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Romania – the future location of the Oracle Support Services Center for Europe, Middle East and Africa
Wednesday, 18 february 2004


„It is a very important moment for the development of the IT market in Romania, a validation of the path we have chosen to take until now. It’s not a small detail that an international corporation decides to extend its activity to such a degree in Romania and I would like this fact to become a rule in the future, to be able to say „it happens in Romania”. On the other hand, it quantifies the interest for the Romanian market, a place where does not apply the concept of „selling and leaving”, but the one of „building”, of „developing”. The several hundreds of experts which will work for Oracle in Romania will offer assistance to one third of the clients of the company, and we consider this an important test of reliability and competence.” declared yesterday, 17th of February, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Dan Nica, during the official opening of Oracle Services and Technology Centers in Romania.

“Romania is a high priority investment area for Oracle, and we are impressed by the high caliber of expertise and skills available here today.” said Sergio Giacoletto, Executive Vice President Oracle Corporation EMEA. Giacolleto stated that the decision of opening the these centers in Romania was based on a research study, which involved different European states, and our country had as strong points the number of specialists, the location, the experience in the software development and also the IT tradition.

The Oracle Services and Technology Centers in Romania will be the corporation’s activity core at global level and will offer assistance to the clients all over Europe, Middle East and Africa, as another two in worldwide, located in USA and India. These centers will offer large employment opportunities to several hundreds young Romanian specialists to build careers at the highest professional standards within a global corporation.

In recognition of Romania’s growing importance for Oracle in its geo-economic development, Romania has been included as a business area in the Oracle EU Enlargement Countries Organization, together with the 10 countries that will join the EU in 2004.

Oracle Romania stood up at regional level due to the high competence of the technical support team, ranking the first place in a classification regarding the costumer solving problems efficiency. In this context, Oracle intends to continue with its main development directions in the area, focusing on the know-how transfer, investments in education and the use of Romanian specialist technology skills.

Three Oracle Services and Technology Centers are to be opened in the first stage: Partner Resource Network (PRN), Global Support Services (GSS), and Application Consultants' Team (ACT). Partner Resource Network (PRN) – a department specialized in providing resource administration and support to Oracle partners all over Europe. Global Support Services (GSS) – is going to be represented by a software and technical support department designed for the Oracle solutions users world-wide. Application Consultants' Team (ACT) – will take part in the expertise and implementation projects in telecommunications companies in the EMEA area, offering support at clients’ locations and assisting local teams in the ongoing of specific activities.

At the official launch of the Oracle Global Services and Technology Centers in Romania were present Mircea Geoana – Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergio Giacoletto, Executive Vice President Oracle Corporation for Europe, Middle East and Africa and Alfonso Di Ianni, Senior Vice President European Union Enlargement Region, Oracle Corporation.

Iron Curtain strikes back

Romania has become the ideal outsourcing alternative to India with costs almost 50% less. How can India take on the emerging competition?

Shehla Raza Hasan
24 November 2003

Kolkata: For Indian IT oursourcing companies riding on the crest of the low-cost, high-quality and productivity wave, the recently published report by Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC) may prove to be a cause for worry.

Some of the new and emerging destinations from which the Indian IT outsourcers are anticipating competition are Ireland, Israel, Canada, the Philippines, South Africa, Mexico, Ukraine, Russia, the Czech Republic, Poland, China, Pakistan, Brazil and Argentina.

Is Indian IT getting expensive? Yes. And there is one more formidable rival. If you go through the report 'Offshore Romania 2003' prepared earlier this month by PAC. The report projects the East European country Romania as the ideal outsourcing alternative to India with costs almost 50 per cent less.

Not only is the cost of using and providing IT services in Romania much cheaper than in India, the report adds, the country is also home to an abundance of well-educated and highly-skilled workers who better understand Western European culture rather than their Asian counterparts. Thus, the answer for Indian companies is to site their operations in those countries and use their worker skills.

The PAC report points out that the cost of employing a recently-qualified graduate from an approved specialist university is estimated at $6,500 a year, while experienced project managers could be recruited for between $21,500 and $32,000.

'Strategic Review 2003' says India has so far been more competitive cost-wise than its closest rivals - Ireland, Canada and South Africa. The average IT employee cost per year in India is $5,880 compared to Ireland ($28,000), Israel ($25,000), Canada ($28,174) and South Africa ($18,000). However, IT employee costs in Romania are substantially less at $2,360.

While Romania seems attractive in terms of lower costs, some issues need sorting out. IT spending in Romania is the lowest in the region. E-commerce is proscribed by lack of legislation.

