Deloitte in Central Europe announces the launch of the annual Technology Fast 50 competition, which recognises the 50 fastest-growing technology companies in Central Europe.

Budapest, May 5, 2008: Celebrating its 9th year in Central Europe, the Deloitte Fast 50 competition selects its winners based on their financial performance in the last five years. The competition’s prestige increases year on year as more companies and countries from the region participate in Fast 50. “While last year’s winners hailed primarily from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Latvia, this year we expect to see more companies from expanding markets such as Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia and Croatia in the rankings,” says the Regional Managing Partner for Technology, Media and Telecommunications, Dariusz Nachyla.

In 2007 Assocom Kft was ranked the fastest growing Hungarian technology firm with a revenue increase of 1605 % over the past 5 years. Zoltán Baranyák, managing director of the company, commented on this: „Assocom Kft was the winner of the Rising Star category in the 2004-2005 edition of the competition and the best Hungarian company in the Technology Fast 50 list in 2007. Established in 2000, so being a relatively newly formed enterprise, the awards helped a lot in improving the recognition of our company. Of course, in order to develop further, we still need to reach more and more clients. At company presentations and initial talks with potential clients we can always refer to our prominent positions in the rankings that were drawn up on the basis of objective criteria. It has been easier for us to win their confidence, so now all we need to focus on is providing them with the best IT solutions - something that was also the cornerstone of our earlier success.”

Hungarian companies also achieved good ranking in the Rising Star category last year. The Hungarian company with the highest ranking in the category was Alerant Zrt, which recorded a 195% increase in revenue in the past 3 years.  “This is the third year Alerant has taken part in Deloitte's survey. Last time around we competed in the Rising Star category as a newly formed company, and this year in the Technology Fast 50 list of enterprises that have been operating for several years. We attach great importance to participation, yet we benefit from it in a different way each and every year. When our company was in the start-up phase, taking part in the competition helped us achieve recognition, and today it assists us mainly in the evaluation of our results. In addition, we believe it is important to stress that participation also helps us monitor the development trends of companies in the Hungarian and the Central European region.”- said Tamás Szabó, managing director of Alerant Kft.

Online registration and eligibility criteria can be found on the regional Fast 50 website, www.deloitte.com/fast50ce. This year’s competition will open on 5 May 2008 and will close on 30 June 2008. As in previous years, winners of the regional competition will automatically be nominated in the Europe-wide competition known as “Technology Fast 500 EMEA”.

“Every year we work on reaching a larger audience of technology savvy companies. In order to salute the efforts of even more of these innovative teams so that they may increase their awareness in the market, we welcome as many companies as possible into the competition. We wish the best of luck to all participants in this year’s competition and we look forward to seeing the winners at ceremonies that will take place in October,” says Nachyla.
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In Hungary, the services are provided by Deloitte Auditing and Consulting Limited (Deloitte Ltd.) and Deloitte Advisory and Management Consulting Privite Limited Company (Deloitte Co. Ltd.), jointly referred to as “Deloitte Hungary”, which are affiliates of Deloitte Central Europe Holdings Limited. Deloitte Hungary is one of the leading professional services organizations in the country providing services in five professional areas - audit, tax, consulting, enterprise risk services and financial advisory services - through more over 350 national and specialized expatriate professionals.

For more information, please visit the Hungarian website at www.deloitte.com/hungary.