From IT strategy to implementation – success factors and challenges of international IT transitions

International IT transitions rarely fail because of technology – but rather because of culture, communication and expectations. Setting up tech hubs in India, Poland or Romania can address the shortage of IT specialists, but it also brings complex challenges. How can knowledge be transferred sustainably, employees avoid being overworked and intercultural teams be brought together successfully? Using specific projects, this article shows which success factors really matter – and why genuine collaboration requires more than just tools and processes.

The shortage of skilled workers in Germany is presenting companies with ever greater challenges, especially in the IT sector. Demographic change is exacerbating this situation: there are simply not enough well-trained IT experts to meet the growing demand for digitalisation and technological innovation. At the same time, in uncertain economic times, companies want to reduce their dependence on external service providers and gain more control over their IT capacities.
Against this backdrop, more and more large companies with their own IT service providers are deciding to set up subsidiaries in Poland, Romania or India. The aim of these tech hubs is to provide qualified IT personnel to support the German software teams. With its large pool of IT specialists, India offers an attractive solution for building stable and cost-efficient IT resources in the long term. Romania and Poland offer both IT resources and project management capacities.
However, an international IT transition of this magnitude brings with it numerous challenges. In addition to organisational and technological issues, intercultural cooperation plays a particularly important role. Differences in working methods, communication styles and expectations must be specifically taken into account to ensure successful integration. This article highlights the key success factors and challenges of an IT transition in an international context – from strategic planning to operational implementation.

From strategy to operationalisation

challenges

Cultural differences

Failing to pay sufficient attention to cultural differences can have far-reaching consequences and, in some circumstances, can mean the difference between success and failure in an international IT transition. This makes it all the more important to raise awareness of intercultural differences among all those involved and prepare them for dealing with different communication and working styles. Clear expectations on both sides also help to avoid misunderstandings at an early stage and cushion potential setbacks. From our 30 years of experience in transition management and international cooperation at noventum, we know that hierarchical structures in particular have a significant influence on communication. While an open and direct feedback culture is encouraged in Germany, for example, there is often greater reserve towards superiors or more senior colleagues in India. Critical opinions are not readily expressed, and contradiction is often avoided. An essential component of successful collaboration is therefore to establish a process that promotes appreciative, transparent and direct communication – without ignoring cultural characteristics.

Change management – Overburdening knowledge providers

Knowledge transfer is a complex and long-term process that can be divided into three phases. The first phase, basic knowledge transition (KT), usually lasts nine to twelve months, depending on whether external service providers are being replaced or simply supporting existing employees. In both scenarios, it is essential that the teams involved – especially the external service providers – take sufficient time to hand over the topics while continuing to perform their daily tasks. This can quickly lead to overload, so it is essential to strike a balance between knowledge transfer and operational business. Overburdening German employees can quickly lead to a loss of motivation and a negative attitude towards the transition. In such cases, it is crucial to be close to the teams in order to gauge the mood both within the individual software teams and across teams. This is the only way to take preventive measures at an early stage to avoid negative effects on employee motivation. It is important to emphasise that a transition will always take more time at the beginning than it will bring benefits – regardless of whether the new colleagues are German or international. Such an imbalance in the initial phases is completely normal. However, the duration of this process varies, as experience shows that knowledge transfer into another language requires more intensive preparation. This additional time and effort must be planned and communicated accordingly in order to set realistic expectations. In the second phase, the focus is on team-specific knowledge that is only relevant to certain colleagues. As the circle of potential knowledge providers becomes significantly smaller in this step, structured coordination by a responsible person is required. To ensure efficient knowledge transfer and minimise the burden on individual employees, knowledge transfer should be distributed across several people. The third phase, knowledge extension, comprises cross-team training that is important for both new international employees and existing and new German software developers. In this step, an internal contact person should not only convey the training content, but also prioritise which "nice-to-have" knowledge is relevant and which experts can pass this on. This structured approach ensures that knowledge is anchored efficiently and sustainably within the organisation.

