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WWW.HITA.HU
Hungary:
A proven
location for
ICT investments
BUDAPEST, 2012
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Table of Contents
1. HITA PRESIDENTIAL FOREWORD 2
2. INTRODUCTION 2
2.1. The IT market in Hungary 3
2.1.1. The hardware market 4
2.1.2. Software production 6
2.2. IT Services 8
2.2.1. IT Outsourcing 9
2.2.2. The IT cloud market 9
2.3. Telecommunications 10
2.4. Shared Service Centres and R&D Centres 12
2.5. Datacentres 16
2.6. IT exports 17
3. VISIONARIES OF IT FROM HUNGARY 18
4. INNOVATIVE HUNGARIAN BREED ICT COMPANIES 18
4.1. Animation/Motion capture 19
4.2. Cloud services 19
4.3. E-commerce/E-payment 20
4.3.1. Mobile Application development 20
4.4. Navigation Software 21
4.5. System Software 21
4.6. Security 21
4.7. Text and speech recognition 21
4.8. Web development/content management 22
5. INTERNATIONAL AWARDS 23
6. INCENTIVES, SUBSIDIES AND PROGRAMS (HITA) 23
7. HUMAN RESOURCES 23
8. ANALYSIS OF GENERAL COMPETITIVENESS 25
9. IT EDUCATION 28
9.1. Cooperation between higher education and private enterprises 30
10. REPRESENTATIVE ORGANIZATIONS 31
11. OUTSTANDING LOCATIONS OF KNOWLEDGE/SCIENCE PARKS 33
12. INNOVATION CLUSTERS IN HUNGARY 33
13. WHY INVEST IN HUNGARY? 35
WRITTEN BY:
IDC MAGYARORSZGI KFT.
1. HITA PRESIDENTIAL FOREWORD
Presidents Welcome
In a period of deep nancial and economic crisis, solutions that enable cor-
porations to overcome the hard times and stay on a growth path is more
challenging than ever. We rmly believe that this ambitious goal can only be
achieved by extending manufacturing, service and R&D operations in order to
prepare for an economic upturn. Investment decisions are always hard and
risky to make, which is the reason why the Hungarian Investment and Trade
Agency prepared this booklet for the decision makers of the ICT sector who
intend to step forward and overcome the crisis by investing in Hungary.
Despite the unfavourable business conditions, Hungary offers an ideal in-
vestment climate to foreign companies. The lower corporate income tax rate
of 10% is outstanding in the Central and Eastern European region and it is combined with a highly
developed infrastructure as well as qualied, relatively inexpensive labour force.
The foundation of the Hungarian Investment and Trade Agency (HITA), as of 1st January 2011, reects
the governments effort to further enhance investment promotion and trade development. As a govern-
mental body operating under the supervision of the Ministry for National Economy, it benets from the
synergies of close cooperation between central and local bodies of the Hungarian government.
The content of this booklet was prepared by the assistance of our investment promotion experts who
assist daily in the site selection processes conducted by foreign enterprises from all over the world.
Based on their experience, we could identify the hot topics that are the most relevant for making
investment decisions in the ICT sector.
For further information, we urge our readers to contact us as we are ready to provide customized
assistance to our clients. We thank you for your interest in our country and hope that our publication
will ease the hard task of making sound investment decisions.
Yours,
Ms. Erzsbet Dobos
President
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2. INTRODUCTION
Located in Central-Eastern Europe with an
excellent communications infrastructure and
well trained professionals, Hungary is the per-
fect location for investors scouting for loca-
tions of IT related operations on a global scale
or within the CEE region. The country offers
investors its highly trained and hard working
professionals and an extremely well built IT in-
frastructure designed to meet the needs of the
information era. As a member of the European
Union (EU) for almost a decade Hungary has a
proven track record of attracting foreign direct
investment (FDI) in the information technol-
ogy sector with companies like Ericsson, SAP-
Labs, EPAM-Systems, T-Systems, Huawei and
Lufthansa Systems. While nearshore and do-
mestic business opportunities have been real-
ized by many investors from the EU, investors
from outside the EU may also capitalize on
additional tangible benets of the countrys
EU membership like access to the common EU
market with nearly 500 million customers and
easy transfer of goods and services to other
EU countries.
2.1. The IT market in Hungary
According to IDC (International Data Corpora-
tion) the total European ICT market reached a
value of EUR 625.878 billion in 2011, which
represents about 4 % of the total European
GDP. The IT segment (consisting of hardware,
software and IT services) accounted for EUR
375.516 billion, while the telecommunications
market reached EUR 250.362 billion.
Hungary ranks for a number of years among the
top performers in the CEE region in the area of
IT spending per capita reaching EUR 216 in line
with the regions average. Companies and pub-
lic institutions in Hungary sustain the efforts to
close the GAP in the level of IT development with
the most developed EU markets, increasing the
share of ICT spending to 3.3% of the GDP in
2011, being the second highest level in the CEE
region behind fellow EU member country Czech
Republic. The Hungarian IT market represents
9.9% of the total CEE region and is the third
largest market in Central Europe.
According to IDC the Hungarian IT market has
proved to be quite resilient to the global and
local economic downturn declining only by
0.5% in 2011 compared to the previous year,
despite the economic crisis to reach a value of
EUR 2151.83 million. Hardware accounted for
50.0% of the total market while the software
segment gained a 21.5% share and services
made up the remaining 28.5%. The Hungarian
IT market is expected to continue its growing
trend reaching a CAGR
1
of 3.0% between 2012
and 2016 with improving growth possibilities
towards the end of the forecast period.
1. Figure Source: IDC, 2012
1 Compound annual growth rate
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2.1.1 The hardware market
In the past decade Hungary established itself as
one of the major IT device manufacturing coun-
tries on the globe. Companies like Samsung,
Flextronics, Huawei, Foxconn and RIM and Jabil
are the backbone of that performance. In 2011
the manufacturing of computers and communi-
cation equipment reached a value of EUR 17.05
billion which accounts for 17.8% of the GDP and
is almost 100% exported.
Households and businesses are transitioning
to mobile computing. Notebook sales sta-
bilized at 420.000 units in the past 3 years.
59.5% of Hungarian households own at least
one desktop computer and only 31% a note-
book and as such the notebook market is still
expected to grow by a CAGR of 3.65% until
2016. Hardware sales remain the key driver of
the Hungarian IT market, growing by a CAGR
of 4.7% until 2016.
The country is at the forefront of modern tech-
nology. The mobile handset penetration rate
resides at over 110% while enterprise applica-
tions such as smart metering are in a phase of
piloting or early adoption and are expected to
further increase the mobile penetration. 94.7%
of all households own at least one mobile de-
vice and this number is still growing by about 1
percentage point a year. New handset sales are
reaching 3.173 million in 2012 and the share of
smartphones is increasing from 2011s 36.9%
to 50.4% in 2012.
The newest innovative hardware technology,
media tablets, has gained widespread popu-
larity and the segments sales are doubling
year on year. According to IDC forecasts the
media tablet segment is going to overgrow
the traditional PC segment in the second half
of the decade, redening personal computing
we have known so far. The developed mobile
broadband infrastructure and the dropping
prices of tablets are facilitating the rapid adop-
tion of the technology. Beside international
vendors Hungarian company Concorde is
also in the race for the Hungarian tablet mar-
ket, holding the second position just behind
worldwide leader Apple. Concordes software
development, support and marketing are all
handled from Budapest. The leading OS in the
Hungarian market is Android and as such the
majority of software developers are focusing
on this particular OS. The share of Android will
reach 69.8% in 2012.
