FAQ's

We aim for long-term customer relationships. We request that all new customer engagements have a minimum duration of one year. However, our agreement includes safety mechanisms such as a six-month trial period with a one-month notice period. After this period, there is a continuous notice period of three months.

For the first six months, the notice period is one month. After this, the notice period is three months.

How long is a piece of string? 😊 Unfortunately, we do not take on project-based assignments, such as producing an app. Instead, we specialize in external development teams, where you pay for a dedicated team of full-time developers recruited specifically for your needs. They can help you create a great app.

Having developers from Cefalo feels like having our own permanent employees. The developers are physically located at our offices in Bangladesh but are directly led by you, just like your local developers.

Our developers are recruited specifically for your needs, providing you with a dedicated team of full-time developers. You don't rotate through a pool of consultants who move from client to client based on availability and the supplier's priorities.

Our goal is to be the preferred employer for the best developers in Bangladesh and integrate them closely with our Norwegian clients. We strive to lead the industry in both customer and employee satisfaction.

Read more about the Cefalo model.

Our greatest strength is the ability to attract and retain some of the best developers in Dhaka—a vast and exciting labor market.

We are an attractive employer and can therefore secure experienced senior developers with expertise that is nearly impossible to find in Norway—at a cost much lower than local hires or hired consultants. You get the expertise you need, at the right time and at an affordable price.

When we started Cefalo in 2010, we wanted to address a fundamental problem: outsourcing was seen as handing over an entire development project to a supplier and receiving a finished product back, with little involvement in the process. Is it surprising that the result often differed from what the client had envisioned? We wanted to do it differently, and the idea of Cefalo was born.

Our ideal clients are Norwegian companies that have defined software development as a core function. They have local developers and local development management and want more permanent staff but often struggle to find them in Norway.

For Cefalo and our clients, remote management has always been a crucial part of our daily work. This is the case when most of our clients are in Norway, and all our developers are in Dhaka—at any given time in a different time zone, a day's journey away. Part of the key to success is to be anything but distant. We elaborate more in the article below.

Our best advice for success with remote development teams.

We have extensive experience assembling excellent development teams and are agnostic when it comes to programming languages or technologies.

We deliver front-end developers, back-end developers, full-stack developers, app developers, and testers, among others. Feel free to challenge us on the expertise you need, and we will likely surprise you.

We do not have developers on hand. To ensure the best results, we actively go out and recruit developers specifically for you and your needs.

We look for people who fit your tasks and try to balance the team with a mix of senior and junior developers—based on your preferences and requirements. This entire process typically takes three months and is free of charge.

Our recruitment process typically takes a little over a month, but since there is usually a 1–2 month notice period in Bangladesh, we now have an average lead time of three months from starting the recruitment process to having the developers in place and ready to be part of your team.

We adapt the team size to your needs. We have a minimum delivery of two developers, and our clients have anywhere from two to 30 developers from us.

Our best tips on how to build a productive development team.

Then the developer will have a notice period with us (usually 1–2 months depending on the contract). We will use the notice period to find a replacement.

Cefalo is known for having skilled developers who work well with Norwegian clients. However, recruitment is not an exact science, and mistakes can happen. If you are dissatisfied, you can address it directly with our Norwegian management in Oslo, and we will take it from there.

We have an average employee turnover of around ten percent. This is lower than the industry average, and we wouldn't be surprised if you have our developers in place longer than your own employees. Cefalo relies on talented people, and we work diligently to attract and retain the best developers in Bangladesh.

We recommend having daily video status meetings. Other communication occurs in the same way as with your developers in Norway. We suggest using a tool to communicate directly with your team. Slack is a good example, providing an open and direct line that everyone can follow and work on in real-time. You should also have good documentation and project management tools, such as Jira or Trello. This way, challenges that arise can be solved in an organized and easy-to-follow manner.

Our best advice for success with remote development teams.

We are often asked about this before starting, but very rarely after the collaboration has begun. It turns out that the most important thing you can do when including new people in a company, whether they reside in Bangladesh or Bergen, is to get to know them. People are individuals first and foremost. Our experience is that truly skilled individuals have a lot in common, regardless of where in the world they reside.

Our best advice for bridging cultural differences.

Our developers in Bangladesh complete their studies in English and are proficient in English, especially in writing. Remember that English is their second language, similar to how it is a second language for most Norwegians.

We aim to be the best employer for the best developers in Bangladesh. We have succeeded in creating a workspace that is market leading when it comes to salary, work-life balance and development opportunities, resulting in very high employee satisfaction and low turnover.

Read more about how we create an attractive workplace.

Depending on the season (daylight saving time/winter time), the time difference to Dhaka is either four or five hours. This means that your team is at work four hours before you, and then you have about five overlapping work hours. The time your team works 'alone' can mean fewer disruptions and increased efficiency. Often you have your own local team as well, which gives you the opportunity for twelve hours of effective development, compared to eight hours if you only have a local team available."