Client Cases

When considering IT Outsourcing, there is often a barrier that does not always make the decision easy. Namely the unknown. What will it be like to work with developers from North Macedonia? What is their quality? Does this fit within my organization? How do I overcome obstacles? Fortunately, you are not the first organization to join us and you can learn from us and our clients.

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Wide range of sectors

We have clients in different sectors:

E-learning

Health

Government

Automotive

Internet concepts

Dating

Client profile

photo-client-pp

80% of our clients have their own software application. From our experience, this brings the most success to our collaborations, since you can invest with us in your developers long term. The knowledge is not lost this way and you can build on the personnel in North Macedonia.

The size of our clients vary from organizations with 100 employees to entrepreneurs that run their IT department in North Macedonia.

Our clients:

Have own software application
Are between 1-100 employees
From startups to established organizations
Are up for adventure
Great internal communication and PM
Have teams in North Macedonia of around 1 to 15 devs

Why it's so successful according to our clients

They are involved in the selection and testing process of candidates.

They are involved in discussing the developers salary and annual raises.

They speak to their developers on a daily basis

They visit our offices and developers regularly

They invite the developers to their country every now and then

They treat their developers as their own

They work according to their methodes and technologies

Autorespond Nederland B.V.

De programmeurs zijn leergierig en gaan door totdat iets af is. Ik programmeer zelf ook en het is fijn om dezelfde mentaliteit en houding over bepaalde zaken bij de Macedonische programmeurs terug te zien.
Outsourcing Client
Pieter Emeis - eigenaar
Rating: 5

Propellor

Het zijn hoogopgeleide, hardwerkende developers. De man / vrouw verdeling is 50-50, deze diversiteit helpt ons als organisatie om beter en leuker te performen. In Nederland is dat veel lastiger te realiseren bij een team developers.
Outsourcing Client
Jans Graver - eigenaar
Rating: 5

Client case studies IT Outsourcing

(2015 - op locatie - inmiddels 3 programmeurs in dienst via Personal Programmer)

The developers are eager to learn and continue until something is finished. I also program myself and it is nice to see the same mentality and attitude about certain things with the North Macedonian developers.

– Pieter Emeis

What was your first view of nearshoring and how did that change with the collaboration with Personal Programmer?
My initial view was that of a bureaucratic process, slow and difficult. Partly determined by previous experience with outsourcing in India via a large IT party. The way I work now is completely different: short lines, direct daily contact with my three developers. Actually no different than that you work with a colleague in your country in another city.

Working remotely has its limitations. Which 2 or 3 were the hardest to overcome? And how were these solved.
The fact that you cannot stand behind a whiteboard together. That is still not solved. It means that for complex activities, such as creating a new design together, you still have to visit each other. I do that every so often.
Sometimes someone encounters a problem and then it is useful to solve it directly face-to-face together. That is sometimes difficult when working remotely, but Skype helps with this and daily contact (or more often) means that a problem never lingers.

What do you like about this way of working remotely?
It forces you to work in a more structured way. We use various online tools and with that you ensure that schedules and deliverables can be well defined and monitored.

What is your view of the quality and mentality of the developers?
Quality is great. Of course you have more experienced and less experienced developers, but my experience is that they are very eager to learn and continue (until deep into the night every now and then – without asking that of them) until something is done. I also program myself and it is nice to see the same mentality and attitude about certain things with the North Macedonian developers.

Which tools would you recommend to use in this way of working?
In addition to technical tools, we use the following tools to our complete satisfaction:
Trello for sprints and task planning
Slack for instant messaging
Skype and Google Hangout
Confluence for online knowledge management and documentation
JIRA for issue management
Our development and test servers are also on Google Cloud Platform.

What tips would you give to people who are going to work in this way for the first time?
Go there regularly, especially in the beginning: good to get to know each other so that communication is also easier afterwards. Otherwise it remains an unknown face on the other side.

Choose and use the tools well. Have a clear picture of what needs to be delivered. Perhaps a killer, but the people there, no matter how smart, cannot smell where you want to go. This is partly due to the distance. So make sure that you have a clear view of the projects yourself and that you can transfer that properly and translate it into realistic plans.

About Autorespond Nederland B.V.
Autorespond supports companies and independent service providers in their growth with user-friendly tools, good personal service and continuous product development. Autorespond offers since 2003 a SaaS solution for email marketing, billing and online payments. Via an online administration, their customers can manage all their affairs in an integrated environment around email marketing, CRM and online sales of products and services. All development activities are carried out in-house, with the realization by their programmers in Skopje.

(Macedonisch en Nederlandse team - inmiddels 7 programmeurs in dienst via Personal Programmer)

They are highly educated, hard-working developers. The male / female distribution is 50-50, this diversity helps us as an organization to perform better and more fun. In the Netherlands that is much harder to realize with a team of developers.

– Jans Graver

What was your first view of nearshoring and how has that changed with the collaboration with Personal Programmer?
My first worries were that there would be a big difference between the remote developers and the way we work in Amsterdam. The Personal Programmer approach is different. We do the recruiting process in close collaboration. Day-to-day, we manage the team in Skopje just like in Amsterdam. This also applies, for example, to the annual salary round and any promotions. The advantage of Skopje is that highly educated developers are available who speak English very well and are not very far culturally from Dutch culture.

Working remotely has its limitations. Which 2 or 3 were the hardest to overcome? And how were these solved.
I suppressed the feeling that Amsterdam determines and only carries out Skopje as quickly as possible. The knowledge and skills in Skopje should also help the team in Amsterdam. This requires some encouragement but – because we are not that culturally very different – we succeeded very well. With this you create motivated teams in both countries. In the beginning, we kept direct customer contact with implementation processes limited, but because most Dutch organizations with which we work have no problems with conversations in English, we have gradually started doing this more. We now fly in developers and major trajectories from Skopje to work temporarily with the client on-site. In addition, many developers – by using Unified Communications technology – also work directly with customers.

What do you like about this way of working remotely?
By working from different countries, this immediately gives our company an international character. Many cultural similarities but also some differences. Only good not to get stuck in fixed patterns. It also immediately gives us more confidence to look across borders when it comes to winning new customers.

What is your view of the quality and mentality of the developers?
Highly trained, dedicated and hard-working. And a healthy balance between male and female developers. In our team it is 50-50%, with the team lead being a woman. I believe that diversity helps to perform better and more fun as an organization. In the Netherlands it is much more difficult, if not impossible, to realize this with a developers team.

Which tools would you recommend to use with this method?
Communication tools we use are Slack and Zoom.
We also use project, utilization / development tools such as Jira and Timewax. Oh yes – and the telephone also remains a great way to keep the (social) communication going. In addition, we try to plan a joint event every year and we regularly have people come here and vice versa.

What tips would you give to people who are going to work in this way
Invest a lot of time in the beginning to give everyone the feeling that you are one team. As indicated, the developers in Skopje are highly educated and it greatly motivates them to use their full potential. One of the most important actions that I have taken to improve quality and satisfaction is to press the team in Skopje to NEVER start a new project based on assumptions. Dare to continue asking until there is 100% agreement. In the beginning, this is still a difficult one, as a result of which misunderstandings (and dissatisfaction) arise with work delivered. Because they are fully empowered, it now works perfectly.

About Propellor
Propellor is a top-notch commerce platform for the digitization of your sales process. With powerful web shops and personalized portals you boost your online turnover and realize rapid growth.

Want to start a remote development team? Let's discuss options together.
Benefits

University graduate developers

English speaking developers

Up to 40% cheaper than a developer in your country

We ensure the best possible workplace and circumstances.

Flexible contract with two months cancellation period

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