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Bernd Wandt und Geschäftspartner bei der Re-Auditierung von Intellias.

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Our Ukrainian development center in Lviv was the development partner for our first customer at ServiceFactum. We can now look back on more than 12 years of successful partnership.
During this time, ServiceFactum has analyzed 13 additional development partners in different countries and added them to its own audited delivery network.
Nonetheless, the partnership continues and ServiceFactum´s key clients have successfully built teams and completed projects in Ukraine.
This year, the development center was once again re-audited. What started out as a small partner with around 150 employees in Lviv has now become a global partner with 3200+ experts at more than 14 locations worldwide. The headquarters are outside of Ukraine – but the management is still in the hands of the founders, with whom ServiceFactum maintains a close relationship.

Re-audit of ServiceFactum's Development Center No. 1

Due to the war in Ukraine, this time the audit took place at one of the main locations in Poland. The agenda was extensive, so we took 2 days for the audit.
We were once again able to convince ourselves of the professionalism and reliability of the development center on site.
Our development partner has the structure of a medium-sized company that is still managed by its founders. A consistent system environment based on Atlassian tools (including Jira and Confluence) maps the entire internal know-how consistently and transparently. This enables all employees to work on a project for customers without interruption. Quality management in practice is part of their Project Management Office, which was also recently recognized as the best European PMO. Certifications and awards underscore the company&#8217;s strategy.
Roman Reznikov, VP Digital Segment of our partner, commented on the audit:
<blockquote>„We are striving to provide the best-in-class software engineering service for our clients. It is important for us to receive an external assessment of our processes and capabilities, which is why the audit from our trusted partner, Service Factum, is crucial to us. We began cooperating with Service Factum when Intellias was a small company, so it is important to demonstrate that with growth, we have only improved the quality of our service.&#8221;</blockquote>
Together, we have also identified one or two improvements for our customers. These will be completed as soon as possible.
A dinner together in a relaxed atmosphere strengthened the relationships on the first evening, so that the second working day continued in a very cooperative and almost collegial manner.

On-site audit in Poland

ServiceFactum can award its (Ukrainian) partner our quality label for development centres &#8220;Qualified and validated Development Center&#8221; with confidence and hope for many more successful nearshore engagements together.

Conclusion

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Virtuelle Realität trifft auf Automotive.

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Virtual Reality (VR) is revolutionizing the way we experience the world and its impact on the automotive industry is undeniable. With the groundbreaking release of the brand new Apple Vision Pro, the potential of VR in the automotive industry is reaching new heights. Imagine stepping into a virtual world where you can design, test and even drive cars without leaving the room.
This blog explores the fascinating field of automotive VR, delving into its historical roots, current applications and remarkable benefits. Discover how VR is reshaping the automotive industry and leading us into a future where the lines between virtual and real are blurred and the possibilities are endless.

Virtual reality in the automotive industry

Virtual reality (VR) refers to the simulation of a three-dimensional, computer-generated environment into which the user can immerse himself using special hardware such as VR glasses. Classical applications of VR include, for example, computer games, virtual series or simulations of medical interventions. Increasingly, however, the technology is also being used in industry. A key area here is everything to do with the automobile.

Definition of Virtual Reality (VR) & areas of application

The application of VR in the automotive industry has a long history. As early as the 1990s, VR was used to improve collaboration between designers and engineers. However, the technology was not yet mature enough to allow a realistic representation of vehicles. Only with the further development of VR in recent years has it become possible to create realistic scenarios.

History of Virtual Reality in Automotive 

Today, VR is used in many areas in the automotive industry. One example is prototype development: With the help of VR, designers and engineers can create virtual models of vehicles and test them in a realistic environment. This allows errors to be identified and corrected at an early stage, before a physical prototype is built. This saves time and money and speeds up product development. In addition, this creates the possibility for teams distributed across locations, countries or even continents to work together on products in a (virtual) space.
VR is also used in vehicle sales: Customers can experience vehicles in a virtual environment with the help of VR glasses and thus get a realistic picture without having to physically look at the car. The customer can configure their vehicle live and virtually &#8220;test sit&#8221; it immediately.
Another area in which VR is used in the automotive industry is employee training. VR simulations can be used, for example, to teach employees how to perform certain work on vehicles without the need for an actual vehicle. This can reduce training costs and time.

Today's application of virtual reality in the automotive 

The benefits of using VR in the automotive industry are many. The ability to create virtual prototypes can save costs and development time. Customers can experience vehicles in a realistic environment, which can lead to higher customer satisfaction. Employee training can be more effective because VR simulations enable realistic scenarios. Teams of experts can work together from different countries.

