Interview: How did RITS create effective operating models in the technology market?

Łukasz Kośnik, CEO & Managing Partner of RITS Professional Services and RITS US Corp.: Our origins lie in a recruitment company from the Capital Group specializing in managerial placements for global players. As inquiries for IT specialists, preferably in an outsourcing model, became more frequent, we recognized the potential, albeit it didn’t perfectly align with the profile of that company at the time. However, the nascent market for IT outsourcing in our region presented opportunities for success. Companies gradually shifted from in-house recruitment to flexible models based on collaboration with external providers. In 2015, we began building an outsourcing team, giving rise to the startup Relyon IT Services. Over time, inquiries for comprehensive IT project implementations arose, and we couldn’t ignore this demand. Thus, we expanded our services in that direction. Meanwhile, we rebranded as RITS Professional Services, reflecting our growing portfolio and unwavering commitment to professionalism. This was recently acknowledged by the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals® (IAOP®), qualifying us for this year’s Global Outsourcing 100® list.

Where does RITS Professional Services stand now?

We are now a mature firm with a clearly defined growth strategy and over 500 employees executing IT projects daily both in Poland and abroad. Our dynamic growth was recognized in the recent Forbes Poland ranking in partnership with Dun & Bradstreet Poland, placing RITS Professional Services among Forbes Diamonds 2024, which highlights companies that have rapidly increased their value over the past three years. We are a technological partner that supports the digital transformation of the financial, manufacturing, technological, pharmaceutical, public sector, and… I could list more, but the most important thing in all of this is that this collaboration is based on trust. Over the years, we have been able to grow together with our business partners – together we have learned how to build processes, how to tailor services so that success awaits us on both sides in the end. We have drawn from the experience of leaders in their industries, adding to that our creativity, quick response, and providing solutions to new needs. A great example here is our collaboration with Infogain, for whom we have become the preferred local provider. Our partner appreciates our solid competencies in software engineering, but also the approach of our specialists to tasks – positive energy and strong work ethics. I would like to emphasize here how important it is to me that we have built a team of fantastic, committed people and together with them, we have created effective action patterns. All of this allows us, and here I will use this common phrase, to respond to the needs of the market, in a very dynamically changing market.

What changes are you talking about?

Today, clients expect us to come up with ideas for business transformation: business advisory on its direction, selection of competitive tools in terms of functionality and price, ready-made implementation schemes for these solutions, and their adaptation in a short time. What characterizes the current market is agile implementations that don’t take years, with their effects being visible within a few months from the outset. This change responds to the rapid development of technology, which companies want to translate into action as quickly as possible. We observe the technological market and, on one hand, adapt these trends within our organization by investing in new tools automating processes – in recent months alone, we’ve utilized them to accelerate operations in HR, sales, marketing, project execution, and recruiting new IT specialists. For years, we’ve had an automated process for purchasing services and practically from the very beginning of our operations – document circulation.

On the other hand, we translate these trends into investments in service and product development. This year, we’re making significant investments in Managed Services, where we handle projects from start to finish. This required adapting our organizational structure, and I’m confident that we’re now 100% ready to handle even more of such orders. Managed Services is a holistic approach to IT management that enables organizations to not only increase operational capabilities but primarily to use technology as a strategic resource. It’s an imperative for business efficiency and innovation. We’re investing in Marketing Automation tools, in MarTech based on behavioral data analysis by AI working in a closed environment. This is a completely new product that will be part of our offering.

Can you tell us more? Why MarTech?

Because companies are asking for it. Especially ecommerce, which we also serve. It needs marketing automation tools – from customer journey mapping to personalizing customer experiences. We’ve found strong partners to enter this area, companies with unique competencies in digital marketing. We’ve also invested in acquiring a startup, and all of this creates a very comprehensive offering. I think we’ll be able to discuss this in more detail soon. I’ll leave a slight appetite for information here.

Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, recently said at a conference that learning to program doesn’t make much sense in the age of AI development. Your business largely relies on executing projects by a range of specialized programmers.

Yes, he talked about the miracle of Artificial Intelligence and creating such technology where human language will be the language of programming. Then, according to him, everyone in the world will be able to become programmers. Do you see yourself as a programmer prompting some AI-based tool to migrate corporate data? My imagination is rich, but I think we still have some time before we reach such a situation. Adapting AI-based solutions, Machine Learning to daily operations is crucial. Some professions will disappear, and for some, mastering AI is a matter of survival in the future. Notice that many new positions „generated” by AI have already emerged – I’ll use their English names: Prompt Engineer, Machine Learning Engineer, AI Researcher, Data Scientist, AI Ethics Specialist. IBM research conducted last year in over 20 countries around the world indicates that according to management staff of companies, about 40% of employees will need to retrain in the next three years. Programmers have excellent foundations for quickly embracing this change. RITS Professional Services will continue to invest in bolstering our plans, including hiring more programmers. By the end of the year, we plan to increase their number by several hundred. This directly stems from our ambitious plans – since the end of 2023, we have RITS US, which facilitates acquiring business partners from the American market, and we’re present and developing projects with clients from the UK, the Nordic countries, DACH, and Benelux. And the market signals that technological needs are still growing…

Thank you for the interview.