Ales Smetana is a chief analyst and director of the IT Outsourcing Center in Prague, an independent research group focusing on the the Czech Republic's outsourcing market. The IT Outsourcing Center cooperates with Czech businesses as well as academic and governmental institutions to understand the potential of the Czech IT sourcing market and provide in-depth independent analyses. The Center aims at mapping out both vendor and client landscape within the Czech Republic. Mr. Smetana's research focus is on offshore and nearshore outsourcing markets. He has received a master's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Western Bohemia.