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2. Figure Source: IDC, 2012
3. Figure Source: IDC, 2012
4. Figure Source: OECD, 2011
2.1.2. Software production
The Hungarian software market reached EUR
463.22 million in 2011 which is an increase of
1.6% compared to the previous year. The share
of software in the Hungarian IT market has sur-
passed 20% which is considered as an indicator
for a highly developed IT market.
System software accounted for 29.4% of the
software market, its share increasing continuously
over the past years as datacentre infrastructure
management and virtualization have grown in
importance. The application development tools
market is also increasing in size as the country is
now host to several multinational software devel-
opment labs and the local software development
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industry, especially on mobile platforms, is also
increasing rapidly. Application development soft-
ware accounts for 18.9% of the total software
market. The business application segment, on the
other hand, is in a weaker position as most of the
Hungarian companies already have most of their
essential business software deployed. Addition-
ally, the years preceding 2012 involved very large
scale investments into CRM and business intelli-
gence systems at telco companies and nancial
institutions which are now completed.
After the crisis most companies are taking an ap-
proach that involves smaller deployment steps
contrary to gigantic projects, which was the case
before 2008/2009. Furthermore, cloud services
are also growing on the Hungarian market and
providers are already offering services which were
previously only available as packaged software,
like e-mail services or even fully edged enterprise
resource management systems.
5. Figure Source: IDC, 2012
6. Figure Source: IDC, 2012
2.2. IT Services
In 2011, the IT services market in Hungary to-
taled EUR 613.37 million, thus accounting for
28.6% of the total IT market in Hungary. In the
next ve years the IT services market in Hungary
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is expected to expand at a CAGR of 2.7% to total
EUR 700.33 million in 2016. The market for sup-
port and installation services is the largest within
the total IT Services market with 21.5% share.
Basic installation services are being increasingly
replaced by more complex systems integration
services that aim comprehensive business needs
and the modernization of IT infrastructures. Both
the development of enterprise networks and the
modernization of telco operators network infra-
structures contribute to the combined systems
and network integration spending, which thus
gives 20.7% of the IT services market in Hun-
gary. Spending on custom application develop-
ment services and application customization
services contributes with 19.4% to the IT servic-
es spending in Hungary. That spending is driven
primarily by the need for the implementation
and upgrade of ERP
2
and CRM
3
solutions not
only among large enterprises, but also increas-
ingly among small and medium size businesses.
Spending on such services increased well above
the average, by 4.4% in 2011.
2 ERP: Enterprise Resource Planning
3 Customer Relationship Management
7. Figure Source: IDC, 2012
2.2.1. IT Outsourcing
The Hungarian IT outsourcing market is by far
the most advanced in the Central European re-
gion. Hungarian companies and organizations
spent EUR 197.55 million on IT outsourcing serv-
ices in 2011, thus giving 32.2% of the total IT
services spending in the country. The share of IT
outsourcing spending within the overall IT serv-
ices spending is signicantly higher in Hungary
than in countries like the Czech Republic, Slova-
kia, Poland and Slovenia, where these shares are
22.1%, 14.2%, 18.4% and 18.3%, respectively.
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One-to-one outsourcing services, like complete IT
infrastructure outsourcing, network and desktop
outsourcing and application management serv-
ices give the bulk of outsourcing spending in the
country. Nevertheless, one-to-many outsourcing
services, like application hosting and infrastruc-
ture hosting are among the most dynamic seg-
ments in the Hungarian IT services market. The
dynamic growth opportunity in infrastructure
hosting services spending is also represented in
the signicant facility enlargement investments
of the largest Hungarian datacentre services pro-
viders in the last two years.
2.2.2. The IT cloud market
The general concept of the cloud model is
becoming more and more acknowledged in
Hungary. End user companies start getting ac-
quainted with the general business and tech-
nology benets of this model. Local players
on the supply side of the cloud market make
signicant efforts to educate local end users
to the practical benets of cloud usage. As a
result, cloud services spending has become
visible and measurable in the previous years.
In 2010, the total market spending around
cloud delivery (both public and private) in Hun-
gary totaled $7.71 million. Spending on public
cloud related services in Hungary reached a
value of $4.99 million in 2010. (Subscription
fees accounted for 87.2% share, while imple-
mentation and integration services associated
with this business model accounted for 12.8%
of spending on public cloud services.) Applica-
tions provided in an as a Service model (or
SaaS) represented 79.1% of the public cloud
market in 2010, followed by Infrastructure as a
Service (IaaS) accounting for 15.6%, and Plat-
form as a Service (PaaS) accounting for 4.3% of
the public cloud market.
8. Figure Source: IDC, 2012
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2.3. Telecommunications
End user spending on telecommunications has
reached EUR 2.58 billion in 2011. Fixed and
wireless data are still growing strong by 5.8%
and 6.8% respectively.
The amount of wired subscriber lines is stag-
nating in total at around 2.95 million, but
competing providers are switching subscrib-
ers to modern VoIP and VoCATV technologies
and pulling them away from traditional ana-
logue telephone lines. The providers offering
up to date technology are able to offer very
low prices and even free calling in several di-
rections which lowers the value of the market
resulting in the fact that the wired voice now
only accounts for a share of 13.9.
Wireless voice is now accounting for 41.9% of
the total telecommunications market. Mobile
penetration reached 115.9% in 2012, while the
market is changing from a competitive point as
companies like Tesco and Lidl have launched
their own virtual mobile providers and a new
national provider called NMHH owned by the
Hungarian Post, the Hungarian Development
Bank and the National Electricity Grid Operator
is planning to enter the stage in late 2012. The
new provider is expected to increase competition
and lead to lower prices in general. Currently the
Hungarian mobile operator market is dominated
by 3 international players T-Mobile, Telenor and
Vodafone.
Hungary has a very developed xed broadband
infrastructure and 6.7 million people, 67.7% of
the population are actively using the Internet.
As of Q1 2012 there are over 4.5 million ac-
tive subscriptions in the country and the annual
growth rate has exceeded 20% for the second
year in a row and 65.2% of all households pos-
sess an access to the world wide web of which
93.3% are broadband connections. xDSL is still
the dominant technology but it is being rapidly
replaced by cable and ber optic networks. Fixed
line data accounts for 41.9% of the total telco
spending in Hungary. Broadband in Hungary
is comparatively cheaper than other European
countries. Hungary is ranked as 6th in the OECD
key IT indicator list and is just beaten by Sweden,
Estonia and Finland from the European countries
in broadband penetration.
As an alternative to xed broadband mobile car-
riers have also launched their LTE based networks
in rural areas across the country offering ultra-
high mobile broadband connection speeds up to
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80 Mbps. All three providers are offering almost
countrywide coverage with 3G networks in the
places where LTE is not available. Mobile pro-
viders are thriving to include rural areas in their
3g/LTE coverage in order to facilitate economic
development in those areas. This will result in
an uptake of remote working and an increasing
usage of mobile business tools in the next few
years. Wireless data is contributing with 16%
to the total telecommunications market but it is
growing at a CAGR of 8.1% in the next 5 years.
9. Figure Source: OECD, 2011
The competitive pricing of broadband connec-
tions can be seen in the chart above. In Hungary
one megabit costs between 0.31-35.73 USD on
a PPP
4
basis. The cost is far higher in the neigh-
bouring countries.
