CEO of Diligent Corporation: Hungary's largest software development office will be established in Budapest

In your experience, to what extent do ESG considerations apply when a company decides to choose partners?

Today there are hardly any large companies without an ESG strategy, and this strategy often sets the target of reaching carbon neutrality in their own operation and entire value chain. This is in line with the EU’s commitment to reach zero emissions within the block by 2050.

Besides sustainability, respecting employee rights and fostering diversity are key elements of modern corporate governance. Therefore, it's crucial that companies require both their existing and future suppliers to comply with their ESG guidelines so that they can contribute to global commitments.

Diligent serves more than 25,000 organizations in 130 countries with its modern governance tools and thus has a unique insight into the development of corporate cultures.

One of our primary focuses is providing corporate leaders with solutions that enable them to track progress in the implementation of their ESG strategies.

What major developments are you currently working on? How can these innovations help businesses?

Diligent is continuing to develop new and innovative solutions within our integrated GRC platform to help top managers make the right decisions and to keep their companies agile.

ESG is becoming a top priority, which fundamentally influences stakeholder relations and competitiveness – so our product development also focuses on that.

We are developing software using artificial intelligence and automation to give real-time feedback to leaders about progress on their ESG, governance, risk and compliance goals.

Now, we already have Hungarian professionals at our Budapest Global Product Innovation Center contributing to product development. Our recently launched Diligent Engineering Tech Blog and All Things Tech Podcast offer exciting content to experts and the wider public alike about our technology innovation, the professional discourse around software architecture and design, and our developer community.

Your innovation center in Budapest opened a year ago. Why did you choose Hungary and what was your initial experience?

We chose Hungary and Budapest because this region has a forward-looking business environment that rewards investments, it has a strategic location – In the heart of Europe – and it offers a talent pool of highly skilled professionals.

At Diligent, we offer job seekers exciting professional challenges and an international career. Our expectations have been exceeded, as we already have more than 140 highly skilled colleagues who have become active and enthusiastic members of our Diligent community.

We intend to expand our Budapest headquarters  to 300 and build the largest software developer community in Hungary.

Our pursuit has been recognized by HIPA with the Centre of Excellence of the Year award this year.

To what extent do they feel the labor shortage in Hungary? How long do you think this condition can stay with us?

There is certainly a strong demand for highly skilled talent in IT and software development in Hungary, partially due to reputable global companies moving in. The number of IT professionals missing from the Hungarian labour market amounts to thousands, according to the Association for a Digital Hungary.

Hungary can boast a long history of technological innovation and has a high-quality STEM education which we believe can help ease the labour shortage in the long run.  

Also, Diligent is in a unique position. In recent years we’ve been honoured to be recognised as one of the fastest-growing technology companies in the world, leading the way in innovation at an international level as the world’s largest GRC SaaS company.  We offer equal opportunities for all employees, and outstanding career opportunities in a friendly and motivating work environment.

What wage growth dynamics do you expect in the IT sector in the coming period in Hungary, Europe and the USA?

Wages in the IT sector are well above the average already and as economies continue to transform digitally, their skills will be in increasingly high demand.

According to a recent survey, average IT salaries have increased by 3.6 percent between 2019 and 2020 despite the economic downturn and rising unemployment. Because of more people working at home and companies switching to hybrid work, cybersecurity analysts have become extremely demanded and so their wages are expected to rise even further.

Data scientist, devOps engineers, technical support and cloud engineers and business analysts can also expect their salaries to grow according to forecasts.

As for Hungary, people working in the ICT sector are the highest earners according to the Central Statistical Office. Considering global tendencies, they will surely be the beneficiaries of any wage growth projected for the years to come.

Typically, in what size and in what sector can Hungarian companies benefit from the programs developed by your company?

Diligent's solutions are used to drive strategic decision-making in over 25,000 organizations around the world. Many of our customers are global enterprises with a need for visibility into governance, risk, and compliance across the entire organization through one integrated platform.

That said, in today's rapidly changing business and social landscape, good governance, risk management and compliance practices should be a part of every company's strategy, large or small. By offering such a unique GRC platform, Diligent has turned governance into a real competitive advantage.

In your opinion, in which IT solutions and systems are Hungarian SMEs (small and medium size enterprises) most lagging behind?

In the last two years, Hungarian SMEs proved their ability to adjust to digital teleworking quickly and efficiently. Experience shows that cloud technology and the use of modern team working applications are already basic requirements at most enterprises, however, the number of businesses still using paper-based processes is still substantial.

The next step in the transformation process is to extend digital transformation to all areas of business so that integrated, cloud-based solutions can be better utilized to drive strategy across the entire organization.

Enterprises shouldn’t shy away from growing their cybersecurity programs either, because the damage cyberattacks can cause surpass their cost of prevention significantly. Cybercrimes have inflicted damage on individuals and organisations in the value of USD 6 trillion in 2021 so far, making cybercrime the third largest “economy” after the USA and China.

A challenge that many SMEs will face in the future is whether they can rise to the next level of digital transformation, which is incorporating artificial intelligence and data-driven governance into their operation.

These tools aren’t purely a means to improve efficiency of daily operation, they also enhance quality of services and customer experience.

What solutions do the systems you develop offer in case of corporate crises?

We offer a GRC platform to board members which provides encrypted communication.

They can access all documents and files needed – contracts, reports, protocols etc – and can make decisions quickly with online approval procedures provided independent of location and time.

Therefore, our products enable managers to act quickly and efficiently in times of crisis. However, it is important to highlight that companies using risk management tools are better positioned to mitigate risks that could lead to a crisis in the first place.