Anders Bjerkestrand, Head of Technology and Development at Eika Group, has significant experience with nearshoring. Eika Group is an alliance of independent banks, serving as both a bank and financial institution, delivering financial and technical services to 51 local savings banks in Norway.
“Even though we spend a considerable amount on IT and development, it has been challenging for us to find expertise in Norway. This is one of the many reasons why we chose to go nearshore in Warsaw with emagine,” says Anders Bjerkestrand.
“With emagine’s assistance, Eika has acquired skilled developers and Polish colleagues who work well in our product team”, Anders Bjerkestrand confirms.
A critical need for IT developers
The financial institution Eika began nearshoring in 2019 when it was challenging to find Norwegian developers, and the costs of hiring consultants were very high. Eika wanted to use Nearshoring for valid cost control and find skilled specialists with relevant competencies.
Polish developers and project managers gathered in a status meeting with Eika at emagine’s modern development center in Warsaw.
They devised a plan to expand their setup to Poland.
“Eika is organized into product teams continuously working on a backlog of tasks prioritized by a product owner. The Polish consultants are positioned on the same level as our Norwegian developers, and they have equally close contact with the product owner as everyone else,” says Anders Bjerkestrand.
The high quality of Polish expertise
“The difference between Norway and Poland is that there are more IT resources here in Warsaw, making it faster to access the expertise we need. The quality of the candidates we get from emagine has been very high, so we know they understand us,” says Bjerkestrand.
“Fortunately, emagine not only looks for the roles and technologies that we need, but also for the right match in people when it comes to personalities that will fit in. We find that almost as important as the actual skillsets.”
We find that matching personalities within the team is almost as important as the actual skillsets.
Anders Bjerkestrand, Head of Technology and Development, Eika Group
Advice for other companies: try it!
If there are other companies considering nearshoring, Anders Bjerkestrand has a clear recommendation:
“You simply need to try it out and experience how it works. Don’t sit and wait for magic to happen. It is actually not that difficult to get started with nearshoring.”
“As a partner, emagine has always been very reliable. Eika and emagine have a good commercial relationship that is very important to us. I believe in having a simple, but valuable and flexible dialogue, which is what we achieve with emagine,” concludes Anders Bjerkestrand.
