The core of the Matrix Global workforce is a unique group of approximately 600 professionals, all women belonging to two orthodox communities in Israel, in Modi’in Illit and Bet Shemesh. These highly educated, carefully selected, and meticulously trained women have very strict and specific social and community needs. By satisfying these needs and establishing the development centers in the midst of their religious community, Matrix Global has tapped into a high-quality workforce available in substantial numbers at competitive rates. The homogeneous religious environment of the development centers has enabled the formation of a pool of qualified technical personnel with a high degree of loyalty and professionalism.

Matrix Global grew from an innovative approach by Matrix IT, Israel’s largest software services firm, to compete with rivals who sent jobs offshore. Matrix had a different idea: to open a development center in Modiin Ilit, an ultra-religious (Haredi) community approximately 18 miles east of Tel Aviv, which had inexpensive office space and a large pool of educated, but underemployed female workers. From an initial group of just 50 women five years ago, the staff has now grown tenfold—and continued to expand even during the economic downturn of the past year.

Most of the women are native speakers of English and all have degrees equivalent to a BA or technical certificates in computers. Matrix Global provides additional training in specialized technical areas relevant to current and upcoming projects.

Working together with the training and deployment division of Matrix, John Bryce Training, one of the leading technology training centers in Europe, Matrix Global develops short-notice, project-specific training programs custom tailored to the needs of individual projects.

Matrix Global is an offshore development center serving the needs of its customers in different domains – software development, business intelligence, and quality assurance.

Additional Matrix Global development centers are located in Eastern Europe, in countries with a tradition of high-quality science and technology education and loyalty to employers.

Last year, Matrix opened its second facility in Bet Shemesh, 12 miles (20 km) from Jerusalem. A third center is expected to begin operations in Haifa in 2010. “Our target is to have 1,000 from the Haredi community working for us within two years,” says Matrix CEO Gutman. But he estimates the potential at more than 10,000 workers. With the rabbis sanctioning the entry of women into this field, Israel’s high-tech industry may have just found a way to stay competitive.
Co-Authored by Ziv Mandl, CEO and founder of Matrix Global. Under his leadership, Matrix Global has grown in a few years to become a major development center Software Outsourcing and serving clients in a wide range of technologies like SAP BI and ETL testing.

Tags: BI 7, Business Objects, Data warehouse design, ETL, ETL testing, Informatica ETL, predictive analytics, SAP BI, Software Outsourcing

The entry of Menorah, one of the largest insurance companies in Israel, into the pension market has created a surge in demand for BI services from the company’s IT department. Matrix Global has created an offshore Business Intelligence (BI) delivery team that provides high quality information at a lower cost.

Menorah was established in 1935 and has remained a central player in the Israeli insurance market. In 2008, Menorah was the fifth largest insurance company in Israel in both revenue and assets. The acquisition of Mivtachim has turned it into the leading pension fund with over $5.3 billion in assets. Revenue from insurance is $924 million and from pension funds another $713 million. During 2007, Menorah continued with M&A activity acquiring a mid-sized insurance company and a large insurance agency.

The entry of Menorah into the pension market has created a surge in demand for services from the company’s IT department. Integration of core systems together with a huge increase in BI reports required by business managers, clients, and regulators has created a delivery problem for the BI development team in particular. Annual report demand soon rose to 150 different reports covering a wide variety of business parameters.

The Menorah Mivtachim experience is a case in point. The need to limit contract headcount and focus internal BI developer resources on core business innovation was the main business benefit.

Menorah Mivatchim resolved management and QA issues by employing onsite experienced team leaders. This coincides with what is widely perceived as a best practice in offshoring, namely the hybrid development environment. This approach means that some key staff are sourced from within the organization – as in Menorah’s case – to manage projects and act as business analysts liaising with the companies LOB project owners. Although this reduces labor cost savings, but it increases deliverable quality and the communications between business, IT management, and the offshore vendor. Proportions of internal personnel relative to offshore team range from 10% to 25% depending on the project lifecycle and development subject matter. These proportions are also evident in Menorah’s experience.

While technical issues such as communications and security are more easily resolved, offshore staff quality is much more difficult to manage. Issues such as turnover, skills, and training are critical to the success of the service. Menorah’s experience with previous contract labor was approximately a 2-year turnover rate, which was deemed as too fast for a plausible development strategy creating heavy demands in terms of training and learning curve expense. The ability of Matrix Global to provide a stable team complete with in-house advanced training capabilities significantly increased the attractiveness of the service for Menorah.

Co-Authored by Ziv Mandl, CEO and founder of Matrix Global. Under his leadership, Matrix Global has grown in a few years to become a major development center Software Outsourcing and serving clients in a wide range of technologies like SAP BI and ETL testing.

Tags: BI 7, Business Objects, Data warehouse design, ETL, ETL testing, Informatica ETL, predictive analytics, SAP BI, Software Outsourcing