Husky Intelligent Fridges is a pioneering scale-up in the unmanned retail industry, based in Nieuw-Vennep, The Netherlands. The company is building the future of unmanned retail and brings experts together from all across the value chain; from the point of sale and the food production to the planning and logistics. It's fridges are top-notch and the host for smart electrical sensors and actuators to improve the overall fridge user experience.
Before partnering with Olympia Tech, Husky was struggling to retain or expand its permanent development workforce due to high fixed costs in an uncertain business environment. After some changes, the company decided to make other strategic decisions, among which outsourcing of their core services.
As for any company wishing to grow under challenging economic conditions, flexibility was key to avoid major delays on innovation projects meant to acquire or retain customers while increasing the operational workload for its teams.
Olympia Tech provided a flexible, project-based workforce solution. After discussing the company's capacity needs, and understanding its business, client and technical needs - we formed a team to support Husky in further innovating its Intelligent Fridges IoT platform.
We assembled a team of off-shore developers working from Olympia Tech's Sarajevo tech hub, led by Ritesh Tikai as onshore project lead, and organized an extensive onboarding session to get developers up to speed.
The technology stack primarily existed of Java Spring and ReactJS applications. To ensure smooth collaboration, we deployed a project management board and aligned on a cadence of Sprint Plannings and Review sessions.
We also conducted extensive onboarding sessions to support new developers and provide them the necessary context for a flying start on the project. This included code walkthoughs and an extensive look on the development and deployment process.
Additionally, we also flew in the lead developer to spend a week with the onshore team to understand the applications and processes, resulting in a productive trip and strong team bonding.
Key challenges to overcome
The primary challenge was the complexity of the existing codebase. By dedicating sufficient time to onboarding and knowledge transfer, and through thorough reviews and feedback, we ensured the new team was well-equipped to handle the development tasks.
Our collaboration with Husky Intelligent Fridges has started early in 2024 and has been ongoing since. Together we defined clearly scoped projects, and prioritise these based on effort and impact scores. Typically, projects last anywhere from a few weeks to months, depending on the severity and booked capacity. The latter can be easily adjusted within a months time.
Husky was able to achieve a 40%-50% reduction in fixed costs and increased flexibility with a one-month ramp-up/ramp-down notice period instead of yearly contracts. The team feels more empowered now, and the internal development team appreciates the fresh perspectives brought by new, motivated developers.
'Very happy to have Olympia Tech as a partner that can help us scale up/down as the business requires more flexibility. We are looking forward to continue our partnership, and hope for an innovative few years ahead'
The ongoing collaboration will include periodic evaluations to ensure continued success. This flexible approach will help Husky navigate challenging business conditions and set them on a path to profitability and success.
As any company will sooner or later learn, the need for a flexible workforce is more than cost-cutting alone - among other benefits, its also about gaining access to various disciplines that would otherwise be too costly to insource.
