For the CIO / CTO
Your core IP sits with someone else
- Vendor lock-in on strategic systems
- Know-how lives in the heads of external consultants
- Shadow IT and inconsistent delivery quality
- No real control over roadmap and architecture
Build · Operate · Transfer
Build Your Tech Hub in Porto. More Skills. Lower Costs. Full Digital Sovereignty. In 24 Months.
In the end, the complete Hub belongs to you. No outsourcing, no body leasing, 50% cost reduction, 100% competences inhouse, 100% Digital Sovereignty.
45 minutes · no commitment · You decide after the call whether we move forward
[ Klaus portrait · video still ]
Video · Klaus direct
Why classic outsourcing is no longer enough for Enterprise IT.
Klaus Straub · 02:47 min · English
Trusted by Enterprise Leaders
The Starting Point
Your IT leadership has three problems — Outsourcing solves none of them.
If you are an enterprise with 1,000+ employees and your software today is partly built in Poland, India, or through body-leasing agencies, you will likely recognise one of these patterns.
For the CFO
Costs rise, value contribution doesn't
- Day rates climb every year — with no transfer
- Hidden overheads, travel costs, change requests
- No TCO model, just FTE price tags
- ROI proof for the board becomes a drama
For the CEO / COO
You're building dependency, not capability
- Every vendor switch costs 12+ months of ramp-up
- Digital initiatives are never really "done"
- Competitors are building their own tech muscle
- Time-to-market becomes a structural problem
The BOT Model
Build. Operate. Transfer.
BOT is nearshoring without the outsourcing trap. We are neither an outsourcing vendor nor a body-leaser — we build your Tech Hub in Porto with your brand name, your culture and your processes, and hand it over to you completely after the Operate phase. Legally, operationally, technically.
| Outsourcing / Body Leasing | In-house build in DE | xelerate.tech · BOT (Nearshore) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ownership of team & IP | × With the vendor | ✓ With you | ✓ With you — after transfer |
| Time to 20+ productive developers | 2–4 months (resource leasing) | 18–36 months (DE labour market) | 6–12 months |
| Cost level per seat (vs. DE) | ~30–40% lower, rising over time | 100% (reference) | 50–60% lower |
| Legal structure | Mostly Eastern European, outsourcing contract | German employment law | DE-PT hybrid |
| Exit strategy | × Vendor lock-in | n/a | ✓ Transfer is the plan, not the emergency |
| Digital Sovereignty (EU, GDPR) | Depends on vendor location | ✓ Full | ✓ EU-only |
What's in it for you
Three stakeholders in the buying centre — three clean business cases.
A BOT decision is rarely made by a single person. Here's what CIO, CFO and CEO each get concretely out of the model.
Digital Sovereignty, restored.
You get a team that belongs to you — with your architecture, your standards, your roadmap.
- Your own legal entity in Portugal — no vendor construct
- Your tools, your tech stack, your quality gates
- IP sits with you from day one, not with us
- Code, data and processes EU-sovereign
50–60% lower costs — with a clean TCO.
Not just day-rate arbitrage. A fully modelled business case with real savings levers and a clear ROI path.
- Transparent TCO calculation per seat, incl. overhead
- First cost-center results after the first weeks
- ROI presentable to the board in year one
- Fixed costs drop after transfer — no vendor ratchet
Strategic in-house capability, reclaimed.
Digitalisation becomes a competitive advantage again — not a budget line that grows every year.
- Build-up in 6–12 months instead of 18–36
- eNPS 92 — stable team, low attrition
- References: Kühne&Nagel, ISS, markant, Orise, AVL, techem
- Transfer is contractually fixed — no lock-in
TCO — Total Cost of Ownership
The complete cost of an IT team over its entire lifecycle — not just day rates or salaries, but including recruiting, onboarding, office, tools, management overhead, attrition and hidden side costs. Exactly the items most outsourcing offers leave out.
Cost Comparison · Soft Entry
What does your Tech Hub cost — compared to today?
2 minutes, 5 questions. No email required. You get a realistic TCO calculation for 20, 50 or 100 developers — Germany vs. Porto, including all overheads.
Your estimate
Live- Annual cost DE (fully loaded)
- —
- Annual cost Porto (fully loaded)
- —
- Build investment (year 1)
- —
- Operate fee (year 1)
- —
- Savings year 1
- —
5-year savings (estimate)
—
Typical 5-year savings: € 8–12 M. Exact figures depend on seniority mix and specialisation.
Success stories with numbers
We don't just talk about BOT — we've delivered it 5 times.
Three examples of enterprise customers who today run their own Tech Hub in Porto — built by us, handed over to them.
Witzenmann
Modernizing Engineering Platforms with Witzenmann
Through a Build-Operate-Transfer model, xelerate.tech is helping Witzenmann build a high-performing engineering team in Porto to develop its next-generation Product Experience Platform. The solution connects engineering, ERP, and CRM systems, creating a scalable digital foundation that improves efficiency, collaboration, and customer experience.
Welthungerhilfe
Leveraging tech excellence to amplify social impact
xelerate.tech and Welthungerhilfe (WHH) are partnering to establish a new Tech Hub in Porto, leveraging SAP S/4HANA to accelerate digital transformation and improve operational efficiency. The initiative aims to strengthen WHH's capacity to deliver social impact and advance its mission to achieve Zero Hunger on a Healthy Planet.
