Today was oficially announced an opening of the first audit Shared Service Center in Poland. The Center, created by PricewaterhouseCoopers, was presented during a conference in the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIiIZ) seat in Warsaw. The conference was attended by authorities of PwC, PAIiIZ and Katowice mayor Piotr Uszok. The SSC, which operates in Katowice since 1st of December 2009, supports PwC’s audit services among Central and Eastern Europe countries. After the four months of activity, the Center hires 50 employees and services four markets – Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic. A further expansion plans to include CEE and Western Europe countries and hire about 250 people.
- Planned employment 2010-2012
– beginning of 2010: 36
– end of 2010: 116
– end of 2011: 179
– end of 2012: 251
The PwC’s Center will help to optimize the audit services, control and increase the effectivity of business processes. “I am glad that Katowice was chosen as the seat of our Shared Service Center. We are strongly convinced Poland offers an extremely high potential in the area of service centers developments which is possible, among others, thanks to qualified human assets. Except Katowice and the region, our services will be mostly focused on the Polish market as the main beneficiary” – said Paweł Pepliński, Partner in the PwC’s Audit department in Poland.
- Why PwC chose Poland and Katowice:
– relatively good economic position
– Polish market is the biggest “costumer” of the Center
– the biggest agglomeration in Poland
– availability of high qualified employees
– relatively low competition in the field of service centers
– personal experience of PwC – the local office in Katowice exists since 2006
“Katowice is in a phase of rapid growth. It helps to improve the City’s attractivity. Moreover, among our assets are highly developed business environment, transport infrastructure which expands constantly and large choice of spending a leisure time” – says mayor Piotr Uszok.
The Center as well as the regional PwC’s office will be located in Katowice Business Point.
PricewaterhouseCoopers is based in Poland since 1990. The company hires about 1 100 employees in six cities: Gdańsk, Katowice, Kraków, Poznań, Wrocław and Warsaw.