Nearshore outsourcing has its loyal fans. It helps clients leverage the latest technologies, increase their speed to market and gives them flexibility they need. But nearshoring can have many faces – from team augmentation to a dedicated team, from nearshoring common development languages or more business-related skills such as Business Analysis, to highly complex competencies such as machine learning and blockchain.
In this article, we present some of the more interesting success stories in nearshore outsourcing that we have worked on. All of the case studies presented come from our own portfolio and we are proud to have helped our clients achieve their business goals and helped them succeed. Remember, this is just a sample of the many projects we have worked and can publicly share details of!
| Client: Steamship Mutual | ||
| Country: United Kingdom | Working together since: 2008 | Number of projects ran: > 10 |
About the client
Steamship Mutual is one of the largest and most diverse Protection and Indemnity (P&I) Clubs in the world, and a member of the International Group of P&I Clubs participating in the International Group Pool.
Reason to start nearshoring
Back in 2008, Steamship Mutual’s IT department noticed that supporting several applications of business-critical importance was becoming increasingly costly and difficult. The reason for this was a rapidly declining resource pool and the resulting inability to maintain the old programming code.
Projects
One of our first projects was a migration of a core legacy system to a .NET platform. This is however, only one of over a dozen of projects we have worked on which revolved around the development of Steamship Mutual’s critical business app ecosystem.
“We have an in-house team and we very much collaborate on the development. Future Processing has built a good rapport with them. It’s no longer just a matter of giving the piece of work over; they’re very much part of our own IT department.”
Jason D’Souza, IT Manager, Steamship Insurance Management Services Ltd.
Success in the eyes of the client
In his Clutch review of Future Processing, Jason D’Souza, IT Manager at Steamship Mutual says:
“The success is in the delivery of the solutions. We like that we can ramp up and ramp down the team per project roadmap. Our continuing to work with them all these years is a testament to their great services.”
| Client: The Linde Group | ||
| Country: Germany | Working together since: 2016 | Number of projects ran: 5 |
About the client
Linde is a leading global industrial gases and engineering company with 2020 sales of $27 billion (€24 billion), The company serves a variety of end markets including chemicals & refining, food & beverage, electronics, healthcare, manufacturing and primary metals.
Reason to start nearshoring
The reason for The Linde Group to start looking for a new IT partner was to become flexible and to gain full control of its systems and processes which would enable entrepreneurial business building.
Thomas Felber, IT Manager at The Linde Group explains: ‘When we started with Future Processing we just wanted to leverage additional development capacity. Although we thought we had a running organisation, we weren’t able to implement all the requirements that came up from the business. This was the start of our cooperation. When we decided to go together for the platform relaunch, our decision was not only based on the additional manpower, but also on the way Future Processing develops software.’
Projects
Our initial project was a concept for Linde’s BeeZero® bespoke carsharing management system consisting of the back office portal, website and iOS and Android mobile apps. For the project, Linde used a variety of competencies available at Future Processing, including technical consultancy, UX design, software development, quality assurance and project management.
We continue working together on another project – software supporting an entire production process in a factory, from management of the product, through production planning and work management on various stations to the management of product’s transport between stations.
Success in the eyes of the client
“I’m very happy with our cooperation. Future Processing delivers a true added value to our project. Team-wise they are offering a true full-stack skill matrix with a great mindset and expertise in agile software development. We accomplished to establish a true lean organization, focusing on high quality and reliability of the system. The lightweight organisation requires only a very small overhead in steering and controlling the project, therefore enabling us to concentrate on the customer-facing business development.”
Thomas Felber, IT Manager, The Linde Group
| Client: ista | ||
| Country: Germany | Working together since: 2015 | Number of projects ran: 5 |
About the client
ista adds sustainable value to buildings for their residents and owners.
As a driver of innovation, they are systematically gearing their infrastructure to the Internet of Things. Worldwide ista already has over 28 million connected devices in operation and they are developing solutions for the intelligent and energy-efficient building of tomorrow.
ista employs over 5,800 people in 22 countries, and its products and services are used worldwide in over 13 million units (apartments and commercial properties).
Reason to start nearshoring
ista first approached us at the end of 2015 with the intention to further strengthen the position of its property management solutions in Europe.
Future Processing was chosen as a development partner for a Java-based project that helps property managers manage real estate effectively.
The project was a custom-built system with the following requirements:
- the system had to integrate with other systems and portals,
- it had to allow users to see current data as well as run detailed reporting of utilities used in buildings they oversee,
- it had to be user-friendly.
Projects
Our initial role was to create a bespoke company-wide system from scratch. We kicked off with the Analysis & Design stage and a UX consultation and proceeded with development with an on-going input from our UX colleagues. The ista Property Manager Portal (iPMP) was rolled out to Italy in January 2017 and later to other countries ista operates in.