Advantages of using virtual reality

Overall, it can be said that VR has become an important part of the automotive industry. The technology enables more effective and efficient development of vehicles as well as better customer engagement. The use of VR will continue to increase in the future as the technology becomes more mature and new areas of application are developed.
Next Step X-REALITY

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Unser Service Manager Fabian Ambrosi

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We’ve gotten used to them by now: teams calls, zoom calls, online meetings. For a while, many things only worked remotely, and in general, we conduct conversations in our working lives more and more often via our screens and less face to face.
At ServiceFactum, this has somehow always been the case, because our teams are transnational, our contacts are mostly located abroad, and yet ServiceFactum stands out above all for good communication. I thought it would be interesting to find out exactly how we do this &#8211; so I sat down face to face with our two service managers: Bernd Wandt &amp; Fabian Ambrosi for an interview.
What became clear to me personally was this: Whether on a personal or business level &#8211; good and regular communication is the be-all and end-all of establishing and maintaining a good relationship. But what does it actually mean in the deeper sense: &#8220;Good communication&#8221;? What tips can you possibly learn from them to build and maintain successful relationships with nearshore/offshore teams? Enjoy the interview!

How to build and maintain good relationships remotely

Bernd and Fabian: Which 3 factors define a good relationship with a development center from your perspective?
<blockquote>Fabian Ambrosi: For me, trust is the most important factor for a good relationship. You have to build this up in order to create a relationship based on partnership, through which common goals can be defined and will also be achieved together. It must be noticeable that you are going in the same direction and want to go in the future.
Bernd Wandt: I can only confirm that trust is paramount: you have to work together in the long term and not just temporarily to earn trust. Another point is transparency, so that you know at all times what is happening in the development center in terms of cooperation. Of course, you definitely need  to live these relationships on all levels (from the operative project staff to the CEO). So to me the 3 factors are: Trust, transparency and lived relationships.</blockquote>
Fabian, how is it when you are new to it, how do you build trust &amp; good collaboration with already existing teams?
<blockquote>Fabian Ambrosi: First of all, it&#8217;s very interesting and you face exciting challenges. Especially with existing customers or projects, you have to &#8220;prove&#8221; yourself in the beginning. You have to show that, in addition to management skills, you are also technically experienced. To achieve this, many personal meetings are important, especially at the beginning of a collaboration.
An example is the cooperation with one specific customer: In the beginning, the cooperation was very distant and the topics were discussed very formally on the basis of bullet points. Through more intensive and regular discussions, we have moved closer together in the partnership and live a much more open collaboration. Challenges are discussed openly and directly and we work together to find a solution.
Since we work remotely a lot, another key to good collaboration is definitely face-to-face meetings. These meetings help enormously to build a partnership through which you achieve goals together. And of course, you also get to know your counterpart privately to a certain extent, as private topics are also discussed in addition to daily business&#8230;
Bernd Wandt: &#8230;and you can also have a beer together sometime.</blockquote>
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Earning and building trust

Bernd, how do you find good software development teams?
<blockquote>Bernd Wandt: That&#8217;s a good question! The first thing to do is to define: What does a &#8220;good team&#8221; actually mean? We always define this together with our customers, through absolute clarity / precision in the requirements. The top priority is: What do we want to achieve and what are we looking for? To achieve this, it is not enough to simply draw up a written document and pass it on. You have to talk about it, communicate comprehensively and approach it continuously. Once you have found an employee, the following question immediately arises: How can you further strengthen and integrate this employee? This can be done through team building and team design. Finding a good mix of different characters and seniorities is the only way to create a good team. Especially in the nearshore area &#8211; i.e. with remote teams that work in a distributed manner &#8211; the joint development processes become more important.
But the search process also plays an important role. After all, the ultimate goal is to achieve high speed in the search and hiring process. In the nearshore environment, every really good employee has diverse project opportunities. And he can choose the project, usually he does not wait until a customer has agreed everything internally. Effectiveness and goal orientation are required here.</blockquote>
Bernd and Fabian, how do you constantly monitor compliance with the quality criteria? Also with regard to communication?
<blockquote>Fabian Ambrosi: The nuts and bolts are the joint discussions &#8211; what&#8217;s currently on the agenda, what&#8217;s going well, what isn’t. It is important to notice early on if something is going in the wrong direction. In addition, clear quality processes are very helpful. This gives us the confidence and security that our partners have an understanding of quality and are continuously working on improvements. When it comes to communication, an important point is that it is also managed. Meetings need a clear agenda to get to the point and to the goal, especially in a remote context. That&#8217;s what we&#8217;re here for.
Bernd Wandt: Supplementary: First of all, we should agree on the quality criteria. Often enough, people do not talk about the criteria that lead to customer satisfaction &#8211; but quality is simply seen implicitly. All parties involved should be included in this process right from the start. Because bilateral communication with an attempt at subsequent coordination is difficult. Coming back to your question &#8211; how to check compliance with the quality criteria &#8211; This depends on the individual quality criteria. After a detailed clarification, one can define appropriate checking algorithms. These can be defined and accepted in status reports, during follow-up of action items or via protocol.</blockquote>
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Strengthening and integration within software development teams  

