Without making a big announcement, the ERP manufacturer Soreco has established a development department in Vietnam. What does this mean for the Swiss software industry? Inside-it.ch took a closer look on-site and asked questions.
The Swiss business software manufacturer Soreco is developing a new generation of the Xpert.Line software family. However, finding the necessary personnel resources in Switzerland is "almost hopeless" for a company like Soreco, as Development Manager Daniel Gauch told us in an exclusive interview during a visit to Vietnam. There, specifically in Ho Chi Minh City, Soreco’s solutions will be developed in the future. But what exactly does that mean?
Offshore Development with a Partner Company
At Soreco’s invitation, we visited the Vietnamese branch of the Lucerne-based company Axon Active in the southern metropolis of Vietnam. Axon currently employs around 100 programmers, about 35 of whom work in dedicated teams for Soreco. Axon Active Vietnam takes on important tasks such as recruiting employees, legally managing the company, and creating a good working environment. For example, Axon has its own free staff restaurant and a company-affiliated residential building where – no, not the "poor programmers" crammed together in dormitories like Foxconn’s Chinese workers – but rather the developers from Switzerland are accommodated.
Offshore and Switzerland
What does the decision to establish a development department with partner Axon Active in Ho Chi Minh City mean for Soreco employees in Switzerland? No – there have been no job cuts, Gauch assures. However, in the medium and long term, the professional role of software developers in Switzerland will change. There is a high demand for people who work as "Product Owners" in Switzerland, collaborating with "their" team in Vietnam to develop new software modules following the SCRUM principle. Additionally, professionals will still be needed for customer projects and software customizations.
The Five Rules of Offshore Development
Soreco, along with Gauch himself, has already gained experience in attempting to develop software "offshore," meaning at a distant location. However, the attempt to produce new programs in Ukraine was abandoned in favor of Vietnam. Gauch does not want to directly call it a failure, as the company learned a lot from its initial steps in Eastern Europe.
Today, the SCRUM method is consistently used instead of the waterfall model. The biggest advantage: With daily interactions between the teams in Vietnam and Switzerland, as well as the regular and rapid delivery of executable software components, incorrect developments are quickly recognized. Furthermore, the demands on the client – in this case, the "client" is Soreco Switzerland – are not as enormous as with conventional programming, where software functions must be defined in the finest detail in advance in a precise and comprehensible manner.
Insights from Vietnam
In an extensive exclusive interview with inside-it.ch, Gauch explains what the move to Vietnam means for Soreco employees, what challenges they have faced and continue to face, and what the key requirements are for successful software development at a remote location.
(Christoph Hugenschmidt)
(Photo: hc. What time of day is it for the colleagues in Bolligen?)
Translated from German: https://www.axonactive.com/post/exklusiv-soreco-baut-entwicklung-in-vietnam-auf