In 2022 Poland’s ICT market value has surpassed the 100 billion mark in local currency! This means an increase of 11.4% (in 2021 the market grew by 13%) to $24.5 billion ($21.8 billion). Of this, the IT market alone accounts for as much as $18 billion (up 14.7%). The remainder – $6.5 billion (+3.1%) – is telecommunications services.
The majority, 62%, of the IT companies we surveyed – participants in this year’s ITwiz Best100 ranking – said that 2022 was better or much better than 2021. Enthusiasm, however, has waned somewhat compared to the sensational year of 2021. A year ago, as many as 73% of companies said so.
Many more respondents also rated last year as worse – 11% (compared to 3% in 2021). IT companies also entered the new year in a minor mood. Only 34 percent rated it as better or much better, while 32 percent rated it as worse or much worse. Despite this, Polish IT companies are increasing employment (54 percent of responses), and only 7 percent have had to make layoffs.
This is completely different from the situation in the United States. There, mass layoffs have been announced by many, leading, American technology companies. At Google they affected 12,000 employees, at Meta – which owns Facebook – 11,000, and at Microsoft 10,000. Layoffs were also made by Amazon, Salesforce, Booking.com, Cisco and Twitter. According to data provided by TradingPlatforms.com, technology companies laid off nearly 120,000 employees in 2022!
Top 10 cloud computing service providers in Poland in 2022 (in thousands of PLN)
On the one hand, it was said that this was a result of the expected slowdown, but on the other hand, it was suggested that the reason was the optimization of „overstaffing” from the Covid-19 pandemic era. The pace of digitization at that time did not maintain the level of 2020-2021 – at that time, technology companies were increasing employment by up to tens of percent – hence the downsizing of BigTech companies.
IT job market in Poland
The trend from the US has not actually translated into the Polish market. On the contrary, more multinationals are opening software development departments in Poland. Some recent examples are Visa (1500 people in Warsaw), Volvo Cars (500-600, Kraków), SOFTSWISS (300, Poznań), BNP Paribas Corporate and Institutional Banking (250, Kraków) or Netflix (Warsaw). And these are just a few, out of many examples. At the same time – according to estimates by the Polish Economic Institute in the fall of 2022. – Poland is already short of about 147,000 IT specialists!
Although – according to the Just Join IT portal – there are fewer job advertisements in 2023 (-30% year-on-year), salaries are rising in parallel, not only for seniors (+9%), but also for juniors (+15%). This is similar among the companies we surveyed participating in this year’s ITwiz Best100. As many as 84% of them declared an increase in salaries, while 16% said they would maintain them at the current level.
IT market in Poland by main segments
The overall IT market, as we have already mentioned, is worth $18 billion. In turn, the value of the market for services – including business services such as Business Process Outsourcing or business consulting – in 2022 was $4.6 billion. IDC Poland predicts an average annual growth rate of 5.9% for it. This would give it a value of $6.1 billion in 2027. Meanwhile, the value of the IT services market alone is about $3.7 billion ($3.5 billion in 2021). By 2027, average annual growth is projected at 5.8%. The market will then be worth $4.8 billion.
Top 10 exporters of IT products and services in Poland in 2022 (in thousands of PLN)
Cloud computing services already are significant part of the IT market in Poland. Although by IDC they are assigned to larger categories – hardware (IaaS services) and software (SaaS and PaaS). In 2022, the value of cloud computing sales in Poland reached $1.3 billion (a 30% increase). By 2027, the cloud computing market is expected to grow by about 22% year-on-year. This is comparable to other European countries. In 5 years’ time, revenues of cloud computing services providers in Poland are expected to reach $2.8 billion.
SaaS services account for the largest share of the local cloud computing market. This segment represent 68% of that market. The average annual growth of this segment is expected to reach 18.5% in the coming years. The share of PaaS and IaaS services in the Polish market practically equaled in 2022, and indeed Paas were slightly larger for the first time in the history of IDC’s research. PaaS is also expected to grow faster, by an average of 35%, year-on-year, compared to 25% growth in sales of IaaS services.
The smallest of the major segments of the Polish IT market, software, was worth $2.9 billion in 2022. This represents an increase of as much as 13.8%! Of this, application sales alone accounted for $1.5 billion. We should add that these figures include both sales of on-premises versions and those offered in the cloud computing model. Regulations, such as those related to e-invoicing or adjusting to the introduction of the National e-Invoicing System, are largely responsible for the growth in the software segment in Poland, but also in Europe as a whole.
