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| The SPAMfighter Offshore Development Center |
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How global sourcing helped SPAMfighter
become Europe’s #1 spam filter supplier
Since its establishment in 2003, SPAMfighter has managed to position itself as the leading spam filter developer in Europe, with more than 2.5 million users worldwide. Based on its success with SPAMfighter, the company has expanded its product portfolio to include SPYWAREfighter and VIRUSfighter. In 2005, SPAMfighter made the strategic move of setting up their own ODC (Offshore Development Center) in the Ukraine, in close collaboration with KRING Technologies. A decision which has helped SPAMfighter reach its position as the #1 spam filter supplier in Europe.
SPAMfighter joins an increasing number of Danish IT companies who turn to global sourcing when it comes to software development. The main incentive for the growing interest in offshore development, is the need for Danish companies to overcome local shortages of qualified it resources:
”We needed acces to a broader pool of IT professionals to continue executing on our growth potential, as we drive towards worldwide market leadership” - Henrik Sørensen, CEO SPAMfighter
SPAMfighter’s main reasoning for turning to offshore development was the lack of Danish qualified software developers:
“We were trying to find profiles in Denmark that would match our needs, but without success. We were looking for a person with experience in research intensive development and reverse engineering. Only when we decided to try offshoring in Ukraine we were able to recruit such a profile” - Martin Dyring-Andersen, onshore project manager at SPAMfighter.
Initially, SPAMfighter’s offshore adventure was limited to two Ukrainian developers working on a single product (SPAMfighter’s plugin for Outlook Express). However, quickly realising the potential for flexibility inherent in establishing their own ODC, they decided to do just that - in the words of Martin Dyring-Andersen, the onshore project manager for SPAMfighter:
“After finalizing the first project, it was clear to us that KRING’s delivery model and the qualifications of the Ukrainian developers matched our needs, because we had a quality product on our hands that had been supported day-to-day by KRING Technologies”
Of particular interest to SPAMfighter was the advantage of scalability. By having more developers work on different projects in parallel, but at the same time being able to support each other, it became possible to speed up the development of any particular project if needed.
Today, SPAMfighter’s ODC consists of six Ukrainian full time software developers, a Ukranian full time project manager and a Danish project coordinator. KRING Technologies is responsible for the ongoing recruitment of more developers for the SPAMfighter team.
The SPAMfighter ODC process - planning for quality
The why of it
The purpose of SPAMfighter’s ODC team is to expand SPAMfighter’s production and testing capabilities, and develop and support SPAMfighter products on a permanent basis.
Establishing the team
When SPAMfigther decided to establish a permanent team of developers, the
approach to global sourcing was given a long-term perspective. Once SPAMfighter had decided on the Ukraine for their offshore destination - due to the geographical and cultural proximity – special consideration went into the process of integrating the
Ukrainian development team with the Danish company. KRING Technologies has helped SPAMfighter with this by providing access to the required resources, where KRING Technologies has played a decisive role in the establishment of the team by handling the entire recruitment process.
Kick-off
The project was introduced with the ODC team paying a visit to the Danish
office in Copenhagen. This meeting gave the Ukrainian and the Danish teams an opportunity to get to know each other, and to begin working on projects and discuss future projects. Furthermore, the Ukrainian developers received training in SPAMfighter’s products.
Communication is key
Continuous communication between the Ukrainian ODC team and the SPAMfighter office in Copenhagen ensures that the priorities laid out by SPAMfighter management are followed. By using this approach, the Ukrainian team is now well incorporated into the Danish company, and resembles other project teams in the SPAMfighter offices in Copenhagen.
From start to finish
Two major hurdles for many outsourcing projects are establishing proper infrastructure without having a presence in the country, and managing across language and culture barriers. KRING Technologies has provided the IT and people -infrastructure, and continuous coordination between SPAMfighter and the development team is ensured by KRINGs on site Danish project coordinator with bilingual and multicultural skills. This ensures proper and timely communication management, troubleshooting, the ongoing expanding of the team, and also coordination with KRING’s new on-demand test centre in Kiev.
"SPAMfighter is one of our most interesting clients, and we are proud to have supported their growth. We see many Scandinavian companies facing the same challenges, but most lack the professional experience and attitude of the team behind SPAMfighter. These companies often jump into the offshore adventures alone, which is a challenging and time-consuming venture, and in the worst cases can lead to frustrations and projects which suffer. KRING Technologies has over five years’ experience with providing value adding services to Global Sourcing - an experience our project managers and project coordinators willingly pay back to the market and share with our clients, to ensure result-oriented and successful projects." - Mikael Munck, CEO KRING Technologies |
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