For Immediate Release
Contact: Jennifer Taylor, Publicist, (630) 508-1616 or jentaylor_chicago@yahoo.com
Date: June 16, 2009
Competing Tech Companies Swap Employees to Boost Training
Chicago, Ill. — In an economic environment where companies are slashing budgets and cutting staff, one Chicago technology firm is saving money by teaming up with its competitors to train its staff.
Not unlike co-ops of all sorts, Obtiva Corp., a custom software development company located at 566 W. Adams, could be tipping off a new trend called Software Craftsmanship Swaps. The concept involves competing companies swapping out senior developers to work in offices with the objective to learn skills from their competitors.
An integral part of the developer exchange is Obtiva's approach to writing code—Software Craftsmanship. Software Craftsmanship is a unique school of thought in the industry that the firm uses to design software. Essentially it is senior developers mentoring junior employees, similar to an apprenticeship.
The arrangement seems to go against rule-of-thumb business tactics of not co-mingling with the competition. However, select firms like Obtiva are discovering the benefits of "swapping."
Obtiva recently participated in a one-week exchange with a competitor. The intent of swapping, according to Obtiva President Kevin Taylor, is to share knowledge, share the advantages of how companies work with clients, how companies develop software and how they handle employees.
"Obtiva has gained valuable insights and is now in a stronger position to service our clients," Taylor said. "We now have more tools to leverage and this will help against all the other competitors in the custom software development space."
The swapping also has offered more quality education for employees than the conventional annual industry conferences attended, according to Obtiva Chief Craftsman and Principal Dave Hoover.
"One visiting employee's week at Obtiva taught him far more than any conference he's ever attended," Hoover said. "Conferences usually cost between $1,000 and $2,000 per attendee and involve all sorts of hits and misses when it comes to learning. In the case of the swap, not only does the attendee pay nothing, but he also provides value to the host company."
Visiting employee, Jim Such a software craftsman of Chicago-based 8th Light, brought Obtiva ideas of how software could be written, how he interacts with clients, and helped write software for some of Obtiva's projects.
In return, Such worked side-by-side Obtiva developers learning their methods.
During Obtiva's exchange week, the visiting employee described the experience at Obtiva as "fantastic."
"It gave me a chance to step away from client work for an entire week and explore new technologies, techniques and ideas," said Jim Such, software craftsman at 8th Light. "This was better than any conference I have ever attended. Listening to speakers talk about new ideas is one thing; actually pairing with great developers and learning hands-on is in a different league."
Paul Pagel, 8th Light co-founder and software craftsman, said the philosophy of exchanging employees has been beneficial to his company.
"When we exchange craftsmen, we get a set of diverse experiences as well as style. When we work together, the similarities in work will reinforce good successful methods. The things we do differently will create seams which we can have conversations about and expand our thinking," he said. "It is also nice to walk into a competitors software shop and see smiling faces and people that want to work with you in solidarity of a software community rather than being shut away from each other as competition."
Part of what makes the swap work is a shared trust between the firms. The companies take on risks of exposing client lists, proprietary projects, and the details of running a small business to a competitor when exchanges take place.
But so far, the practice is paying off, according to Taylor.
"We now have closer ties between the two companies and are in a better position to work together on future client projects," he said.
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About Obtiva
From their offices in Chicago, IL, Obtiva Corp. provides expert software development services for organizations that need to create custom web and mobile applications.
Technology entrepreneurs engage Obtiva's Software Studio for full turnkey product development from initial product planning to final delivery of the entrepreneur's vision. They provide specialized skill sets, including Ruby on Rails, Ajax, Palm webOS, iPhone, Java, UI/UX, and agile practices.
Obtiva's experienced team shares its knowledge of XP, agile, and innovative new technologies by leading public and private training throughout North America.
Obtiva's industry experience includes CRM, education, e-commerce, email marketing, entertainment, finance, government, ISP/Broadband, retail, and wholesale.