Dedicated teams and developments centers could be very efficient in certain conditions. There are different cases when such kind of cooperation model is reasonable. The main differentiation of this approach is that that the team usually follows client's practices, methodologies and culture. So, the customer can be sure that all activities inside the dedicated team are similar to ones he has on-site. The service provider is mostly focused on the processes of team building, team monitoring, managing customer's and employee's expectations, managing the personnel related risks. And in most cases the customer is managing the projects performed by the team using its own management staff.
Dedicated team establishment
The first important point here is the ability of the service provider to build the team which fits the customer's requirements not only from the technological point of view, but also with specific human skills and culture. In addition to its own professional staff, Softengi is the part of the professional environment of engineers in Eastern Europe which gives a huge resource pool of the specialists of different kind. Softengi's specialists are always carrying about keeping and improving relations to be sure that in the case of need the required professional will be found in a short time.
At the important stage of the team building, we at Softengi perform the following actions:
- Search for the specialists and primary selection of the candidates
- Organization of the interviews sessions if the customer wishes to participate in the selection process
- Specialists acquisition
- Legal work regarding employment
- Rotation activities
- Trainings
- Administration activities (workplace, infrastructure, etc)
- Adoption activities (can include specific trainings on the project environment, technologies used, specification learning, etc.)
Softengi's specialists monitor the involvement and learning stages of new team members, managing and mitigating any risks regarding the team stability and trying to reduce the learning curve time.
Infrastructure establishment
To let the team start working, Softengi implements all the needed infrastructure and communications, including:
-
Office space. Softengi can organize the space in the own business center in Kiev. In some cases it is more convenient and less expensive to have the office in others regions in Ukraine. Softengi can locate the space in the facilities of its regional offices in Zhytomyr, Chernigiv, Kharkiv, Rivne or rent new offices in any other Ukrainian region.
-
Hardware infrastructure and networking. Softengi's System Integration Service is responsible for the procurement, installation and support of all kind of the hardware and networking components.
-
Software infrastructure. Softengi is responsible to deploy and support any server or workstation software products.
-
Communication channels. Having the high-speed broadband Internet lines, Softengi can organize the communication channels to fit the requirements of the customer.
-
Workplaces. All the team members are equipped with all needed modern hardware and software.
Security
Creation of the dedicated team for the customer means that the customer will transfer the part of his intellectual knowledge and know-hows to the remote team. It becomes important to feel safe and to avoid any incidents regarding the shady usage of the information, information losses and damage. This issue consists of the two parts:
-
Infrastructure security. Softengi is deeply experienced in the questions of organizing secure infrastructure. Among our customers are, for example, Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, Ministry of Defence of Georgia, Security Services of Ukraine and a lot of multinational enterprises which require really high-level secured infrastructure. Basing of such experience, Softengi's specialists can organize the infrastructure of the required security level, including communications security.
-
Legal security. Softengi's approach to the legal security issues implies that Softengi is fully responsible for all information security aspects. It means legal responsibility stated in the contracts with the customer as well as in the contracts with employees and subcontractors.
Operating the team
During the team operation period, the main objective of the service provider is to manage the team stability and efficiency. Softengi helps the customer to transfer the team spirit to the team, ensure there is a high level of the loyalty inside the team. At the operation stage, Softengi cares about the following points:
-
Risk management. Softengi monitors the “health” of the team and all the team members. In case if there are concerns regarding the team stability, Softengi’s manager investigates the reason, localizes the problem and performs actions to reduce risk. In case if the level of the risk is high, manager discusses it with the customer and plan the appropriate actions.
-
Change management. In case if the changes are required in the team, for example team growth or rotations inside the team, Softengi is responsible to plan and perform appropriate actions. All the changes are carefully planned and provided smoothly to avoid any impact on the team’s stability and efficiency.
-
Operational management. Softengi is responsible for all activities, related to the staff management, infrastructure management, communications channels.
Model extension: Build-Operate-Transfer
There is a set of the companies which are looking for the opportunities to extend their IT staff using offshore location by establishing the own production center. This task is tactically risky because the company is not experienced how to operate on the offshore market, is not known on the labor market and doesn't present in the business environment. These facts put the investments under huge risk. And one of the solutions is to use the local company at the beginning of the production center establishment process to reduce risks and share investments.
The common name of such model is Build-Operate-Transfer. The general goal of using of this model for the customer is to establish the production center at the offshore destination with low risks.
At the first stage (Build) Softengi uses the approach, similar to the simple dedicated team creation process. The first stage requires investments which can also be shared between the customer and Softengi which guarantees Softengi's full involvement in the process and the results. When all the inception procedures are done and the team is starting to operate, Softengi continues managing the operations like any dedicated team. During the operation time customer already receives the extended team to use in addition to the own IT staff under previously agreed condition regarding the price. After some period, when the team is stable and loyal, customer can initiate the process of Transfer to acquire the team which is also initially stated in the BOT contract. The transfer price depends on duration of the Operation period. The longer the Operation period is the less the Customer pays for the transfer.
Quick facts
The biggest dedicated team was introduced in 2001 for Enviance Inc. The customer provides its clients with the environmental SaaS solution in U.S. The level of the security is high because the customer operates corporate information regarding environmental data of the customers which are the largest U.S. oil, chemical, pharmaceutical and other enterprises which have emissions risks due to their production processes. The team includes about 40 engineers and functions successfully more than 9 years. The project case you can find here 
.