2.4. Shared Service Centres
and R&D Centres
In the past 15 years, Hungary has developed
a signicant nearshore and offshore business
and IT services industry and emerged into a pri-
mary location for such services centres. While
4 Purchasing Power Parity
the rst services centres in the late 90s were es-
tablished to provide basic support services and
back ofce services, the shared services centres
that have been set up in the second half of the
last decade focus more and more on provision
of complex business and IT processes. Besides
the emergence of the shared service industry,
several international companies have recog-
nized Hungary as an optimal location for their
R&D centres because of the cost effectiveness
and high quality of local professionals.
Altogether, Hungary hosts 90 offshore shared
services centres, which employ 15,000 people
countrywide. Approximately a third of these
centres are captive providers that provide ex-
clusively or primarily to their parent compa-
nies, while the rest are third party providers.
Out of these 21 centres focus on providing
IT services, including application and desktop
support as well as hosting services. Hungary
also hosts 13 R&D centres that focus on the
development of applications and systems ei-
ther for their parent companies or for exter-
nal clients.
IT R&D and outsourcing centres
Company Services Provided
Bertelsmann CAD, IT Support
Bluebird Solutions Systems Development
Citigroup IT support
Cognizant CAD, Application Support
EDS IT helpdesk
EPAM Software development
Ericcson Development of network management software
Evoline Software development, IT services
Evosoft CAD
FreeSoft Software development
Getronics IT support
GFT Technologies AG Nearshore development
Grepton Informatics IT services, Outsourcing
HP IT consulting, Implementation, Support services
Huawei Technologies Offer courses to engineers, service providers and security experts
IBM Operating systems support
IT Services IT services, Outsourcing
Lufthansa Systems Development of applications for the air transport industry
Morgan Stanley Application development
MSCI Application development
National Instruments Systems Development
NEC IT Support
Nokia Siemens Networks Application development
Oracle CAD, IT consulting
SAP Development of SAP SCM applications
Satyam CAD
Siemens
Applications for Siemens solutions for the mobile
and xed telecom operators
Tata Consulting Services CAD, Support
T-Systems Software development, Remote support services
Unisys, ZTE IT outsourcing, Application support, Network operation centre
1. Table Source: NSOs, IDC, 2012
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F&A, HR and BPO Centres
Companw Services Provided
AIB Hungary Admin. Services ltd F&A
Alcoa F&A
Avis F&A BPO
Bluebird International Kft HR
BP (British Petrol) F&A, Procurement, Customer service
British Telecom F&A BPO
BT Support for CEMA
BUW Call centre; Costumer care
Celanese F&A
Colling F&A
Comforce Customer Care
Convergys HR
Diageo F&A BPO
EDS
Inbound Services, Outbound Services, Technical Support,
Administrative Services, IVR, Legal Services
EPT-Matav
Inbound Services, Outbound Services, Technical Support,
Administrative Services, IVR
EU-PHONE LINE Customer Care
eway Team
Inbound Services, Outbound Services, Administrative Services
IVR, Recruitment and Training Services
Exxon/Mobil F&A BPO, IT Help Desk
GE Money Bank F&A BPO
gem Customer Care
IBM F&A, HR, BPO
InBev F&A
Kinetic Concepts F&A, HR, Transaction based processes
Lexmark F&A, Marketing, Sales-support, Costumer care
Linea Directa
Inbound Services, Outbound Services,
Administrative Services, IVR
M.C. Direct
(has alliance with Dimar)
MarketPhone Telemarketing
Inbound Services, Outbound Services,
Administrative Services
F&A, HR and BPO Centres
Companw Services Provided
Mars F&A
Max & Future
Inbound Services, Outbound Services, CRM Consulting
Administrative Services, IVR
Mars F&A
Medea Services Customer Care
MicroOfce Service Kft.
Customer Care Inbound Services, Outbound Services,
Administrative Services
Morgan Stanley F&A BPO
Multicom Contact Customer Care
Multicom Inbound Services, Outbound Services, Administrative Services
NCR Customer Care, IT Support
Paradise Solution Customer Care
Photel Communication Agency
Inbound Services, Outbound Services, Technical Support
CRM Consulting
p-Line Channel and Telesales Inbound Services, Outbound Services, IVR
Promo Direkt Inbound Services, Outbound Services, Administrative Services
Rapp Collins Budapest
Inbound Services, Outbound Services
Administrative Services, CRM Consulting
Sykes
Inbound Services, Outbound Services
Administrative Services, CRM Consulting
TeleDirect Inbound Services, Outbound Services, Administrative Services
TeleMedia Interaktv
Szolgltatsok
Inbound Services, Outbound Services
Administrative Services, IVR
Transcom
Inbound Services, Outbound Services
Administrative Services, CRM Consulting
Credit Management, Legal Services
UNHCR F&A, HR, Logistics
Vodafone F&A, HR, Customer Care
2. Table Source: NSOs, IDC, 2012
WHY INVEST IN HUNGARY?
Investing in the Hungarian IT industry is a good
business decision if your company is planning to
expand in the CEE region, is looking for a com-
petitive location for a regional or European hub
or is just seeking for a right mix of proper business
culture, rst class business infrastructure, business
and investment friendly environment and high
quality human resources to expand its business.
Many ICT companies have already made that de-
cision and they continue to believe in the Hungar-
ian IT industry as stated in the following quotes:
Hungary lies at the crossroads of Europe. With
its geographic location it acts as a regional hub
between east and west. Its advantages in com-
pared to other countries of the CEE region, its
more developed and internationally integrated
markets are giving Hungary a competitive edge,
while its economy is more stable than that of
several western countries.
The example of CarnationGroup conrms that
investors from the digital industry regard Hun-
gary as an attractive investment target. For ex-
ample, the digital branch of one of the worlds
media moguls Possible also set up its rst
European ofce in this country.
Young Hungarian entrepreneurs form the IT
industry are considered very creative and an
increasing number of Hungarian groups are
seeking for investors at international startup
challenges. These adults are also culturally open
and possess international experience completed
by superb language skills paired with a positive
attitude and a need for self development
Tth Krisztin
CEO | Chief Creative Ofcer
CARNATIONGROUP
A PART OF POSSIBLE
Our multinational clients and our parent com-
pany, T-Systems International enjoys the advan-
tage that we are both culturally and regionally
close to them. The legal and administrative envi-
ronment resembles the German one while the in-
frastructure - like transportation, data networks,
telecommunications and power utilities - are well
developed so that they are able to guarantee the
continuous international service to our clients.
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The strength of the higher IT education and of
the foreign language skills are the most impor-
tant for us, beside the predictable and stable
environment. IT experts usually speak English
and additional other foreign languages and the
Hungarian educational institutions are open to
cooperation. As a result we were able to build
up our nearshore service centres in Budapest,
Debrecen and Pcs at a very fast pace.
Bthe Csaba
CEO
IT Services Hungary Kft.
Lufthansa Systems established its subsidiary
involved in the development of aviation IT prod-
ucts as well as applications and infrastructure
operations in Hungary in 1995. Budapest has
been chosen as the location because Hungarian
specialists are both culturally and geographi-
cally close to the companys clients.
As part of our R&D we are cooperating with
students of various universities and their lead-
ing teachers in order to pair innovative projects
that are being run at our company with the
possibilities provided by the universities and
thus serving the continuously evolving and
changing scientic and business needs. Dur-
ing the past years several creative ideas, math-
ematic models were integrated into our prod-
ucts which were results of the cooperation with
universities.