Bernd and Fabian: In every business relationship there are disagreements &#8211; how do you resolve them?
<blockquote>Bernd Wandt: In every business relationship there are disagreements &#8211; how do you resolve them?
Bernd Wandt: That&#8217;s right, disagreements happen all the time. This is often due to the fact that we often have different understandings of things. It is important to analyze the situation together. This is about openness and transparency, and each party must be open to compromise.
Our role &#8211; when I now talk about the interaction between customers and development centers &#8211; is a moderating, rather neutral position. We are interested in finding and implementing a joint solution that makes sense for everyone involved.
Fabian Ambrosi: &#8230;Yes, creating a space where all three parties can sit together and talk openly. The open conversation is the only way to really get to the goal. And as Bernd said, everyone should have the same goal in mind.</blockquote>
Bernd, what do customers particularly appreciate about the special ServiceFactum communication?
<blockquote>Bernd Wandt: That they have a responsible contact person who is consistently there for them and can make decisions. Of course &#8211; we&#8217;ve said this a few times now &#8211; we bring an openness and transparency. Basically, what distinguishes us is direct, targeted communication. That means we call the things by its name and try to find an implementable solution. This is appreciated not only by our customers but also by our development partners. We are not tactical, we are solution-oriented and solve the problems directly.</blockquote>

Clarification of disagreements and finding solutions 

Bernd and Fabian: Most relationships with the development centers are only possible via remote due to the distance. What are the communication barriers that you have to overcome? What do you personally find most difficult here?
<blockquote>Fabian Ambrosi: I think the biggest barrier is to build a good relationship that feels like it is not remote, or at least goes in a similar direction. The remote teams need to feel like they belong to the German team and see themselves as one team. This is much more difficult remotely and takes more time.
Another barrier is keeping in touch. It is very easy to postpone or cancel a remote meeting. Staying on the ball and motivating all sides requires more attention from the service manager.
Bernd Wandt: Remote activities live on regular communication. Irregular communication is &#8220;disappearing&#8221; &#8211; it is becoming less and less, because everyone actually knows what needs to be done, or thinks they do. That&#8217;s why we work a lot with regular meetings &#8211; i.e. consistently on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis &#8211; and always seek direct contact. The barriers we have to overcome are the physical distance and the cultural distance. Every country has its own culture, even if Poland, for example, seems very close, there are other cultural values that have to be taken into account. It is very important to really live long-term relationships here. People know each other &#8211; they appreciate each other. Another big barrier is maintaining relationships across different customer projects. A new customer, a new project always means a &#8220;disruption&#8221; in a relationship &#8211; the requirements change and suddenly everything is new. What is familiar no longer applies and must be set up anew. The big task for us is to pick up everyone involved again &#8211; and not to overlook anything. What I personally find most difficult is to raise a remote relationship to a level where trust becomes a matter of course. I try to get to grips with this through a long-term relationship and a lot of communication. If you talk to someone on a regular basis, a relationship automatically develops &#8211; this manifests itself through sporadic personal meetings.</blockquote>

Barriers and personal challenges 

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&#8220;Our intelligence is what makes us human, and AI is an extension of that quality.&#8221; &#8211; Yann LeCun, French American Machine Learning Specialist
Nevertheless, the same question keeps coming up: how do we use this extended quality of artificial intelligence in our everyday lives? Whether it&#8217;s facial identification in a cell phone, spell-checking when composing an email, or digital voice assistants, we already encounter AI everywhere in our everyday lives. This leads to the follow-up question: Why don&#8217;t we also use AI for the creation of social media content?

Social media content creation with AI

AI has long been an integral part of the social media landscape and already dominates large areas. The algorithm that decides which content is most relevant to you is based on a complex system of AI technologies. Machine learning is also being used in the fight against cyberbullying and fake news. But AI is not only showing its potential in the fight against negative content. The creation of social media content with the help of AI is also becoming increasingly popular and can improve your personal or professional profile to the next level.
In this blog post, you&#8217;ll find a practical step by step guide on how to use AI to create more effective and targeted social media content. At the same time, we also highlight the pros and cons of using AI in the social media world:

1. Artificial intelligence as the basis of social media

The ChatGPT chatbot is based on machine learning and was developed by the US company OpenAI. Its goal is to conduct human-like conversations based on text input and voice queries. It must cover a wide range of topics and requirements, from everyday queries such as creating kitchen recipes to complex topics such as AI in the medical industry. To meet these requirements, ChatGPT has been trained with millions of texts from the Internet, social media, online forums, newspaper articles and books.
The so-called prompts are crucial to the chatbot&#8217;s success. They tell the AI system in text form what content to generate and output. Through this technology, it is possible to create unique and customized content and provide users with an immersive chat experience.

2. Step by Step: With ChatGPT to High-Quality Content on Social Media

A new chat with ChatGPT can be thought of as a blank page. Through specific instructions, the chatbot can learn what kind of content is needed, what topics are relevant, and how to prepare it best. Using an AI thus provides an efficient way to streamline the social media content creation process.
Sample prompt: 
&#8220;Act as a social media manager. You work on the business platform LinkedIn in the online marketing area. Your task is to create highly qualified content for the company account.&#8221;

2.1 Filling the blank page

To ensure that the chatbot understands what the goal of the post is and what information it should contain, it is important to provide clear instructions to the chatbot.
Sample prompt: 
&#8220;Your task is to create a post about the following topic: &#8216;Our vision at ServiceFactum: cross-country software development for any business. Use the keywords &#8216;nearshoring&#8217;, &#8216;offshoring&#8217; and ‘software development abroad&#8217;. Make sure to create interesting and engaging content.&#8221;

