Our recent webinar brought together Todd Bramblett, Managing Partner at AscentCore, and Paul Farrell, Founder & CEO, Nehemiah Security, to share critical lessons and insights from decades of experience building enterprise digital products, along with forecasts for driving success in the coming years.
“Product development changed fundamentally because all of society changed and that is why you have to accelerate the development process.” – Paul Farrell (Founder & CEO, Nehemiah Security)
Digitalization is now a mandate. In order to remain competitive in today’s fast-paced software development market, where demands are always changing, external help can be the solution.
But how can you choose the right provider and still get good quality services? Moreover, how do you know what the right practice is for your business? This is where you need to take into consideration more aspects like location (geography, culture, economy, safety and security, and time zones), the talent pool and the right IT partner.
1.Return of investment
For many businesses the financial aspect is the most important when looking for an off-shore partner. Romania has a tremendous advantage in terms of value-added vs costs. People working in this field have a good income, thus they are driven to always step up their game and put their best work forward. The living costs, rent and maintenance, are relatively low which brings a bonus point for everyone looking to relocate, work or hire teams from this country.
However, this should not be the decisive factor. Quality should always take priority as the main goal is to get the most out of your investment.
2.Diversity
“Some of my best performing teams are diverse. Not only do you get the US perspective, but the off-shore team’s perspective, especially when dealing with challenging situations and that is how you get to performance.” – Paul Farrell (Founder & CEO, Nehemiah Security)
One of the best practices that Paul mentioned is cross-pollination. One great advantage of off-shoring to Romania is that the culture is not that different from the U.S., and that has a genuine impact on performance. Not only is a lot of communication lost if the subtleties of intonation and reference in speech are not understood, it is also virtually impossible to manage individuals without understanding their attitudes toward work, toward each other and toward their managers. People in Romania are growing up with a well-formed linguistic heritage that allows them to easily learn English. They learn this from a very early age and by the time they start their careers, Romanians usually speak at least one or two foreign languages.
Moreover, Romania’s education system was created to highlight the importance of mathematics, physics and sciences from an early age, and the approach of higher education is almost the same – academic standards are high, especially in fields like engineering, mathematics and computer science. Local firms are hiring annually from the recent pool of graduates. They are taught by the best and brightest, so if you’re considering a partner from Romania, you can rest assured that you’re getting highly qualified professionals.
3.Velocity
“Velocity is another big advantage for mid-sized companies when competing with very large companies that are developing all the time, all around the globe. AscentCore teams are working 6 hours ahead of the US teams and then they can work together, and so you get around the clock.” – Todd Bramblett (Managing Partner, AscentCore)
But what about time zones and travel distances? How can you make sure that you get the best of off-shoring? Well the good news is that Romania has already been working for six hours by the time your internal team starts. As Todd mentioned, this is a huge advantage when competing with large companies that have the resources to employ teams all over the world and work all the time.
Keeping the development process around the clock you can be part of the project, guide the remote team and work together towards the same goals.
4.Maximize the benefits of off-shoring by treating everyone like your own employees
“The best practice was cross-pollination and treating everyone like they are our employees.” Paul Farrell (Founder & CEO, Nehemiah Security)
The secret to maximizing the benefits of off-shoring is to treat the new team like your own employees. You want them to feel a part of your company’s culture, so you should celebrate birthdays together, invite them to all company meetings, and regularly bring some of the team members to your office and vice-versa. For management, cross-pollination should happen every time it’s needed.
5.Accessing the pool of top global talent
The talent pool in Europe is diverse and highly skilled, with over 5 million people working in the IT&C sector. In Romania, technology is considered a primary economic driver. With Business Process Outsourcing and Shared Services Centers deeply settled into the market, Romania quickly became the leading nesting ground for global companies such as Oracle, Amazon or IBM to settle in and leverage the local development potential that this country has. And to put it into numbers, the IT&C sector in Romania has earned more than 6 billion EUR and is still growing faster than ever.
The search for top talent is competitive, processes and technologies are changing, and skill gaps are very real. The current reality is that even if companies could find them and pay them in the United States, they would still have more positions open than having people locally to fill them in.
“With the ongoing COVID pandemic, we’ve never seen the degree of shortage of the best talent and a willingness for companies to go whenever they can find them. The global demand curve accelerated with a rate we’ve never seen in our lives. Many of our clients come to us because they have the budget to hire in the US, they just can’t get the people, especially the seniors.” – Todd Bramblett (Managing Partner, AscentCore)
We believe that companies who seriously invest in their employees are the ones that succeed. The ones that step ahead and ride every wave of innovation will create a strong team. One of our core values is building long-term relationships with our employees. We strive to attract highly curated professionals, with a proactive mindset, and we continue to invest in their growth so all the parts involved benefit from this.
As Paul mentioned, keep in mind that great talent is attracted to good, well run organizations that are sometimes doing cool things. That is an important detail that you have to evaluate too.
AscentCore has been the technological partner of choice for many companies, both very large, as well as mid-sized companies from different industries and successfully delivered cutting edge IT solutions for businesses that are on an ascending path towards innovation. That is what a true technological partner should look like. Contact us today to see how we can help your business.
