Mr. Kai Gulbrandsen, Kyivstar’s Chief Technical Officer
Mr. Kai Gulbrandsen, Kyivstar’s Chief Technical Officer

Founded in 1989, Miratech is headquartered in Stockholm, with the main development centre located in Kyiv. Miratech’s service network, including R&D centres, is available in 560 cities and towns. The IAOP named Miratech among the world’s best outsourcing providers and placed it on the 2013 Global Outsourcing 100 list. Building reliable and enduring relationships with clients is a high priority for Miratech. To learn the company’s secrets to establishing successful partnerships, our correspondent Ivana Carapic talked with representatives of two of Miratech’s key clients.

Kyivstar is the largest Ukrainian telecom and mobile provider. The cooperation has started in 2005. There are more than 200 Miratech engineers engaged into application services and infrastructure support services for Kyivstar. A few years ago Kyivstar has hired Miratech to perform the largest in Ukraine virtual desktop infrastructure solution design and deployment covering 8000 equipment items at more than 600 operatorʼs locations.

Mr. Kai Gulbrandsen, Kyivstar’s Chief Technical Officer, shares his opinion on the common working experience:

“We are a big company with a highly professional staff, quality business, and good processes. We want to deal with companies that provide quality products as well. At the same time, the services should be affordable. Miratech has helped us a lot by developing services and applications, and in other areas.

Miratech specializes in outsourcing. In the past, I have worked with a variety of companies, and Miratech seems to be one of the most professional players in Ukraine for doing this kind of business. They are very flexible and easier to do business with than multinational companies. It is important that Miratech has a strong local presence, and knows the local environment. From this point of view, Miratech is a great partner. I think the benefits of doing business with them are that they are a trustworthy company that believes in providing high quality to their customers.

“What we like about Miratech is that you can be sure that the quality is good and I like that Miratech is trying not just to meet clients’ expectations, but to exceed them a little bit.”

Being the largest and oldest bank in Ukraine, Prominvestbank is represented almost all over Ukraine. The cooperation has started in 2012. There are more than 80 regional engineers support 2000 working places at 60 bank locations.

Mr. Hanif Younus, Director of Operational Technology at Prominvestbank, speaks on his experience with Miratech:

Mr. Hanif Younus, Director of Operational Technology at Prominvestbank
Mr. Hanif Younus, Director of Operational Technology at Prominvestbank

“We are represented almost all over Ukraine. We started our cooperation with Miratech in early 2012, with IT infrastructure support services for our branches in the regions.

Later, we started using additional services, such as service desk out staffing, and a new banking platform, as well as network organization in terms of IP telephony in the regional branches.

Speaking on behalf of my team, we are extremely satisfied with the professionalism of Miratech, which is at the European level. As a part of our agreement, I personally meet with the CEO every month or two, just to review our operations and to discuss any issues. I also receive a weekly progress report, which I read and comment on from time to time. This weekly report allows me to monitor the situation, to see when and how I need to improve it.

Due to our cooperation with Miratech, we have reduced our IT staff from 300+ to 27 people. Here at Prominvestbank we are very sensitive about cost efficiency, and I can say that now we have really big cost savings. On the Miratech side, 80 IT specialists are constantly supporting our business.

When you outsource something, you always worry if those people can deliver and if everything will be done properly. However, in the two years we have worked with Miratech, there have been no problems that make me worry about the service. It is a pleasure to work with this company. The bigger it becomes, the more professional it is. It never stops improving its services.”