BrazilPwC seeking 350 professionals for new Shared Delivery Centre in Ukraine
Professional services firm PwC has opened a shared delivery centre in Lviv, its third in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The centre, which is the first of its kind in Ukraine – in that it will offer high value added professional services, is set to employ over 350 professionals.
As firms look at avenues to improve their performance, one emerging way to cuts costs and streamline processes is the outsourcing of tasks to shared services centers (SSCs). These centers, often in countries with lower labour costs but adequate talent pools, perform operational tasks – like accounting, IT, payroll, and human resources – utilised by multiple departments in organisations.
Professional services firms are increasingly opening these types of service centres in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Deloitte recently launched an IT services centre in Bucharest, Romania, drawing on the local talent pool to deliver SAP solutions, as well as other digital services. In December of last year, Accenture followed suit in Romania, opening a business process outsourcing (BPO) centre in Brasov. The country is becoming a hub for business process outsourcing – primarily serving clients in Europe – and is one of the top 20 BPO countries in the world, according to research by A.T. Kearney.
Now, Big Four professional services firm PwC has announced the opening of a shared delivery centre (SDC) in Lviv, Ukraine. The SDC plans to employ over 350 staff members, and will support PwC in the delivery of its audit, advisory, and tax services.
The Lviv location is the third shared services center that PwC has established in the CEE region, including PwC’s shared delivery centre in Katowice, Poland, which employs 1,700 people and serves 50 countries in the firm’s network.
Higher value
Though there are already a number of shared service centres in the Western Ukrainian city, the new PwC centre is, according to the firm, the first one to carry out high value added professional services. “Opening the Service Delivery Centre in Lviv is a key element of our development strategy, not just in Ukraine but across CEE,” said Richard Pollard, Country Managing Partner of PwC Ukraine. “The location was selected after thorough analysis. Lviv met all our expectations: access to highly-educated local talent, convenient location, open business environment, significant opportunities for innovation, not to mention the growing role of Ukraine in the regional business community.”
Cross-border cooperation will be a large part of the centre’s operations, helping Ukraine build stronger ties in the European and global business community. The centre will also help advance Ukraine’s regional development goals, providing over 350 professional jobs, excellent working conditions, and good educational and career opportunities for young talent.
“We are very glad to have PwC here, offering these kinds of employment opportunities,” remarked Oleg Synyutka, Governor of the Lviv region. “For our part, we will continue to support the company and will be happy to initiate a dialogue between business and local educational system to adjust the curricula in a way that it supports a competitive labor market.”
PwC has appointed Iryna Maksymenko, formerly the CFO of PwC Ukraine for 11 years, as the SDC Director. She is responsible for managing the centre and its recruitment process. The Lviv SDC is located at 111a Shevchenko Street, and is currently accepting applications from students, graduates, and experienced professionals specialising in finance, IT, payroll, data analysis, and software development.
