Bogdan Oloeriu, Platform lead at Prompto
Like almost every software company, Prompto had a hard time finding strong developers. They are rare profiles and the pond they swim in is overfished. To further develop its portal for the real estate world, Prompto found the solution at CactusSoft. “We have a remote team that works from different countries with our developers in Ghent,” says Quentin Mussche, Head of Tech at Prompto. “Recruitment is no longer an obstacle. We can scale up and accelerate very quickly if we see growth opportunities.”
Prompto develops a portal for the real estate market. Project developers and real estate agents can manage and sell all their projects through that one portal. All their digital content is centralized in one online location. “The corona crisis and the lockdowns gave our portal wings,” says Mussche, who is team lead of the development team at Prompto.
“Everything suddenly had to go digital, both the content and the contacts with customers. The real estate world therefore started to rely massively on digital platforms. We already had a solution ready, but we also needed more developers. As just about every software company found out back then, those were extremely hard to find. That is still the case today, by the way. So we started exploring other solutions.”
“At a networking event, our CEO came into contact with the people from CactusSoft. That seemed to us the ideal solution to be able to go the extra mile in the short term. At that time, everyone at Prompto worked remotely. Then the step to nearshoring is very small, you don’t even have to adjust your way of working or your processes. Software development is the same all over the world, our industry is universal.”
“Although it was reassuring that CactusSoft is first and foremost a Belgian company. Our CEO could just conduct all negotiations about budgets and things like that here, face to face. That inspires confidence. If things go wrong, you will immediately know who to turn to. But so far that has not even been necessary once.”
Onboarding to full team members
Prompto has been working with CactusSoft for almost two years, since May 2021. “We started onboarding the CactusSoft developers from day one as full-fledged team members. We don’t have a Prompto team and no CactusSoft team, we’ve never actually made that distinction. It’s one development team. At one point, our developers were spread over 7 different countries within and outside Europe. For example, one was in Tenerife, one in Georgia, … That works surprisingly well, I must say.
In particular, we are further developing our showcase portal. We now have four CactusSoft developers in our team, but at the peak last summer there were eleven. As far as I’m concerned, that’s one of the biggest benefits of the collaboration: we can scale up that capacity very flexibly. If the need suddenly arises, we can quickly grow our team again. If we ask to add three extra developers to the team next month, CactusSoft will take care of it.”
We give the CactusSoft developers an introduction to our codebase and our tools, and they leave within a week
“If we have to recruit those developers in Belgium, then we have embarked on a long and uncertain process. If you already find those profiles, then you have to count a few months with application procedures and notice periods. Even conversations with freelancers go back and forth for a long time these days, which is also not a solution for scaling up quickly. We give the CactusSoft developers an introduction to our codebase and our tools, and they leave within a week. That is pure fiction in Belgium.”
The coffee machine vs Slack
The quality of the developers is particularly high, Mussche emphasizes. “We have never really had any issues with quality. In the beginning we had a business analyst from Prompto who followed up the collaboration extra, he then had a call every two months with the person responsible at CactusSoft. But it soon turned out that those calls were formalities of 15 minutes. Now I just lead that team, just like our own developers that we have here in-house.”
Does Mussche not see any difference between his team members who work in Ghent and the others who work elsewhere in Europe? “It is of course a bit more difficult to install or build a corporate culture from a distance. Every morning we sit together online. Everyone there dares to ask open questions and put issues on the table.”
“If there ever was a gap, it has completely disappeared today. All communication is done via Slack, I notice that employees there also just chat with each other informally. If someone from Spain requests a holiday for a few days, it is also about where that developer is going and what he is going to do during his holiday.”
“But every Wednesday we work together at the office in Ghent and then I see that you get different chats at the coffee machine than on Slack. But that’s about the only obstacle, and it has no impact on work. We have tried to organize team building with everyone. But first COVID-19 threw a spanner in the works and then the war in Ukraine. I hope it can happen someday.”
Seize opportunities
Mussche is sure: Prompto would never have been where it is today without the developers of CactusSoft. “We were just able to make a lot more speed. Recruitment is the number one problem for just about every software company. We managed to get around that problem.”
Recruitment is the number one problem for just about every software company. We managed to get around that problem
“CactusSoft has a large reservoir of talented developers, which we can draw on very flexibly. Do we need a senior profile? Then we throw that on Slack and a few days later we can already engage that developer. Same with juniors or mediors. It’s frustrating for a company when you see growth potential, but can’t realize it because you don’t find the right people. CactusSoft allows us to seize the opportunities that lie ahead.”
