Software Development Done Right
Data is the lifeblood of businesses, and the software that processes it is a critical organ. Software is no longer just an option. It is a critical differentiator, a competitive edge. It is no surprise that Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella announced at 2019’s Mobile World Congress that every company is now a software company. With that in mind, how do we go about choosing the right team to develop our business-critical software? There are so many vendors to choose from, with each of them claiming to be the best.
I came across one company that stands out among the rest. Xebia is a Global Technology Strategy and Consulting firm of close to 5,000 consultants. They have been in business for over 20 years, and currently have offices in more than 10 countries. They have the manpower, know-how, and methodologies that get the job done right, the very first time. In my opinion, Xebia is a leader and an authority in the field of software development.
I had the pleasure of interviewing their country head, USA, Vipul Baijal, to learn about what sets Xebia apart from the competition and how they exemplify software development done right.
Avrohom: Xebia has been in the IT Services industry for 2 decades, globally, and now you’re coming to North America. In what ways can the North American market benefit from your presence here?
Vipul: First of all, we’ve been in North America for some time. In fact, almost 70% of our global services business comes out of North America. Next couple of years, the plan for us is to increase our presence in North America. And what we have already done is that our global headquarters has already moved to Atlanta. So, what we are really trying to bring to the North American market, which we have proven well in the European market already, is our authority — and the customer centricity that we bring to the table. From an architecture consulting, as well as full-stack development, DevOps, Cloud, Low-Code. We can bring all of that to North America and showcase our talent to the audience here.
Avrohom: Why do clients come to you? Why do they rave about Xebia?
Vipul: We make the CIOs look good. On a serious note, as I said previously, it’s because we are an “authority”. The way the Xebia journey started, was that we wanted to be the best in whatever we do. Let me give you an example. One of our North American customers is a large cruise line. They were working on migrating their pricing engine from mainframes over to open-source new technologies. They had a team of about 15 members working on it for many, many months, and they were not able to successfully do it. So, we were engaged. We brought in two of our senior consultants, they created an MVP in one month, and we were able to put an MVP in the market in the next couple of months. And just this team of 2 to 3 members was able to actually deliver what a 15-member team couldn’t do. What that did was, that not only we became a major vendor for the cruise liner, but the stakeholder who we worked with, even after he left the cruise line and went to work with a new company, he brought us in, because he had already seen the kind of performance that we have delivered to him and the capabilities that we bring to the table.
Avrohom: You mentioned that Agile is one of Xebia’s core strengths. Agile is such a buzzword out there in the industry. What is agile, and why is it so important?
Vipul: Agile is being very quick to react to the market. In today’s day and age, the most important thing is how quickly we can bring business efficiencies for the business users to their end customers — something quickly to the market. And agile is the best way to do it, because you can quickly create an MVP and bring it to the market, and then build from there. So, there is something “touch and feel” and ready to use for the end-customer, or end-users, rather than waiting for long months and years before you see something. Especially during the COVID times, you have seen that things change very, very quickly. And if you’re not able to react and adapt, you will lose. And a lot of companies in the last 2 years have lost that battle. But the ones who have come out on top, if you look at them clearly, the leaders have already been focusing on, or using agile technologies.
Avrohom: Xebia starts with an ‘X’. Does that imply some kind of X-factor?
Vipul: I would say, it’s our culture. We have a people-first culture and knowledge sharing. So, every other Thursday, the entire company gets together in XKE — Xebia Knowledge Exchange, where we share knowledge. Whatever we have learned, whatever our consultants have learned in two weeks, they come and share with their colleagues. And that is actually in-built in our contracts with our customers, that we would want them to come back and share that knowledge. And we do that with communities, we do that with customers, and we have contributed a lot to open-source codebases. If you go to GitHub, we will probably be one of the largest contributors. We have Agile conferences. Agile NCR is one of the largest conferences in India. We do very similar things to work with the community and create that environment.
Avrohom: What’s next with Xebia? What are you looking to accomplish over the next 12–24 months?
Vipul: In the last 20 years, Xebia has grown brick by brick. We now have about 4,500 consultants worldwide. One of the targets that we set for ourselves in the next two years, is that we want to be at 10,000 employees. So, we are aggressively looking to grow our presence in North America. Within the next two years, our plan is to have 2,000 employees here.
Avrohom: That’s really exciting! Especially in this day and age, where there are so many tech people out there, and it’s a really hot job market. So, it’s really great to know that there are companies like Xebia where people can come to build their careers.
So, Vipul, how do people connect with you to learn more about Xebia?
Vipul: You can connect with Xebia via our website: https://xebia.com/. We are also active on Twitter at @Xebia, and LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/xebia/.
About the Author
Avrohom Gottheil is the founder of #AskTheCEO Media, where he helps global brands get heard over the noise on social media, by presenting their corporate message using language people understand.
Avrohom presents his clients as Thought Leaders, which challenges his audience to reimagine their own mission and vision, delivering actionable insights, and leaving them passionate, motivated, and with the necessary tools to take immediate action.
Avrohom comes from a 20+ year career in IT and Telecom, where he helped businesses around the world install and maintain their communication systems and contact centers. He is a Top-ranked global expert in IoT, AI, Cloud, and Cybersecurity, followed worldwide on Twitter, and a frequent speaker on leveraging technology to accelerate revenue growth.
Listen to him share the latest technology trends, tools, and best practices for IoT, AI, Cloud, Cybersecurity, and emerging technologies on the #AskTheCEO podcast — voted as the #1 Channel Friendly Podcast in 2019 by Forrester, and #2 Podcast from Thinkers360 Thought Leaders in 2020.
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