Łódź IT sector ever produced. And its main takeaway is very simple: Łódź is IT!

People are the crucial ingredient of each and every industry. Data collected by the City of Łódź Office show there are close to 30,000 IT specialists in the Łódź Agglomeration, and more than 13,500 of them currently work in the Business Services Sector. Analyzing the data from a more global standpoint, Developers are the most represented with 9,500 professionals; Project Managers (2,600), Data Engineers (1,000), and Cloud Engineers (approx. 900) rank high, too. The diversity of the available IT talent is in no small part due to a variety of initiatives by the City of Łódź Office. Two excellent examples are the Młodzi w Łodzi [Eng: Youth in Łódź] scholarship program which supported its winners with over PLN3m; while the I Have an Idea For a Startup program provided financial and mentoring support to almost 100 startups at various development stages.

 Adam Pustelnik, Vice President of the City of Łódź, remarked: The City of Łódź focuses on technology development and creating a favorable climate for the IT sector. It is no longer a place where only costs are optimized. We became a city that can provide quality and specialized staff. Łódź has a lot to offer in this area – both high and middle-level managers and specialists.

Adam Brzostowski, director of the Economic Development and In-ternational Cooperation Office at the City of Łódź Office also underlined the importance of joint efforts leading towards the common goal: The basis for cooperation with our partners is authentic and direct relationships, co-creation, and mutual respect. In our daily activities, we focus on integrating the city with the economic environment and supporting the development of the IT environment in Lodz, meeting its ideas, needs and expectations. Our partners and their development are our priority – for us, it is synonymous with city development.

    Sustainable success and development of the IT ecosystem also rely on effective cooperation between the business and higher education facilities. Universities in Łódź are on the forefront of innovation and have successfully implemented courses such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at the Łódź University of Technology or Business Process Automation – BPA at the University of Łódź.. These have been created on the basis of partnerships between global corporations, such as Nordea, Fujitsu or ABB, and the academic world. The courses result from the synergy between the two realms and represent a direct response to the challenges faced by employers in Łódź.

Agnieszka Kurczewska, Vice-Rector for External Relations at the University of Łódź commented: Our studies in the IT sector are primarily up-to-date with the situation in the labor market and created in close cooperation with business. The University of Łódź already boasts twelve courses created this way, and the 400-strong cohort of graduates leaving its hallowed walls each year are people equipped with a perfect understanding of what the business – their future employers – genuinely needs.

 The ICT Central Poland Cluster plays an important part in ensuring the climate for fruitful cooperation is exactly right. It brings together – among others –over thirty Łódź-based companies and supports them on their journey to calling Łódź their hometown. The Cluster thus brings forward a number of initiatives, such as the annual Join IT in Łódź program. The 2022 edition presents the stories of young IT professionals from Eastern Europe who enrolled Łódź universities and found employment in the city’s IT sector. This is a fantastic opportunity for potential employers and employees to see the city as an attractive destination. Commerzbank AG, MakoLab, and other Cluster members appreciate such initiatives and programs as they make finding the right people for progressively advanced and diverse positions much easier.

The diversity applies across the board and covers specialists and technologies in equal measure. Section of the report prepared by Grafton Recruitment contains a survey conducted among 60 Łódź-based employers providing IT services. They named as many as 9 different technologies supported from Łódź. In total, almost 40% of respondents – the largest group – indicated proficiency in Java Script/React and Java. Employers were also able to find highly skilled professionals in Angular, Python, and Node.js. However, the most important conclusion stemming from this part of the report is that 98% of the surveyed companies plan to increase employment over the coming 12 months; this, in turn, will translate into more than 2,000 jobs for IT professionals.

Mariusz Lemparty, Branch Manager Łódź at Grafton, pointed out: The study of companies that we conducted together with the Business Development and International Relations Bureau at City of Łódź Office shows that the IT competencies market in Łódź is more extensive than it might seem after the analysis of the available data. Most importantly, however, it is diversified in terms of competencies, which proves its maturity and continuous development. Lemparty also highlighted: The revitalization of the city, the transformation of the center, and new business centers (like Monopolis), which collect praise and awards around the world, attract new residents and encourage them to live and work in the center of Poland, next to the capital of our country.

 High quality residential and office spaces certainly put Łódź on the map. This is further discussed in greater detail by CBRE in the real estate section of the report. The company indicates that, on top of 611,000 m2 of office space currently available in Łódź, almost 80,000 m2 is under construction as we speak. Łódź is still characterized by a cost advantage when compared to other Polish cities, but it does not affect the quality of what’s on offer. Companies in the BSS industry view Łódź as a long-term partner – the demand for office space has not dropped below 50,000 m2 for even a single year in the last decade. It is telling that the IT industry was responsible for over half of the lease contracts in 2020 and 2021. Experts also emphasize that the available space meets the highest environmental standards and point out that the architectural and location qualities fit the city’s character.

 Jan Banasikowski, Associate Director, Advisory & Transactions at CBRE: The post-industrial character of the city ceases to be a burden and becomes a distinguishing feature and attractor for both labor market participants and business organizations - employers.

The report also signifies that industry employees point to the growing importance of social benefits and an attractive office, including access to urban infrastructure supporting social life.

The final point is a testament to the fact that emphasizing Łódź’s post -industrial character and following one’s own path to success has been and keeps proving to be the right choice, with employers and employees alike appreciating the progress made thus far. #LODZfeelsIT report is an in-depth and multidimensional deep dive into what makes the city’s IT sector so robust and resilient – and why are there so many reasons to confidently look forward to building a future-proof industry.

This article comes from magazine:
FOCUS ON Business #7 November-December (6/2022)