Time and organisational challenges

When working internationally, the way of working often differs significantly from familiar working methods. Spontaneously passing on a new requirement to a colleague at the next desk is no longer practical in an international context. However, this change brings a decisive advantage: it guarantees complete traceability of the flow of information and offers the opportunity to question and optimise existing processes. The coronavirus pandemic has prepared many companies for this new way of working. Thanks to tools such as MS Teams, Jira and Confluence, it is now possible to work efficiently even remotely. These technologies enable structured communication and transparent documentation, ensuring close collaboration across geographical distances and time zones. This not only increases the effectiveness of collaboration, but also improves the long-term traceability and quality of work processes.

Success factors for effective operationalisation

Involving teams in decision-making processes and clear communication are essential: Although strategic decisions are often made in a small circle – such as a core transition team – the teams should be involved in the operationalisation process, as they are best placed to assess the effort and priorities involved.
A structured and detailed KT plan supports knowledge transfer, makes it traceable and prevents issues from being neglected or forgotten.
Uniform knowledge management with a central storage location for documents prevents duplication of work by knowledge providers. Translating German documents can be particularly time-consuming and error-prone when it comes to internal technical terms; therefore, a terminology database should be made available to the translation tool.

Support formats – intercultural education, language and continuous learning

Intercultural workshops in short, practical sessions highlight where German directness meets Indian politeness and show how both sides can contribute their strengths without risking misunderstandings.
Language and terminology training ensures that English works as the project language. A terminology database reduces translation effort and ensures that certain terms mean the same thing on both continents; it makes sense not to translate every term, as international colleagues also use German terms and know their meaning.
Buddy and shadowing programmes provide new colleagues from other countries with a German contact person during their first few months – and vice versa. This quickly creates a familiar 1-to-1 bridge that can also be used to ask sensitive questions. The result is less friction, faster knowledge transfer and a shared understanding of quality.

Celebrate milestones and value colleagues

We celebrate progress in a way that is visible to everyone – not just the core team. Departmental meetings with "transition stories" have proven effective, where we present success stories or lessons learned to provide a clear picture of reality and learn from our experiences. Celebrating has a double effect: it strengthens commitment and consolidates the trust that is so crucial in phase 1 of the project.

Intercultural exchanges and travel – build bridges, deepen trust

Several times a year, German leads and selected team members should travel to the tech hub for a certain period of time to set strategic courses, share expertise, assess the level of knowledge and cultivate personal exchanges. Conversely, Indian, Romanian and Polish colleagues work for several weeks in their teams in Germany and are fully integrated into daily business. The "aha" moment: as soon as you meet in person, the "colleague on the screen" becomes a real person with a family, hobbies and a sense of humour. This emotional connection has a direct impact on professional collaboration.

Lessons learned – three key insights

People before mechanics: Processes only help when people see themselves as partners; maintaining relationships is part of the job description.
Transparency beats hierarchy: Open channels such as daily chats and weekly meetings with stakeholders lower the threshold for asking questions or reporting errors early on – especially in cultures where formal distance is the norm. Knowledge is not a sprint, but a relay race: Knowledge transfer takes longer when language, time zones and domain knowledge come together. A structured KT plan plus sufficient buffers protect teams from frustration and ensure quality in the long term. It must be clear from the outset that a transition is a process that takes years and involves motivating but also difficult and frustrating phases.

Conclusion and outlook

Developing structures for international transition is just the beginning. The next milestone is to establish self-organised teams in which it no longer matters whether colleagues are based in Germany, Romania, Poland or India. We transition managers are gradually withdrawing from day-to-day business and will in future act more as coaches and bridge builders for new topics. In this way, we are evolving from a classic nearshore structure to international teams with a one-team approach that allows innovation to flourish where the best ideas grow – regardless of the time zone.