Let me say right off the bat, Americans do not have any problems working with Russian developers. They understand that you are the best in the world.
American companies still definitely want to work with Russian developers and Russian speaking developers.
In our last article we covered the anatomy of a presale meeting gone wrong. In that article we posed some questions for everyone to think about. What exactly does an American company wanting to hire a Russian custom software development company, feel about this Russian company? What are they afraid of? What are their concerns?
In the end we came up with five concerns.
Is the company a fly by night company, is the company a one-day company?
Will they be professional in supporting or developing the software that they've sold to us?
Will they have proper data security? And now the two new ones that are because of the mess the world is in now...
Will they be able to complete the project on time? This includes proper internet access an infrastructure to support IT.
Where is your team located? Are you still located in Russia?
Now we're going to look at the last 2, number four and five. However let's look at number 5 first.
Many IT companies today if they want to work with the United States or even Europe they must not have their developers located inside of Russia. Matter of fact it goes so far that if a developer is located in Russia and they're using a VPN and somehow the VPN is breached the credentials are canceled for that developer to work on the project.
It's for this reason that Russian IT companies are opening offices around the world. Let's look at Armenia as an example.
Wait a minute I have to go back for a second...... We must discuss how countries look to America Canada and Western Europe. I basically give them a score based on questions that are brought up in the mind of the American company or European company.
(From this point forward in the article I'm just going to talk about Americans but I'm also including Europeans, Canadians)
So what do you believe the opinions are of America and Western Europe about different countries and doing business with people located in those countries?
Cyprus oh Cyprus) definitely +3
Americans know about Cyprus
We actually like this country quite a bit and it has a pretty good reputation for being a business hub. If your company is located here "well hello"
The American director would be respectful of the location and respectful even maybe a little envious of the weather and the interestingness of the country. At this current time there are no other red flags involved with Cyprus. No concerns about anything so it's definitely a plus three.
In the comments, if you have a suggestion for other locations for me to review I will try to give you my best opinion as to what it would be like for a developer to be located in this area and the overtones it brings.
Georgia
Well we don't know much about the country of Georgia in America we do know that there was some sort of conflict there. I do know that also there are a number of developers located in this country working. Because of the unknown factor I'm going to give it a -1.
Armenia
Armenia just went through a change in the past few weeks where there is a larger conflict increasing at the border. This brings up a lot of topics and thoughts in the minds of the Americans. So it's because of this I'm going to give it a -4.
This number will improve if it's known in the international news that the war is over.
Now what to do if your IT company has decided to relocate into Armenia.
The initial opinion is a -4.
This is not however a lost cause. I tell my sales people and my technical participants in the presale to "get out in front" of the questions in the mines of the Americans.
Here is number four from the above list.
4. Will they be able to complete the project on time? This includes proper internet access an infrastructure to support IT.
You have a couple of options here but one of them shows and uses the trigger point for America which is responsibility and directly uses this to your advantage.
1. You could say nothing, wait for them to ask. (Not a good option because once they ask their opinion is already formed)
I tell my guys to say this early on in the presale meeting and here's exactly what I tell them to say.
"We are located in Armenia. You know we are very comfortable here The government has welcomed us and there is a growing IT community here in Yerevan. We feel very well supported. And there is fast stable internet connection."
I really hope these articles are helping Russian IT to move forward even in this difficult time. As always if you have questions or discussion points let's discuss it in the comments.
Have a good day everyone.
