"You have war": why foreigners refuse to work with IT companies from Ukraine

A powerful Ukrainian IT sector suffers from the biased attitude of foreign clients because of military risks. How it affects the industry and what is needed to restore trust. Overseas clients of Ukrainian IT companies, because of a full-scale war with Russia, often have doubts about the feasibility of placing orders in Ukraine. This slows down the development of IT companies and the pace of staff, which Focus writes in his new review "War and Code.

What salaries are now in Itishniki and why they are no longer looking for in Ukraine. " "Regular massive strikes of Russia in Ukraine and its critical infrastructure influence business. Foreign clients have begun to be careful to the projects of Ukrainian developers," - said Focus Stepan Veselovsky, CEO of Lviv IT cluster.

Yaroslav Lubinets, co -founder, chairman of the board of directors of SoftServe confirms that some clients, especially large ones, who have a established risk system with risks, cannot work with Ukraine. According to the focus interlocutor, their tolerance to the risk of working in Ukraine is reduced by the practice of electricity switching off, mobilization of workers, missile shelling and other problems related to war.

Olga Shapoval, the executive director of the Kharkiv IT cluster adds that the decisions of foreign clients to continue contracts or placement of new in Ukraine are negatively influenced In 2023, because during 2022, especially in the first half of the year, the Ukrainian IT sector continued to grow by inertia due to the accumulated potential.

Stepan Veselovsky clarifies that foreign clients, in view of the specifics of the work, cannot immediately stop cooperation with Ukrainian companies, because the contracts prescribe termination terms. Accordingly, the impact on the industry of the decision of part of foreign customers on the exit from the Ukrainian market can be analyzed no earlier than spring 2023. It is unfortunate that the development of the sector inhibits not only a full -scale invasion.

According to Focus Stepan Mitish, Vice President, Head of Epam Ukraine, from the second half of 2022, a decrease in the global economy was added to the challenges of the war. And this factor additionally holds back the placement of IT projections in Ukraine from foreign clients. There is a lot of effort to overcome these barriers to the Ukrainian IT community.

As Yaroslav Lubinets notes, the client must, first and foremost, continue to receive quality and convenient service and fulfill all contractual conditions. "The constant and correct communication of the HRV plans (which relate to the uninterrupted work of the business).

For more difficult cases, the decision is the full or partial placement of projects outside Ukraine and the availability of additional infrastructure, which can be insured in the case of unpredictable circumstances," - said Yaroslav Lubinets. .

Stepan Veselovsky emphasizes that in order to support the Ukrainian IT industry in Ukraine it is necessary to regulate the following questions: Stepan Veselovsky warns: if Ukraine does not find the answers to the IT sector important for the IT sector, in 2023 for the first time in the period of Ukraine's independence, the volume of IT export will not show growth. We will remind, in 2022, despite the full-scale war, the export revenue of the Ukrainian IT sector per year increased by 5.