5. Advanced services for business

Timişoara had already established its reputation as a computer technologies hub in the 1970s, when the first Romanian computers were developed and mass-manufactured in the city. It now features strongly on the software offshoring map with international and local companies such as Continental Automotive Romania, SSI Schaefer, ACI Worldwide, Capgemini, Alcatel - Lucent, IBM, Lasting, Saguaro, QCT, Berg Computers, Infotim, Flextronics and OCE all active in the city. With over 500 relevant companies and almost 9 thou employees, Timişoara's ICT market is the second largest in Romania after Bucharest.

Timişoara is ready now for a third wave of corporations coming from financial and business services sectors, such as banking, real estate and healthcare, as the city moves up the BPO value chain. Companies such as KPMG, PWC and P&G are already present in the city. In October 2007 Bosch acquired Business Relations, a 150-employee strong leading Romanian supplier of communication centre services, whose customers operate in the telecommunications, publishing, commerce and public services sectors. Wipro, the Indian service company, took over a part of Alcatel Lucent outsourced services.

Automotive sector is also attracting new value added activities in the IT field. One example is Yazaki Engineering, located in Timişoara and acting in the automotive cockpit cluster software development, same as Continental Automotive Romania (the former Siemens VDO).