Benke Tams
CEO
Lufthansa Systems
Hungarys greatest strength lies in education,
specically in natural sciences. Its not surpris-
ing that the local expertise attracts international
companies or encourages emerging companies
to build their business in Hungary.
The fact that NNG can call itself a leading naviga-
tion software developer company in Hungary and
in other regions of the world is largely due to the
fact that we work with the best people who are
talented, creative, speak multiple languages and
are able to create value on an international level.
Balogh Pter
CEO
NNG Kft.
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Hungarys strategic resources include prepared,
young adults speaking multiple languages,who
possess a spirit of performance and perseverance.
The country is an ideal place for companies looking
for a site for their shared service centre activities.
The talented Hungarians possess outstanding
skills of innovation and creativity, this is the rea-
son why many companies locate their research
and development centres in Hungary. So did
SAP, the worlds leading supplier of business
software many years ago.
With the decision that SAP brought its develop-
ment and support centre to Hungary, the Hun-
garian talent has also been integrated into the
European and global value chain. Cooperation
is mutually benecial for all parties.
Ablonczy Balzs
Managing Director
SAP Hungary Kft.
Tata Consultancy Services has been present
in Hungary since 2001. Our Hungarian branch
is a special entity and one of the pillars of the
companys strategic services delivery concept,
known as the GNDM

(Global Delivery Network Model). TCS invested

in Hungary for a variety of compelling rea-
sons, notably the excellent quality of talent
available, strong technology infrastructure,
stable business environment and very attrac-
tive cost structures.
The primary objective of the Budapest delivery
centre is to provide services for a variety of cus-
tomers based across Europe. The world class
linguistically and technically skilled workforce
that we managed to nd in Budapest helped
realize this potential, with the Hungarian cen-
tres emerging as one of our largest service lo-
cations worldwide.
Dinesh P. Thampi
Vice President & Delivery Centre Head
Tata Consultancy Services
18
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9. Table Source: IDC, 2012
Recent investments of IT companies in Hungary
Company Activity City
AGCO IT service centre Budapest
Alcoa IT service centre Szkesfehrvr
Balabit Shell control box development centre Veszprm
CERN Datacentre Budapest
Citigroup IT service centre Budapest
Ericsson Hungary R&D centre Budapest
Gameloft Game development centre Budapest
Huawei Logistics and supply centre Pcs
Huawei-Flextronics Joint manufacturing plant Pcs
IBM SSC extension Szkesfehrvr
Inneon Manufacturing plant extension Cegld
IT Services Hungary VDI development centre Budapest
IT Services Hungary Shared service centre Budapest
Jabil Circuit Manufacturing plant extension Tiszajvros
KBC Datacentre Budapest
Telenor Datacentre Trkblint
Vodafone Regional customer service centre Miskolc
Wipro Technologies Development centre Budapest
ZTE Network operating centre Budapest
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2.5. Datacentres
The datacentre market is attracting the majority
of investments in the current period. An increas-
ing number of companies are taking advantage
of the developed ICT infrastructure and well
trained IT personnel in Hungary and decide to
develop datacentre hubs in Hungary to serve
their regional or European operations. Datacen-
tre services providers servicing external clients
were at the forefront of the trend and compa-
nies from various industries operating their cap-
tive data centres in Hungary joined in too. The
excellent location and competitive labour prices
are also a decisive factor when choosing the
country as a regional hub:
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2.6. IT exports
IT exports represent a key and growing compo-
nent of the Hungarian ICT industry, driven by a
host of local bread companies like Prezi.hu, NNG,
Krt and LogMeIn grown into successful play-
ers on international markets along with the al-
ready mentioned services delivery and software
development centres and the IT manufacturing
facilities. Exports in computer and information
services reached EUR 951.27 million according
to the WTO (World Trade Organization) which is
signicantly higher than the country average of
the region. Exports in ofce and computer equip-
ment are another strong point of the countrys
economy, reaching EUR 17.05 billion representing
an increase of 49.4% compared to 2007, mak-
ing the country the second largest exporter in the
CE region. Large IT manufacturing companies like
Flextronics, Sanmina and Huawei are providing
the background for this performance.
IT services export is becoming more and more sig-
nicant as Hungarian IT services providers engage
in developing regional competencies and start to
address international tenders. The largest share of
IT services export revenues comes from the provi-
sion of custom application development for for-
eign clients. This reects the international acknowl-
edgement of high quality standards of Hungarian
professionals in application development and con-
sulting. Nevertheless, provisioning of other project
services, like systems integration and network inte-
gration for clients abroad also contributes signi-
cantly to revenues from IT services exports.
10. Figure Source: WTO, 2011
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Datacentre Area Region served Sites Captive/Open Industry
GTS 1600 m
2
local/international 2 Open Telecoms
Dataneum 2320 m
2
local/international 2 Open Business Services
Invitel 2600 m
2
local/international 2 Open Telecoms
Proserver 590 m
2
local/international 1 Open Telecoms
Telenor 600 m
2
local/international 2 Open Telecoms
KBC 1000 m
2
local/international 2 Captive Finance
MOL N/A local/international 2 Captive Process manufacturing
NISZ N/A Local N/A Captive Government
OTP N/A local/international 2 Captive Finance
Citibank N/A local/international N/A Captive Finance
Alcoa N/A local/international N/A Captive Discrete Manufacturing
CERN N/A local/international N/A Captive Research
3. Table Source: IDC 2012
3. VISIONARIES OF IT FROM HUNGARY
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4. INNOVATIVE
HUNGARIAN BREED
ICT COMPANIES
The innovative capabilities of the Hungarian ICT
sector is best illustrated by the high number of
local innovative companies that emerged in the
past years. Many of them operate on internation-
al markets and are regarded as leading innovators
in their respective elds worldwide. Some of the
most innovative companies are listed below:
4.1. Animation/Motion capture
Digic Pictures (animation studio): Digic
Pictures was founded in 2000, focuses on
digital animation and has a hundred employ-
ees. Digic Pictures is leveraging next genera-
tion technology to support lm making by
providing entirely new visual experiences for
the audience characterized by very ne de-
tails and realistic characters. In the past few
years the teams game trailers and in-game
movies have earned a widespread critical ac-
claim for the company. Digic Pictures also
provides motion capture services in its own
fully equipped mocap studio.
Dolphio Consulting (GPGPU, 3D mo-
tion capture): Dolphio Consulting was
founded in 2004. In 2011 the company
was listed by Ernst and Young among the
top 50 fastest growing technology compa-
nies in Hungary. The company created the
worlds first GPGPU-specialized research
team, in order to be able to provide con-
sulting services for application develop-
ment and R&D. Also, they developed a
unique GPGPU-based database engine.
Dolphio Consulting is cooperating with
ECON Consulting to develop a highly effec-
tive 3D motion capture application.
ECON Consulting (motion capture ap-
plication): The company was founded in
2006 with the aim of developing innova-
tive software in 3D computer visualization
and modeling. The company maintains a
constantly intensive R&D activity in order
to continuously develop new solutions
to the problems of the film and gaming
industry. In 2011 ECON Consulting was
listed as the 48th among the fastest grow-
ing companies in Hungary by tripling its
revenue.
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Andrew Grove Gbor Dnes Neumann Jnos Pusks Tivadar
Andrew Grove Starting as a researcher at Fairchild Semiconductor, Andrew moved up rapidly
in the company hierarchy and in 1968 he decided with 2 colleagues to quit
and found Intel where he worked as director of operations and was Chairman
of the Board until 2004.
