Minicab company Addison Lee makes no secret of its commitment to using technology to accelerate business improvements. On the company web site, chairman John Griffin praises its IT director Peter Ingram for managing “some of the most radical technological changes in the transport industry”.

The firm’s ability to innovate is helped to a large degree by an offshore team of software developers based in Samara, Russia.

Outsourcing partner Haulmont Technology is able to draw on an enviable pool of talent as Samara is a major educational and scientific centre of the Volga area and home of the Samara State Aerospace University.

“Samara is a very technological area with lots of universities and resources. The Russian developers are not only intelligent, they also challenge what we do so they have become more involved in how the business operates as they make us think about why we do something a particular way, leading to improvements,” says Ingram.

The developers, who work on projects related to the Addison Lee booking platform, such as scheduling drivers to the correct job and tracking systems, can cost a lot less to employ than their British counterparts.

“They are bloody hard working and are appreciative of the opportunities offered by working on our projects. The cost of living in Russia is lower than the UK, so they are a lot less expensive to use than British developers,” says Ingram.

Many IT leaders still look to India when considering offshore software development. Ingram, however, was curious to know whether Russia would offer a better service, so he set a test to compare the two countries.

“It was a small project to reproduce a mapping application in .Net,” says Ingram. “Setting a test is a great way of deciding which offshoring location works best for you. Salesmen will promise the world, but you need to find out how your offshore partner will perform. We preferred the Russian developers’ approach. The Indian developers were eager to please, but did not deliver,” says Ingram.

One of the problems associated with offshoring is that distance and cultural differences can lead to communication problems.

“You do have to have a face-to-face relationship with your offshore outsourcing partner. We have been on visits to Russia and had beers with the guys. You don’t have to do that, but we want the offshore team to feel they are key to our business and we reward them with bonuses when certain targets have been achieved. It is part of the loyalty-building process,” says Ingram.

Addison Lee has attempted to minimise the difficulties of communicating across long distances and cultures by establishing joint working groups. “When a Russian developer is asked to do something, they will go away and deal with it tirelessly. But their responses may seem abrupt at first when you are used to the niceties in conversations,” says Ingram.

All the Russian developers have good English, and channels of communication are maintained around the clock.

“You can’t rely on one method to communicate. The Russian developers have home broadband and we have their home and mobile numbers so we can use email, Skype and the phone –­ all the tools available,” says Ingram.