Hardware will pull the IT market down in 2023
Hardware, has traditionally accounted for the largest share of the Polish IT market.In 2022, its value amounted to PLN 11.4 billion, of which PLN 9 billion went to the Devices segment – computers, peripherals, cell phones and wearables – which grew by almost 18%.
Top 10 IT companies with Polish capital selling their own products and services in 2022 (in PLN thousand)
Overall, 2022 was a very good year for hardware sales not only in Poland, but also across Europe. The reason for this was the earlier delays in deliveries and problems with delivery. In the second half of 2022, however, the performance of global supply chains improved, and spending on equipment shot up. The growth was as high as 23% in the Infrastructure category, i.e., servers, storage systems or network devices, and the 18% in the Devices category.
This year, however, according to IDC, all equipment categories (except Infrastructure as a Service, IaaS) will be in the red. This segment of the market has the largest share, 63 percent, and this means that the entire ICT market is „glowing” in the red today in IDC analysts’ reports. Although the decline is expected to be only 1%. For IT alone, the decline will be a bit larger at around 3%, mainly influenced by hardware (-10%).
Other categories of the IT market are in the red, with software expected to grow by about 10% in 2023. Services, meanwhile – including business services – will grow by 5.4%.
Leaders according to the ITwiz Best100 report
Total revenue of companies ranked in this year’s ITwiz Best100 ranking is as much as PLN 103 billion (PLN 76 billion a year earlier). Although, of course, this is not equivalent to the value of the Polish IT market. Traditionally, we believe that simply adding them up has nothing to do with the size of the entire IT market in Poland. This is because the same commodity passes „from hands to hands” several times, e.g., from a distributor or vendor to an integrator who delivers it to the end customer.
Top 10 international IT companies operating on the Polish market in 2022 (in PLN thousand)
Summing up our ranking each time, we emphasize that the state of the entire IT industry is largely determined by the group of 50-100 largest companies. To qualify for the top 50, the largest companies in Poland in 2022, one had to achieve revenues of PLN 402 million (PLN 296 million in 2021), and in the case of the top 100 of the ITwiz Best100 list – PLN 190 million (PLN 148 million year before). According to the ITwiz Best100 ranking, last year the revenues of the top 50 IT companies amounted to PLN 76.6 billion (PLN 57.7 billion), or almost 99% of the market value.
The top 10 of the ITwiz Best100 ranking
The leader of the Polish market, distributor AB, generated turnover from sales of IT products and services of PLN 9.1 billion in 2022, an increase of 18% compared to 2021. In second place was ALSO Poland with a sales increase of 13% to PLN 7.9 billion also engaged in distribution.
In 3rd place of the ITwiz Best100 ranking – according to our estimates – was Lenovo Technology (PLN 3.6 billion) „pushing” Dell EMC (PLN 3.1 billion) off the podium to 4th place. Nokia (PLN 2.8 billion) was promoted to 5th place. Sixth place goes to Microsoft (PLN 2.6 billion), followed by Ingram Micro (PLN 2.5 billion), HP Inc. (PLN 2.4 billion) and Capgemini Poland (PLN 2.2 billion). The top 10 is rounded out by Asseco Poland (PLN 2.1 billion).
Top 10 IT distributors operating on the Polish market in 2022 (in PLN thousand)
Among the largest, Polish-owned companies selling their own products and services in 2021 were: Asseco Poland, NTT Systems (PLN 1.24 billion) and Comarch (PLN 1.2 billion). In turn, the top three cloud computing service providers were: Asseco Poland (PLN 276 million), Amazon Web Services (PLN 247 million) and Comarch (PLN 217 million).
Distribution of IT revenues in different sectors
Traditionally, the ITwiz Best100 also lists the largest providers of IT products and services to representatives of each economic sector. The total revenues of companies that reported sales to public administration and local government in 2022 were PLN 2.76 billion (PLN 2.34 billion in 2021); banks – PLN 2.4 billion (PLN 2.0 billion); the financial sector – PLN 2.0 billion (PLN 1.7 billion); the trade sector – PLN 1.8 billion (PLN 1.7 billion); industry – PLN 2.3 billion (PLN 1.9 billion); telecommunications and media – PLN 1.5 billion (no change); utilities and energy sector – PLN 1.6 billion (PLN 1.4 billion); healthcare PLN – 1.3 billion (PLN 1.2 billion), and transportation and logistics – PLN 0.9 billion (PLN 0.7 billion). As for the distribution between large companies and the SME sector, it was PLN 12.7 billion (PLN 10.8 billion) and PLN 2.6 billion (PLN 2.4 billion), respectively.
