Did you know that Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal may be the favorite foreign cities of Polish software developers? There are Canadian hubs for tech innovation and talent find, luring professionals to develop software products. In fact, there are so many projects, that Canada might look for external partners to help them in development. The predicted shortage of developers will reach 200,000 in 2020. It can be the biggest problem but it definitely is not the only one.
While the US faces an unprecedented migrant, political and social crisis, Canada is booming. Social uncertainty in the US makes Canada shine as a stable and predictable beacon. Not everything is fine, though. Growing shortages of software product developers and IT professionals made the Canadian government simplify and shorten the process of approval visas. Work permits are also more achievable. For quite some time now Canada’s tech sector is one of the largest of the country’s economic sectors; its dynamic growth creates opportunities for local talents. Biomedical devices and applications, avionics, stock market trading software and services, video gaming – these are industries that directly benefit from software engineering’ talent pool.
These facts didn’t escape Canada’s government – since 2017 the country’s budget has a comprehensive Innovation and Skills Plan, to attract an educated and competent workforce. In July 2017 the government also launched a $1,26 billion worth Strategic Innovation Fund for sectors that bring development and commercialization of products and services, and growth. The hope is that by 2025 the number of high-tech companies, dedicated especially to the development of clean and medical technology doubles. The ecosystem is also opened to foreign and multinational companies. It has to be – Canada is experiencing a similar problem to American ‘Silicon Valley Brain Drain’. The outflow of talents to the US, UK, and France (top three destinations) doesn’t put Canada in a driver’s seat. Canada simply needs offshoring. Especially in Toronto – Waterloo corridor that is even called ‘Canada’s Silicon Valley.
Especially when it has so much going on, on multiple fronts. FinTech alone boasted $150 million CAD ($115 million USD) in funding, with a consistent increase across several quarters. There are many organizations supporting growth, just like Impression Ventures that is FinTech-focused. With lessons taken from European regulations, Canada is picking up the security and compliance legislation and procedures. That means the rise of RegTech as well. It’s a good idea to consult and cooperate with a European company that has the experience and the necessary expertise in the FinTech field.
Canada is also investing in processes. A shift towards and investments in robotic process automatization (RPA) is clearly visible. RPAs are radically changing companies’ strategic landscape, driving cost reduction and optimization. Canada is betting on RPA but does the software cover the need? As we said, the IT sector is missing 200,000 souls, the answer is ‘no’.
The answer changes to ‘yes’ if we ask about startups. In 2017 alone and in Toronto – Waterloo corridor, the estimated number of startups was between 2,100 to 2,700. That is a lot of potential and a lot of technical expertise that most young entrepreneurs don’t have. They often have great ideas but they lack the technical expertise to handle their projects. They could use MAKO – a rapid software development platform. MAKO, being cloud-native and microservices-based, lets you develop software products quickly and reliable. With modern demands for quick time-to-market and customer-centric product design, a platform like MAKO can make a difference between being relevant and being obsolete. Startups, using investors’ money, will also benefit. It will not be burning money, but investing them.
There is also a matter of UX/UI. Startups grow fast but fail faster. Customer centricity is not a buzzword, it’s a necessity. Having a UX/UI expert on board, that can optimize software to meet end-user needs, is also highly beneficial. Startups usually don’t think about it, taking care of business development and scaling.
Polish software programmers and software development outsourcing companies are experienced in offshoring. It’s often defined as software outsourcing but in reality, some companies are also IT consultants. They transform companies, helping them in digital transformation, business scaling, etc. BDC bank surveyed around 1000 entrepreneurs to report on the state of their digitalization, best practices, and lessons they learned during the change period in their companies. The study shows that only 3% of small and medium-sized Canadian manufacturers have fully digitized their production. 36% partly implemented it, with 41% that done nothing. Results are surprising, they show an environment that is not ready to adopt change. A change that leads to increased productivity, improved product quality, and lower costs.
Polish software programmers are known for being versatile, therefore bringing the change you want. They not only write code. They look at a project from different angles, only to find that the scope is not optimally set up, and the definition of “done” has grey areas. Polish software developers are known for their code quality and broader view; they want to finish the project on a high note. They have a large technology stack – being an expert in one or two technologies doesn’t exclude being an expert in a few others. Poles are also handy at the very beginning of the project. Their analytical expertise put them right in the middle of a cyclone that is an initial phase of product development. By advising on the development process, the architecture of the application, and functionalities, Polish software developers are valuable not only as code writers. They are IT, consultants.
With the talent pool of 250,000 software development engineers and core technologies like .NET, .NET Core, or Java, Poland has a strong suite of professionals working with modern technologies. Poles are meticulous in planning and have business goals in mind. Functionalities are not the most important factors, business-oriented development is far more valuable to the client than the one focused only on code, optimization, and bugs.
Offshore custom software product development is strong in Poland. Companies look for added value but also for English proficiency. According to global rankings, Polish software developers are among the best-educated – they speak fluent English.
Poland is a perfect partner for Canadian companies. The shortage of talent in Canada can be balanced by IT outsourcing in Poland. Software product development companies in Poland have the best quality-to-price ratio. CSHARK offers rapid application development. Having an office in Toronto puts us in a unique position. We can talk locally and work globally, developing your software project halfway across the globe.