Gbor Dnes Gbor Dnes was the inventor of holography in 1947; however holograms
only became commercially available in the late 60s. The Hungarian scientist
received numerous international awards for his advancements and in 1971 he
was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Neumann Jnos John von Neumann has contributed vastly to the operating principle of com-
puters as we know it today. The computing architecture and principles de-
signed by him still determine the operation of todays computing devices.
Pusks Tivadar Pusks Tivadar was a pioneer of telecommunications as he has created the
rst multiplex switchboard which was a huge step in the development of tel-
ephone exchanges.
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developer of mobile payment applications in
Hungary, such as mobile parking, mobile pur-
chasing and near-eld mobile payment. The
company works in close cooperation with
MasterCard and some of the largest multina-
tional companies in Hungary. Today, over one
million secure mobile transactions per month
are handled by the group. Cellum Global has
recently received a substantial risk capital in-
vestment in order to nance its international
expansion in the mobile payment market.
IND (mobile and online banking): IND
Group was founded in 1997. Today it is the
leading developer and provider of banking
front-ofce and mobile banking products. The
companys products include internet banking
and brokerage services, and mobile banking
applications designed for the leading mobile
platforms. IND group is now present in 15
countries, such as Hungary, Austria, Croatia,
Slovakia and the UK.
Viala (e-commerce and application de-
velopment): Viala was founded in 1999 to
provide reliable Internet based solutions to
small and medium sized enterprises. In 2011
the company was listed by Ernst and Young
among the top 50 fastest growing companies
in Hungary. Their leading product, a unique
e-commerce system offering a home delivery
service for restaurants and groceries is widely
used in Hungary and other European coun-
tries, such as Austria, Germany and the Czech
Republic. The company also offers a successful
online advertising solution providing service
for a large number of Hungarian companies.
4.3.1. Mobile Application devel-
opment
InfomatiX (mobile application develop-
ment): InfomatiX is a software developer
company offering enterprise mobility solutions
for the consulting, manufacturing and nan-
cial sectors. The company has approximately
30.000 users at more than 100 customers in
Hungary and the CEE region. Leading products
are a mobile development framework and a
eet monitoring system for mobile devices.
The latter is listed as one of the top three mo-
bile device management solutions worldwide.
In 2011 InfomatiX was listed among the 50
fastest growing companies in Hungary.
Leonar3do (virtual reality): Leonar3do is a
3d virtual reality solution sold as an integrated
hardware and software platform. The compa-
nys agship product won six rst price awards
at Intels ISEF in 2005.
4.2. Cloud services
CEOD (hosting, cloud): The company was
founded in 2008 as the rst white label soft-
wareas-a-service company in CEE. Its aim is to
help telecommunication operators and system
integrators to formulate and implement their
cloud strategies. CE On-Demand has a trade-
marked, in-house developed provisioning
platform which enables seamless cloud serv-
ices provisioning, functioning as a self-service
administrative platform to partners and cus-
tomers. In 2012 Informa Telecoms & Media
ranked CE On-Demand among the rst seven
leading cloud enablers for telecom operators
worldwide.
Datalogic (web based data mining and
ERP solutions): Datalogic was founded in
1999 and focuses on the development of
management information systems based on
data mining tools and ERP systems suitable
for all enterprise needs. In order to align to
market needs from 2011 Datalogic offers its
products in a hosted business model too.
Elastofce (SaaS ERP): Elastofce was
founded in 2010 and today it is one of the
fastest growing corporate SaaS providers in
Europe. The companys innovative services are
closely linked to the cloud technology, hosted
ERP systems and a document management
system. Elastofce has ofces in Hungary,
Switzerland and Romania. In 2011 the com-
pany won the prestigious EuroCloud Award.
NK Services (private cloud provider): NK
Services was founded in 2007 being among
the pioneers of hosted cloud services in CEE.
The company provides hosted private cloud
(IaaS) and CRM services as an SaaS solution
with the addition of system integration to cus-
tomers.
4.3. E-commerce/E-payment
Cellum (online payment): Cellum Group
was founded in 2000 and now is the leading
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and provide data backup services for both
the home and enterprise segments and also
to prevent IT disasters in the Hungarian and
international markets. Krt has subsidiaries in
Austria, Germany, Dubai and the USA.
Navayo Technology (security): Navayo
Technologies, Inc. is a high-tech IT research
and development company, founded in 2004.
The agship product centres on an application
for secure, closed, self-protecting network
technology. The investment company behind
Navayo Technologies is Kod Ltd., a manufac-
turing company producing important compo-
nents for the automotive, white goods and
the electronics industry.
4.7. Text and speech recognition
AITIA (speech recognition): AITIA Interna-
tional was founded in 2005. One of the com-
panys main activities is to develop speech rec-
ognition applications and integrate them into
third-party applications. AITIAs leading product
is a speech recognition framework that allows
its users to adapt the speech recognition engine
to any language environment. The company
has a dominant role in articial intelligence and
speech recognition R&D and is in close coop-
eration with multiple Hungarian universities.
Nextent (voice recognition): Nextent Infor-
matika was founded in 1998. The companys
leading product is an internationally recog-
nized voice and emotion recognition system,
which is widely used by call centres due to its
unique algorithms in the analytical software
module. In 2005 Nextent Informatika won the
Special Award of IT Business Leadership.
Weblib (text mining): Weblib was founded
in 2008. The companys products are based on
its own developed meta-search engine which
allows users to search the web via a domain
independent intelligent indexing, resulting in a
more accurate page ranking.
4.8. Web development/content
management
Active Vision (content management):
The company was founded in 1999 and now
is among the leaders of the Hungarian CMS
market. Their agship product is an Enterprise
MobileEngine (mobile application de-
velopment): MobileEngine was founded in
2005. The companys main activities are tel-
ecommunication-related consulting and R&D.
In the last few years MobileEngine has started
developing business intelligence oriented mo-
bile applications, data collecting and reporting
solutions for all the major platforms.
4.4. Navigation Software
NNG (navigation): NNG (formerly known
as Nav N Go) was founded in 2004; today it
is one of the leading navigation solution pro-
viders in automotive and personal navigation
industries globally. In 2008 NNG was the rst
company ever to release a real 3D navigation
software. The company works closely with the
automotive industry to offer built-in naviga-
tion solutions for multiple manufacturers.
4.5. System Software
LogMeIn (online remote management):
The company was founded in 2003 to provide a
remote management platform online, for desk-
top and mobile operating systems. Today its one
of the fastest developing SaaS companies in the
world with 179 employees. The application al-
lows the more than 125 million users worldwide
to control their computer remotely via a client
program, a browser and a mobile device. The
companys headquarter is in Boston, the regional
centres are in Sydney and Amsterdam while the
development centre is located in Budapest.
4.6. Security
Balabit (security): Balabit was founded in
1996, and is an innovative information secu-
rity company, a global leader in the develop-
ment of privileged activity monitoring, trusted
logging and proxy-based gateway technolo-
gies. The company has local ofces in France,
Germany, Italy, Russia and in the USA. The
R&D and global support centres are located
in Hungary. In 2010 BalaBit was listed as the
second fastest-growing IT Security company
in the Central European region according to
Deloitte Technology Fast 50 list.
Krt (security): Krt was founded in 1989
and has almost a hundred employees. Its main
activity is to develop IT security applications
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5. INTERNATIONAL AWARDS
Content Management System providing an
optimized solution to perform in enterprise
and banking environments. Active Vision was
listed as the 3rd fastest growing technology
company in Hungary by Deloitte growing by
862% in the last 5 years.
