IT and Software Development

Why Invest in the Czech Republic

In today’s society modern information and communication technologies are considered to be a decisive factor in economic and social development. This is in large part due to the fact that such technologies make it possible to overcome the obstacles of distance and unfavourable geographical location. The dynamism of development and the scope of operation show that they play an indispensable role in society.

The Czech Republic is one of Europe’s top locations for offshoring and outsourcing of IT services. Repeatedly recognized by various researchers this fact is confirmed by the strong inflow of high-value-added projects of the world’s top IT companies and is fueled by the country’s tradition of excellence in technical fields. The list of already successful investors in the country involves Microsoft, Skype, Sun Microsystems, Monster Technologies, SAP, DHL, TietoEnator, Hewlett-Packard, Computer Associates, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, SolarWindsand IBM. Furthermore IT companies with Czech origins are renowned worldwide for their products and services (AVG Technologies, Certicon, Unicorn, Y-SOFT, 2N, CN-Group, e-Fractal, Mycroft Mind and others). Despite being one of the most mature IT markets in the CEE region, the Czech Republic still offers plenty of growth potential.

“A country’s competitiveness depends on its people and Honeywell has found the talent it needs here – innovative, skilled and dedicated people. This is why we have made the Czech Republic a key research, development and manufacturing hub in Central Europe.”

• Jaroslav Doležal, Honeywell National Executive for the Czech Republic

Facts

• Location in the centre of Europe, Gateway to both eastern and western markets, less than 2 hours by air from most European destinations.
• Very good education system which serves as a base for future skills development and produces a very capable workforce and an advanced industry.
• High degree of attractiveness of the segment for investors (ranked first in 2009 among sectors most often receiving investments in the Czech Republic), presence of foreign capital in the segment.
• Creative, Innovative, Experienced, Flexible, Skilled, Reliable, Trusted and Loyal professionals at a „fraction of the cost“ of those in western economies.

“How can we characterize the Czech software engineer? Based on my experience working with international teams from China to the Bay Area I can say that Czech software engineers are as good as their western counterparts, regardless of whether we look at innovation, efficiency, discipline or experience, and they usually work harder. The roots of this healthy environment lie in the Czech Republic’s high-quality education system, which provides the heterogeneous skill sets of the country’s software engineers.”

• Radovan Janeček, VP, Software Engineering at CA

How Can We Help You

• collect/provide information about Czech ICT Sector - Investment potential (Education, R&D, Labor force, Office market, FDI Case studies)
• identify suitable sites and buildings
• finding a partner in the Czech Republic,  identification a JV/acquisition partner, sector database of suppliers
• liaise with government bodies, handle investment incentives  and  enable access to structural EU funds (Financial support program ICT and BSS - Financial subsidy for newly established or expanding entities of any size)
• provide aftercare services

R&D in the IT and Software Development

By its research, development, and science achievements the Czech Republic calls upon the traditions of developed countries, in which those factors have been always the established cultural value. The Czech Republic is home to a number of noteworthy research institutes and universities that have achieved many results and awards in the field of Information and Communication Technologies:

Czech Technical University, Prague

Faculty of Electrical Engineering - Department of Cybernetics is aimed at high-quality research in artificial intelligence, machine perception, robotics, and biomedical engineering with the focus to multi-agent systems, machine learning, data mining, pattern recognition, knowledge-based systems, medical data processing and collaborative robotics (Google: Image-based search, security, 3 Google awards)

Faculty of Information Technology - Research focus on computer science, computer engineering, software engineering, information technology, neural networks

Charles University, Prague

Institute for Theoretical Computer Science - The subject of the centre’s research activities comprises methods, algorithms, and structures of theoretical computer science and their applications in information technologies and data mining; Projects in industrial, governmental, EU programmes;

University of Economics, Prague

Faculty of Informatics and Statistics - IT Research - IT Management methods and models, Service Science, Knowledge Engineering, Information Management, ISO Standards (ISO/IEC JTC1 SC7), IT Industry Research (Statistics) - Human Resources in ICT, Impact of ICT on the Czech Republic

Masaryk University, Brno

Faculty of Informatics - Research activities are concentrated particularly on a project dealing with issues of parallel and distributed computer systems; IBM Shared University Research Award 2008 (Web-scale Similarity Search in Multimedia Data); ISA Awards 2009  (Finalists in Mission-Critical Data)

University of Technology, Brno

Faculty of Information Technology - The scientific and research activities at the Faculty of Information Technology are aimed at current research areas concerning the theory, methods and applications of information technologies.

Technical University of Ostrava (VŠB)

Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - This faculty’s R&D potential comprises a key component of innovative activities in the Moravia-Silesia region as well as in the whole Czech Republic.

Top Country Locations in EMEA Region

Case Studies

Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems´s Czech branch is the company´s one of the largest development centres outside of the United States. This center came into being with Sun´s acquisition of original Czech company Netbeans in 1999 and is engaged primarily in development of applications in the Java language and environment.

Red Hat

Red Hat has established an important facility in Brno that is a significant part of the Company’s worldwide engineering structure that includes software development, quality engineering and program management. The number of employees working in Brno sub branch is still growing – at the end of 2009 there are 200 IT specialists here. For employees Red Hat offers education and a number of benefits which make the company attractive on employment market for many applicants.

Ness

Ness Czech is now one of the largest IT service and solution providers in the Czech Republic with over 400 employees in offices in Prague, Brno and Ostrava. The company’s long presence on the market and large number of successfully implemented projects rank Ness among the most experienced IT companies in the Moravia-Silesia region.

Department of Cybernetics - EU Centre of Excellence

Collaboration with Defense Industry CERDEC, U.S. Army:

• Distributed Planning and Coordination of Team-oriented Activities in a Dynamic Environment, subcontract provided to University of Edinburgh (2006-2008)
• Cooperative Adaptive Mechanism for Network Protection N62558-07-C-0001, subcontract provided to Masaryk University (2007)
• Modeling Individual, Collaborative and Adversarial Reflection in MAS (2005-2007)
• Reflective/Cognitive Agent in Distributed Decision Making (2004-2005)
• Modeling in Multi-agent Systems: A Technology Primer, (2004)

IT4Innovations - National Research Center for Extreme Computing

Project of three universities in the Moravia-Silesia region: Technical University of Ostrava, University of Ostrava and Silesian University within the Operational Programme Research and Development for Innovation (OPRDI), submitted to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport in June 2008. This concerns the establishment of a collaborative workplace for basic and applied research focused on the use of IT and its further development.

IT as a means of developing the following key areas:

• development of the information society
• innovative medicine and healthcare services
• support for advanced modern engineering

IT as a goal for developing methods and resources in informatics and computer mathematics.

The project is supported by the Moravia-Silesia regional administration within the context of building a European centre of information-technology development.

Top Projects

If you are interested to find out more about opportunities to invest in IT and Software Development in the Czech Republic, do not hesitate to contact us at fdi@czechinvest.org. You can also contact CzechInvest's foreign offices.