In this blog, you will find answers to many common questions that our applicants often ask us. 

Projects

What kind of customers do we work with?

The short answer: a wide range. We work with several different industries with different business processes. You can familiarize yourself with our customers by browsing our references. Typically, our integration customers are already utilizing the Frends eiPaaS integration platform and purchase consulting services related to continuous development and sometimes also project deliveries.

Is the work done in the own Frends teams or as part of the customer's team?

Almost without exception, we work in our own permanent DevOps teams or project teams assembled for a project to deliver solutions to our customers. Thus, our consultants rarely work under the client’s direct supervision or as part of the client’s teams. But even when these types of opportunities sometimes arise, we always ask for volunteers to work as part of the client’s teams.

Our DevOps teams works together; customers change - your closest co-workers don’t.

What size are our projects usually?

Most of our development work is small-scale, but there are also projects from time to time. For example, our integration projects are usually not very extensive and are typically shorter than 100 days of work and can be measured in weeks or months. However, sometimes our customers may also undertake more extensive work projects. The most typical example is upgrading an ERP system. In those cases, the integration project’s duration is usually hundreds of days and can last for a year or longer.

What kind of projects are we working on?

The types of projects depend a lot on the customer’s business, and usually, data is often moved between the customers’ different systems. For example, a typical and business-independent type of integration is HR integration. Data is exported from the master system to other HR systems such as a work time tracking system, payroll system, etc.

The Frends eiPaaS platform has also been used as a backend for various mobile applications and websites. In this case, the project retrieves data from the backend systems for use by the website or application.

A third typical project is when our customer offers order interfaces to their own customers. Frends push orders to the ERP system and sends the customer information about status updates as the ordered work progresses.

Can you influence what kind of clients or projects you work with?

We always strive to offer our people the opportunity to work with customers that interest them. We also aim to share larger projects evenly with those who wish to work on them. Most of our consultants work with more than one client, so it is relatively easy to adjust the workloads to your preferences.

Self Development

How can you develop your skills?

We primarily believe in learning alongside work. It’s pointless to take courses if you can’t immediately put those new skills into use. That is why we strive to ensure that everyone works with different customers and access other technologies for working with their customers.

In addition to this, we have, e.g., online platforms via which you can study at your own pace or when you don’t have any customer work. We also provide in-house training on the functionalities of our Frends platform, for example.

Learning is also enhanced by our practice of working in small teams. When working in small teams, it’s easy to ask your co-workers for help.

Is it possible to complete certifications while working for us?

Yes, you can! We have a list of recommended certifications for both developers and service and project managers. Although the certification is yours, it is also beneficial to the company that we have certified experts. That is why we are happy to pay for your certifications. Before the exam, you can use one day's working time to prepare for the exam. The exam itself is also included in your working time.

Do our people readily share information?

Of course! We hold regular "Dev learning moments" regularly. This is when a more experienced team member explains the solutions they have developed or teaches others about some kind of technology they are familiar with. The Frends R&D team also shares information about the features of the platform. 

You can also always ask your teammates for help, and everyone will be happy to help. Don’t be afraid to ask for help because your co-workers will let you know if they’re busy and will recommend someone else you can ask for help. We also have several digital channels where you can ask for advice on problems that concern you. You always get help because helping others is fun!

Culture and colleagues

What kind of teams and roles do we have at Frends?

In our integration team, everyone has their sub-team, which they usually work as part of. 

We have many types of roles at Frends. There are people in the consulting teams who work in different roles: integration developers, senior project manager, integration architects, service managers, and project managers. The consulting teams work according to the spirit of DevOps and deliver solutions to each team's customers.

In addition to this, we have the Frends eiPaaS platform and the Frends Operations team, which handles the product support of the platform and the integration support service. We also have salespeople, account managers, and pre-sales architects.

How do we support people in different life situations?

We believe your work should be flexible according to your life situation, and we strive to take this into account both in the planning of work and in the employee benefits we offer our employees.

We have part-time students working for us who complete their degrees alongside their jobs. We also offer topics for theses, and our more experienced colleagues can act as thesis supervisors.

Your working hours are flexible in any case: the most important thing for us is that things get done, so you can do them where and when suits you because you have flexible working hours and remote opportunities. We also offer the option of working part-time if family, hobbies or as your other responsibilities require it. We have very family friendly culture and we support families in different ways.

What’s the Frends culture like?

Our company culture is like our employees. It is relaxed, open-minded, and we have strong faith in what we do. We conduct staff surveys regularly, and they have repeatedly raised two things that our people value:

• Friendly teammates with whom it is fun to work and even spend some free time
• Skilled co-workers, you can trust and be proud of

We believe that people perform at their best when they are enthusiastic about the work that they are doing and feel that they are good at what they do. That’s why we always strive to play according to everyone’s strengths and give everyone the right level of responsibility. And when someone wants to take on more responsibility, we support it.

Benefits and salary

We offer our employees a very comprehensive IT house benefits and a comfortable work atmosphere where you can develop and grow professionally. But, for us, the individual's personal goals and aspirations matter - we want our staff to be happy at work and in their free time.

We offer e.g. active well-being in sports and culture, gym benefits, bike benefit and comprehensive occupational health services, and extended health insurance.

Communality is important to us, and we also spend time together, for example, on culture and sports, after parties, sauna evenings, team nights, company-wide events and also family events. 

We have a family friendly culture and we want to support families in different ways. For families with children, we try to make daily life easier by providing a childcare service for sick children and by organizing children's camps when schools and daycare centers are closed.

Read more about our benefits from our blog.

Are our salaries competitive? And do we raise the salaries?

Yes, they are and yes we do! 

We have researched the subject and, of course, we are constantly monitoring developments. We offer fair salaries and proactively audit them too. We raise the salaries proactively if we notice that one has developed in his work.

In addition, our culture encourages our people to raise any issues that may concern them. So here we hope that if you have any concerns about your salary, you will raise the matter with your supervisor as soon as possible. 

Read our blogs.

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