A Center of Excellence (CoE) in IT helps organizations improve IT operations, streamline processes, share best practices, and promote innovation, leading to increased efficiency and cost savings.
Centers of excellence or centers of competence are some of the most important structural units in an IT company that usually differ experts from regular outsourcing teams. Competency-based companies have the opportunity to continuously improve not only internal processes and skills but also their services and cooperation with their customers.
Exposit started its story in 2012 as an outsourcing software development company. Thanks to the continuous aggregation of our experience and knowledge, we have transformed into a professional solution provider delivering high-quality dedicated services to customers.
Let’s find out what is the center of competency and why customers think it is important criteria in choosing an IT partner for their business.
What is the center of excellence?
Let’s start with the definition to have a clear understanding of the term and make sure we are on the same page. Centers of excellence or competence centers are organizational structures designed to aggregate, coordinate, and manage IT knowledge and skills within a company.
Competence centers usually include the following characteristics:
- Specific technology or domain focus;
- Clear capabilities, roles, and responsibilities;
- Dedicated (and usually small) core team;
- Strong knowledge-sharing culture.
It is worth saying that one company can have up to 10 competence centers depending on experience and technology capabilities. For example, a company may have enhanced experience in several specific domains: Healthcare, Education, and Financial Services. Or, an organization can build expertise around specific programming languages or technologies like Computer Vision, XR, Atlassian, and so on.
Centers of excellence: benefits for cooperation
The competency-based business model is beneficial both for an organization and its customers. Cooperation with IT providers focusing on the specific areas of expertise in software development can bring you more quality outcomes thanks to deep expertise, a favorable environment, and knowledge of best practices.
Of course, expert services always cost more. A potential increase in budget often stops decision-makers from working with dedicated solution providers. Is it really worth it?
Let’s take a look at the key advantages you can get working with competency-based partners compared to regular software development companies:
- More accurate project evaluation
IT teams that have enhanced experience working in dedicated areas have greater predictability in estimations of your future projects. They provide you with an accurate evaluation and experience-based risk management that help you and your stakeholders avoid additional costs and untimely delivery. - Improved performance
Capability building in a company usually refers to standards compliance, deep technology expertise, and best practices formation. It helps a company not only ensure high quality of services but also create an effective working environment for their employees. This way, centers of excellence contribute to knowledge-sharing culture and motivate the team to be proactive and learn more. Specialists in a company with competency centers continuously improve their skills and can build more flexible teams where skills are not tied to one person. - End-to-end lifecycle responsibility
Competency-based teams are interested in solving your entire business problem, not just handling your software development tasks. They guide you throughout the software development lifecycle: from identifying a problem and shaping your idea to delivery and support. In this case, you get a turn-key solution and stay focused on your core business.By the way, if a company provides IT consulting services, centers of excellence are one of the main proofs they can do it well. It means a team has enough unique experience in relevant business cases to help you in decision-making and evaluate the potential of your idea. - Cutting-edge solutions
Companies focused on the dedicated areas of expertise in software development are extremely skilled in trend-watching and are the first to try the latest technologies, approaches, and methodologies relevant to their expertise. It brings your business an opportunity to deliver innovative solutions to the market and gain a competitive advantage over your rivals. Increased market share can positively affect your ROI and open new opportunities for scaling your business.
Creating your software projects in a Win-Win Environment
Entrusting your IT project to the competency-based team creates a favorable environment for implementing a valuable high-quality software product and standing out. At Exposit, we have built 3 competency centers to aggregate and share experience in technology and specific business cases in Computer Vision, XR, and Atlassian. Contact us if you are interested in how we can solve your problem using innovative technology.