2.2 Build basic framework with basic information

The basic framework is now in place. The next step is to feed the AI with possible content ideas.
Sample prompt: 
&#8220;Here&#8217;s more information about the company: &#8216;We maintain audited, international cooperations with the purpose of developing first-class software based on customer-specific ideas in a cost-efficient and agile way. We live a trustful, effective and efficient cooperation with our customers and partners and promote the overcoming of spatial and cultural boundaries.&#8217; Use this acquired data for posting.&#8221;

2.3 Feed the chatbot with good content

The next step is to determine the writing style.
Sample prompt: 
&#8220;Look for a narrative style in the form of storytelling. Use rhetorical stylistic devices to make the text more appealing. Individual sentences should be as concise and meaningful as possible. Give the reader a reason to be captivated reading the posting.&#8221;

2.4 Choose the style

The hook of a post is critical to getting readers to notice and engage with the post in the first place. A hook should be unique, interesting, eye-catching, and memorable.
Sample prompt: 
&#8220;Create 10 sample hooks from the data already provided, which should encourage the reader to in-tact with the post.&#8221;
Tip: The more information the AI receives, the better the results. Base your hook creation on posts that have already gone viral on LinkedIn. Feed the AI 5 viral hook examples on your topic. Let it generate 10 possible hook ideas for you.

2.5 Develop a hook

Finally, you get a well-structured, concise, and interesting post that vividly presents ServiceFactum&#8217;s vision to the reader:
Sample prompt:
&#8220;The future of software development is here &#8211; ServiceFactum is ready.
At ServiceFactum, we support every company in their individual software development with cost-effective and agile nearshoring and offshoring solutions. We specialize in international co-operations and rely on trustful cooperation to overcome spatial and cultural boundaries. Our goal is to break the boundaries of traditional software development and provide any company with access to world-class software development services.
Our vision &#8211; &#8216;Cross-border software development for every business.&#8217; Let&#8217;s realize your vision together now.
#nearshoring #offshoring #software development&#8221;

2.6 Finished Post

Who better to answer this question than AI itself:

3. What are advantages and disadvantages of AI-created social media content?

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There are undoubtedly many advantages to creating social media content using an AI, especially in terms of efficiency and adaptability to the user. The AI can quickly and easily find the appropriate topics and content for the desired purpose. It can also help auto-tune posts and adapt them to the user&#8217;s individual tastes and needs. However, despite all these advantages, one should be aware that an AI is not able to convey emotions and creativity the way a human writer can. Therefore, human intelligence and creativity remains indispensable for creating high-quality content. So, a careful balance between human expertise and machine efficiency is needed to create truly successful and engaging social media content.

4. Conclusion

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They advertise mainly by putting utopian daily rates in the foreground. With the oversupply of apparent top experts at the lowest prices, the path to &#8220;Let&#8217;s try that!&#8221; with the cheapest provider is quickly the first choice. But is this the right way?

What can already go wrong in the selection process for near/offshoring?

From our experience, we know that this kind of approach usually results in negative experiences and people quickly turn away from the topic of near/offshoring. But how can this be done better? What are the pitfalls of near/offshoring? And how do you deal with the issue professionally?
In this article we want to answer these questions and share our experience. We should start at the beginning &#8211; the selection process of the location and the team. Already at the beginning a lot of things can go wrong&#8230;
<ul>
<li>&#8220;We&#8217;ll just use the near/offshore provider XY, that worked for Max too &#8230;&#8221;</li>
<li>&#8220;Our existing description of the requirements is already enough&#8230;&#8221;</li>
<li>&#8220;They promised that&#8230; that&#8217;s enough!&#8221;</li>
</ul>
If the selection process of the location and the team is approached in this way, the near/offshoring project is doomed to failure right from the start. But how does it go right? Let&#8217;s take a closer look at the 3 main pitfalls:
&#8220;We&#8217;ll just use the near/offshore provider XY, that worked for Max too&#8230;&#8221;.
Making a hasty decision in favour of a development centre can lead in the wrong direction. Recommendations from acquaintances are often taken as a basis for decision-making. However, experiences cannot usually be transferred 1 to 1, as everyone has individual requirements for the location. These requirements (technologies, competences, etc.) must be balanced and should be the focus of the development centre.
In addition, decisions should not be made solely on the basis of price. In the oversupply and advertising of top candidates, attention should always be paid to the three important factors of productivity, quality and economic efficiency in software development, which are often not sufficiently present in the low-priced offers.
In order to be able to better evaluate these points, a visit as well as an on-site audit of the development centre should be carried out in any case. This is the only way to make a well-founded and long-term decision.
&#8220;Our existing description of the requirements is already sufficient&#8230;&#8221;
Taking the &#8220;home&#8221; requirements for a team and simply translating them seems like the appropriate way to go at first. Unfortunately, no! Job advertisements are usually formulated in such a way as to obtain a relatively large number of CVs. This pre-selection is already done by the near/offshoring partner. For this, care must be taken that profiles are described and matched in detail. This is the only way to make the pre-selection effective and efficient.
Near/offshoring providers like to prepare the CVs of their pre-selected candidates in a marketing-oriented way. A critical assessment of whether the candidate&#8217;s actual skills match the required skills is essential here.
Top experts in near/offshoring can usually choose from a variety of international projects. Which leads us to two other important misconceptions: a. massive time pressure in the decision and b. attractiveness of the project/client. Agreed SLAs in the selection process alleviate the time pressure and demand discipline. In order for the candidate to decide in favour of the client, it is important to present the team and especially the project in detail in the interview in an attractive way. Otherwise even the best talents will be gone.
&#8220;They promised that&#8230; that&#8217;s enough!&#8221;
Often clients who have had no experience with near/offshoring have high expectations. These are strengthened by the promises of the marketing campaigns, which unfortunately strongly distorts the reality. As a result, points such as scalability, market conditions and duration until start-up are misjudged and lead to a rude awakening.
Instead of blindly trusting promises, existing experience should be relied upon. The management of a near/offshoring cooperation is not a short-distance sprint. One should critically look back at already lived cooperations with the same partner and use the experience gained for the start of the cooperation.
In summary, it is indeed better to approach near/offshoring with a local, trustworthy partner who knows what works abroad and what does not. Here, it is important to directly and responsibly involve the corresponding long-standing and comprehensive experience &#8211; this is one of the most important success factors in near/offshoring.
ServiceFactum has already helped more than 27 clients to establish innovative, long-term partnerships and has built up more than 50 teams in the process. All of our development partners have been extensively audited by us and together we have successfully met the needs of our customers. That&#8217;s why ServiceFactum offers: Advanced Near-/Offshoring.

