Faced with a boom in demand for nearshore services over the last few months, the Pentalog Group has decided to open its 5th production unit in Romania. Pentalog has chosen the city of Cluj, the most important university centre of the country after Bucharest. Cluj boasts the presence of such companies as the Emerson Group, Siemens, Nokia, HP, Endava, Iquest, Continental etc.

Pentalog has been facing a considerable increase in market demand for its European nearshore services over the last few weeks. The group had 630 employees at the end of January after having recruited more than 200 people in 2010 and had until now planned a similar staff increase for 2011. But the number of new contracts (8 new clients and 11 projects) signed during the first 6 weeks of 2011, as well as the opening of new negotiations have determined the company to completely change its plans and to aim at doubling its recruitment capacity by opening its 5th Romanian production unit. This is the 7th unit worldwide (other Pentalog offices are located in Vietnam and Moldova), in addition to the four commercial offices in Orléans, Bucharest, Frankfurt and Tel Aviv.

"We are currently looking into the reasons for this acceleration in demand and are considering two possibilities" declared Frédéric Lasnier, the company CEO. "The events which have recently unfolded on the southern banks of the Mediterranean have brought us two customers who used to collaborate with Moroccan and Tunisian companies. Geopolitical conditions of the nearshore market have witnessed a harsh change and we have had to further postpone the opening of an office in the Maghreb". But the reason which seems even more convincing is related to a growing lack of IT human resources in Europe, and especially in France. Market-leading companies are now finding it increasingly difficult to recruit staff, which offers a glimpse into what is happening in the second and third tiers and particularly in French IT companies. According to Frédéric Lasnier, we are now returning to the situation of 2006-2007 when the demand for nearshore services could mainly be accounted for by capacity-related tensions.

Pentalog, the leading player in the field of IT consulting and services in Romania and Moldova (the two neighbouring countries speak the same language), which employ more than 500 out of the 630 people working for the group, has chosen the city of Cluj, the second Romanian university centre after Bucharest, and is planning on recruiting between 100 and 150 people in this unit, based on group practices, over the next 2 or 3 years. If we add this potential to that of other branch offices, the annual recruitment capacity of the group could reach 400 people as early as 2011. The early recruitment stages are entrusted to PeopleCentric, a strategic asset of the Group in the recruitment field which leads the Romanian IT recruitment market and is about to become a leader in France, as well. In these two countries, PeopleCentric estimates an annual recruitment capacity of 1,000 employees, which is currently used at half-potential. Let's add the fact that 18% of the 21 million Romanians speak French, which thus places Romania well ahead of Mediterranean countries in terms of the number of French speakers. The city of Cluj, formerly called Klausenburg, boasts a rich Germanic culture and will thus be a considerable asset on the German market.

Through these new means, Pentalog intends to remain the European nearshore leader and to support the growth in demand on its two major markets, France and Germany.