Prokom Strengthens Capacity with Cefalo's External Developers

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.

COLLABORATING WELL ACROSS COUNTRY BORDERS: Prokom has been in Dhaka to visit its Cefalo team. They have recently moved into new, modern premises.

Solutions Adapted to Today's Media Habits

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.

Cefalo Met the Requirements

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.

Let the Gut Feeling Decide

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.

Visited Dhaka Themselves

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.

A VISIT TO NORWAY: Coach of the team in Dhaka, Sorowar Alam Khan, has already visited Norway. In May, the entire team from Cefalo will visit Norway.

Communication and Team Feeling

While some Norwegian companies may express concerns about collaborating with an external team located far away, Prokom has concluded that such concerns are unfounded. The team in Dhaka has proven to be as engaged and committed as their locally employed staff.

What has Prokom done to make the collaboration with offshore developers work so well?

The answer to that is provided by Leypoldt. She has personally gone to great lengths to ensure that the collaboration with the offshore team goes smoothly.

– Being able to communicate well has been crucial for us, she says. – It's obvious, but with such a large physical distance, we have spent a lot of time building the team and creating ownership of tasks. Our approach is daily contact and focus on everyone in the team having responsibility for the development of the solutions. This way, everyone in the team has ownership of the solutions being developed.

FormsDesignerTeamTripOutOfOffice 1 (3)

VALUABLE TRIP: Visiting the team physically in Dhaka was valuable for Prokom. Here at the three developers Salman Rahman, Momit Rahman and Wasiqul Huq.

Good Structure Pays Off

Leypoldt cares about her employees, no matter where they are located. She has invested much energy in finding out how to bring out the best in each of them.

– We have had good descriptions for all tasks, thoroughly reviewed solutions, and perhaps gone a bit out of the way to ensure everyone is updated and informed at all times, she elaborates.

The collaboration so far has been a success. Prokom has gained more capacity on the development side and the ability to grow flexibly.

– One of the advantages for us is that our external developers exclusively work on pure development and do not participate in customer meetings and follow-up support cases, as our locally employed staff does. This way, we also get more development done for the price paid, says Leypoldt.

Has an Informal Tone

One of the foundations for successful offshore development has been having the same communication form as with the locally employed staff at home. Namely, an informal tone.

– We have had communication regarding development and tasks, but also talked beyond work. We use Jira for tasks and sprints and Teams meetings or Slack for clarifications. We created a «life out of work» channel on Slack where we have shared pictures of weather, everyday life, trips, and peculiarities from each of our countries. This has helped us get to know each other better and increase trust between us, she explains.

Working Closely to Work Well

– We have built a team and given our employees in Dhaka ownership of the solutions we create. We deliver solutions together, and all parties should be proud of what we achieve, explains Leypoldt, who believes it is positive for the team with daily contact.

In addition to sprints and daily status updates in standups, there can be a need for clarifications and discussions about the development of solutions.

– To keep it going, I have held on to the daily meetings. The result is that we have a very good dialogue, she says with a smile.

Facilitating Discussion

Prokom has also made it clear that they expect feedback, both good and «bad». For product owner Leypoldt, it has been important to facilitate that the team in Dhaka can come up with suggestions for development and counterarguments if they see other solutions than the task says.

– It is very important for us that if our developers see something they believe is wrong or disagree with, they should be able to say so. We are a team, and we plan as a team, and then we must be able to have an open and good discussion internally, she concludes.

Prokom's Best Tips for Success:

Spend time together. You must put in an effort to make it a success.

Communicate often, preferably daily – no matter what!

Have an informal tone.

Create team feeling and ownership internally.

Thorough descriptions and close follow-up.

Facilitate openness.