Background and challenges: The need to accelerate development

Zellis is the UK and Ireland’s leading provider of AI-enabled HR, workforce management, and payroll software and services, working with many large top-tier organisations.

The company’s flagship HCM suite is used by millions of employees every month to view interactive digital payslips, book annual leave, submit expenses, and more. Zellis’s clear ambition is to power exceptional employee experiences through a consumer-grade and engaging user experience.

To support and strengthen product development as part of a major investment programme, Zellis decided to engage Damilah as a near-shore partner.

The key selection criteria were set out as follows:

  • A partner that could resource quickly, with talented employees, when additional scale was required
  • A company that believed in investing in its own people in order to attract, develop and retain top talent
  • An industry leader when it came to delivery, with a strong background in developing quality software at pace using agile methods
  • A near-shore firm that was easily reachable from the UK, without the need for long flights across multiple time zones, and where cultural alignment would be straightforward

After a structured RFP process, Zellis were impressed by our capabilities and our ‘partner-shoring’ approach – where a client and near-shore partner work seamlessly together towards common goals – so selected us as one of their development partners, beginning in early 2024.

The solution: Our proactive approach with a strong focus on delivery

Zellis were looking for a new and unique way of presenting a more visualised version of employees’ salary information, using a very specific design structure. This was complex work – but rather than tackle some of the easier elements of the project first, we decided to lean into this task straight away.

And, by the end of our first two-week sprint, we were able to deliver a working demo.

“I was immediately very pleased with this, as a lot of developers would want to tackle the easier parts first to show rapid progress, especially at the start of the relationship,” says Bob Hoskins, Director of Product Management – HR & WFM.

“So, we’ve benefited from a real mix of work from Damilah,” Bob adds. “The high-profile parts that make it into the corporate videos; and also, in the background, the real nuts and bolts of delivering the product.”

Throughout, the Zellis team have been particularly impressed by our:

  • Proactive approach: We have demonstrated a can-do attitude to everything we undertake and a relentless focus on delivery using agile methodologies. “They’re able to deal with ambiguity very well – so they can take hold of problems, figure them out and get to a solution more or less autonomously,” says Phil Brown, Director of Engineering.
  • Outstanding people: From day one, we’ve employed talented people to work on the project. In particular, we went to great lengths to hire someone who is a specialist in the relevant business domain.
  • Strong relationships: Everyone from Zellis and Damilah feels as if they’re working on the same team, pushing towards the same goals. To set the foundation for this, we invited key members of Zellis’s team to our HQ in Skopje, North Macedonia, to ensure there was face-to-face contact early on in the project – which we believe is always valuable to ensure cohesion.
  • Clear communication: We are always transparent with our partners and share any issues or blockers as soon as they occur, in order to find solutions as rapidly as possible.
  • Added value: Our willingness to support beyond the specific project deliverables, sharing expertise in a range of areas in which we have specific experience.

The outcomes: Enhanced productivity, enthusiasm and added value

The project is now close to launch – and Zellis have been delighted with what we have helped them to achieve.

In particular, the following outcomes have stood out for them:

  • Meeting critical deadlines: We have hit crucial phase gates on time.
  • Enhanced productivity levels: We have delivered more and faster outputs than they had previously experienced with other partners.
  • Passion and enthusiasm: Our positive, can-do energy has been appreciated by Zellis’s own team, who have described us as a “breath of fresh air”.
  • Leveraging AI: We have helped to develop AI-driven functionality that explains to employees why their pay has changed – which will potentially save the HR teams served by Zellis many hours of handling employees’ queries.

In all, Zellis fully expect features like this, and the overall redeveloped product, to drive added value for their customers.

As for the future, we are exploring further ways to help Zellis achieve further growth, especially in areas where they may need to flex rapidly.

“In particular, Damilah are ideally suited where we have a critical deliverable with challenging timelines, and a high degree of technical uncertainty and ambiguity. We describe them as being like our ‘special forces’, whom we can rapidly deploy to solve the toughest problems.” says Phil.

In summary, Phil has the following to say about us:

“They’re great to work with, and they really value their people. Generally speaking, in software engineering, a small number of very bright people will outperform large teams of mediocre people. Damilah truly demonstrate that – it’s their philosophy.”

Bob adds:

“I’ve been impressed by their honesty throughout. They’re not afraid to challenge our thought processes or to push back, and they don’t sit on problems until they explode. It feels like they’re a natural extension of our own team, which is exactly what you want from a partner.”

