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Kibit Solutions talk Oulu, recruitment and nearshoring

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Kibit Solutions has expanded to Oulu, and we were fortunate to speak with Bence Kiss (Co-Founder and CEO), Satu M Palosaari (Director, Nordics), and Arto Koistinen (Business Development, Finland) during their recent visit to BusinessAsema.

They were able to give us a summary of what they offer to customers, share some of their plans for both Oulu and Finland, provide some insights on the state of play in the world of recruitment, and discuss the concept of nearshoring.

Introductions to the team

Bence Kiss: “I have been the Co-Founder and CEO of Kibit Solutions since we established the company back in 2016.”

Satu M Palosaari: “I’ve had the pleasure of representing Kibit Solutions as the Director, Nordics for the past 3 years and continue to build the team across the region. I’m based in Helsinki.”

Arto Koistinen: “I have been responsible for Business Development since September 2022, and I am located in Oulu.”

Kibit Solutions at BusinessAsema
L-R: Arto Koistinen, Satu M Palosaari, Bence Kiss

What Kibit Solutions offers

BK: “Kibit Solutions offers an ever-increasing range of software development services in territories across the EU such as the Nordics, Germany, Austria, France and the UK. We have also been building our network of software engineers since 2016, which is a strong asset for us. We match the needs of ICT companies throughout Europe with quality teams of experts. This is all about people – our focus is the talent, their knowledge and communication skills.”

Establishing a presence in Finland

BK: “In the capital area we are working with one of the current customers as becoming their very own European Hub, which will allow them to expand their business equally.”

Kibit Solutions

SMP: “We got our first Finnish customer in 2021, whose task was to create to a stand-alone MVP application for a SME. This project is now in its second phase, with the third phase currently being planned. Our next two ongoing customer relationships in the capital region use our senior developers as extended nearshore capacity alongside already existing teams.”

AK: “We see a lot of great opportunities with our presence in the Oulu region. Our office in the area has just opened to support local businesses and our first negotiations are ongoing.”

Recruitment challenges and competitiveness

BK: “In short, there are two challenges.

“The first one is regional, with differences of skilled resources for companies in order to grow and achieve their targets. The second is lack of capability, so building and setting up new offices or to have/attract the right people to projects, which easily increases costs.

“The battle over talents is getting fiercer as we speak – we are facing an ever-growing lack of resources on the market, where the seriously skilled ones also choose who they want to work for. Finding a software developer today is a two-way street, where the companies need to equally match their requirements.

“This will turn into a game for the fastest and the fittest. Most companies compete in the global market, which means that recruiting locally might not, for instance, meet the diversity needs of the customer. With this in mind, expanding the search for talent is starting to become crucial.”

How nearshoring can be a solution

BK: “Where the local experts are non-existent, one solution to this is to look into nearshoring. Especially when moving inside the EU, the cultural differences can be minimal, there is a small time-difference (or none at all) and customer visits can be organised within hours. In Hungary, for example, the developer pool is solid.

“It may sound difficult to utilise nearshore teams, but with professionals like Kibit Solutions there is no difference using local or nearshore where resources and benefits are available immediately.”

Want to find out more? Visit the Kibit Solutions website for more information about their services and to get in touch.