Not a supplier, but a colleague

From trainee to permanent fixture in the team

Avinash started at Qualogy as a Mendix trainee and, through Qualogy, ended up at Municipality Rotterdam on a secondment basis. Vinesh first ran a number of smaller projects for smaller clients, before deliberately choosing a larger organization. Both now work within municipal teams, together with civil servants, other external parties and Qualogy colleagues.

What stands out is how they describe the collaboration. Vinesh is clear about it: he does not see himself as client or supplier, but as part of the team. "You are one of the team, one of us," he says. Avinash recognizes that. He calls the collaboration warm, with short lines of communication. For him, the added value of Qualogy lies precisely in the fact that he is not alone at the client: several Qualogy colleagues work at Municipality Rotterdam, spread across different teams, and that bond remains.

"What strikes me about Vinesh and Avinash is the energy and friendliness they bring every day. They are true team players: people you want on your team, who connect with others and at the same time simply deliver very good work."

Marlin den Boer, Coordinator / RTE - RAD Mendix - Municipality Rotterdam

More than a developer: a sparring partner for the business

Vinesh calls himself a Mendix developer: he builds applications in a low-code way, quickly and with direct business value. What appeals to him most is the role of sparring partner. He does not simply accept a request, but asks further: what is the question behind the question? Before he starts a project, he first wants a clear picture of the business processes. Only then, in his view, do you really understand what a client needs.

Avinash mainly works on Evver, the application that residents and businesses use to apply for permits for events, hospitality and safety in Rotterdam. Think of a neighbourhood party or a street market, but also opening a restaurant, bar or liquor store. As a developer he gathers requirements from the business and the civil servants who use the application, and makes sure those requirements actually land in the app. Key users get a review of new functionality every two weeks, so the application keeps matching what is needed.

Proud of what you build

Both have a project they are clearly proud of, and in both cases it is something that reaches beyond their own application.

For a permit application, Vinesh built functionality that determines which data may be deleted and which must be retained, depending on laws and regulations. An application may be kept for three years, or five, depending on the type of exemption and the outcome. He did not build that logic as a separate part per step, but as one coherent whole: exemption, vehicle and company data in one go. The result was made generic and is now applied more widely within other Mendix applications of the municipality. "Your baby, in a way," we remarked during the conversation. Vinesh agrees.

Avinash is most proud of the decision tree he built for hospitality permits. Every type of permit, from a terrace permit to a coffeeshop permit, has different rules and requirements. That logic had to be right, otherwise someone might accidentally apply for the wrong thing. It came about through a lot of back-and-forth with the key users: what exactly do you want, and how does it work in practice? That decision tree now runs smoothly, for thousands of applications from entrepreneurs in Rotterdam.

Diverse work, always new challenges

Something else both mention is how much variety fits within a single assignment. Vinesh previously worked on a real estate application for the municipality's buildings. Where the expected income and expenses for those buildings used to be tracked in Excel files of sometimes twenty to thirty thousand rows, split up among individual employees, this now happens in one application. That makes the process not only faster, but also far less error-prone. He now works on Wijk aan Zet, an application for district council members in which plans for the neighbourhood, such as a new playground, are recorded and tracked over a four-year period.

Avinash spends most of his time on Evver, but also maintains VRR, the application of the Rotterdam Safety Region (Veiligheidsregio Rotterdam) that keeps the records of all fire engines, from parts to certifications and roadworthiness inspections. Two very different applications, with equal impact on the organization.

That diversity is exactly what appeals to both of them: as a Mendix developer you are not stuck with one client, one application or one problem. You help build many sides of a municipality, and that keeps the work interesting.

Working for the government asks for something extra

Both developers run into the same kind of challenge: laws and regulations that are a bit more complex than at a regular client. Avinash mentions retention periods for personal data and mandatory accessibility standards such as WCAG, for which the municipality provides training. Vinesh explains how he now knows the privacy rules around data retention so well that he spots them in other projects too: "Then I say, oh wait a moment, you can't just do that."

It is precisely this kind of knowledge that freelance developers build up less quickly through one-off assignments, but that grows naturally in a long-term collaboration. Both Avinash and Vinesh say they picked up that knowledge and way of working partly from each other and from other developers within the municipality.

Never alone, not even at a distance

More than 50 Mendix developers work at Municipality Rotterdam. Vinesh calls that one of the best things about his job: you are never stuck on one project, you continuously learn from others, and there is almost always someone who has run into a similar problem before. Avinash confirms that the team gets together every week to share what everyone is running into, including outside their own team. Not out of obligation, but to keep each other sharp and make work easier.

What stands out in both conversations is that this sense of connection does not stop at the municipality's team. Avinash mentions the Qualogy colleagues he runs into within Rotterdam, even when they are not on the same team. That combination, being fully part of the client's team while keeping a strong bond with Qualogy, is exactly what secondment at Qualogy is all about.

Want to know what it is like to work as a Mendix developer at Qualogy, at a client like Municipality Rotterdam or another organization? Feel free to get in touch, we are happy to tell you more.