The availability of skilled developers was crucial when Prokom sought external resources. It was also essential that the developers had good terms and working conditions.
– Here, Cefalo did very well, Eivind Olsen at Prokom points out. He is the director of customer deliveries and has been using developers from Cefalo for a year and a half.
Developers from Cefalo have proven to be a valuable resource, with high competence and qualifications that match Prokom's needs. Despite geographical distances, communication and collaboration have gone smoothly. Recently, the team was expanded from three to six full-time developers.
Prokom develops solutions for public administration. If you need to apply for a liquor license for an event, you are likely to encounter Prokom's skjema.no on your municipality's website. You might have interacted with the chatbot Kommune-Kari or booked time in a sports hall via BookUp? Filled out a digital self-service form via skjema.no? All these are services developed by Prokom, tailored to how we communicate and work.
– For us, it means that we constantly need to create flexible and adaptable solutions, says Eivind Olsen.
This means that Prokom must be flexible when sourcing developers. With developers from Cefalo, the company can easily adjust up and down as needs change.
– Having an external team strengthens our competitiveness, says Olsen.
The shortage of developers is a well-known challenge in the Norwegian job market. Prokom had to look for alternatives to meet the company's capacity needs.
– We wanted to find a new way to source developers that would give us better access to skills, says Olsen about how Prokom thought when they acquired an external development team.
– Cefalo understood what we were looking for and found skilled developers for us. We quickly got access to the right qualifications for the project we were starting. That's worth its weight in gold, explains Olsen.
Prokom went to work thoroughly and sought advice from many soures before deciding to use external development. Both good and bad experiences were collected. Nothing was left to chance. After careful consideration of several suppliers, it was, according to Olsen, the gut feeling that ultimately said Cefalo was the right partner for them.
– For us, the availability of skilled resources was the most important, but we were also very concerned that developers outside Norway had good conditions. Here, Cefalo did well, explains Olsen.
Prokom has also visited their external team in Dhaka. They met all the developers, saw where they work, and sat together physically for a period of time.
– It was valuable! says Synne Leypoldt. She is the product owner for skjema.no and was the first in Prokom to get an external team.
– Of course, it was nice to meet them «live». But also fantastic to see and experience Dhaka, a city full of life with traffic, rickshaws, and friendly people, she says, adding that the team came to Norway in May – something they also enjoyed very much.