Carnation (web and mobile develop-
ment): Carnation was founded in 2000. To-
day it is the leading web and mobile develop-
ment company of Hungary and CEE. Carnation
is mostly recognized for its innovative website
and web application development along with
the mobile application development on every
major platform. In 2011 the company was
awarded with the CEE Creative Agency of the
Year title by WebIT Awards.
Kirowksi (online communication): The
company was founded in 1996, a member of
Isobar group since 2005 and has a leading role
in the Hungarian online communication mar-
ket. Kirowski develops websites and interac-
tive web applications while also builds on the
possibilities of the intensifying role of mobile
devices. In 2009 the company won the Busi-
ness Superbrand Award.
Prezi (online presentation): Prezi was
founded in 2008 with the aim to replace the
linear, slide-based presentations with a new,
innovative approach in a cloud based appli-
cation. The company reached a user base of
5 million by October 2011. The application
comes with a brand new approach to presen-
tations, enriching them with a special set of
graphic and functional tools. In 2010 the com-
pany was awarded with the European Seal of
e-Excellence Platinum Award. Prezi has ofces
in Budapest and San Francisco.
Ustream.TV (online content streaming):
The company was founded in 2007, and today
the service has more than 50 million monthly
users worldwide. Ustream.TV is a live inter-
active broadcast platform, allowing users to
watch online live concerts, sport events, con-
ferences and shows, among personal streams.
The developers are based in Budapest, Hun-
gary but Ustream.TV also has ofces in Los An-
geles and Tokyo.
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Carnation: The company won the Silver prize of European Design Awards 2012 in Digital Self-
promotion category. In 2011 Carnation won the title of CEE Creative Agency of the Year by
webIT Awards. In 2005 Carnation won the Platinum Award of CeBIT.
Digic Pictures: The company won the Best Technical Award of Siggraph Asia 2010, and the
Best Post-production Award of Animago Award & Conference 2010.
Dolphio: In 2011 Dolphio was nominated for the European Business Awards.
ECON Consulting: In 2011 ECON Consulting was nominated for the European Business
Awards.
Krt Zrt: In 2006 KRT won the Europes 500 Award dedicated to the most dynamically im-
proving companies.
Leonar3do: In 2006 Leonar3do won six prize awards at the Intel ISEF (The worlds largest
international pre-college science competition).
NNG: In 2011 NNG was nominated for the European Business Awards. Also in 2011 the com-
pany was nominated for the Best Telematics Content Aggregator Award.
Prezi: Prezi was nominated for the European Business Awards in 2011. In 2010 the company
was awarded with the European Seal of e-Excellence Platinum Award, while in 2009 won the
World Technology Award in the category of Arts.
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6.4. Further employment related
incentives
Type: Job protection action plan (Tax allow-
ance according to employment forms), Wage
incentives
Providers of incentives: National Tax and
Customs Administration of Hungary (NTCA),
local labour ofce of the residence of the new
employee
7. HUMAN RESOURCES
The IT industry is one of the key employers
of the Hungarian economy, as in 2011 com-
panies active in these segments gave jobs
to almost 90,000 people. The share of ICT
intensive jobs in the Hungarian economy is
high compared to the neighbouring coun-
tries at 23%. Hungarian ICT labour is consid-
ered cost effective by international standards
white collar workers in the ICT sector earned
an average gross salary of 1,236 in 2011
while blue collar worker costs were much
lower at 542. According to a comparison of
average gross, monthly earnings in the Infor-
mation and Communication (NACE
5
J) sector,
Hungary is the second most cost effective
country in the region with an average gross
monthly wage of EUR 1,330.
11. Figure Source: KSH, 2012
5 Nomenclature des Activits conomiques dans la
Communaut Europenne, Nomenclature of Econom-
ic Activities in the European Community
6. INCENTIVES, SUBSIDIES
AND PROGRAMS (HITA)
The current incentive system is valid till end 2013.
For more detailed, tailor-made information please
contact HITA.
6.1. Subsidy with Individual
Government Decision
Type: cash, non-refundable
Amount of subsidy: decided individually by
the Hungarian Government
Conditions:
creating at least 100 new jobs (in case of Cen-
tral Hungary region at least 200 jobs)
eligible costs are at least EUR 10 million (wage
and wage related costs)
Application: request list needs to be submitted to HITA
Provider of incentive: Hungarian Government
6.2. Development tax allowance
Type: tax allowance for post-investment period
Amount of subsidy: exemption for 80% of the
corporate tax payable for 10 years following the
fullment of the investment
Conditions:
A. investment volume min. EUR 10 M, min. 150
new jobs or wage cost growth reaches 600
times the yearly minimum wage
or
B. EUR 3.3 M investment volume and 75 new
jobs in preferred regions or wage cost growth
reaches 300 times the yearly minimum wage
Application: request needs to be submitted to
Ministry for National Economy
Provider of incentive: Ministry for National
Economy
6.3. Training subsidy
Type: cash subsidy, non-refundable
Amount of subsidy: 25-60% of eligible training
costs. Additional bonus may be granted for SMEs
and for training disadvantaged labour categories.
max. EUR 1 M (HUF 300 M) if job creation is
between 50 and 500,
max. EUR 2 M (HUF 600 M) if job creation >500
Conditions: min. 50 new jobs
Application: letter of intent needs to be sub-
mitted to the Minister for National Economy
Provider of incentive: Ministry for National
Economy
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liance (BSA
8
) is looking at general IT competi-
tiveness taking into account R&D, infrastructure
and human resources.
4. Table Source: IMD, WEF, BSA, 2012
The share of total ICT specialists in the economy
in Hungary is very high compared to neighbour-
ing countries. IT education is among the top pri-
orities and the general interest in IT is also high.
8 http://globalindex11.bsa.org/
13. Figure Source: Eurostat, 201
Hungary is ranking exceptionally well in the adap-
tation of the top technologies and ranks second in
the CEE region. Technology adaption in Hungary
is considered rapid and as a result the share of IT
intensive occupations is also very high compared
to the neighbouring countries. The chart below
represents the country rankings (lower is better).
12. Figure Source: NSOs, IDC, 2010
IT companies in Hungary are still hiring IT spe-
cialists despite the worldwide economic trou-
bles. As of mid-2012 18.2% of all open posi-
tion on the EURES portal were IT industry jobs
in Hungary.
8. ANALYSIS OF GENERAL
COMPETITIVENESS
Hungary is ranking in the top three of the lead-
ing countries of CEE in all major ICT competi-
tiveness reports of the key international insti-
tutions benchmarking ICT competitiveness in
the region. However, Hungary has its strengths
within this group of leading players also. These
advantages can be found in the high weight of
the ICT industry in the economy, the high share
of ICT intensive occupations and ICT specialists,
the advanced level of deployment and usage of
eGovernement services, the high level of devel-
opment of the ICT infrastructure, etc.
Several international organizations are prepar-
ing competitive indexes, the most famous are
amongst others the Swiss IMD
6
which is look-
ing at overall competitiveness while the World
Economic Forum
7
takes into account several
sub factors as well. The Business Software Al-
6 http://www.imd.org/research/publications/wcy/
World-Competitiveness-Yearbook-Results/#/
7 http://www.weforum.org/reports
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Global com-
petitivness
ranking
IMD
World
Economic
Forum
BSA
Czech Republic 33 38 27
Hungary 45 48 28
Poland 34 41 30
Romania 53 77 37
Slovakia 47 69 33
Slovenia 51 57 25
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34
9. IT EDUCATION
The Hungarian education system offers top
qualied IT personnel to companies. The ac-
tive workforce in Hungary is around 4.2 mil-
lion. In order to keep up with the demand of
highly skilled ICT specialists the Hungarian
education system has been reformed in 2012
in order to emphasize engineering and IT as
top priorities. As a result, nancial resources
have been reallocated from judicial and eco-
nomic education towards natural sciences.
