IT in Oradea “evaluation and development” conference

On the last day of April, the Emanuel University from Oradea and Qubiz organized a conference called “IT in Oradea - evaluation and development” at Oradea City Hall. During the seminar, there were 8 speakers: Dacian Palladi, Sebastian Vaduva, Florian Gheorghe, Vlad Mihut, Daniela Popescu, Alexandru Mang, Alin Merches, Adrian Gheara and Marcel Anghel; each of them spoke about different situations regarding the IT sector in Oradea. Sebastian Vaduva, Dean at the Emanuel University was the host of the conference. He also encouraged the guests to interact with the speakers.

1. Mr. Dacian Palladi, Business Consultant, presented us which are the top 3 employers in the software and engineering sectors in Oradea; and he referred also to the top cities from IT point of view in Romania. Taking into account the statistics, it seems that Cluj-Napoca is no. 1 in outsourcing and Timisoara is no. 1 in engineering.
2. Mr. Florin Gheorghe presented the accelerating programs that are available for the IT sector.
3. Mr. Vlad Mihut presented the opportunities that the IT companies have to benefit from non-refundable financial programs.
4. Mr. Alexandru Mang, owner of a local IT company, spoke about the “Human Resources in IT: from order-taker to knowledge worker” referring to the internships, IT events, career path in an IT company
5. Prof. dr. ing. Daniela Popescu, IT manager at the University of Oradea, from the university side spoke about the gap between the education and the economy, offering examples about how the university helps the students to enter the work marketplace: with internships and various scholarships offered to them, giving them the chance not only to learn, but to practice what they had learned.
6. Mr. Alin Merches, owner of a local IT company, considered that there should be a closer cooperation between the local IT companies; he also talked about “Entrepreneurship in software/online in Oradea”
7. Mr. Adrian Gheara, owner of a local IT company, talked about “How Oradea can distinguish itself from other cities”, offering examples of various IT activities in cities such as Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara, Bucharest and the how IT hubs from there are being organized.
8. In the end Marcel, from Qubiz side, talked about the IT path in Romania, referring to nowadays outsourcing as being more than just order-taking development. It is about conceptual modelling, requirements analysis, design, architecture, complete projects that fit to clients’ needs. He referred to his KPI’s when he started to built an IT company in Oradea, Qubiz.
10. Where there is nothing to be seen at a first glance, there are the greatest opportunities
12. The good culture in Oradea, where it was very easy to built on.

“If I look back, to the last 6 years, I am very satisfied about what Qubiz is now. We are now more than 60 people after 6 years. I think that an IT company can be a successful one if:

• there is a good business model: products, services, solutions with added value
• there is a good culture and good values. That means there is great performance, a good atmosphere in the company, good care for the people.
• there is a good connection with the education facilities. Every year in Qubiz we have 3 internships and a good connection with the local university”
• there should be better politics from the local authorities: better road connections between Oradea and Cluj-Napoca, an international airport.
• anyone who invests with patience, commitment and for the long term."

At the end of the seminar, guests could address questions to the speakers, they were interested in the tech hubs in Oradea, various IT events in the future and a better cooperation between IT companies in Oradea.

It was an interesting experience, a good dialogue and an event where we found out more about the IT issues in Oradea and the solutions for them.For more pictures of the event, please find our facebook page.

by Alina