When acquiring a company, the little things are the big things. From a business perspective, it’s easy to get excited about what the acquisition means in terms of growth, customer base gained, and the ownership of shiny new technology.
But just like a football club signing the next big star- there are critical steps to follow before signing on the dotted line and holding the presser. The most well known step- “the physical”. Its purpose? Finding out how healthy your new potential roster addition really is.
And of course, it’s important to keep in mind that any bright, rising star has plenty of suitors- so you’ve got to be thinking, what is going to make us attractive as a landing place to them?
This balance is something that XMDS, a software services and product company focused on payment and public transportation objectives, understands. And they showed it during their recent acquisition of Kuario- a fintech company with an attractive micropayment solution. Before signing on the dotted line, they wanted to know the make-up and quality of the technology that they were looking to acquire. So they hired us at BonCode to run “the physical’, and evaluate the quality of the software.
But this investment in quality measurement also served another function, it contributed to making themselves an attractive place to land. No up and coming football talent wants to play for an organization with old, outdated facilities, an unkempt training ground, and trash strewn about the clubhouse. They want to play for an organization that cares about the small details that contribute to greatness, and a coach who can make the best use of their talent.
We know that retention in the field of software development is a considerable concern, as it holds the highest rate of any sector at 13.2%. And according to recent literature, one of the key reasons devs’ leave is unchecked, poorly managed tech debt. Software devs’ want to spend their time innovating, building new features and functions, not performing consistent minor maintenance on outdated software.
So, what’s one of the best ways to keep software developers happy and in house? By recognizing and making choices at a leadership level to support quality. And our analysis showed exactly which parts of the software were built to last, and which required a bit of work to make sure they could be the foundation for further development. Because if you don’t make those foundational upgrades now, you’re going to be doing a lot of maintenance down the line. Of course, these changes can’t be made in a day, but becoming aware of them, and lining up a plan to address them is a great start.
“Software quality is an important driver in both developer satisfaction and customer success, and achieving shouldn’t be left to chance. BonCode’s analysis gave us a clear overview of the technical quality of the platform, which allowed us to create a viable product roadmap that includes paying off technical debt”, says Joris Portegies Zwart, director of XMDS.
In hiring BonCode to run a diagnostic on the Kuario software, the XMDS leadership team were saying to their new employees- we care about quality and we care about you. We are going to address tech debt before it has a chance to ruin your job satisfaction.
Ultimately, XMDS hired a star team and is committed to creating a culture where they can score many many goals with their top talent. How cool is that?
Next time you’re looking to sign your next big star-call us, we’ll be happy to sweeten the deal.
