Building a dedicated team: what can it bring to me?Een toegewijd team creëren: wat levert mij dat op?Building a dedicated team: what can it bring to me?Building a dedicated team: what can it bring to me?

There are many reasons why companies from Europe or the United States outsource work to India or Eastern Europe. The most frequently heard driver for offshoring are obviously ‘costs’. In this post, I want to describe a case of one of our clients to put the advantages of offshoring (which go far beyond costs) in a realistic perspective.

Lucius Websystems, a company specialized in development, consultancy and training in websystems based on open source software, from Alkmaar, The Netherlands, had a team at our office in Chisinov, Moldova during 2008-2009. During 2008, they experienced a big growth in the amount of customer projects. They couldn’t handle all projects with their current team and because of the shortage in the local Dutch labor market, it was hard for them to attract skilled developers. For a period of almost two years, they worked succesfully with a team of php programmers in Bridge Moldova.

Er zijn veel redenen waarom bedrijven uit Europa of de VS werk naar India of Oost-Europa outsourcen. De meest gehoorde drijfveer voor offshoring zijn natuurlijk ‘de kosten’. In dit artikel wil ik een voorbeeld van één van onze klanten beschrijven, waarin duidelijk wordt dat de realiteit van offshoring niet alleen over kosten gaat.

There are many reasons why companies from Europe or the United States outsource work to India or Eastern Europe. The most frequently heard driver for offshoring are obviously ‘costs’. In this post, I want to describe a case of one of our clients to put the advantages of offshoring (which go far beyond costs) in a realistic perspective.

Lucius Websystems, a company specialized in development, consultancy and training in websystems based on open source software, from Alkmaar, The Netherlands, had a team at our office in Chisinov, Moldova during 2008-2009. During 2008, they experienced a big growth in the amount of customer projects. They couldn’t handle all projects with their current team and because of the shortage in the local Dutch labor market, it was hard for them to attract skilled developers. For a period of almost two years, they worked succesfully with a team of php programmers in Bridge Moldova.

There are many reasons why companies from Europe or the United States outsource work to India or Eastern Europe. The most frequently heard driver for offshoring are obviously ‘costs’. In this post, I want to describe a case of one of our clients to put the advantages of offshoring (which go far beyond costs) in a realistic perspective.

Lucius Websystems, a company specialized in development, consultancy and training in websystems based on open source software, from Alkmaar, The Netherlands, had a team at our office in Chisinov, Moldova during 2008-2009. During 2008, they experienced a big growth in the amount of customer projects. They couldn’t handle all projects with their current team and because of the shortage in the local Dutch labor market, it was hard for them to attract skilled developers. For a period of almost two years, they worked succesfully with a team of php programmers in Bridge Moldova.

As with many other IT companies, the amount of work decreased in 2009 and they had to stop working with our team. For Lucius, the fact that they could simply stop the contract at the end of the agreed period, meant they could bring down their capacity and costs. Had they hired an employee, it wouldn’t have been that easy. In the Netherlands, labor laws are strict and people who are employed on a permanent basis are hard to fire.

This year, the amount of work Lucius is getting, substantially increased during the summer. From June onwards they started with a dedicated drupal programmer in Moldova again. Right now, we are looking for a second developer that can join. This way, Lucius can easily scale up or down their capacity. At the same time, they save costs, because the Bridge dedicated team costs less than employees on the payrol or external Dutch programmers.

Joris Snoek, owner of Lucius, describes the offshoring experience: ‘Bridge enabled us to engage highly skilled drupal developers in our projects on short term. During 2008, we have developed a solid working method with our first Moldovan team, which gave us predictable results and quality. With our new team, we benefit a lot from this. Our Bridge team works independently and all communication goes through our online project management tool. For Lucius, offshoring is part of our growth strategy for the future.’

