When choosing your software partner, you usually have a long list of boxes to tick. It is perfectly clear that you have a lot of requirements for your future partner. Usually, cooperation is planned for the long term and the selection process is a time-consuming effort. You want to be sure that you made the right decision. This is why you check your partner’s location, time zone, technical knowledge, and code quality. You meet different stakeholders, compare responses to your inquiries, and finally explore the pricing policy.
Indisputably there are many “fixed” factors that the potential partner and his business proposal need to accomplish. However, often as soon as the very first meeting, you have a feeling that you can have a good relationship with a partner and that you both speak the same language. Is it worth following your intuition? Absolutely! All the more so that this feeling often doesn’t just appear out of the blue, but comes from the very important yet often underappreciated aspect of cultural fit.
The role of cultural fit in a nearshore outsourcing partnership is essential to the success of the venture. There are several factors that determine a successful culture fit. When evaluating your future partner, consider whether they communicate clearly, as well as what the level of their employees’ engagement and commitment to delivering projects is. Discuss your partner’s approach to taking care of employee motivation, whether they expect initiative from employees and how the evaluation of performance and soft skills looks.
Of the many important factors in cultural fit, there is one that may even prove to be the most critical. Namely, a company’s core values that build the organization’s identity and shape its culture. Companies with a strong culture and employees who believe in the values of the business are more productive. Browse through your partner’s website to see what values they share and discuss how they put them into practice.
Let’s take a look at company values and cultural affinity that will be supportive of nearshore outsourcing partnerships.
I probably do not have to convince anyone of the fact that people do business with people. This plays an even more important role when it comes to services such as nearshoring. Team spirit is something that helps internal teams stick together. It is also an important condition for building long-lasting nearshore ventures. The idea is simply to have a partner who you will enjoy working with, who will be able to challenge your ideas, and most of all someone you can rely on. The willingness to share knowledge and experiences builds a culture of open communication and is a great way to integrate all team members.
The ability to share open, fair, and constructive feedback (and sometimes also criticism) is important. Having a nearshore team that is skilled and also transparent enough to be competent reviewers and advisors gives you additional value. Sometimes an outside opinion might be a game-changer. In most cases, it can bring about small, but still important, improvements that enrich the discussion.
Technology means progress, but also in this industry the temptation to stay with well-known solutions and follow common ways of solving problems is big. And in the long run, getting bogged down with the status quo will quite probably happen to your team. In such cases it is good to have a partner that will see and suggest new, albeit sometimes not obvious, solutions and improvements. Constant development not only means learning new stuff but also an ongoing search for innovations and improvements – it is good to find a partner who understands it and will be able to give you a helping hand here.
Everyone loves to win and celebrate success. But let’s be clear – failures and problems are an integral part of development. You want to be sure that, even if mistakes happen, your partner will be honest with you and use the experience to learn from that mistake. And no less importantly, you want to be certain that once committed, your partner will be 100% focused on the project. Being responsible doesn’t mean being infallible, but should always mean having the client’s best interests in mind.
In business, integrity relates to professional ethics and should be part of every corporate culture. Being honest in a successful outsourcing relationship also means committing to only these projects and tasks that do not exceed one’s capabilities and not making promises that cannot be kept. You want to receive feedback and advice, but only based on facts and knowledge.
The values listed above are the guiding principles of Scalo. We apply them both within internal teams and our everyday work, and also in relations with our clients and partners. Of course, your company might have different priorities. It is crucial, however, to spend a bit longer getting to know each other’s values and to be honest with yourself about whether they are compatible. Sharing similar values and corporate cultures with your partner will foster a collaborative environment and enable both dispersed teams to establish a successful relationship.
Łukasz Pol
International Sales Manager
Łukasz leads the International Sales Department at Scalo. He’s involved in co-creating and implementing our growth strategy on international markets and developing effective sales processes. A big fan of a human-centric approach in sales and building long-lasting relationships. He’s a book lover, a sea enthusiast, and is kept very busy answering dozens of “why” questions from his 4-year-old-son.