Intelligent Environments Group PLC (IE) is a U.K. AIM listed company founded in 1985 that provides online software products for financial services organisations and their customers. Now recognised as an expert in online banking software, keeping ahead of the competition with a focus on research and development. Their core product is customised to meet the needs of clients and this progressive approach has won them business with many of the high street’s leading banks and building societies.

Keeping technology current and ahead of the game

Through Quickstart Global’s ‘In-House Anywhere’ service they have set up a team of ten developers and testers in Pune, India who deliver on-going value to the business. Crucially they free up time for the UK team of senior developers who can then focus on research & development. This year the team in Britain will be focusing on innovative mobile banking solutions, comfortable in the knowledge that the team in India can deliver on-going support and maintenance for the company’s existing web based solutions. Developing new features such as online debt collection tools are also part of the Pune team’s brief. Andy Sloman, Operations Director, commented, “Having resource in India allows me to focus my senior resource in the UK on complex new products and research. We are a progressive company and it enables us to keep our technology current and ahead of the game.”

Accelerating their rate of development is exactly why they looked to employ additional developers in testers back in 2008. It was not something that could be done by expanding the team in the UK as this was not cost effective. They dismissed the option of a full outsourcing model, wanting to keep control over their own staff, and also decided against setting up their own team abroad. It would have taken a huge amount of management time to deal with the necessary legal and compliance issues and was too risky. Andy says, “There are great advantages in having a team who are part of the company and who share our approach to work. Quickstart Global helped us to create a team, handpicked by us, ready to go on day one.”

This solution provided them with everything they needed to get the new team up and running in a short space of time. The Quickstart Global recruitment team in Pune, India, understood not only IE’s requirements, but also the local job market and how to attract good quality candidates. As the team are legally employed by Quickstart Global all day to day issues such as holidays, pay and sickness are dealt with locally by the HR team. Andy tells us, “The team is extremely low maintenance, I check the monthly invoices and the day to day running is no more work than it would be with any UK team.”

Two and a half years on the Pune team is developing new features with minimal supervision. They have become an extension of IE’s UK team and are extremely productive. Andy explains, “The process of educating them and increasing their responsibilities has intentionally been very gradual. I started them on small tasks, and now they are capable of fully delivering new features. This medium term strategy has paid dividends.”

Cost was the initial driver for setting up a team abroad and, even with rising labour costs in India, they are still much more cost effective than a team would be in the UK. IE has invested time and money in supporting and developing the team, conducting weekly calls with senior UK team members and setting up a buddy scheme with developers in the UK, for example. As a result they have seen very low attrition rates and the team are a really important part of IE.