Our experience

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Do you also want to be infected by the warm lifestyle and diversity of the Romanians? Then we invite you to accompany our Service Manager Fabian Ambrosi to Timişoara for a day.

A daytrip to Timişoara – Romania

“Lets meet in Romania… Don’t you feel like visiting us?” – or similar like that, the invitation from our Romanian partner came into my mailbox.
Visiting Romania, that sounds good. When I was a child, I often visited family and friends in Romania. But what is it like to travel there for business? Is everything still as rudimentary and rather simple as I have in my childhood memories?
That could be exciting! So let’s go on the adventure and accept directly!
When I told this at home, even my wife was on fire. So 4 weeks later we just jumped into the car together, including our 1-year-old son, to get to know the country and its people for a few days on a short vacation after the meeting. So off we went to Timişoara….
On the long car ride we philosophized: How do we actually imagine Romania? Are there any fixed roads there at all? In any case, we just wanted to be surprised how the country has changed in recent years. We were (positively) surprised when we crossed the border, without big controls and with a friendly “bine ati venit”. Everything looks the same as in our country. No horse-drawn carts or only farms, as if they were dirt roads. We were met by the most modern cars, glazed skyscrapers passed our car windows and the roads were of course asphalted. The only thing that exactly matched our imagination was an ungated railroad crossing, through which a very long and very slow train passed.

Come along on our journey!

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The next day I drove my car to the given address of our partner “Iulius Mall area, Businesstower UBC3, 13th floor”. Ok. Wow. This is the building I would have expected to see in NY, or in another big western city, but somehow not in Romania. In front of me huge buildings made of glass built up, surrounded by lakes, meadows, restaurants and shopping malls. And many more construction sites, suggesting that the Romanians have a lot planned here. As I learned later, the address is not yet the final stop for our partner. They want to move to another tower, still under construction, to rent an entire floor in what will then be the tallest building in Timişoara.
I was shown around and was amazed by the huge office space with state-of-the-art desks, computers and screens. There was also a kitchen, a meeting room, and a relaxation room available to the nearly 60 employees. After a 1-hour meeting, during which I personally met the colleagues responsible for my project, I was invited to lunch. Secretly, I was already looking forward to “Sarmale” or “Ciorba de burta” typical Romanian dishes. But to my great surprise, not only cabbage rolls were on the menu, but also burgers, spaghetti and sandwiches. During the meal together we could get to know each other better. I was surprised by the warmth and hospitality that my colleagues showed me. It was the first time we saw each other, but they were not shy to talk in English about their personal lives. I learned that most of them live in the countryside and only go to the city for work. There again were so many parallels to life in Germany. I was so warmly received and welcomed among my colleagues that after half a day I already felt like a full-fledged team member. After lunch, I sat down with my “team” and we talked a lot about our daily work, how we could implement various topics in concrete terms and where there might be points of contact or future opportunities for cooperation. It was important to see how the current market in Romania is developing and which areas are strongly represented, especially in the automotive sector.

Our development centre in Romania

After a long, eventful day, I started the “journey home” to our hotel room. I ended the day at the hotel bar with a Timişoreana beer and a view over this beautiful city and drew a feedback about the trip: It was definitely one of the most important dates in our collaboration with our partner. Through the personal, very private meeting and getting to know each other, we have significantly improved and intensified our communication. Especially after all the remote work, it shows again that face-to-face meetings are an important part of our work and foster collaboration with partners and customers. Timişoara – you got me… Budapest – you are next ?…
Perhaps interesting as well…

Timişoara - worth a visit!

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Among other things, Vitaly discusses the current living situation and the development of the IT sector in Ukraine. He also reports on the evacuation of a total of 1,400 employees, which was very emotional and a logistically big challenge.

