The Ukraine geopolitical crisis has reignited discussions about outsourcing risks and has raised concerns&nbsp; about safety of outsourcing operations in the country and outsourcing risk management in general. Prior to the crisis, Ukraine&rsquo;s IT outsourcing industry was booming, with 25% annual market growth and with a large talent pool of certified IT professionals and over 30,000 ICT graduates every year. With the conflict in Eastern Ukraine ongoing, many business leaders are asking their existing and potential outsourcing&nbsp;&nbsp; partners about the conditions on the ground in order to understand the current situation. 
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With the goal to clarify the situation and discuss the facts,<a href="http://www.iaop.org/"> IAOP (International Association of Outsourcing Professionals)</a> Chicago Chapter met on July 17th 2014 to discuss geopolitical risk management and Ukraine&rsquo;s current business climate. The meeting, held at <a href="http://www.depaul.edu">DePaul University</a>, featured a presentation and a panel discussion about Ukraine and best practices for writing outsourcing contracts. The Ukraine discussion was started with a presentation by Boris Kontsevoi, founder and president of Intetics Co, a leading global sourcing company with two development centers in Ukraine. 
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Kontsevoi&rsquo;s presentation is embedded below, and it can also be downloaded from the Intetics Co. website. The presentation takes a global approach to understanding geopolitical risk management. Geopolitical conflicts are not a new phenomenon in the IT Outsourcing industry and looking at past examples from other parts of the world helps to understand how to mitigate such risks. The presentation analyzes past geopolitical crises effects on IT outsourcing and discusses the importance of Internet as a vital globalization tool that makes outsourcing possible. From discussing past geopolitical conflicts such as the India-Pakistan border skirmishes, Kontsevoi evaluates the effect they had on some of the country&rsquo;s biggest IT industry companies. He also compares the effect of the current Ukraine crisis on its IT industry, discusses the current risks and opportunities, and suggests a few consequences of the conflict in the future. Overall, throughout the presentation it becomes evident that many companies do business chiefly with their chosen IT outsourcing provider, rather than the country. The recovering stock prices of outsourcing providers with development centers in Ukraine Ukrainian seem to suggest the same. 
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<a href="https://www.slideshare.net/intetics/geopolitical-risk-management" target="_blank" title="Ukraine Crisis: Geopolitical Risk Management in IT Outsourcing">Ukraine Crisis: Geopolitical Risk Management in IT Outsourcing</a> presentation can be viewed on <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/intetics/geopolitical-risk-management" target="_blank" title="Ukraine Crisis: Geopolitical Risk Management in IT Outsourcing">SlideShare</a>.

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The Ukraine geopolitical crisis has reignited discussions about outsourcing risks and has raised concerns&nbsp; about safety of outsourcing operations in the country and outsourcing risk management in general. Prior to the crisis, Ukraine&rsquo;s IT outsourcing industry was booming, with 25% annual market growth and with a large talent pool of certified IT professionals and over 30,000 ICT graduates every year. With the conflict in Eastern Ukraine ongoing, many business leaders are asking their existing and potential outsourcing&nbsp;&nbsp; partners about the conditions on the ground in order to understand the current situation.

[Contribution from member] Doing business with the partner, not the country: Business conditions in Ukraine and beyond

American Chamber of Commerce (ACC) and uSupport project will cooperate in promotion of Ukraine&rsquo;s IT-outsourcing and BPO industry. The parties agreed to cooperate on purpose of creation required conditions for sustainable development and growth of the IT industry of Ukraine, improve the investment climate in IT industry of Ukraine, deem it necessary to enter into this Memorandum of Cooperation.

To achieve the goals of the Memorandum, the Parties (within their authority and according to the current legislation in Ukraine) cooperate in the following areas:

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	mutual exchange with information in IT industry, publication of information about common events on web resources of both parties, and on other issues of common interest;
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	exchange with experience and materials related to IT industry, ability to use authors&rsquo; analytical publications of the project and sharing it with Chamber Members;
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	preparing and organizing special events, including business meetings, seminars, forums, conferences, round tables on IT issues, etc.;
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	other types of cooperation by mutual consent of the Parties.
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The American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine (Chamber) is the most active and effective non-government, non-profit business association operating in Ukraine. One of the principal activities of the Chamber is to represent the foreign investment community as well as to facilitate the entrance of potential new investors into this market. The Chamber advocates on behalf of its member companies who are from more than 50 nations across the globe not only to the Ukrainian government, but also to all other governments, which are economic partners of Ukraine, on matters of trade, commerce, and economic reforms.

The Chamber cooperates closely with the Ukrainian authorities to improve the business environment and attract domestic and foreign investment into the economy, advocate for predictable, transparent, equitable and stable rules of doing business and promotes Ukraine&#39;s integration into the larger global community. 
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uSupport project is a web catalog created to support the IT branch of Ukraine. The main tasks are: to gather the most exact information about the spectrum of IT outsourcing companies of Ukraine and the services they provide, and to provide the most precise information about the ІТ potential of Ukraine in terms of export oriented services. More than 100 IT-outsourcing and business process outsourcing companies (BPO) have registered in the catalog.

American Chamber of Commerce (ACC) and uSupport project will cooperate in promotion of Ukraine&rsquo;s IT-outsourcing and BPO industry. The parties agreed to cooperate on purpose of creation required conditions for sustainable development and growth of the IT industry of Ukraine, improve the investment climate in IT industry of Ukraine, deem it necessary to enter into this Memorandum of Cooperation.

