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Amatica has ramped up its programming team to meet new demand for its software development and integration services. This is in response to major software development projects secured in 2006 as well as new projects scheduled for delivery during 2007.

Amatica's focus on customer experience and straight-through-processing has attracted major new customers for its services in integrated web development and integration. Using its technology and project management skills, Amatica is delivering improvements in customer experience as well as enabling transactions to be fulfilled over the web. Amatica's specialist knowledge and software development capability is being used within the Halifax Bank of Scotland banking group, as well as new customers in the financial services and business process outsourcing sectors.

Finding and recruiting competent software developers is a perennial challenge according to Amatica's director of strategy David Roberts. "Finding people who, on paper, appear to have the right skills is easy. Recruiting IT developers who've got the practical technical skills and experience and above all the disciplines and attitude of a professional is a different matter. We aren't looking for skills that are out-of-the-ordinary; just sound and practical experience in software design and programming within the Microsoft .NET environment. But getting the best people needs a considerable investment in time, preparation as well as good interviewing and selection techniques". 

Despite these challenges, Amatica has been able to double its software development team in 12 months without compromising delivery or quality to customers. This is something that David Roberts recognises as being critical to Amatica's continued success. "The risks associated with rapid growth are well known. We can't afford to compromise on quality or delivery without expecting our customers to react. That's not how we do things at Amatica where we've built up a very loyal customer base who expect a high level of service. It's just not something that we're going to put at risk".

One interesting aspect discovered by Amatica is that in a direct like-for-like comparison, it was found to be over 30% less expensive than a proposal from an Indian offshore developer. "It was something of a surprise to us to win this contract against this sort of competition. We thought that we'd be comparable or even better on quality but not necessarily cheaper. We use agile development techniques and methods and other efficiencies to control cost" says David Roberts. "It's interesting that we're experiencing a reversal back to on-shore development that the offshore call centre operations of Lloyds TSB and others are currently experiencing".

Amatica remains on the lookout for .Net software development staff and those interested in exploring career opportunities are invited to contact Dave MacLeod or David Roberts on 0151 650 6991. 

© Amatica 15/03/2007