“Особливості роботи з близькосхідними клієнтами”

1. eleks.com
Specifics of work with
Middle East customer

2. About me
Bohdan Hatalyak
Program Manager at Eleks, PMP
18 years of experience in IT
8 years on management positions
Leading the teams of more than 50 people
Main domains - IT for logistics and ERP systems

3. Size
Revenue
The 4th biggest logistic
provider in the world
Over 1B per year
Key locations
Main activities
South Africa, India, Egypt, Saudi
Arabia, Oman
Shipment of parcels from the internet
e-commerce sites
Main facts about the customer

4. Presale process
Profile at clutch.co
Broken Contact us form on the web site
Late evening call to the office, but fortunately we picked
up the phone
Agreed on the meeting at Eleks office next day

5. Disqualified lead

6. Contract signing
● Complicated vendor selection
process
● Negotiations with 3
departments:
- IT
- Legal
- Procurement
● Arguing for price and discount
● 2 rounds of negotiation during
1.5 month

7. Start of cooperation
Discovery
IT structure
Getting acquainted with
customer’s business
Environment, departments,
areas of responsibility
Projects
Teambuilding
Discussing goals, milestones and
team structures
Very good hospitality from customer
side. Guest are from Allah :)

8. Cultural difference - Power distance
Power distance
Management Style
Strong power distance and
vertical hierarchy. Always try to
find out titles and status of the
people you are meeting
beforehand so as to show the
right amount of respect.
Bosses may reprimand
employees on the meetings,
even if people from vendor side
are present
Decisions
Language
Management does not explain their
decisions to employees. Employees
do not discuss management
decision. Decision-making can be
slow and bureaucratic formalities
tend to add to delay – keep this in
mind throughout your business
transactions.
Direct language is OK and accepted.
Aggressive style like in post-soviet
countries

9. Cultural difference - Bargaining

10. Cultural difference - Bargaining
We always bargain when we talk about money
If you do not bargain with me - you do not respect me!
Bargaining on all levels in the company hierarchy
There are special techniques for bargaining

11. Cultural difference - Personal relations
What we agreed verbally is more important than what
we have signed.
Business decisions are made in informal atmosphere.
Personal relations are more important than business.
Family and friends come before anything else.

12. Cultural difference - Conservatism
Resistance to changes
Bottom-up initiatives usually not supported by
management
Any good idea must be their idea

13. Cultural difference - Attitude
Deadlines
Calls
Deadline is deadline, no matter
when we need it, even if we are
not ready
I can call you anytime and I
expect you will answer
Meetings
Time off
It is OK if we come late. Be patient,
and do not take it as a lack of
respect.
You must approve with me your
vacation schedule, but I may not
inform you about my absence

14. Lack of structured approach to the work
Low business analysis skills
Why we have to do a user testing, if we know our users?
We use scrum, but we want to be able to change requirements at any
time
Give us a firm price

15. Money for the results. Only.
Investments
We do not do R&D, because we
can’t predict the results
PoC
Proof of concept must be
production ready

17. The most challenging
project

18. Project Start
Timeline
Requirements
2 weeks discovery, 1 week on-
site. No time to complete
analysis and create/approve
specification.
Bad understanding of
requirements. Bad
understanding of the big
picture.
Estimation
Staffing
Client asked to start project without
proper estimation. Approximate
estimate was given. Lower range
was communicated to business
owner.
No time for staffing. Customer wanted
to start from next Monday.
Tech lead was on vacation.

19. Project Execution
Technology
Requirement
Due to improper analysis
technology and architecture
were not properly selected
2 product owners with
difference in visions
Estimation
Scope creep
Client asked to start project without
proper estimation. Approximate
estimate was given. Lower range
was communicated to business
owner.
Some requirements were removed,
but other added, which in total added
20% of additional scope

20. The Best Project

21. Project Start
Discovery
Requirements
There was enough time to
create initial design, backlog
and approve it.
Requirements were gathered
by Eleks BA. Good cooperation
with PO, how was opened to
changes.
Estimation
Staffing
Ballpark estimation at the
beginning. Followed Scrum
methodology and removed low
business value scope at the end.
Had enough time for team selection.

22. Lessons learned
The client is always right, they do not accept opposite
Assumptions are OK at the beginning of project, if you work with US or EU
customer. In case of Middle East, every small detail need to be discussed with
customer, because their assumptions are quite different.
Customer will never forgive you mistakes. You will definitely pay for them.
SOW need to be detailed enough to cover all cases that may arise during project
execution.
Culture and mentality difference understanding is key to success.

23. Cooperation summary
Projects
Partnership
18 projects completed during 2
years
Recognized by client as primary
technology partner
Team
References
Build a team of more than 50
members during first 3 month
Received a references and gained few
more customers
Partnership
Recognized by client as primary
technology partner
References
Received a references and gained few
more customers
Visits
16 on-site visit to customer
8 visits of customer to Eleks
Brainstorming
4 brainstorming sessions about
business improvements with Eleks

24. Stereotypes
People

26. Stereotypes
Women
Inspired by Technology.
Driven by Value.
Have a question? Write to eleksinfo@eleks.com
Find us at eleks.com
Link for a video