Interview about Ukraine conflict with Vitaly Sedler

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Interview Vitaly-20220520_150616-Besprechungsaufzeichnung (1)

<blockquote>Bernd Wandt 
</blockquote>
Hi Vitaly, normally it’s a standard opening but these days it’s main interest for me. How are you and your family doing? How did you and your family experience the last month? And how is it to live in Ukraine right now?
<blockquote>Vitaly Sedler</blockquote>
Hi Bernd. Great to see you. As you know, it has been almost three months since the war with Russia began.
Indeed, the times have changed. For us it is a time of enormous change, both for the company and our business. And, for me personally, of course, because it is something I could have never imagined could happen in the 21st century. But unfortunately, the reality is different.
For me, the war essentially started with a phone call. Our admin director called me at 5:00 AM and told me that there were missile strikes and explosions in multiple cities of Ukraine. Now I was awake immediately and then just briefly, about two minutes, I was checking the news. I understood that what we believed could not take place, actually occurred.
Putin started his war with the Russian army against Ukraine, and we had to act. We had to operate in these new conditions. The following two weeks, as you know, were intense and full of decisions that were determined remarkably quickly, and many of those decisions were very new decisions for me. So, that’s how it was. As for my family, I insisted that my wife, my child and two of our grandmas leave the country. Because it was a stressful situation, and at that time, we didn’t know what would happen, I asked them to go to Poland, where Intellias has its offices, specifically in Krakow. And that is where they stay until today. My wife came back shortly afterwards. Basically, I remain with my wife while my child and two of our grandmothers are safe in Poland.
<blockquote>Bernd Wandt</blockquote>
Great, good to hear. And I think also that having at least the wife with you, it’s a very good sign and a good way forward (to have your wife with you). 
Since 2009, we are already delivery partners and serving successfully common customers in the area of software development. A strong focus for all of us/ for both of us, I must say is on the selected and engaging engineers – your employees. And how they are doing and feeling? Can you tell me what Intellias does to ensure their employees and their families can live as safely as possible, and where are the employees currently working?
<blockquote>Vitaly Sedler</blockquote>
Yes, Intellias had a considerable part of its employees in Ukraine, although we’re not operating only in Ukraine, but also in other countries. Ukraine is, of course, the largest market for us. We had around 2400 people throughout the country at that point in time. We had offices in Lviv, where our Ukrainian headquarters is, in Kyiv, Odesa, and Kharkiv. We also opened offices in Dnipro and Ivano Frankivsk. Fundamentally our employees were present in many cities of Ukraine. When the war started, from the first hour, not even the first day, we started our evacuation process to relocate people from eastern, central, and southern parts of the country into western regions of Ukraine, and those who could cross the border – outside of the country. Primarily to Poland, but then from Poland, some people left to other countries. 
So overall we relocated close to 1400 people which were employees and their family members. Four hundred of these people went outside of Ukraine. Mostly these were women and kids, while the men stayed in the country. It was a massive logistical operation. If we are looking at the safety aspect, I believe that western regions of Ukraine are relatively safe. Certainly, we have had some missile strikes that you can hear about from time to time on the news. However, everything that has happened during these three months, did not affect our operations in the west of Ukraine. And the large majority of people in unsafe regions were relocated to more secure areas. Therefore, they can continue working without major disruptions. Big part of relocation processes took about four days. We began on Thursday and finished on Sunday. And then, by Monday, we had 80 – 85% of operational ability of the company. And then within one and a half weeks it was at 97 – 98%. Essentially, the company can operate normally even under these conditions. We continue to serve our clients from safe locations. No single client left Intellias except for one who was a Ukrainian business. All our clients support Intellias. They understand, and they are forbearing. They continue working with us and we are very grateful for their patience and trust. Intellias can continue partnership with our clients.
<blockquote>Bernd Wandt</blockquote>
Ok, yes. By the way, I can confirm that. All our customers are very happy that the projects are going on normally. There was nearly no interruption and that was for everyone really amazing, and it was really a fast action you did in the first days, we are very happy and all the customers tell us the same.
<blockquote>Vitaly Sedler</blockquote>
Yes, I would like to add one comment here. From one of our top clients, we heard something that I liked a lot, and I quote:” You, Intellias, you again exceeded our expectations”. As a business we love to be better and surpass the expectations of our clients. Despite the circumstances where maybe they were somewhat uncertain in their understanding of how this may work out, we managed to do our best. 
We relocated a lot of people. Our delivery process was sustainable. We continue serving our clients, and with that, we exceeded the expectations of how Intellias could act in these kinds of conditions. It is undoubtedly a positive sign for our clients.
<blockquote>Bernd Wandt 
</blockquote>
Again, thank you very much for that, because it’s really amazing what happens there. There are also some impacts to the market, maybe. The Russian invasion may change a lot to the overall IT industry and you as the chairman and President of IT Ukraine Association have a good overview about the market. How do you see the future of the IT sector in Ukraine? And could you tell us a little bit about the consequences for Intellias and how your vision is of the global delivery strategy for Intellias?
<blockquote>Vitaly Sedler</blockquote>
Yes, if we are talking about Ukraine, I believe all will be good for the Ukrainian IT industry for several reasons. 
