A foot in Madagascar to better serve our clients
Posted 1 Year ago
We are looking forward to 2023 with ambition, faced with difficulties in recruiting and meeting the needs of our customers. We will deploy a development centre in Madagascar.
In recent months, IT service providers have been facing major challenges. Their clients have high ambitions to digitise their processes, with a view to improving their competitiveness, supporting the needs in the development field. In addition, there is also a trend towards outsourcing IT resource management. "For us, this has several implications. On the one hand, we have to strengthen our teams, by acquiring the right skills, to meet the needs. On the other hand, in view of the evolution of costs over the last few months and in the months to come, particularly in terms of salaries, we need to find solutions to ensure that we keep our budgets under control while ensuring that we maintain the profitability of our business," explains Philippe Houssier, Partner Sales & Business Development at ABAKUS IT SOLUTIONS.
Increasing the size and responsiveness of the teams
Faced with these challenges, our IT services company is entering 2023 with ambition. On the one hand, we need to increase the size of our teams, and on the other hand, we need to improve our responsiveness," says the manager. To do this, we need to rely on a wide range of local expertise, but also to be able to guarantee the efficient implementation of the various projects. Nothing is less simple in the current context.
Adopting new ways of working
To meet this challenge, ABAKUS IT-SOLUTIONS is exploring several avenues. Firstly, the company intends to speed up its recruitment process. "It is essential, above all, to strengthen our attractiveness. This means adopting other ways of working," explains Philippe Houssier. If teleworking has become the norm, allowing it means rethinking the organisation and processes in depth, to ensure the company's operational efficiency. However, given the situation in the labour market, such organisational transformations will not be enough.
A development centre in Madagascar
ABAKUS IT-SOLUTIONS is therefore investing in a development centre in Madagascar. It has indeed become difficult to recruit locally," continues Philippe Houssier. This approach also allows us to remain competitive, as the labour force there is less expensive.
For ABAKUS IT-SOLUTIONS, locating this development centre in Madagascar has several advantages. French is spoken there. The country has good technical universities. The time zones of Luxembourg and the Red Island are very close. Many IT companies, like us, have undertaken such investments," continues the director of ABAKUS IT-SOLUTIONS. In addition, we can take advantage of interesting arrangements, such as work-study programmes, which allow us to offer many young people the opportunity to get their foot in the door. The company, which is already firmly established in Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany, has therefore set up a local structure and is preparing to deploy its team there. It should have 6 to 8 people within six months. In addition to development professionals, the Madagascar centre will also host a talent sourcing team. "The idea is to grow this centre by taking time. We are favouring an approach that ensures the proper integration of the teams, the implementation of robust processes and efficient organisation between the remote teams," comments Philippe Houssier.
Maintaining proximity to the customer
These investments should therefore help us to better serve the local markets in which we operate. If the teams in charge of development or management of IT resources are located remotely, locally, ABAKUS IT SOLUTIONS will move its talents towards analyst or architect functions to better meet the specific needs of local organisations. "It is important for us to maintain this proximity to the client, to ensure that we understand their expectations and can provide them with the best possible solution," adds Philippe Houssier.
