The IT Ukraine Association and BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, have called on organisations around the world to give Ukraine’s tech consultancies serious consideration when tendering for contracts.

The two groups said that Ukraine computing specialists are open for business and are ready to fill the gap now that many Western companies no longer work with Russian consultancies.

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IT Ukraine, a trade association with 75,000 members has conducted research showing the industry is now running at 90% efficiency in terms of meeting commitments to clients. It’s ready to discuss partnerships and link Ukrainian IT exports to interested companies.

BCS has also offered any Ukrainian IT specialist membership without any cost, including use of office space at its London office, networking, and advice from its current members.

“We are not asking for donations or charity; just for more trust in our business and in our ability to operate in the current situation,” said Konstantin Vasyuk, executive director of the IT Ukraine Association. “You see these awful pictures of destroyed buildings, but we have managed to save our business and our tech industry. Now this business is going strong, we want to tell the world and share this information.”

Vasyuk added that the expertise and experience of cyber professionals in Ukraine are world-class, as is its work in other areas like AI, and it has been building this for years.

Ukraine’s infrastructure and fibre-optic network have helped stabilise the country’s internet connectivity. This has been supported by 5,000 Starlink devices supplied to Ukraine. Vasyuk explained that before the war, it wasn’t possible to use this technology officially or legally, but the situation has changed. 

“There was a record number of downloads of the Starlink application,” he said. “We now have very good experience of using this equipment. It’s a reserved alternative for network connections, but it helps for the regions which temporarily have problems with internet connection.”

Vasyuk underlined that there’s a huge deficit of IT talent in world markets and that Ukrainian cyber professionals are ready to fill the gap, even in the conditions they’re currently in. There are 5,000 IT companies in Ukraine and Vasyuk said its IT business, in general, is very socially responsible and flexible in its ability to find solutions.

The most important support companies outside of Ukraine can give is continuing with the contracts they have with the country and continuing to work in partnership, added Vasyuk. He hinted that some of the country’s companies are ready to open offices in Europe to diversify and get stronger too.

“We still have some issues with site visits to customers – now we’re talking with the government to maybe provide some special procedure to have business trips for two, three, four weeks to customers on-site so we can continue with business,” he said. “Also, don’t be afraid to start new projects and the more partners stop doing business with Russia, the more that will help us to win and make the enemy very weak.”