Nagarro-NetEnt partnership ushers in a new era in the gaming industry
Just over a year ago when NetEnt started using HTML5 for development, Nagarro was central to their strategy. Today, Nagarro’s Gurgaon office in India is one of the major development centers for them.
NetEnt develops casino games and platform solutions for online casino operators. The company’s Stockholm office is right in the city center, and that’s where we met Head of Development, Åsa Bredin on the day when NetEnt’s latest game was released. This particular game is based on a collaboration with the heavy metal band Motörhead. The game itself is called Motörhead and is part of the NetEnt Rocks series.
Åsa has been the Head of Development at NetEnt for over a year now. She has worked in the gaming industry for a long time and her previous role was at a senior position in the leading gaming company King. She has rich experience of working with remotely based development teams.
Some time back NetEnt started developing games entirely on HTML5, and this is one of the reasons why they decided to extend their collaboration with Nagarro – a partner they had been working with already. For four years, both companies have worked closely together and now the Nagarro team is seen as a part of NetEnt.
“One of Nagarro’s specialities is HTML5 and that suits us really well,” says Åsa Bredin.
Another reason for choosing Nagarro was that they work with AniBrain, a company specializing in animation. Also, the development center in Gurgaon is completely integrated with NetEnt’s development processes.
"Nagarro’s development center in Gurgaon is so well integrated, it feels like the developers were here in Stockholm.”
Integration takes place in various ways using a well-established process, which also governs development at the other centers in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Kiev and Krakow. A large percentage of NetEnt’s 900 or so employees are developers.
Åsa Bredin likens the development of games to a film production, and it can take anywhere from a few months to a year to develop a game from an idea to a finished product. Planning for game development takes place in Stockholm in close cooperation with the product organization in Malta, but development is carried out autonomously at the various centers. All the game studios are ‘agile’ enterprises.
“The very point of the agile way of working is that each team owns the product and should not be dependent on anyone else in the development process. Each team has what it needs to do its own part of the development.”
Once again, the management process is vital, and Åsa’s primary instrument is quality.
“The coordinator, who’s based here in Stockholm, also plays a crucial role in this. We never leave the team completely during development.”
It is crucial that the quality requirements are met, and of course that the teams’ estimated development time is accurate.
“We maintain frequent dialogue regarding time estimates, but Nagarro is good at keeping to its deadlines.”
NetEnt also works hard to establish its own corporate culture at the various centers in terms of their values and expectations. This is done by actual visits to the sites, and through a rotation system whereby employees from India come and work at the Stockholm office.
“For instance, we work hard to ensure we have 50 per cent female employees at NetEnt, and this is something that Nagarro takes seriously.”
Åsa generally visits the various development centers once a year. Most recently she was in Gurgaon, and she considers it a good practice to distribute development across various centers around the world.
“It’s good to have diversification and not put all your eggs in one basket.”
The games are managed from Malta, where NetEnt has a large operations center.
“To give you an idea of the scale, our games generate 100 million transactions a day at our operations centre in Malta,” says Åsa.
About NetEnt
NetEnt – a leader in gaming infrastructure for casino operators.
NetEnt was founded in 1996 and is today a market leader in gaming platforms for casino games. NetEnt has approximately 900 employees and offices in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Krakow, Kiev, Gibraltar, New Jersey and Malta. Its turnover last year was in the region of SEK 1.1 billion. Growth is currently at about 30 per cent and the operating margin also around 30 per cent.
Since 2009 the company has been listed on Nasdaq OMX.
About Nagarro
Nagarro provides technology services for digital disruption to both industry leaders and challengers. When our clients want to move fast and make things, they turn to us. We combine design, digital and data to help them outperform the competition. We distinguish ourselves by our agility, imagination and absolute commitment to our clients’ business success.
Our better-known clients include Siemens, GE, Lufthansa, Viacom, Estēe Lauder, ASSA ABLOY, Ericsson, DHL, Mitsubishi, BMW, the City of New York, Erste Bank, T-Systems, SAP and Infor. Working with these clients, we continually push at the boundaries of what is possible to do through technology, and in what time frame.
Today, we are more than 3500 experts across 12 countries. Together we form Nagarro, the global services division of Munich-based Allgeier SE.
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