In 2010, Marian Skalsky founded Hotovo in Košice, Slovakia. In 2011, a small Australian company called Protecht needed to expand its engineering capacity but couldn’t find the right talent domestically at a cost that made sense.

That first engagement was two developers. Today, Hotovo’s Protecht team is 35+ people spanning development, QA, DevOps, architecture, mobile, and product management. The partnership has survived 15 years, multiple technology shifts, a global pandemic, and the AI revolution. Here is how it evolved.

2011–2013: Building trust with a small team

The initial scope was modest: a small dedicated development team based in Košice, working on Protecht’s core risk management platform. The first task was establishing credibility. We placed a local product owner in the Slovak team to bridge time zones and translate business requirements into technical specifications. This proxy PO role became the foundation of how we operate with every distributed team engagement.

Within two years, the team’s responsibilities expanded from pure development to include requirement analysis, change request processing, and technical architecture proposals — with final approvals remaining on Protecht’s side.

2014–2018: Taking ownership

As trust deepened, the boundaries of what Hotovo owned expanded. We took charge of new feature development, platform support and maintenance, and release management. When Protecht’s clients increasingly demanded mobile access, we established a dedicated mobile sub-team focused on native iOS and Android applications.

Hotovo also took responsibility for hiring additional personnel directly, building a talent pipeline specifically for the Protecht program. This is a key differentiator of a true dedicated team model: the partner doesn’t just provide bodies — they own the entire talent lifecycle.

2019–2023: Certifications and compliance

Protecht operates in a regulated space. Their clients — governments, regulators, financial institutions — require vendors to meet strict security and quality standards. When Protecht achieved ISO 27001 certification, Hotovo followed suit, aligning our processes to meet the same information security standards.

We subsequently added ISO 9001 (quality management) and ISTQB certification for our QA team. These certifications were not marketing exercises. They were requirements for continuing to serve the Protecht program and, by extension, Protecht’s end clients.

2024–2025: AI-assisted modernization

The most recent chapter of the partnership involves the migration of Protecht’s entire frontend to a modern React stack, using AI code assistants to achieve a 60%+ boost in developer efficiency. We documented this process in detail in a separate article. The migration runs in parallel with continued feature development — the team ships new capabilities while simultaneously modernizing the foundation.

The AI tool selection was done collaboratively, with Hotovo evaluating security, compliance, and output quality before rolling tools out to the full 10-developer migration team.

What makes a 15-year partnership work

Partnerships of this duration do not survive on contracts. They survive on compounding trust. A few structural factors have kept this one alive:

1. Gradual scope expansion. We started with code. We now own architecture, QA, DevOps, mobile, and process. Each expansion was earned, not negotiated.
2. Transparent communication. Both sides flag problems early. We do not hide bad news or oversell progress.
3. Investment in people. The core team members have been on the Protecht program for years. This continuity is irreplaceable.
4. Shared certification. Meeting the same security and quality standards as the client eliminates friction in regulated environments.

"Hotovo has been an integral part of the product development and the success of the application. It’s a partnership. It’s really not a typical outsourcing arrangement." — Peter Walker, CTO at Protecht

"I’ve been very impressed at their openness to innovate, their openness to collaborate." — Matt Hyne, CTO at Protecht

The average duration of Hotovo’s client partnerships is over 6 years. The Protecht relationship is the longest, but it’s not unique in character. If you’re looking for a partner who stays, reach out at sales@hotovo.com.