FAQ

Outsourcing to Ukraine

• Why should I choose Ukraine?
  • Briefly – brilliant minds/skilled personnel/ at reasonable cost, slight time and cultural difference, fluent level of English, experience of delivering projects abroad.
• What should I know about Ukraine?
  • Ukraine is situated in the middle of Europe and is within 2 hours flight of any European country. As more than 40% of scientific research of the former USSR were conducted in Ukraine. Ukraine has huge intellectual potential.
• What taxes do I have to pay to set up partnership with Ukrainian IT company?
  • In case you are performing nearshore software development, you do not have to pay any taxes.
• Do I need visa to come to Ukraine?
  • Citizens of the European Union, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Japan, USA do not need Ukrainian visas to enter and transit Ukraine, if the term of their stay in Ukraine does not exceed 90 days. An exception from this rule is for those who arrive in Ukraine for permanent employment, for permanent residence, to join their family, to work in the diplomatic service or to study. The overall duration of stay in Ukraine can not exceed 90 calendar days per 180 calendar days from the arrival date. More information www.traveltoukraine.org
• What about time difference?
  • Ukraine's time zone is GMT +2:00, which makes Ukrainian team accessible within working hours of European companies. However, our working hours can be shifted for particular projects.
• What is the level of education in Ukraine?
  • Ukraine produces the fourth largest number of academic graduates in Europe. Ukrainian students win gold, bronze and silver medals in international technical competitions. See the numbers that prove this statement - link.
• Which worldwide companies set up partnership with Ukrainian companies ?
  • Hewlett-Packard, Johnson & Johnson, Ericson, Siemens, Kraft Foods, Cisco Systems, Delloitte, PwC, KPMG, GE, Mittal Steel and other .

Company

• How long have you been in business?
  • Ainstainer Group started working in May 2008.
• Have you got references?
  • Yes, we can provide you with references, if you would like to start working with us.

Services

• What models of collaboration do you have?
  • We have got the following model: Client’s team – establishing a team according to the customer’s requirements to work remotely from our office in Kharkov, Ukraine under the customer’s direct control. Our services include recruiting and retention, back-office and operations support. The customer manages his team as he would manage his on-site team. This model has two variants:
    1. Startup team – creating and establishing customer’s own team dedicated to the needs of his project at cost price.
    2. Agile teams – sourcing with agile development team.
• What is the difference between these models of outsourcing?
  • First in all of these three models the team is comprised according to the customer’s own requirements and the client works directly with the team (sets the tasks, salary, working hours, meetings etc) – it is the general model client’s team.
• What do I have to do to start working with you?
  • You should contact us, tell us the technical requirements for the personnel (skills, desired experience, qualification). We begin the recruiting process, which is free of charge. Then we provide the customer with the appropriate resumes of the chosen developers. After the customer interviews the developers he liked via Skype and we set up a team.
• How is the process of setting up a client’s team performed?
  • We establish the office space, infrastructure and set up the working process. We help our customer with visa & travel issues and organize the developers’ trips to work periodically on-site for the customer (when necessary).
• Do the developers specialize in particular technologies?
  • No, we are not limited to any particular area of expertise. The situation on the IT resource market is stable, so there’s no problem to find skilled .NET, Java, PHP , iPhone developers as well as specialists in other areas. However, in some cases it might be easier for the customer to find a candidate with relevant experience and working attitude and train this candidate for the particular working environment.
• How do you check and interview the employees?
  • We have an experienced HR manager and IT experts in our team, they study the developers’ profiles, interview the developers, check their references, and then we check the English skills of the candidate and send the appropriate profiles to our customer.
• Can you teach my IT department?
  • Yes, we can.
• Do I need IT Outsourcing?
  • IT Outsourcing will allow you to get access to talented developers at lower cost, while your workers will concentrate on your core activity. You can use the experience, gained by your service provider while delivering similar projects.

Pricing

• What is your pricing model?
  • Our pricing model is the following: the direct salary for the employee (which sets the Client for a developer) + company expenses (infrastructure, office space, computers, coffee, salary for HR and Sales Department) + fee for the company (the clear income which company gets). The service for start up companies is provided at cost price, that means without fee for the company. The service for agile teams also includes the payments for agile trainings if necessary.
• How do I pay you?
  • You pay with the help of bank transfer.
• Have you got any discounts?
  • Yes, we have got a discount for start up companies. The start up team is provided at cost price, that means without fee for the company.

Staff

• How do you ensure employee’s credibility?
  • Employees are recruited through tested methods of evaluation of skill set and experience. While being employed by our company, all the employees sign confidentiality agreements with us. We restrict the access to the client’s information to the limited number of people and employ high level security systems to their workstations.
• What about English communication skills?
  • Our Project Managers/Team Leaders/Management speak fluent English, the rest of our team communicates well enough though IM/email/skype and other online communication tools. Also our Sales Managers speak fluently German and French.
• How do I hire professionals to work on my project?
  • You can hire individual employees or a dedicated team of programmers, software developers and designers who will work exclusively on your projects. In case your dedicated development team is larger then 2-3 people we recommend adding a Project Manager, at least shared.
• Do we have a choice in the contractors we work with?
  • Yes, you will be provided with the CVs of different candidates upon request.
• What happens if I am unhappy with someone?
  • Ainstainer Group is solely responsible for the team which is working for you. If you are not satisfied with someone, we will either modify the process or provide you with a replacement.
• How much time would you need to get started? If we needed additional resources?
  • Normally within 45 days, depending on the size of the team and the type of resources needed.

Contract Agreements

• Is your contract based on Ukrainian law?
  • Yes
• Would my company be the owner of the copyright and intellectual property?
  • The client’s company owns the copyright and intellectual property rights.
• Can you sign the NDA?
  • Yes sure. We value your business and understand the value of confidential information.
• What the minimum length of time do we commit too?
  • The minimum length of hire is 6 months.
• How much time do you require to halt or pause the project?
  • 30 days legal notice by email or fax
• What if I would like to break up a contract?
  • In this case the customer should pay one month salary compensation for each developer

Safety questions

• How do you protect confidential data?
  • We sign NDA with all our customers, our personnel is educated on social engineering, data protection, each member of a team personally signs NDA with our company. Each employer has access only to data necessary for his part of work.
• Do you have insurance and fireproof?
  • Yes, we do.
• Do you have a disaster recovery plan?
  • Yes, we do.
• Do I have to be given any formal permissions from Ukrainian government?
  • No, you don't have to get any formal permission
• Can I be the owner of the team?
  • In case you would like to be the owner of the team, so to say “to buy the team”, you should pay 3 months.