Firstly, the country and our government will keep supporting the industry. IT is one of the few industries which sustained its business during the war and continues to operate normally. It keeps bringing money into the country. We are paying exceptionally well to our engineers. Therefore, they can spend this money and support the economy. 
Secondly, the importance of the IT industry in Ukraine is even higher due to the 300.000 talented engineers in the country. All our clients know how talented Ukrainian engineers are. The global shortage of IT talent is enormous. And our engineers will continue to provide services to clients. As long as it is possible to stay in the country and live more or less normally, this business will continue. That is why I think everything will be fine for the Ukrainian IT industry. 
Also, many engineers are very patriotic, and they regularly donate money and support Ukraine. It proves that they want to stay in the country. Perhaps we will not see as much growth as we did grow in the in the past years. But overall, I am confident that consequently the industry will continue to grow. As for Intellias and its global delivery strategy, we worked on it for two years before the war. We always wanted to grow the company as a global business. That is why we started opening offices in Poland in 2019. Consequently, what is happening now is that our global delivery strategy, which we planned to execute for two years, we now need to do it in about six to nine months. Overall, it is a good challenge to have. Intellias is always happy to take on new challenges. That is how we grow. I am confident that one year from now we will be a very different company compared to today.
We already opened offices in several European countries, two new offices in the West of Europe, specifically Portugal and in Spain. There is also a good pool of engineering talent in these locations. Also, Intellias has significantly scaled up its operation in Poland. In the past we only had the Krakow office. We already have added offices in Gdansk and Warsaw. Our new office in Wroclaw is coming in two weeks from now. We are going to have four offices in Poland. Moreover, in Poland nationwide hiring is similar to Ukraine. By end of the year, we will have around 400 to 500 people in Poland. We also opened offices in Croatia and Bulgaria. These are not massive markets. However, there is still a good demand for software engineering talent. And we are venturing outside of Europe.  We have started an operation in India already. We already hired a country head there. In India we will be able to accept kind of projects that we did not take in our Eastern European operations in the past. And we are moving into LATAM in the next couple of months. The country of choice is Colombia. Some preparation and work is getting done now. Altogether this is global delivery strategy for Intellias. Our company will become very diversified compared to what we were in the past. Essentially, these are difficult times, but a good opportunity for change and transformation. And we happily take this challenge.
<blockquote>Bernd Wandt</blockquote>
I think that’s a little bit of forced challenge but anyhow if I understood it was on your schedule and on your agenda already earlier. So, at the moment is the only difference to speed up, to go faster and accelerate the process.
<blockquote>Vitaly Sedler</blockquote>
Yes. It is.
<blockquote>Bernd Wandt</blockquote>
Thank you very much for this outlook. Last but important for our listeners, what is the best way to support our partners in Ukraine and what can the readers of this blog do to best support the people in Ukraine? What is your suggestion for that?
<blockquote>Vitaly Sedler</blockquote>
Thank you for this question. If you are appealing to businesses and businessmen in Europe, the United States or globally, we always say that we need to support not only military but also economical aspect. If you can start relations or continue and grow business with Ukrainian companies, please do this because it helps our economy. It allows for money to come into the country, salaries to be paid and the development of the economy. Kindly be a little bit more patient than in comparison to an ordinary time. This patience is support for Ukrainian businessmen and employees, and Ukrainian people in general.
If we are talking about what would be best to do right now. When speaking to German people, I am very much thankful to people of Germany and many other countries who support Ukrainians in their fight for freedom and values. We can see this a lot. But sometimes German government takes a somewhat conservative approach with providing aid to our country. It is changing, but not very rapidly. Sometimes it still takes weeks and months for the support to come into Ukraine. That is why the people of Germany can encourage the government to be braver and faster in their decisions. It would be help Ukraine, as obviously we need the support of the world. There is not the smartest but a big military machine coming from Russia. We need to fight against it, and we need backing from our partners and friends. We still need more support, both military and political, for Ukraine because we are fighting for not just our freedom but also for the values of a free world. You cannot just start a war in the 21st century because you have political ambitions. It is not possible. We need to stop Putin. Also, Bernd, I think a significant part of what is happening in the country is due to support of the volunteers, both in humanitarian and military directions.
Intellias alone bought thirty cars to support the army. So, they can fight with these cars on the front lines. And we commit to buying more cars. Altogether around 80 cars. We are gathering money and making quick decisions. I will share some of the links to volunteering funds that I trust. And maybe your readers can donate money to those funds. With donations we will be able to provide humanitarian support. Some of the funds will go to military. Essentially, anything you want to support, it will be possible.
<blockquote>Bernd Wandt</blockquote>
Ok. Thank you very much for this. I think it’s good for the listeners to hear and do that. Thanks a lot for your time, Vitaly and for this interview. All the best for you, your family and everyone in the Ukraine a safe way to the future. Thank you very much.
<blockquote>Vitaly Sedler</blockquote>
Thank you, Bernd and take care.

