Nearshoring enables flexible and competitively priced design services
Nearshoring has traditionally referred to the outsourcing of work to a neighboring country. At Comatec, nearshoring is seen differently: it is providing of versatile engineering services tailored to the needs of clients, not only in Finland but also from the company’s own business units elsewhere in Europe. International expertise expands Comatec’s already significant domestic knowledge base and increases the company’s competitiveness.
Comatec has been growing internationally for 20 years and wanted to do so specifically in Europe. Today, Comatec has offices in Finland, Estonia, Poland, Romania and Sweden. In addition to the availability of a skilled workforce, the working culture within the continent is somewhat similar, and the time difference does not present unnecessary challenges.
– Nowadays, a great deal of design work is done remotely anyway, so the location of the designer’s desk chair is not really relevant. What does matter is that the customer gets the design service they need, in a flexible way and at a competitive price. In the design industry in particular, the seasonal variation in workload is quite high, and our international network of experts enables us to meet our clients’ needs quickly but without compromising on quality, says Director Sami Rajala, who is in charge of Comatec Romania and Comatec Estonia.
The service is always tailored to the customer’s needs
Comatec’s strong assets s as a design company are its versatile expertise, flexibility, and ability to take the customer’s needs into account.
– In fact, the customer only has to have an idea or a need, and we will tailor our services to meet that need. When design work is done entirely remotely, it is important to define practices such as monitoring, reporting, management, and quality assurance with particular care. This is where we are the professionals, taking care of the overall design while listening to the client, says Sales Director Hanna-Riitta Vesa.
Data privacy and the secure storage of critical information often comes up when discussing international engineering services.
– In the past, designer worked on the customer’s own systems, for example via a VPN, but nowadays they often use a so-called remote desktop view. So, in reality, our designer only has a view of the client’s system and actually no data is transferred. Trust is essential in all our design work, and data will remain in the hands of those who need it, Vesa continues.
If required, Comatec can provide audited facilities for the client project, to which only limited staff have access. The references also include projects where the contractors have been security cleared.
Enabling growth and internationalisation
Both, CEO of Comatec Poland Elzbieta Helminen and Sami Rajala participated in launching of Comatec’s international operations: Helminen in Poland in 2009 and Rajala Romania in 2004 and they consider these countries a natural choice for Nearshore.
– Romania has a lot of industry, high quality universities and a population of around 19 million. The number of engineering graduates in the country is around 30 000 a year, compared to 7 500 in Finland, so the availability of skilled labour is particularly good. Exactly same applies to Poland, where well over 40 000 engineers graduate each year, Rajala says.
– In Poland working in a versatile, international environment is what drives engineers—we thrive on challenges, enjoy collaboration across cultures, and believe that the best ideas come from diverse minds working together. Our aim is to deliver solutions that are not only efficient and cost-effective but also crafted with attention to detail. Polish engineers, particularly design engineers, play a significant role in the development of European industry. Their expertise and efficient problem-solving has been recognized and appreciated by many European companies, Helminen says.
According to Rajala, Comatec’s international talent pool is an excellent indication of the company’s robust design expertise and ability to manage even the largest design assignments.
– Especially now, when Finland is already facing a shortage of experts in certain sectors, our international activities increase our competitiveness and enable us to expand. In addition to our Finnish customers, we are also able to provide agile services to customers in various industrial sectors in other parts of Europe, he adds.
Text: Marianne Valta
