One out of eleven people from Cluj is currently working in the IT sector and Cluj employs 13.8% of the total IT workforce in Romania – reveals the Cluj IT market report, released on the 8^th of December in Cluj-Napoca, by ARIES Transilvania (the local office of the Romanian Association for Electronics and Software Industry). 1235 companies from Cluj have participated to the market research and a selected number of entrepreneurs have been interviewed. Cluj Napoca has won over the years the title of software development and R&D hub of Romania, holding the 2^nd position in the national rank of IT business turnovers.

“Cluj IT Market Report 2017” is a study issued by ARIES Transilvania in partnership with iTech Transilvania Cluster and Cluj-Napoca Municipality. During her opening speeh, Ms. Bianca Muntean – Executive Director of ARIES Transilvania and of iTech Transilvania Cluster, emphasizes the importance of placing Cluj-Napoca on the map of European Innovation and of Global Digital Hubs.

1235 companies from Cluj have participated to the market research and a selected number of entrepreneurs have been interviewed. Cluj Napoca has won over the years the title of software development and R&D hub of Romania, holding the 2^nd position in the national rank of IT business turnovers.

Cluj IT Market Challenges

According to the recently released report, CLUJ IT companies face a set of new challenges: larger SME’s companies claim difficulties on finding adequate specialized work force (48%); smaller companies face obstacles in contracting new customers (20%); the general IT market is highly competitive therefore hard to stay on the market (10%); and the legislative context is slowing down the organic development of the IT companies (10%).

Cluj IT software products. Technologies. Directions.

About 36% from the total Cluj IT market turnover come from the sales of business software products, while 26% resulted from banking & finance software products , while other 8% from commerce & retail software products.

Another important finding of the 2017 CLUJ IT market Report is that 13% of the respondent companies use Java Script technologies, while 10% use .NET technologies and 5% use different cloud technologies.

Around 40% of the companies have a great appetite for developing IoT solutions. The future involvement of the software development companies with VR technologies reveals a mass of 28%. Artificial Intelligence is tackled by 22% of the software companies who answered the questionnaire. An interesting point is that of the 6% IT companies whose representatives declared to be interested in working on biotechnology projects.

Cluj IT Forecasts for 2018

It is generally agreed that the local IT market will continue to grow. In fact the market has constantly grown in the last 5 years. In the context where 58% of the respondent companies estimate that the total workforce will remain about the same, 39% agree on the fact that total turnover will grow by 10% and 41% consider that the profits will also grow with 10%.

With a same human resource basis, the entrepreneurs and managers of the local IT companies consider that subtle changes will occur at the level of specializations, innovative technologies intake and competencies development.

How Cluj IT Entrepreneurs See the Local Market in 5 Years

The wealth of data shared through the 2017 Cluj IT Market Report issued by ARIERS Transilvania in partnership with the local Municipality and the iTech Transilvania Cluster reveals many aspects about the current market state. Nevertheless, what interests us most is whether the local IT entrepreneurs have a vision about what will happen in the next 5 years.

1. Due to limited human resources, the wages in Cluj IT sector will continue to follow a steady growth by about 10-12% per year.
2. The development of teams outside the city will continue as a trend, for the cost is by 20% lower.
3. Tha added value generated by the local IT community is estimated to double.
4. A number of business exists are on their way. The buyers are interested in a few local products and local companies.
5. Deeper specialization will continue in the areas of sectors like automotive and life sciences technologies
6. Software and IT outsourcing will be maintained for it still records profit margins of 18-28%
7. In parallel, entrepreneurs are set to establish R&D project with the aim of launching own software products

Codespring team is part of the local ecosystem since 19 years. On the occasion of the launching of the market report, the local media also had an interview with our CEO – Mr. Szelyes Levente. As he pointed out, even if the companies having headquarters in Bucharest seem to be advantaged by the context of the capital city, Cluj IT companies win from the fact that they have been forced to orient their efforts towards the European and US markets. This often translates into improved competencies and working with newer technologies.

For more information and insights on the CLUJ IT market, you are welcome to contact us directly.