Open places with full governmental nancing
in IT related carriers are now open to 3,600
students with additional 4,300 places partially
nanced, while subsidized places in engineer-
ing sciences, other than IT, have increased to
almost 9,000 in 2012, up from 8,000 in the
previous year, with additional 7,600 in partial-
ly nanced places. The active cooperation of
several multinational and local IT companies
like Microsoft, HP, VMware, Balabit, Cisco,
IBM, Oracle, SAP, etc. with local universities
ensures that the next generation of Hungarian
IT engineers has not only up to date knowl-
edge but also possesses the relevant practical
skill set to start working immediately in the
private sector. The number of total IT stu-
dents currently in education reached 26.500
in 2011. Regional distribution in the coun-
try is even, so every major university has its
own IT faculty. Of course the most intensive
IT education takes place in Budapest, where
the highest demand is present. Every degree
requires at least one language examination of
which English is the most popular as almost
100% of all Hungarian students in higher
education learn English, followed by German
and French, facilitating the entry to an inter-
national organization.
17. Figure Source: felvi.hu, 2012
14. Figure
9
Source: WEF, 2012
15. Figure Source: Eurostat, 2010
9 This chart shows each CEE countrys ranking in
terms of adopting new technologies (the total number
of countries examined in 140. The lower score (rank-
ing) is better.
16. Figure Source: Eurostat, 2011
5. Table Source KSH, 2012
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Total registered IT companies
in Hungary 2010
39,541
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7. Table Source: NSOs, IDC, 2012
9.1. Cooperation between higher
education and private enterprises
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Technical
Universities
No. Of IT
students 2012
Budapest Technical University 6000
National Academy of Public Service 1100
Szchenyi Istvn University Gyr 700
University of Miskolc 1450
Pannonia University, Veszprm 1400
University of Debrecen 2200
Szent Istvn University, Gdll 410
University of Pcs 1700
University of West Hungary, Sopron 200
Etvs Lrnd University 3500
University of buda 2500
Pzmny Pter University 405
University of Szeged 2200
Other Higher education
Gbor Dnes College Budapest 1200
College of Dunajvros 1038
Kecskemt College 200
Etvs Jzsef College Baja 75
College of Nyregyhza 250
University Company
Budapest
Technical
University
Cisco
HP
IBM
Microsoft
Nokia
Tata Consulting
University
of Szeged
CAS Software
EPAM Systems
Morgan Stanley
Nokia
Rgens
Tata Consulting
T-Systems
Etvs Lrnd
University
4D Soft
AdNovum Hungary Kft.
Alerant Informatikai Zrt.
Areus Zrt.
Atigris informatikai zrt.
Balabit IT security
Conet Kft.
Deverto kft.
Eriscsson hungary kft.
University Company
Etvs Lrnd
University
Infomatix Kft.
IT Services Hungary
Lufthansa Systems
Morgan Stanley
Nokia Siemens Networks
University
of buda
Alcatel-Lucent
GTS Hungary Kft.
HP
Microsoft
Symantec
VMware
University
of Miskolc
IBM
HP
Microsoft
Tata Consulting
Pannonia
University,
Veszprm
Andtek GmbH
Corecomm SI
IBM
IT Services
Lionis
Nokia
Pressex kft.
Sense/Net
University Company
University
of Debrecen
IT Services
Szent Istvn
University, Gdll
IBM
Tata Consulting
Pzmny Pter
University
MorphoLogic
Ericsson
Gbor Dnes
College Budapest
IBM
Microsoft
Multisoft
Noreg
College of
Dunajvros
Nokia
College
of Nyregyhza
IT Services Hungary
University of Pcs Tata Consulting
University of West
Hungary, Sopron
Tata Consulting
8. Table Source: NSOs, IDC, 2012
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38
distribution of SMEs (over 250), large Hungar-
ian companies (45) and multinationals (over
40) and some other ICT-related organizations.
John von Neumann Computer Society
www.njszt.hu: The Society as an independ-
ent professional forum is engaged to assist in
disseminating practical applications and re-
sults of IT, helping to solve current problems,
conserving and increasing the prestige, the
standards and the ethics of the profession,
informing computer specialists about the de-
velopment of theory, about useful practical
results and experiences made by users and to
act as a stage of professional exchange.
National Development Agency www.
nfu.hu: The National Development Agency is
responsible for the co-ordination and monitor-
ing of the EU operative programs and as such
all IT related EU programs in Hungary.
National Media and Communication Au-
thority nmhh.hu: Its task is to ensure the
undisturbed operation of the media and the
markets for electronic communications, postal
and information technology services, in com-
pliance with pertaining legislation in force. It
places a strong emphasis on the protection of
the interests of customers and users.
NIIF www.niif.hu: The National Information
Infrastructure Development (NIIF) Program
serves as a framework for the development
and operation of the academic research net-
work in Hungary. The Program covers the en-
tire Hungarian academic, research and public
collection community by providing them with
an integrated computer networking infrastruc-
ture and, on the basis of that, a wide range
of communication, information, and co-op-
eration services, and a leading-edge environ-
ment for networking applications, as well as
advanced framework for content generation
and provision.
Senior State Secretariat for InfoCom-
munication: The state secretariat is the main
body behind the national IT strategy. It decides
on development plans, facilitates tenders and
has project management responsibilities over
governmental IT projects.
Theodore Puskas Foundation www.neti.
hu: The Theodore Puskas Foundation is a non-
prot, public benet organization aiming to
support the localization of advanced foreign
technologies in Hungary and the introduction
of state of the art Hungarian technologies on
the international market.
10. REPRESENTATIVE
ORGANIZATIONS
The Hungarian IT market has developed several
industry specic organizations that are either in a
governance role or act as forum to members to
exchange information and facilitate IT growth.
The most notable organizations are as follows:
Central Ofce for Administrative and
Electronic Public Services www.kekkh.
gov.hu: As data manager of the authentic
national registers as a part of national data
assets the Central Ofce for Administrative
and Electronic Public Services (COAEPS) is an
integral organization of the Hungarian public
administration system.
CERT-Hungary www.cert-hungary.hu:
CERT-Hungary is the governmental CSIRT
10

of Hungary. It operates within the Theodore
Puskas Foundation. CERT-Hungary started its
operation on January 2005. With effect of
January 2010, CERT-Hungary is the National
Cyber Security Centre of Hungary. CERT-
10 Computer Security Incident Response Team
Hungary coordinates preventative work
and responses against IT security breaches
aimed at critical infrastructure in Hungary.
The work of CERT-Hungary is supervised by
the Prime Ministers Ofce.
HITA www.hita.hu: The Hungarian Invest-
ment and Trade Agency (HITA), was set up by
the Government of Hungary under the man-
agement of the Minister for National Economy
in order to support the foreign trading activi-
ties of Hungarian small and medium-sized en-
terprises and to encourage and help foreign
enterprises invest in Hungary.
