Skills shortage outflanked by using clever outsourcing strategies.
In this opinion piece, Peter Vile, CEO and co-founder of software development firm CodeHQ, shows how tapping into Vietnam’s highly skilled tech workforce to tackle projects for NZ organisations works – and how it saves them money.
New Zealand’s skills shortage has gone from bad to worse when it comes to finding experienced and skilled software developers, testers, architects, business analysts and project managers, critical to business transformation and product development. Our domestic pipeline isn’t geared up to deliver the tech skills we need.
Why Vietnam?
There’s so much more potential to work with Vietnamese software developers to augment in-house development teams at large New Zealand organisations.
The start of the new millennium saw Vietnam as a country invest massively in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics). It was for these reasons CodeHQ chose to set up a wholly owned subsidiary in Ho Chi Minh City 18 years ago, where around nine million people live and work in an area the size of Auckland. By employing highly talented software development teams for many blue-chip businesses, and government agencies, it has allowed us to add scale to our very experienced New Zealand leads in a way that would not have been possible with a local workforce.
Peter Vile, CodeHQ CEO and co-founder. Photo / Supplied.
Millions of people make up the tech workforce in Vietnam – IBM, Apple, Intel and Microsoft have all beaten a path to Vietnam for software development and high value manufacturing. It has a healthy outsourcing industry of which we are proud to be a member.
We love the diversity. Female workers account for 37 percent of Vietnam’s tech workforce, compared to around 27 per cent in New Zealand. Our subsidiary in Vietnam is run by talented women.
Our sourced teams in Vietnam are fast. When paired with our New Zealand resources, productively increases even further. They really do ‘get things done’.
Cost wins
When it comes to cost benefits, these are hard to overlook. CodeHQ’s Vietnam-based resources can save 30 percent compared with local employment costs and better than 50 percent on local contract rates.
Perfecting an operating model
Two decades on the ground in Vietnam and three in New Zealand enables you to near perfect an operating model that benefits business. At the centre of this is culture and the developing and fostering of a ‘one team’ approach.
We employ all our ‘Codies’ and do not ‘body shop’. We build rapport internally and look to offer teams who know each other and have a trust and shared focus on delivering excellence. Our business culture is now so rich we have people in wait to join our business in Vietnam, which benefits our clients as we can onboard quickly. The flow on effect to clients cannot be underestimated.
Clients are offered either a blended CodeHQ NZ and Vietnam-based engagement or a direct Vietnam team “augmentation” to ensure optimum outcomes, working with clients to allocate work appropriately – shouldering the risk and responsibility or running an offshore team ourselves.
Our clients pay in New Zealand dollars. We take care of all foreign exchange, transfer pricing, and employment law requirements. Unlike many other businesses in our space, we don’t charge clients penalties for scaling down their contracts. We appreciate the realities of business and the need to move up or down and our ‘penalty-free’ approach allows for genuine flexibility without cost wastage. All important in a recessionary climate.
Investing in the best people is central to our ethos and we involve our clients in selection, so the fit is right. We also offer ongoing training in the latest technologies to ensure best practice.
Remote productivity boost
The development team in Vietnam’s working day starts at around 1.30pm New Zealand time. Clients and our local developers can work all morning, do a quick virtual stand-up with their Vietnamese colleagues, who then carry on into the New Zealand evening and night. Operating across two time zones allows for a considerable extension to the standard Kiwi business day and a major boost to productivity.
As we reflect on 30 years of business, we still see China and primary sector exports dominating our trade narrative in Asia. But there’s plenty of opportunity to harness Vietnam’s young and highly-skilled workforce to fulfil business goals – and foster the weightless economy. We did, and we haven’t looked back.
We tapped into this powerful resource to complement our CodeHQ team in New Zealand and the benefits of our three decades of experience has seen our clients push ahead despite the barriers of tech skills shortages and reduced budgets. We’re pretty proud of that.
For more information go to codehq.nz
