The latest international news: Asia!

We have recently been investing significantly in international expansion. Although we’ve worked on countless international and even global projects over the course of many years, our focus was always mainly on the Netherlands and Germany. However, recently we have completed several major projects in Asia and as a result of those projects, we have significantly expanded our network there and learned a lot about the local market and culture. So it was time for the next step!

Transitions & transformations in the Asia Pacific Region

In addition to our head office in Utrecht and our office in Germany, Transition Experts now also has a location in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). With a view to more international projects in the future, we have expanded our partnership with Dennis Akkerman, who has been our partner for Asia Pacific projects for the past two years. You can read more about those projects in this article: ‘Dennis Akkerman joins our team’.

Kuala Lumpur was an easy choice: Malaysia ranks as an ideal and cost-effective testing environment for companies looking to gain a foothold in Asia Pacific or the ASEAN countries. One major reason for this is that a large number of global IT companies are based in Malaysia. The country is also home to many multilingual professionals (many of whom speak Chinese and English).

That makes Malaysia the perfect strategic base for Transition Experts, and one that we hope to introduce our clients from Europe and the rest of the world to.

Local culture & market knowledge

A smooth transition or transformation requires excellent knowledge of the local market. Cultural differences can also play an important role here: a migration project or the adoption of a new piece of software can sometimes require a very different approach in different regions.

Other local factors include technical possibilities, local legislation and developments in the IT landscape, local management and the desired degree of transparency and flexibility in the collaboration. For example, a project in the Netherlands, France or Vietnam will require a different approach than a project in Germany, China and India.

Local IT professionals

Now that we have a foothold in Asia, it will be easier to utilize local resources, such as local project managers and specialists. In recent years we have already been doing this regularly and with excellent results. Our clients can also reap the benefits: we have local access to the right people with the right expertise (most of whom speak English, and some who speak German too). That means no travelling time, no travelling expenses, and local rates. And of course, our local specialists are also familiar with the local culture and have plenty of knowledge and expertise.

We are noticing that European and American clients are more open than ever to the use of remote resources, enabling our project managers and specialists from the Asia-Pacific Region to work on projects elsewhere (under the right supervision). This has been one benefits of the switch to remote working due to COVID-19, which has helped many organizations realize that it does not always matter whereabouts in world workers are physically located.

When you also add in the scarcity of IT specialists and the noticeable cost benefits of global sourcing, it’s often a no-brainer. The main priority is always achieving the goals of your project and maintaining standards properly from the head office. Transition Experts is able to build the right bridges and help clients find the right approach to ensure this. We will also ensure that the overall goals of the project are achieved using the approach that is the most effective locally.

In short, these are exciting developments that we are enjoying working on. Our expansion into Asia is bringing new opportunities for us to develop an extensive and reliable local network with excellent knowledge of local conditions for our clients.