German publishing house BurdaForward has established its first foreign location in the Italian port city of Bari with the help of Italian IT business consultancy Fincons Group.
Initially, around 20 employees will be working in the areas of product and software development. With the move, the subsidiary of German publishing group Burda wants to accelerate its transformation towards becoming a tech and media company.
Bari was chosen particularly because of the two computer science faculties located in the city and the strongly growing tech community in the region. At the new Italian product and development location, a large number of software engineers will now be working for the company’s leading high-reach portals including CHIP and FOCUS Online.
Thanks to the strategic partnership with Fincons Group, which has strong credentials in digital publishing and opened its delivery centre in Bari more than 10 years ago, BurdaForward aims to gain a local foothold more quickly.
“We are investing massively in new technologies because this is the only way we can offer our users real added value on our portals. Finding software experts who can drive these innovations forward is more important than ever for us as a tech and media company. We are delighted to have found a strong partner in Fincons who can provide us with competent local support in Bari, for example in the recruitment of top developers,” said Thomas Koelzer, CTO of BurdaForward.
Francesco Moretti, deputy CEO of Fincons Group and CEO of Fincons.US, added: “We are delighted to have been selected by BurdaForward as this vote of confidence confirms our skills and experience in the media and publishing sector, but also cements our presence in the German market where we have recently opened an office as part of our international expansion. Facilitating BurdaForward’s strategic development by helping them set up part of their operations in Bari represents a key part of our offering: that of enabling clients to realise their strategic objectives and drive digitisation.”