Information Society and Trend Research
Institute, Hungary www.ittk.hu: Set up in
1998, the ITTK (Information Society and Trend
Research Institute) is a research institute of the
Budapest University of Technology and Eco-
nomics. The institute is engaged in national
and international research projects dealing
with the future of IT taking social, nancial and
technological questions into consideration.
IVSZ www.english.ivsz.hu: Hungarian As-
sociation of IT Companies (IVSZ) represents
the largest professional organization of in-
formation technology companies in Hungary.
IVSZ has more than 350 members, a balanced
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12. INNOVATION CLUSTERS
IN HUNGARY
In order to further facilitate innovation and
joint R&D activities/results, companies and uni-
versities alike cooperate in innovation clusters.
These clusters represent a very successful form
of uniting resources, creating synergies and
members are frequent winners of EU tenders
for common R&D projects. Besides R&D ac-
tivities, cluster members are also cooperating
in the area of go to market services while the
cluster also acts as a forum of information ex-
change for members. The list of the largest IT
innovation clusters includes:
Alliance Cluster www.alliance.hu: Con-
sisting of 40 members, the objective of the
Cluster is to develop unique, up to date and
marketable products. Further intention of the
Cluster is to contribute to the use the ICT
achievements for the improvement of the
business processes of different sectors and
for creating new user demands. Key projects
of the cluster are focusing the public sector
like eGovernment.
Central Transdanubian Regional IT Clus-
ter www.kdrik.hu: The Central Transdanu-
bian Regional IT Cluster (CTRIC) represents
an innovative network of cluster members
consisting of regional SMEs, three universi-
ties, one nonprot research institution and
a knowledge centre. The cluster began its
activity on the 20th of July 2006 with a fo-
cus on the support of ICT SMEs high added
value, export-oriented and innovative net-
working activities. Furthermore, the clusters
goal is to foster the specialization and the
expansion of partnership relations between
enterprises, research institutions, universities
and local governments.
Information Management Innovation
Cluster www.i2k.hu: The Information Man-
agement Innovation Cluster was founded in
2008 in order to support its member compa-
nies uniform and technology-oriented devel-
opment and to enhance their competitiveness
both in the domestic and international prod-
uct and labour market.
Mobility and Multimedia Cluster www.
mmklaszter.hu: Established in 2007, the
key objective of the MM Cluster is to foster
the new media and mobile technology in-
11. SCIENCE PARKS
Science parks play a special role in facilitating
the settlement of international IT companies and
cooperative R&D among IT companies. Today
these parks are home to the subsidiaries of in-
ternational IT vendors as well as Hungarian com-
panies which have evolved as a result of the im-
proving cooperation between these companies
and other entities, such as universities leading to
a growing pool of available IT human resources.
The most important IT related science parks are:
Corvin Park Budapest www.corvinprom-
enade.hu: Established in 2008 in the heart of
Budapest the park thrives to become the centre
of knowledge and the largest science park in
the CEE region. Established by 2 universities and
the National Academy of Sciences the park of-
fers incubator ofces and good access to the IT
Faculty of the Pzmny Pter University.
Debreceni Ipari Park www.xanga.hu/dipa:
Located in the second largest city of Hungary
the Debrecen Ipari Park is home to National In-
struments. Stretching over 40 hectares with 16
hectares additionally added in 2008 the park is
open to new investors across the globe.
Graphisoft Park Budapest www.graph-
isoftpark.hu: Established in 2006 as a spinoff
company of one of Hungarys most prominent
IT offspring companies Graphisoft, the park is
now home to several national and international
IT companies. Located close to the University
of buda, the park places a lot of emphasis on
knowledge transfer. Most notable inhabitants
are SAP, Microsoft, Canon and Graphisoft.
Infopark Budapest www.infopark.hu:
Established as the rst Innovation and Tech-
nology Park in CEE, Infopark is now home to
several of the key players in the Hungarian IT
market. Located closely to the Budapest Uni-
versity of Technology, it ensures quick access
to knowledge and favours cooperative R&D.
The park is home to Lufthansa Systems, Intel,
IBM and IT Services Hungary among others.
Talentis Business Park Zsmbk www.
talentis.hu: Established in 2003 and aiming
to become a Silicon Valley of Hungary Talentis
Business Park offers more than 100,000 square
meters of class A ofce space just outside
the city borders of Budapest. Offering incuba-
tor ofces to startup companies and home of
the rst Hungarian Satellite test facility, the
Park offers outstanding services to investors.
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novation as well as to help cluster members
to innovate and develop their businesses and
reorganize their resources. Consisting of 62
members, the cluster focuses on mobility
technologies, smart trafc management and
green IT solutions.
North Hungarian IT Cluster www.infok-
laszter.hu: Established in 2007 and now
having over 40 members, the North Hungar-
ian IT Cluster is a business league and net-
work of information and communications
technology professionals and enterprises lo-
cated in the North Hungarian Region. Main
goals of the cluster are to integrate R&D re-
sources of the region in the areas of Internet
research, industrial-specic IT, and conver-
gent technologies.
Pannon Information Security R&D Clus-
ter: Established in 2007, this cluster focuses
on the joint R&D of IT security solutions.
Pannonpolus Cluster www.pannonpolus.
hu: Established in 2006, the cluster was aimed
at the development of the Infopolisz project
initiated by the Pannon University and to facili-
tating the universities relations with external,
privately owned companies in order to coop-
erate on R&D.
Silicon Field Regional IT Cluster hwww.
sziliciummezo.hu: Established in 2008, the
cluster is currently made up by more than 30
companies. With the help of the knowledge
base of the cluster, the target of the mem-
ber IT enterprises is to attain the critical mass
which makes the Debrecen region an impor-
tant factor of IT market.
Software Innovation Pole Cluster www.
infopolus.hu: The Software Innovation Pole
Cluster was formed as the result of the colla-
bouration of major software research centres,
companies and technology transfer organiza-
tions in South-Hungary.
Sopron Region IT Cluster www.itklasz-
tersopron.hu: The Sopron Region Cluster
was established in 2008 as a cooperation of
private enterprises, the University of West
Hungary and public companies. As of 2012,
the cluster has 23 members and is focusing on
innovation in IT for products and services.
What HITA can offer
for your business
HITA is the Hungarian Governments investment
and trade development agency and operates
under the supervision of the Prime Ministers Of-
ce. Through its extensive network of contacts
in both the public and private sectors, HITA pro-
vides foreign investors with high-quality support
for key decision-making processes and a wealth
of supplementary services.
Project preparation
In-depth, tailored information on the local
economy and business climate, corporate
taxation and the legal environment, as well as
sector-specic overviews
Site visits, meetings with local, regional and
government bodies and introductions to local
suppliers, service providers and experts
Information on available incentives
Implementation
Supplier search, coordination of license pro-
cedures
Assistance in application for VIP incentives
After care
Intermediary role for future developments be-
tween government bodies and companies op-
erating in Hungary
Support and generation of reinvestments
For further information please contact:
Mrs. Katalin Nmeth
Investment Promotion Director
[email protected]
+36 1 872 6530
Ms. Eszter Varga
Head of Department
[email protected]
+36 1 872 6636
Contact:
Hungarian Investment
and Trade Agency
H-1055 Budapest,
Honvd u. 20.
Telephone: +36 1 872 6520
Fax: +36 1 872 6699
Email: [email protected],
Web: www.hita.hu
4 4
For further information
please contact:
Hungarian Investment
and Trade Agency
H-1055 Budapest,
Honvd u. 20.
Telephone: +36 1 872 6520
Fax: +36 1 872 6699
Email: [email protected],
www.hita.hu