Being innovative, generating real added value for customers and continuously developing the portfolio also means constantly reinventing yourself and breaking new ground. This is exactly what Dinotronic is passionate about! You have to take these new approaches on the path to constant innovation and self-improvement because you always encounter challenges along the way. Some of these are, for example, the shortage of skilled workers in the technology sector in Switzerland and surrounding countries, ever-increasing demands for availability, readiness and stability, use of a wide range of technologies, and obstacles to automation. For these and other reasons, Dinotronic decided to establish a second location in Ho Chi Minh City as of 2018 (Image Office Vietnam).

A challenging start

The venture was well planned, and local partners supported us in the start-up process from the beginning. Nevertheless, there were many questions and uncertainties, but sometimes you just have to take a step and venture into the unknown to get closer to your goals.

Our CEO, Dino Fiori, together with the Vietnamese director and HR manager on site, sorted out the first candidates, outlined the departmental competencies as well as communicated our Dinotronic culture, and in a way, foreshadowed the path. The Cloud Services team then took over and gradually integrated the initially small team, consisting of a team leader and three cloud engineers. To train the people and monitor the integration, someone from the management team was on site almost constantly during the first year. Even after that, our Head of Service Center Vietnam was and is periodically on site.

Initial hurdles in the cooperation were quickly overcome. On the one hand, because you get a lot of good candidates in a short time, and on the other hand, because most of the engineers are already familiar with the European way of working and were able to adapt quickly to our requirements in terms of quality and proactivity. It was also a change for the team in Horgen, a very welcome one, as it turned out after a short time. This means that professionals in Horgen can devote much more attention to our customers, to overall architecture and cross-disciplinary issues. In a way, they became coordinators who hand over subtasks in service development, analyze root causes and create scripts and are allowed to collect the results after a short time.

Healthy growth

One year later, planning for the growth of the team was initiated and the number of employees doubled in 2020. As a result, more know-how flowed into the company, which is of great benefit to us, especially in the cloud and security area as well as in the standardization of our services.

The enlarged team harmonized excellently and, in addition to all the technical work, there were also many great events that strengthened the cohesion among each other and across locations. In addition to cozy dinners (although the local cuisine may sometimes seem strange to the Swiss, but still appetizing), there was, for example, a team-building event in Vung Tau right by the sea. The team enjoyed the exchange and the examination of our values and company goals.

Finally, the establishment of the first foreign location was certainly one of the larger undertakings in the history of Dinotronic, which affected all employees, and which has enriched our way of working in the long term. On the one hand through technical know-how, but also through the speed with which tasks can now be distributed and completed, and last but not least through the contacts and cultural enrichment that have been created. All employees have the opportunity to work in Vietnam for a month at any time and thus gain unique experience, which has already been taken advantage of several times.

Encouraging prospects

In the future, we want to further increase the performance of our services through standardization and by adding our own software solutions. In addition, strengthening cyber security is also becoming increasingly important for our customers. In order to be able to cover and further develop these two areas in the long term, we will continue to invest in the training of all employees and expand the team selectively. With this concentrated competence, we are also optimally positioned for the future. We look forward to this joint development, to new experiences and to new features and services for the benefit of our customers.