American Chamber of Commerce (ACC) and uSupport project signed the Memorandum of Cooperation

The national statistic service of Ukraine reports 15,676 economically active firms as having IT and telecommunications as their primary field activity.

The majority of them - more than 6,000 - are registered in Kyiv, and the number of IT professionals working in Kyiv is more than 17,500. The total number of IT professionals working in Ukraine is more than 200,000, and 15,000 professionals are supplied to the industry every year by university graduates.

At the same time, the country faces a large emigration problem of qualified IT professionals. Valeriy Omelchenko, Head of the Parliamentary committee of information and IT technologies, says the preventive measure for this issue can be the implementation of a national project called &ldquo;Technopolis.&rdquo;

The MP is confident that the Parliament of Ukraine can improve the environment for the IT industry by accepting the corresponding legislative acts.

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The national statistic service of Ukraine reports 15,676 economically active firms as having IT and telecommunications as their primary field activity.&nbsp;The majority of them - more than 6,000 - are registered in Kyiv, and the number of IT professionals working in Kyiv is more than 17,500. The total number of IT professionals working in Ukraine is more than 200,000, and 15,000 professionals are supplied to the industry every year by university graduates.&nbsp;

More than 15,000 firms in Ukraine work in the IT industry

&quot;Invest Ukraine&quot; Governmental agency &amp; Deloitte presented analytics on the IT market of Ukraine.

The report mentions that, driven by the availability of a large skilled labor pool as well as relatively low personnel costs, Ukraine was the fastest growing IT market in the whole CEE region before the financial crisis.

Developments in the coming years will show whether it will regain this status. Nevertheless, Ukraine&rsquo;s IT industry is still underinvested in many areas. The low level of IT expenditures and low share of IT services and software sales in the total market value means a high potential for further growth.

Though this report can be treated as outdated, it provides a broad outlook and a plethora of information for the proper understanding of Ukraine&rsquo;s IT industry potential.

Please find the full report <a href="http://investukraine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/IT-sector_PRINT_www.pdf">available here</a>.

&quot;Invest Ukraine&quot; Governmental agency &amp; Deloitte presented analytics on the IT market of Ukraine.&nbsp;

The report mentions that, driven by the availability of a large skilled labor pool as well as relatively low personnel costs, Ukraine was the fastest growing IT market in the whole CEE region before the financial crisis.&nbsp;

"Invest Ukraine" Governmental agency & Deloitte - report on the IT market of Ukraine

In spite of the country’s recent political turbulence, Ukraine has seen its IT service and software R&amp;D capacities grow every year by double-digit figures. From Cisco, to Oracle, to Rakuten, to Samsung, more than a hundred global major tech firms conduct R&amp;D activities in Ukraine, while an array of local IT outsourcing companies of all types and sizes serve a growing number of clients worldwide.With 200,000 programmers forecast by 2020, the Ukrainian IT sector is fuelling the development of the middle class, which aspires to a better life in a democratic and non-corrupt country – as reflected by the active role of many people from this industry in the country’s strive for reform.In partnership with leading local and international industry associations,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.uadn.net/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(245, 149, 71); background-color: transparent;">Ukraine Digital News</a>&nbsp;and its partner&nbsp;<a href="http://aventurescapital.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(245, 149, 71); background-color: transparent;">AVentures Capital</a>&nbsp;are releasing the first comprehensive&nbsp;<a href="https://www.uadn.net/files/ua_hightech.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(245, 149, 71); background-color: transparent;">report</a>&nbsp;on the Ukrainian IT outsourcing and software R&amp;D capacity.In addition to a complete set of data, including detailed analysis by industry segments and regions, this 210-page report features fascinating cases of international software R&amp;D collaboration – for example, how a relatively small company from Eastern Ukraine brilliantly solved mobile virtualisation tasks assigned by a South Korean research institute, while disruptive UK fintech and healthtech startups have found industry and technology expertise in a company from Lviv (Lvov), in the western part of the country.Also included are testimonials from a variety of Western companies using the services of Ukrainian programmers, the analysis of Ukrainian experts on the key global market trends. In an exclusive interview, Dmytro Shymkiv, former Microsoft Ukraine GM and currently Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration, shares his views on the current reforms and their impact on the IT industry.Yet the report speaks frankly about all issues. Top legal experts have contributed advice to international companies on how to secure their IP rights and avoid pitfalls when drafting contracts with Ukrainian counterparts, while Deloitte Ukraine has offered a detailed account of the present taxation system.Incredible but&nbsp;true, this report was&nbsp;viewed or downloaded&nbsp;nearly&nbsp;23,000 times in the 24 hours following its release. To download your free copy, please click&nbsp;<a href="https://www.uadn.net/files/ua_hightech.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(245, 149, 71); background-color: transparent;">here</a>.

In addition to a complete set of data, including detailed analysis by industry segments and regions, this 210-page report features fascinating cases of international software R&amp;D collaboration – for example, how a relatively small company from Eastern Ukraine brilliantly solved mobile virtualization tasks assigned by a South Korean research institute, while disruptive UK fintech and healthtech startups have found industry and technology expertise in a company from Lviv (Lvov), in the western part of the country

[Contribution from member] Doing business with the partner, not the country: Business conditions in Ukraine and beyond

www.usupport.in.ua

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American Chamber of Commerce (ACC) and uSupport project signed the Memorandum of Cooperation

More than 15,000 firms in Ukraine work in the IT industry