Lucius Websystems is een bedrijf uit Alkmaar (Nederland) dat zich specialiseert in ontwikkeling, adviesverstrekking en training in websystemen gebaseerd op open source software. Ze hadden een team in ons kantoor in Chisinov, Moldavië van 2008-2009. In 2008 groeide hun bedrijf enorm door verschillende projecten. Ze konden deze projecten niet aan met het team dat ze toen hadden en door het tekort op de Nederlandse arbeidsmarkt was het lastig ervaren ontwikkelaars te vinden. Voor een periode van bijna twee jaar hebben ze succesvol samengewerkt met een team van php programmeurs in Bridge Moldavië.
Zoals bij veel IT bedrijven hadden ze in 2009 minder werk en moesten ze stoppen met de samenwerking met ons team. Voor Lucius was het gunstig dat ze het contract konden stopzetten na een bepaalde periode, omdat ze hun kosten zo konden drukken. Als ze een werknemer hadden aangenomen was het niet zo makkelijk geweest. In Nederland zijn de arbeidswetten streng en mensen die op een permanente basis zijn aangenomen zijn moeilijk te ontslaan.
Dit jaar krijgt Lucius geleidelijk steeds meer werk tijdens de zomer. Vanaf juni zijn ze weer begonnen met een toegewijde drupal programmeur in Moldavië. Nu zijn we op zoek naar een tweede ontwikkelaar om het team te versterken. Hierdoor kan Lucius zelf bepalen hoe veel capaciteit ze hebben. Tegelijkertijd worden er kosten bespaard omdat het toegewijde team van Bridge minder kost dan de Nederlandse werknemers.
Joris Snoek, eigenaar van Lucius, beschrijft de offshoring ervaring alsvolgt: ‘Brigde zorgde ervoor dat wij op korte termijn ervaren drupal ontwikkelaars konden aannemen voor onze projecten. In 2008 hebben we een waterdichte werkwijze ontwikkeld met ons eerste Moldavische team en hier hebben we veel profijt van met ons nieuwe team omdat we de resultaten en kwaliteit konden voorspellen. Ons Bridge team werkt onafhankelijk van ons en alle communicatie gaat via onze online project management tool. Voor Lucius maakt offshoring  deel uit van onze groeistrategie voor de toekomst.’

As with many other IT companies, the amount of work decreased in 2009 and they had to stop working with our team. For Lucius, the fact that they could simply stop the contract at the end of the agreed period, meant they could bring down their capacity and costs. Had they hired an employee, it wouldn’t have been that easy. In the Netherlands, labor laws are strict and people who are employed on a permanent basis are hard to fire.

This year, the amount of work Lucius is getting, substantially increased during the summer. From June onwards they started with a dedicated drupal programmer in Moldova again. Right now, we are looking for a second developer that can join. This way, Lucius can easily scale up or down their capacity. At the same time, they save costs, because the Bridge dedicated team costs less than employees on the payrol or external Dutch programmers.

Joris Snoek, owner of Lucius, describes the offshoring experience: ‘Bridge enabled us to engage highly skilled drupal developers in our projects on short term. During 2008, we have developed a solid working method with our first Moldovan team, which gave us predictable results and quality. With our new team, we benefit a lot from this. Our Bridge team works independently and all communication goes through our online project management tool. For Lucius, offshoring is part of our growth strategy for the future.’

As with many other IT companies, the amount of work decreased in 2009 and they had to stop working with our team. For Lucius, the fact that they could simply stop the contract at the end of the agreed period, meant they could bring down their capacity and costs. Had they hired an employee, it wouldn’t have been that easy. In the Netherlands, labor laws are strict and people who are employed on a permanent basis are hard to fire.

This year, the amount of work Lucius is getting, substantially increased during the summer. From June onwards they started with a dedicated drupal programmer in Moldova again. Right now, we are looking for a second developer that can join. This way, Lucius can easily scale up or down their capacity. At the same time, they save costs, because the Bridge dedicated team costs less than employees on the payrol or external Dutch programmers.

Joris Snoek, owner of Lucius, describes the offshoring experience: ‘Bridge enabled us to engage highly skilled drupal developers in our projects on short term. During 2008, we have developed a solid working method with our first Moldovan team, which gave us predictable results and quality. With our new team, we benefit a lot from this. Our Bridge team works independently and all communication goes through our online project management tool. For Lucius, offshoring is part of our growth strategy for the future.’