In this article, I describe how the Value Leap vision came about. I discuss the problems and challenges many customers face when looking for suitable nearshoring partners for their software or IT projects. Conversely, foreign providers must overcome significant hurdles to become active in Switzerland, Germany, or Austria and gain a foothold. Value Leap was created as an independent and impartial bridge between the customer and provider sides. Value Leap advises, mediates, and creates value for all parties involved.

Let's put ourselves in the following situation: A customer wants to find and commission an IT service provider from a nearby country (hence the term "nearshoring"). Perhaps the customer has an IT project that they would like to outsource entirely to an external provider. Or maybe it's an application or SaaS platform, and the CTO or development manager wants to hire additional engineers and integrate them closely into their existing teams. Or perhaps a customer needs additional experts temporarily to solve a specific task or to bridge a peak in demand. Whether it is a talent search or an IT assignment, many questions immediately arise when working with a nearshoring partner.

If you want to tackle the scenarios described above and solve them well, important questions inevitably arise immediately, such as:

On the one hand, the whole problem is not "rocket science," but you don't want to take such decisions lightly and make costly mistakes. And yet, if you want to answer these questions in a reasonably well-founded way and go through the process correctly, you can easily invest 2-6 months, depending on the project.

IT providers from abroad also face many challenges. Smaller and medium-sized providers from Portugal, Poland, Serbia, or Bulgaria often lack experience and practical market access. Contacting potential customers in Switzerland, Germany, or Austria is difficult.

Most providers assign a junior business development employee who writes to as many potential customers as possible via LinkedIn or email. The whole thing is done in English, automated, and without focus, so the results are mainly lacking. Customers feel "spammed" and ignore the flood of repetitive requests.

Similarly, many providers are unfamiliar with local business practices, do not speak German (which would at least be helpful when first making contact), or do not strike the right "tone." Only the larger IT companies with around 1000 employees or more can usually afford to have their experienced sales manager on site, e.g., in Zurich, Munich, or Vienna.

Conclusion: Both sides, the customers and the providers, face significant challenges. It also makes little economic sense for each customer to solve the same problem repeatedly and carry out and bear the entire search and evaluation of an ideal IT partner. The same applies to the provider side: across the whole market, providers make the same effort hundreds of times a day and incur high costs. Does every provider have to do everything themselves?

Wouldn't it be great and make sense if a "bridging function" addressed this overarching problem? It must be a central and independent service that knows both sides' challenges well, addresses them equally, and solves them objectively. Such a bridge function must understand the nearshoring market and its key players well and specialize in finding the most suitable nearshoring partners for customers.

The Value Leap Vision was born out of these considerations. It is a new type of service that brings supply and demand together efficiently, effectively, and impartially. To achieve this, we first assess the customer's goals and needs. Value Leap then takes over the search and complex evaluation work in the background and transparently presents the customer with several concrete proposals and options. The customer receives neutral advice and support.

We also help the providers by representing their interests here on-site, making it easier to access the market, knowing their strengths and unique features, and presenting them with well-prequalified customer inquiries that optimally match their strengths profile. This service can be realized with 50 to 100 pre-selected and "hand-picked" trustworthy partners. The portfolio of reliable partners would be broad enough to advise and serve most customers impartially but efficiently and effectively. If a customer has unique requirements or needs a niche technology, the appropriate specialized partners are sought and found in the extended pan-European ecosystem. The aim is to find the "perfect partner" - just like when looking for a life partner.

More about Value Leap's unique service approach can be found under Advisory.

I would describe this business model as a "managed marketplace with highly personalized customer service." The focus is on the initial meeting with the customer, which begins with a comprehensive assessment of their requirements. This step is not just about technologies, platforms, or job profiles but also the strategic goals and client expectations of a future nearshoring partner.

To identify the most suitable partners efficiently and effectively, we must know all of our portfolio companies personally and have stored their most essential characteristics and data in a structured manner. But that alone is not enough. A lively dialog with the partners is crucial. There are always specific questions to clarify, statements to check, documents to collect, or references to obtain. And this requires many "internal" discussions and clarifications with the providers. Only when all this "homework" has been appropriately done can the most suitable options be transparently presented to the customer. Ultimately, it's all about helping the customer as much as possible and finding the best solution. Long-term customer satisfaction is the top priority.

This service is financed by the providers (Value Leap partner companies). Value Leap represents its portfolio companies locally. We support our foreign partners with market access, take on specific marketing and sales tasks, and only present them with well-qualified customer inquiries. We regularly exchange information, share our experiences and recommendations, and provide targeted advice. We are compensated for these services. Important to know: All partners have precisely the same contractually agreed conditions. Value Leap never has a "false" financial incentive to favor one partner or another. Our consulting approach is neutral, impartial, and exclusively committed to the interests of our clients.

Furthermore, providers are not allowed to increase their hourly or daily rates, as Value Leap only takes on services that each provider would have to provide themselves anyway. The effort and costs are already “priced in” - regardless of whether the provider does the work themselves or works with us. And the best thing is that customers pay nothing for this service!

This service is also based on trust. We gain this trust through transparency, openness, directness, objectivity, experience, and getting to know you personally. Customers always receive all data, documents, and overviews. Customers are also always presented with several detailed options, including all their features, advantages, disadvantages, and recommendations, which they can then examine at leisure. Value Leap does not decide. The customer chooses and has complete control at all times. Value Leap's innovative approach closes a critical service gap. It is a unique service that has never existed in this particular form before. And we hope it will also make a modest contribution to a trust-based economy.