ProOffice – INSCALE

CASE

"It is not just a person that will ‘sit and do coding’ that you employ."

Bobby Brix Espersen

Head of IT-production | ProOffice Group

ProOffice Group

“INSCALE brought both skill and experience, but they also brought speed to our scaling”

“In the last couple of years, we’ve really built a good team; an efficient and high performing software development team that is now consisting of 20 people, with a good range of different experiences and good people. So, we wouldn’t have been where we are today if we would only go by trying to recruit in Denmark”

Bobby Brix Espersen

Head of IT-production | ProOffice Group

ProOffice, a Danish EdTech, began collaborating with INSCALE as a practical response to a constraint many Danish SMEs face: limited access to experienced software engineers in Denmark and increasing pressure on salaries. What started as a careful experiment became a long-term operating model, that improved ProOffice’s delivery capacity and supported faster growth than local recruitment alone could sustain.

THE CHALLENGE

Finding qualified IT resources in Denmark

In 2014, ProOffice reached a point many Danish SMEs recognize: the product roadmap was moving forward, customer expectations were rising, and the business needed more engineering strength than the local market could provide. The challenge was not simply hiring “more developers.” ProOffice needed high-level software engineers, and the Danish market made that difficult. Salary pressure was increasing, competition for talent was strong, and attracting experienced profiles was a constant struggle. There was also a second layer to the challenge. ProOffice’s goal was not a short-term fix, but a sustainable setup. The company needed people who could become part of a longer journey, ideally someone with the mindset and credibility to grow into a local leader and help establish a future tech hub outside Denmark. At the same time, the technical requirements were clear. ProOffice’s Plan2Learn solution was closely tied to Microsoft technologies, with C# and .NET Core at the core. The search was for a rare combination: senior capability, the right personal qualities, and a strong fit with a specific stack, all under the constraints of the Danish hiring market. This is what led ProOffice to look beyond Denmark.

THE SOLUTION - A dedicated development team in Macedonia

Choosing a location for a tech hub outside Denmark

ProOffice decided to explore a structured outsourcing approach and began considering an “outsourcing country” where building a long-term team could be realistic. That search led them to Macedonia and to INSCALE as a strategic partner.

For ProOffice the key idea was not outsourcing tasks. It was creating a dedicated development team, a group of exceptional software engineers that would work as a stable extension of the company.

Starting small, then building confidence

At the time, ProOffice had 6-7 developers in Denmark. Instead of attempting a large expansion abroad immediately, the company started cautiously. Over the first three to four years, the Macedonian setup remained in the range of 2-4 developers.

This was not a sign of slow progress. It reflected reality: ProOffice was still learning how to operate with development outside Denmark, and the partnership was still building shared context – about the product, the standards, and how work should be coordinated.

A critical early win: finding the right foundational people

The first hires were the most demanding. ProOffice needed “the full package” from the start, engineers who could deliver in the required technologies and also fit into the long-term ambition of forming a tech hub.

That early bet paid off. One of the developers ProOffice started with later became the country lead, giving the Macedonian team stable local leadership and helping the collaboration evolve into something more mature and scalable.

A working model that fit daily operations

Macedonia also proved the best choice for day-to-day collaboration. ProOffice highlights several reasons why Macedonia is the right fit for Danish companies looking for dedicated development teams:

Strong education and excellent English skills, which made daily collaboration realistic.

Same time zone and working hours as Denmark, which reduced friction in coordination and made real-time teamwork easier.

Minimal cultural differences making the Macedonian team to adapt well to ProOffice environment and ways of working.

The result - From 4 to 20 developers and scaling faster than Denmark alone would allowed

A dedicated development team that became a core part of delivery

What began with a small group grew into a robust, reliable capability. From an initial team of around 4 developers, ProOffice scaled the team to 20 software developers by 2019.

Over time, the Macedonian team became a meaningful part of how ProOffice delivers software, not a temporary add-on. Bobby Brix, then a Head of IT-production of ProOffice Group, describes the team as a major contributor to ProOffice’s journey, especially over the last five years, and credits the collaboration with helping improve ProOffice’s service significantly.

Depth and experience, not only headcount

The outcome was not only a larger team, but a more capable one. ProOffice built a group with a range of experience levels, where more senior engineers brought added value in engineering discussions and decision-making, not only in execution.

This mix helped ProOffice move from simply “having more hands” to having a development function that could support more complex needs with greater confidence.

Speed to scale beyond Denmark’s limits

Perhaps the clearest result is how the collaboration changed what was possible. The collaboration brought skill and experience, but also speed, enabling the company to scale its development capacity more quickly than the local market realistically allowed.

The outcome: Future-proofed growth

ProOffice’s partnership with INSCALE evolved from a small offshore staffing into a high-performing, 20-person dedicated development team strengthening delivery, expanding engineering depth, and supporting growth when local hiring in Denmark could not keep up.

9 Years with INSCALE

8 Technologies

VB .net
C#
.Net Core
React
Javascript
Azure Cloud
JQuery
MS SQL

20 Developers