As an ambitious business in a fast-moving market, Valve Space needed to expand engineering capacity quickly and flexibly to meet evolving product and customer demands. To support this, Valve Space opted to partner with a trusted nearshore team to accelerate delivery, complement in-house expertise and maintain momentum.

We were proud to be selected as that partner. Valve Space recognised our ability to attract and retain high-quality talent in North Macedonia, while valuing our strong cultural alignment and ability to work seamlessly as part of their team.

Our ‘partner-shoring’ approach to working with clients – a near-shoring model where the client and supplier work seamlessly and flexibly together towards common goals – aligned closely with Valve Space’s need for a scalable and collaborative delivery model and was a key factor in the company’s decision.ess working relationship across borders.

Delivering technical depth and collaborative support

Since January 2024, we’ve been working closely with Valve Space to provide additional engineering capacity as part of their software engineering function.

We have supplied a team of skilled professionals, including:

  • Software developers
  • Quality assurance (QA) testers
  • Automation QA specialists

These experts supplement Valve Space’s in-house team by carrying out product development and testing, supporting on complex projects for Valve Space’s product-led growth initiatives.

This has included:

  • Developing and implementing a new performance testing suite to ensure system reliability and scalability
  • Enhancing customer-focused features that add value and contribute to platform revenue

Beyond pure technical expertise, we also supply additional support to enhance Valve Space’s team structure and workflow. This includes, as required:

  • Fractional scrum master support on a few key projects
  • Flexible team organisation, allowing Valve Space to scale capacity based on workload and project complexity
  • Collaborative working environments, fostering a close partnership between Valve Space’s in-house team and our own people

One of the key highlights of the partnership so far has been a company-wide event we hosted at our headquarters in Skopje at the start of 2025. Here, the entire product and engineering teams from both companies assembled to work together and, after hours, enjoy a night of music and fun.

We are always keen proponents of this kind of gathering, to ensure distributed groups of colleagues meet face to face and can bond in person – and there is no doubt it boosted team morale, while fostering ever closer alignment and integration.

Generating added value through close collaboration

Thanks to our collaborative approach and technical expertise, the partnership between our two companies has yielded significant value for Valve Space, particularly when it comes to rapid product development, flexibility and efficiency – allowing Valve Space to sharpen its focus on delivering high-quality products to meet its customers’ needs to drive growth.

Above all, for a start-up company like Valve Space, the ability to rapidly align talent to priority initiatives is key. To date, we’ve contributed by:

  • Rapidly onboarding skilled professionals to meet immediate product needs, while taking care to find individuals who align well with Valve Space’s team and culture
  • Managing resources, allowing Valve Space to focus on growth rather than hiring and HR administration
  • Embedding people who are able to quickly get up to speed on Valve Space’s market and customer needs through close collaboration with product managers and cross-functional teams

At the same time, Valve Space benefits from strong organisational support, such as:

  • Senior leadership support that helps to ensure complex projects receive the expertise they require; whenever a significant challenge has occurred, we have been ready and willing to lean into it, with a hands-on approach from our most experienced people – including CEO Iain Bishop and CTO Aleksandar Karavasilev – as required
  • Proactive problem-solving, where we always listen carefully, in order to fully understand and address challenges swiftly and effectively
  • Delivery manager support to help accelerate key workstreams and keep momentum strong

Additionally, as Lucinda Faucher, Valve Space’s VP of Product Management, explains:

“A successful partnership of this kind is always built on trust, and Damilah have proven to be reliable and collaborative partners for Valve Space.”

Lucinda is pleased that the current relationship between the two companies has been highly effective so far. As Valve Space continues to grow and maximise profits, we’re proud to be seen as a long-term partner in helping them deliver on their ambitions.

A reliable and aligned partnership

The partnership between Valve Space and Damilah exemplifies the benefits of working with a skilled, flexible, and trustworthy ‘partner-shoring’ provider. Our depth of expertise, proactive approach, and commitment to building a collaborative team culture – one that feels like a seamless extension of Valve Space’s own team – has made this a highly effective and rewarding collaboration.

As Lucinda puts it:

“Damilah fosters a positive culture that really cares about its people. Most importantly, they enjoy what they do and bring great energy to the team. They’re collaborative, knowledgeable, and have taken the time to understand our vision, which helps ensure they are aligned with where we are headed and how best to support us along the way.”