Many medium-sized companies have their own software with a very long life cycle (8+ years). This often leads to problems with maintaining the necessary technological knowledge. In this context, support and advice from relevant external IT partners can be useful and helpful. However, in order for such cooperation to be effective, particular attention should be paid to issues related to the selection of external IT partners:
1. Support and advice
Medium-sized enterprises need innovative and up-to-date solutions developed by experienced senior developers, but at the same time they also need the ability to build on what already exists. Therefore, these companies depend on flexible and technologically savvy partners who recognize and understand each company's specific circumstances, options and opportunities. It therefore requires competent programmers with a similar point of view to yours, and speaking your language, to develop solutions for your tools and processes. It also means that the external IT partners need to have sufficient experience with medium-sized companies.
2. Knowledge of foreign languages
Communication in the company, be it with customers, partners or employees, is an important tool in modern business management. Without efficient communication, strategically important actions and decisions may be carried out incorrectly or not at all. When employees from different cultures and languages work together, there is not only the risk of not knowing the other person's language, but also the risk of being misunderstood due to routine communication behavior. It is not only the project or plan that is at risk of failure. The business climate also depends to a large extent on communication that is as clear as possible.
Clear, regular communication and mutual cooperation are particularly important for the further development of existing systems. Medium-sized enterprises in Germany and Austria prefer to speak German. Therefore, when selecting partner IT companies, it is important that their employees have the appropriate language skills. This applies not only to project managers from the partner company, but also to their managers and SW / IT experts.
3.Outsourcing should always be Nearshoring as well
When medium-sized enterprises decide to involve external IT partners to support the development of their network, these partners should be able to deploy as quickly as possible on site. This is required by the processes taking place in a typical German medium-sized enterprise. For this purpose, it is imperative that these partners be able to communicate quickly with their team and with those responsible in the company directly.
Regular meetings with the Scrum Master, Product Owner and Project Manager are a necessary condition for this. The external IT partner should be able to intervene quickly if any problems arise and try to solve them directly on the spot. Additionally, in the case of complex requirements in the implementation phase, external IT programmers should be able to work at the company's premises for a strictly defined period of time.
Companies with little outsourcing experience must also be able to contact the external partner at any time and visit them on-site.
4. Cultural values
Common cultural values in business life concern, for example, such concepts as honesty, diligence and a defined work ethic, but also the ability to communicate openly, the ability to sometimes say "no" and the ability to ask questions, which is of great importance when creating software based on Agile methodology.
However, a condition for successful cooperation is also living in the same time zone (CET), having a similar schedule of holidays and non-working days, and having a general knowledge of the specifics of the work culture.
In addition, the cultural value of every developer is also a willingness to program "Legacy" even in technologies that are not the most modern. All of this starts with recruiting the right employees.
About VM.PL
Using our knowledge and experience, we have been supporting our German-speaking clients for many years. We offer support in software development and consultancy in the field of maintenance and further development of software and IT infrastructure.
VM.PL is a team of about 100 employees. They are professionals recruited for their skills and expertise, including linguistic and cultural competences, to develop systems that accurately meet the company's technical requirements and strategic goals.
VM.PL provides enterprises with their own team of programmers, which is 100% dedicated to the implementation of the project in a given company.
VM.PL ensures a healthy combination of flexibility, transparency and professionalism. This allows a medium-sized company to develop a team according to its own ideas and to work with highly qualified technical staff.