Techem
Building Techem’s Digital Future Together
Techem and xelerate.tech are partnering to transform the technology backbone of one of Europe’s largest IoT ecosystems, building resilient, cloud-native platforms and high-performing teams that will support Techem’s international operations.
In their own words
What our clients say about working with us .
The numbers tell one story — the people who lived the journey tell another. Here is what enterprise leaders say about building their Tech Hub with xelerate.tech.
-
xelerate.tech has proven to be more than a service provider. Beyond recruitment, they've fostered a collaborative work environment and maintained high team spirit. Their ongoing support in team management and cross-cultural communication has resulted in a cohesive, high-performing team that consistently delivers outstanding results despite the geographical distance from our German headquarters.
Matthias Fischer
CEO · Orise
-
At AVL Software and Functions GmbH, partnering with Xelerate.Tech has been key to advancing our technological capabilities. Their expertise has not only supported our software and cybersecurity goals but also played a vital role in establishing our Development Center in Porto. This collaboration has been built on trust and a shared commitment to innovation, enabling us to achieve critical milestones and expand our global reach.
Georg Schwab
CEO · AVL Software and Function GmbH
-
For us, as a German company specializing in SAP solutions, partnering with xelerate.tech has been a great experience. They've expertly guided us through building our IT Hub in Porto, Portugal, connecting us with top-tier SAP consultants and developers who possess excellent technical skills and align perfectly with our company culture. Their expertise in the Portuguese job market and deep understanding of SAP ecosystems have given us a significant competitive edge.
Andreas Grupp
CEO · Orise
-
We proudly celebrate the successful completion of our collaboration with xelerate.tech in establishing our Technology Center in Porto. In less than two years, we've transformed an idea into a thriving hub with 65 talented tech professionals at 'The Place.' A big thank you to Klaus Straub and the xelerate.tech team for your exceptional collaboration, dedication, and relentless commitment to making this vision a reality.
Markus Sontheimer
Group CIDO (CIO/CDO) · ISS World Services
Leadership Insight
[ Klaus Straub portrait ]
Klaus Straub
Co-Founder & Co-CEO
For 30 years I've sat in the board rooms of German industrial corporations and seen what's really missing: not more vendors, not more slides — but in-house teams that stay.
Klaus Straub was CIO at BMW, Audi and HELLA — and in those roles experienced first-hand where classical outsourcing fails. xelerate.tech is the answer to three decades of that experience: an end-to-end tech partner who earns not from dependency, but from transfer.
- Ex-CIO BMW Group
- Ex-CIO AUDI AG
- Ex-CIO HELLA
- Board Member
Why Porto
A tech ecosystem that works.
EU employment law, GDPR jurisdiction, strong English and German language skills at universities, low attrition, and an engineering talent pool that has grown by 320% over the last 7 years. Porto is not an "offshore location". Porto is a European engineering hub.
- 23K
- Tech talents in the region
- 755
- Tech companies with offices in Porto
- 421
- Tech HQs in Porto
- 67
- New tech startups per year
How we get there
12 months. Three phases. One goal: your hub.
We work along a clearly structured roadmap. At the end stands the complete handover — team, processes, entity. No grey zone, no "ongoing managed service".
- 1
Month 0 – 6
Build
Requirements analysis, recruiting from the Porto talent pool, setup of infrastructure, tools, processes and your culture. Team is productive.
- 2
Month 6 – 18
Operate
We run the hub alongside your teams, with full transparency, solid engineering standards, and your product ownership.
- 3
Month 12 – 24
Transfer
Complete handover: legal entity, team contracts, tools, IP. We step back — the hub belongs to you.
What we're often asked
The questions we hear in the first call.
How does BOT really differ from classic outsourcing?
Outsourcing and body-leasing agencies rent developers out to you — you pay day rates, the vendor remains the owner of the staff, the contracts, and often the IP. In the BOT model we build the team under your brand and culture in Porto, operate it jointly, and then hand it over in full ownership to you — including the legal entity. It is nearshoring you actually own: transfer is the goal, not the emergency.
Are the 50–60% savings realistic, or just marketing?
They are based on a fully-loaded TCO comparison — not day-rate arbitrage. We model recruiting, onboarding, office, tooling, management overhead and attrition for a German team versus a Porto hub. Typical 5-year savings land in the € 8–12 M range, with exact figures depending on seniority mix and specialisation.
What happens if we decide not to take over the hub in the end?
Transfer is the plan, but you are never locked in. During the Operate phase you keep full transparency over team, costs and IP, and you decide whether and when to take over. There is no penalty construct designed to trap you — the model only works if the handover is genuinely in your interest.
What specific role does the German contract structure play?
The commercial relationship is governed by clear German-law contracts, while the team itself is employed under Portuguese (EU) employment law inside your own entity. That combination gives you legal certainty on the commercial side and a clean, EU-sovereign employment structure that transfers cleanly to you.
Does this also work for Embedded / Automotive / SAP specialists?
Yes. The Porto talent pool spans automotive software, embedded and cybersecurity (as with AVL), cloud and platform engineering, data and AI, as well as enterprise stacks like SAP. We recruit against your specific seniority and specialisation profile rather than a generic developer pool.
How does the first call with Klaus actually work?
It's a 45-minute call, no commitment. Klaus listens to your current setup and challenges, shares where classical outsourcing tends to fail, and gives an honest read on whether BOT fits. You decide afterwards whether we move forward — nothing is sold on the call itself.
The next step
Three ways to start the conversation.
For every role in the buying centre, there's a fitting entry point. Choose whichever matches your current question.