But, the industry's enthusiasm is buoyed by the government support. The government's IT Vision for Romania is encapsulated in the following: Romania should aspire to become the 'Internet hub' for the Black Sea region. The Romanian IT industry will be leading regional supplier of Internet-based services, specialised software, and contract manufacturing by 2010 by leveraging national competitive advantages...

"An effective public-private partnership in IT sector will assure a competitive and consistent rules-based business environment, inflows of FDI [foreign direct investment] and promotion of Romania as a centre of IT excellence." Goals: "Romania should increase its IT industry exports from the existing level of $630 million in 2000 to $1 billion by 2004, $4 billion by 2007 and a target of $10 billion by 2010."

These are ambitious plans against which India is bracing itself for future competition. Curiously, the Indian IT industry do not seem overtly worried by the emergence of these new outsourcing destinations. All recent research and analyst reports as well as Nasscom's in-house research, based on customer interactions, indicate that India will remain the most preferred outsourcing destination status in the coming years.

India's strong value proposition in terms of quality and productivity advantages to the tune of 25 to 30 per cent coupled with cost (60-75 per cent) and customer satisfaction (85 per cent) are key factors for making India an attractive outsourcing destination.

For example, the US banking, finance and insurance services sector has received productivity gains of 15 to 20 percent, and customer satisfaction of almost 85 per cent due to offshoring to India resulting in saving of the order of $6 to 8 billion in the last four years.

In terms of global competitiveness, the following table indicates India's competitive advantage

Novamedia European Gaming & Lottery Files: "Romania", by Rob van der Gaast
Internet Casino operator - Danube Casino (www.danubecasino.com)

Nicolae Sfetcu started some years ago with its own business on Internet, first as a freelancer specialized in web design, translation and Internet marketing and, beginning with last year, he set up his own company, Multimedia SRL. The internet maverick and this year’s award winner of the prestigious ‘Business Initiative Directions, WQC International Star Award, Gold Category Paris 2003’ tells his story in how he started his internet imperium and his internet casino www.danubecasino.com: “The beginning of the history of the Danube Casino can be located long time ago, and it is quite interesting, I think. When I was a student, about twenty years ago, I started to like two games: poker, and bridge. They were very pleasant days those days. During those years I became one of the best specialists in poker and bridge; I have never considered that poker, as well as bridge, are games, because in games you need luck, but for bridge or poker the luck plays a secondary role. I can write many books about the rituals of the nights spent playing these games, with many spectators behind us and that ended every time with a party organized by the winner. It was then when I started not to sleep the nights, and I kept this habit till our days, even if, for different reasons.”

“In those years I became one of the first presidents of a bridge club in Romania, but after I graduated from college I finished playing games, too.”

“I specialized in Internet business services. So, helped by my previous experience in Internet marketing, and being advantaged by the fact that I know very well the psychology of the gamblers, I had some successful marketing campaign for online casinos and affiliates that want to promote their own sponsored links through their websites or advertisements in my own network. I have to tell you that I developed, in time, one of the most complex Romanian integrated network of Internet resources for advertising and dissemination of information, named Teleactivities Network, that includes thousands of websites, web forums, directories and links, mailing lists and newsletters, e-zines, webrings, a.s.o. After such a marketing campaign, it was one of my customer that gave me the idea to imply more directly in the online gambling worlds. I already had my own gambling portal, www.online-casinos.ro. So I thought of starting my own online casino Danube Casino. Why this name? Because all my life I enjoyed the neighborhood of Danube and its beautiful landscapes. You can consider this name as an act of fealty for this river (I dedicated it a whole section in my website for the county where I live, Mehedinti”.

The first Romanian online casino was launched on June 25th, 2003. Danube Casino has as partner Windows Casino, one of the top 10 online casinos in the world, legally licensed and fully insured, certified by Safe Bet and approved by Electronic Gaming Commission. Windows Casino is the winner of numerous international prizes, including Online Gaming Awards 2002, for: Best Video Poker, Best Blackjack, Fairest Casino, Best Promotions, Best Online Casino.

Danube Casino offers over 125 different games (roulette, blackjack, poker, slots, video poker, baccarat, craps, etc.), according to the European and American standards. The gamblers have the possibility, besides the regular prizes, to obtain extra prizes, too, consisting in a trip to Monte Carlo, a brand new Ferrari, or other promotional materials.

In order to be able to play online, first, a deposit in the casino count has to be made. All transactions are in USD. Payments can be made either by credit cards, or through specialized services for the online processing of the money (NETeller, Firepay, Stormpay, Western Union, etc.).

The gamblers that reach the Danube Casino site have the possibility to be informed on the best game ways and strategies, but also learn the rules of the games by appealing to the casino games guides. Multimedia SRL and Windows Casino assure the technical support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

There are specific Romanian laws for gambling, however none makes special references to online gambling.

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