Outsourcing to Central and Eastern Europe: A Data-Informed Review

Central & Eastern Europe: A premium outsourcing hub or just a cost-cutters' paradise?

Multinational brands invest millions into outsourcing their customer operations. Yet, so many buyers remain trapped in a frustrating loop: they switch providers, chase the lowest hourly rates, or over-index on offshore regions, only to find that CSAT and quality drop and the cost of fixing failures completely eats away at their projected savings.

The mistake isn’t outsourcing; it’s evaluating location and talent through a pure line-item lens rather than operational reality.

This session explores what it actually takes to build a high-performing, resilient nearshore operation in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). It moves beyond the generic regional labels to examine how to leverage CEE’s unique mix of highly educated talent, deep technical capabilities, and undeniable cultural proximity to maximize the value generated per dollar spent.

Three expert perspectives

• Joel Walker (Co-founder, The Knowledge Group) opens the discussion with a pragmatic reality check for buyers. Drawing from his experience managing global procurement operations, he unpacks the “don’t get sacked” hypothesis—why risk-averse buyers repeatedly default to predictable, high-volume regions even when nearshore locations offer superior outcomes.
• David Rickard (Partner, Everest Group) brings the macroeconomic and analytical lens. Based on his experience at Microsoft and Everest Group, David breaks down why CEE has evolved into a premium, multilingual tech-delivery hub. He addresses where technology and human empathy must intersect and how to look at the total cost of support rather than just upfront FTE pricing.
• Anna Mazur (Project Manager, Simply Contact) delivers the frontline operational reality. Managing multilingual support teams across five distinct European footprint locations, Anna shares how CEE agents navigate complex front- and back-office processes and why operational flexibility, shared accountability, and a result-oriented workforce are the true drivers of a successful vendor-buyer partnership.

What we discuss

• Total cost of support vs. hourly rates: Why focusing strictly on cheap labor can destroy first-contact resolution (FCR), and how highly productive, result-oriented teams drastically lower your long-term operational costs.
• The talent spectrum: Navigating the specific regional strengths across the CEE landscape—from high-empathy, multilingual front-office support in Poland and Romania, to complex, analytical back-office problem solving in Ukraine and Moldova.
• The limits of AI in multilingual hubs: Where real-time translation and automated voice technology are creeping into customer service, and why cultural awareness, nuance, and human empathy remain entirely irreplaceable for high-value interactions.
• True operational resilience: A look at how modern delivery centers have completely re-engineered disaster recovery, maintaining unbroken uptime and continuity even in the face of major geopolitical and infrastructure challenges.
• Moving from vendor to partner: Why real accountability means working with providers who proactively optimize your processes and challenge your system design, rather than passive order-takers waiting for instructions.

Fill out the form to access the full recording and discover how to align the right talent, the right location, and the right technology to transform your global service delivery mix.