Richard Kuiper, Head of Development

Web: www.scense.nl

Head Office: Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Ciklum Service: Own Team

Team size: 5 specialists

Technologies: VB.NET, ActiveX, ADO, ADO.NET, SQL Server 2005, XML, HTML, JavaScript, CSS, XSL/XSLT, COM, COM+

Located in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Scense is a software company that is focused on 'User Centric Computing.' Our product provides 'User Based Dynamic Session Control,' which is an intelligent way of providing the end user with anything he needs to do his job.

After several years of development the time had come for structural changes in our product that would take too long to finish for the small team we had in Rotterdam, and since our CEO had some experience with outsourcing we decided to look into this opportunity. Next to saving time and money, we also wanted to bring our development process to a higher level.

We started looking and had some experiences with other outsourcing companies, but after meeting Ciklum and visiting the office in Kiev it soon became clear that Ciklum was the professional partner we were looking for. So in February 2007 we started with 2 skilled developers in Kharkiv. The timing was perfect because our team in Kharkiv could participate in our newly started project from the beginning, where they soon proved themselves to be valuable professionals. Later on we welcomed another developer to the team.

For us the whole concept of nearshore development was new so we tried to get as much 'real world' information as possible. This, and the help of Ciklum's technical consultants, gave us a head start. During the first months we communicated daily about requirements, specifications and design. The impressions we got during our frequent visits to Kharkiv were very promising. When the team visited our office in the Netherlands they really impressed us with their results which, for the occasion, they liked to present to us personally. We feel that our colleagues in Kharkiv are making a difference and, because of them, our whole development process is now being brought to a higher level.

We have recently implemented a more Agile approach to our software development and we started using Microsoft's Team Foundation Server (TFS) as a project management and source control tool. This has shown to have a positive affect not only on our productivity but also on the team's motivation. The team is happier with their tasks, which they show by taking more responsibility for their work and by being pro-active in coming up with solutions to improve our processes and how we use TFS. Our new approach has made us more flexible and able to handle changes in the project as they come up, which again shows in the end, where we get a better and more client oriented product out.

Having a team of developers working dedicated on our project is of great value to us, not only because of the great work the team delivers, but also because of the flexibility and cost savings we get from having the team with Ciklum.

Reference date: September 2009

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