Since then, we have worked on a number of other projects for the company.
Success in the eyes of the client
‘The collaboration is a full success, especially because of the very good communication, the expertise and the velocity of the team combined with the experience of Future Processing’s User Experience engineers. We are sure the partnership will lead to higher flexibility in our software development and to the continuous development of user-friendly high-quality solutions for our customers.’
Dr. Sacha Reis, Director Corporate IT Product Management, ista
| Client: CoCoNet | ||
| Country: Germany | Working together since: 2019 | Number of projects ran: > 1 |
About the client
CoCoNet are experts in digital banking solutions. Their products empower banks and financial service providers to accelerate their digital transformation and compete in today’s rapidly changing world.
CoCoNet develops digital banking software for leading banks and corporates, including: Citi, ING, J.P.Morgan, UniCredit and others. Its product portfolio includes solutions for digital experience, integration platforms and corporate banking.
Reason to start nearshoring
Due to small development capacities with specific expertise and a need to develop fast, CoCoNet needed a quick and flexible partner.
CoCoNet already had its own app-based security token, the MULTIVERSA Token for Mobile, to enable secure authentication and authorisation of financial transactions with an iOS or Android smartphone.
The easiness of use of the mobile token solution was well-received, however, the handling with an additional device caused problems for corporate users without company phones. Additionally, new legal requirements – a two-factor authentication for all electronic payments coming into force as part of the European Commission’s Second Payment Services Directive – caused a short development time for the new product.
Projects
Our role in this project was to design and develop the desktop version of the MULTIVERSA Token. We started with a rough specification of requirements prepared by CoCoNet. We prepared a detailed specification, designed system architecture, proposed technologies and security measures, and completed development work and quality assurance.
Success in the eyes of the client
„We have had the pleasure to work with an excellent team which helped us to implement the security solution along our product suite. Future Processing was able to help us on a technical field where we lack experience and we can recommend such a collaboration for companies in a similar situation.”
Björn Hassing, CTO, CoCoNet
| Client: Flowbird | ||
| Country: United Kingdom & France | Working together since: 2007 | Number of projects ran: > 10 |
About the client
Flowbird is a leader in mobility solutions providing urban intelligence to make individual travel simpler, safer, faster, while collectively maximising efficiency.
Reason to start nearshoring
Our cooperation started in 2007 with a company called Wayfarer which was later acquired by Flowbird. Owen Griffith, Managing Director at Flowbird Transport Intelligence, explains why they decided on nearshoring to Poland: “A lot of people think cost is the main factor, but actually, what was important was having access to good skills to be able to ramp up projects. Because we’re a project-orientated business with resource demands that can come quite quickly, it was important to be able to strengthen our overall capability with the right partners.”
Projects
We grew from a small team initially to a team of almost 100 supporting various departments at Flowbird in both their Transport and Parking business units, for the UK and France.
Projects we have run together range from minor improvements for Flowbird’s own customers, through developing components of a mass transit solution on a new architecture, to providing support for existing solutions.
Our interdisciplinary delivery teams have developed and enhanced software for a span of platforms, from embedded software on Flowbird’s devices, through to back-office systems.
Success in the eyes of the client
“It’s been a really good relationship. (…) I think we’ve built what we originally planned, which was a long term relationship of trust and good work, which has been really great. (…) Some of the benefits that we’ve seen working with Future Processing has been our ability to resource our projects fully and therefore deliver on time with good quality. (…) That’s been a key thing, and we’ve seen that’s been a factor in the growth of the business over the last few years, so we’ve steadily improved business performance, we’ve built the business, we’ve improved the overall financial performance of the business, and delivered some very impressive projects around the world.”
Owen Griffith, Managing Director, Flowbird Transport Intelligence
Conclusion
Nearshore outsourcing can have many faces. Every nearshore development company will have its preferred model, way of working and company culture. Some will focus on building a broad portfolio made of quick projects and others will specialise in ‘body leasing’.
The main focus at Future Processing is relationships with people and building long-standing partnerships with our clients.
The majority of our revenue (56%, as of 2021) comes from clients who have been with us for 3 years or longer. As many as 16 clients have stayed with us for over 5 years and our most loyal client has been with us for the last 13 years now. One even worked with us on as many as 18 projects simultaneously!
Clients’ satisfaction from partnering with us has been confirmed by the recent Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 60 on the scale of -100 to +100 which is deemed ‘excellent’ for the IT sector.
We also highly value our employees – the average time employees stay with us is 5 years and the retention rate in 2020 was 6,7%, compared to 12% as the market average.
So, if you are looking for a long-term strategic partnership to scale up, expand and gain enough development capacity to deliver your roadmap, get in touch and let’s write your own nearshoring success story, together.