Kramp is one of the largest international technical wholesalers for the agricultural industry. 90 to 95 percent of the turnover comes from their webshop. Kramp wants to grow and ensure that they can offer the best solutions to make the business of their customers as easy as possible. According to Edwin Wopereis, Product Owner, one of the key challenges is finding the right people for their software development. “We wondered how we could increase the capacity of our software development. The problem is that it is very difficult to find the right people in Europe. That’s why we were looking for a partner and found DevOn (formerly known as Prowareness). We chose DevOn because of their experience and their view on setting up a development environment.” Arjan Everink, People manager IT Development, talks about the two DevOps Squads from DevOn: “We chose to work with the teams in Bangalore (India) because we found that they have the quality and the knowledge that we require. Moreover, DevOn’s employees also have the same values as we do here at Kramp. We believe in committed people, high quality and cooperation.”

Kramp is currently working with two DevOps Squads in India for their software development: a webshop development team with Edwin Wopereis as Product Owner, and a Quality Assurance team with Ron Huiskamp as their Product Owner. After every two sprints, the newly built software is released so that the customers can use the new features as soon as possible. “We are receiving great feedback from our customers regarding the new features in the webshop, even by phone.” According to Ron, another important improvement is the automation of their tests: “We have a lot of tests running in our webshop, regression tests for example. These tests require a lot of time and energy from our teams here in Varsseveld, so we could really use the extra test capacity of the DevOps Squads. We made the decision to automate these tests, so we didn’t have to manually perform any regression tests anymore. This allows us to release more quickly and deliver more value to the market in less time.” Ron is very content with the reinforcement from India. The Squad of which he is the Product Owner, started in April 2016 and they have achieved a lot since then: “Even in this short time, the team has delivered a lot of value. We expect that we can perform fully automated regression tests within six months.”

Many organizations see it as a gamble to start with a distributed collaboration in the field of software development. Ron indicates that he never experienced it this way. At first, he was a bit hesitant, but it has been a very good choice. “We have a highly educated DevOps Squad with a lot of experience. From the first few weeks, the teams were already delivering great quality and working software. We are very happy with the Squad’s results.” Edwin tells that many people see the distance as a problem. However, with technology like Skype for Business help tremendously. Ron: “I don’t really notice the distance. We have contact on a daily basis. It feels as if the team is working here (in the same office). “For example, Ron and Edwin do a daily standup with their teams in India, so they know exactly what the DevOps Squads are working on and what challenges they face. Edwin: “The advantage of having employees on another continent is that they can really focus on what you expect from them. If you compare the Squad in India with the teams in the Netherlands, you notice that the Dutch teams are distracted more by your day-to-day and ad hoc tasks. Something that the squads in India don’t suffer from. They can focus entirely on developing larger new features.”

The Squad in India has the same working hours as the teams in the Netherlands, allowing for quick contact.  Arjan: “We find it very pleasant to work together with the DevOps Squads because we know them very well. We trust the team entirely and we work together closely in the European Timeframe.” Ron: “The squads in Bangalore are very skilled. They are eager to develop new software and they’re very involved. It feels as if they are our own colleagues which is something we are very happy with.” DevOn’s Squads in India are driven by KPIs. However, according to Edwin, these KPIs are not everything that counts: “Above all, I want a dedicated team that works in the right environment, knows its goals and that peruses these goals in a qualitatively good way. Sometimes I get the feeling that there is a lot of pressure on the team. Pressure to achieve the KPIs. If there is anything they could change, then it would be that.”

One of the predjuces of distributed software development is that the cultural differences could bring problems, that there are language barriers and that there is a difference in mentality between the Dutch team and the DevOps Squad. Edwin: “When you talk about cultural differences, that mainly means that you (still) have to get to know how things work in India. If you go to India, you will obviously many differences. But if you look at the people that you’re working with, you don’t. The people are highly educated, state-of-the-art, know what they want to achieve and are extremely customer-oriented. Everything that I expect from a partnership is reflected in them. At the start, they were a bit shy, but now that we got to know each other better, I can really connect with them and that’s great fun.” Arjan also indicates that he especially enjoys to work with the DevOps Squads.

Despite being a fairly large organization, Kramp still feels like a family business. It is a warm company to work for with a nice atmosphere. Arjan also hopes to be able to transfer this to the squads in India. Edwin: “At Kramp no day is the same. They really challenge me as a person.” Ron: “Within Kramp we really get the opportunity to improve ourselves and the company.” Arjan: “It is an organization that wants to continue to develop and improve. We want to be the number one in our market for new features and new business value. The Agile transformation, which we therefore want to get here at Kramp, is not only followed by the teams in India, but also encouraged and improved because of them. The collaboration with the DevOps Squads does not only provide quality software, but also helps in continuously improving the skills and competences in the Netherlands.”