An interview between Vitaly Sedler and Bernd Wandt

<h2>You can donate here:</h2>
<div>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://helpukraine.center/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Help Ukraine Center</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.razomforukraine.org/donate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Razom for Ukraine</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.comebackalive.in.ua/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Come Back Alive</a></li>
<li><a href="https://armysos.com.ua/donate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Army SOS</a></li>
<li><a href="https://bank.gov.ua/en/news/all/natsionalniy-bank-vidkriv-spetsrahunok-dlya-zboru-koshtiv-na-potrebi-armiyi?fbclid=IwAR3qHhRARSJH3xzCsuEeJRwmEIBDIhllcMUP-0syFE6CCc5n4iGZqtVWnD4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Bank of Ukraine – Fundraising for Ukraine´s armed forces</a></li>
<li><a href="https://help.rescue.org/donate-pl/ukraine-crisis?ms=ws_resq_top_nav_btn_fy22_ukraine_mmus_feb_n6568&amp;initialms=ws_resq_top_nav_btn_fy22_ukraine_mmus_feb_n6568" target="_blank" rel="noopener">International Rescue Committee – Crisis in Ukraine</a></li>
</ul>
</div>

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This year, too, we, the ServiceFactum team, want to give something back, in keeping with the Christmas season. 
We have jointly decided that our donation should go to &#8220;Kinderhilfe Rumänien&#8221; on the one hand and to the organisation &#8220;Sternstunden&#8221; on the other.

"Wir helfen Kindern" – ServiceFactum donates to "Kinderhilfe Rumänien" & "Sternstunden"

One half of our donation goes to the organisation &#8220;Kinderhilfe Rumänien e.V.&#8221;, which has been awarded the &#8220;DZI-Spenden-Siegel&#8221; (DZI donation seal) and which accommodates children from unacceptable conditions in Romanian children&#8217;s homes in their own small facilities close to their families. Instead of mass accommodation, individual child care.
Following the quote by Antoine de Saint-Exupery &#8211; &#8220;You can only see well with your heart&#8221;. &#8211; we follow our hearts and thus support children/young people from poor backgrounds. The registered association &#8211; represented in Romania by the foundation &#8220;Fundatia Ajutati Copiii&#8221; &#8211; takes in children in care &amp; gives them a well-deserved home, offers various leisure activities, develops therapy centres for the children/youth and much more.
Unfortunately, the pandemic also left its negative marks in Romania &#8211; especially on the children in social institutions who were excluded from the environment for months. Nevertheless, the 10 institutions of the association were able to remain effectively active and help the children and young people through this difficult time. At the moment, more than 60 children and young people between the ages of 1 and 21 are cared for around the clock by foster parents, educators and care workers in the 9 family homes.
The country of Romania is one of the most important nearshore locations for ServiceFactum, which is why we consider a donation there more than appropriate. We sincerely wish the children there only the very best!

"Kinderhilfe Rumänien e.V."

The second part of our donation goes to the organisation &#8220;Sternstunden&#8221;, which helps needy children in emergency situations. The registered association has been organising sustainable aid projects for permanently improved living conditions for needy children for about 28 years.
The Bavarian Broadcasting Company&#8217;s charity campaign has also been awarded the donation seal for audited donation organisations by the German Central Institute for Social Issues.
Since its foundation in 1993, Sternstunden has taken responsibility for sick, handicapped and needy children &#8211; in Bavaria, in Germany as well as worldwide and helps as quickly and uncomplicatedly as possible. Thanks to the willingness of many people to help, Sternstunden has been able to raise more than 300 million euros and thus support more than 3,500 children&#8217;s aid projects.
With a donation, we, ServiceFactum, support the children&#8217;s aid projects, because the right not to be excluded and to be supported according to their own needs is something every child has from the very beginning.

"Sternstunden e.V."

Below are the links to the two fundraising organisations for more detailed information. Here you will find detailed descriptions of the fundraising organisations, impressions, listings of past/current/future projects and much more. We would be very pleased if you would take the time to look at the two important organisations.
&#8220;Kinderhilfe Rumänien e.V.&#8221;: <a href="https://kinderhilfe-rumaenien.com/">https://kinderhilfe-rumaenien.com/</a>
&#8220;Sternstunden e.V.&#8221;: <a href="https://www.sternstunden.de/">https://www.sternstunden.de/</a>

Linking the donation organisations

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After a steady growth and the acquisition of new customers, ServiceFactum expanded its carefully audited supplier network from initially 3 suppliers to now 12 strategically important suppliers with 29 locations in 11 countries.

ServiceFactum celebrates its 10th anniversary

Based on the experience, ServiceFactum&#8217;s service offering has also been continuously adapted to the customers&#8217; requirements, so that customers can minimise their efforts and still work successfully with near- or offshore teams.
The ten-year anniversary was celebrated with a company event where ServiceFactum employees took centre stage and enjoyed the preparation of sushi treats. As is customary in a highly virtual company, we remembered all our remote employees in the various countries who work so successfully for our clients and gave them an appropriate gift.
It was a day that commemorated important moments in ServiceFactum&#8217;s history and laid the foundation for a bright future. 2022 will continue with a series of initiatives to further celebrate a decade of impressive achievements in software development. ServiceFactum thanks all partners and colleagues for their contribution and commitment.

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