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June 05, 2024

Visma develops new code up to 50 percent faster with GitHub Copilot and Azure DevOps

Software development can be a time-consuming and labor-intensive process. Coders at Visma, a software company headquartered in Oslo, have to conquer a wide array of challenges as they develop and test software for a diverse collection of customer organizations. The company recently adopted GitHub Copilot, Microsoft Azure DevOps, and Microsoft Visual Studio. Soon thereafter, employees began developing new code as much as 50 percent faster, which has contributed to increased customer retention, faster time to market, and increased revenue.

Visma

The software developed by the 188 individual entrepreneurial companies that together make up Oslo-based Visma simplifies and automates complex, labor-intensive work processes in order to enrich the everyday working lives of people all around the world. One Visma company, Tripletex, develops a comprehensive suite of web-based accounting software. Each Visma company similarly specializes for its own customers and domain, but they are unified by their commitment to delivering bespoke, top-quality solutions to the 1.8 million customers across the public sector and private industry that rely on them. To do this, the company’s developers must conquer a wide array of challenges, including the creation of code for diverse domain types, ensuring the security and reliability of their code, and keeping up with the latest technologies and best practices. And they also need to write, test, and debug their code in the shortest time possible, thereby delivering high-quality solutions that delight customers at an accelerated pace.

To assist its developers in this monumental task, Visma regularly makes sure they have access to the best development tools available. For this reason, the company recently adopted GitHub Copilot, Microsoft Azure DevOps, and Microsoft Visual Studio in addition to its existing suite of Microsoft and GitHub solutions. “In the long run, you’re losing out if you don’t make use of the best tools available,” says Jan Strandbakke, Head of Development and CTO of Tripletex, a Visma company. “The world is embracing AI, so adopting GitHub Copilot was the obvious choice for us.”

Infusing the development process with GenAI

Leadership at Visma started their evaluation process with GitHub Copilot, noting that it is not only very well-suited to their needs but is a market leader powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, which speaks to the solution’s capabilities and quality. As many developers across its contingent companies frequently write in C# and SQL Plus, Visual Studio became an obvious first-choice solution as well. When used with Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code, GitHub Copilot offers real-time autocomplete suggestions, advanced completions, and can answer a wide range of coding-related questions on topics such as syntax, programming concepts, test cases, debugging, and more. This reduces context-switching and allows Visma developers to maintain their developer flow for longer periods.

Visma developers can also view and incorporate these suggestions directly within the editor. This helps tremendously when a project incorporates boilerplate code, which can be automatically incorporated in seconds. By alleviating the tedium of this task, developers can focus on the more complex problem-solving and ideation elements of their work, which often leads to more eloquent solutions. “Visual Studio Code already helps me focus immensely by organizing the view I have of my code,” says Kristian Glendrange, Team Lead at Tripletex. “When you pair GitHub Copilot with it, it’s even more impressive. The boilerplate is taken care of, and I can instead focus on what’s important.”

Today, when Visma employees begin to create the front-end, or the user interface of a web application, they can pick from a selection of editors, including Visual Studio. “More and more, our developers are migrating to a micro front-end development approach,” says Glendrange. “Almost everyone adapting to that approach chooses Visual Studio Code. It makes their work easier."

Everything Visma developers create in GitHub can next be automatically pushed to Azure Pipelines, the continuous integration and continuous delivery platform within Azure DevOps, where numerous automated checks run against the code to find any errors and vulnerabilities. From there, developers can push their code to a wide variety of environments, speeding the overall development process. “Getting the little green check mark in Azure DevOps is great,” says Benjamin Buan, System Developer on the Data Science and Optimization team at Visma. “It’s very efficient, very nice to work with.”

Making room for creativity and innovation

Shortly after adoption, Visma held a hackathon that encouraged its developers to go hands-on with GitHub Copilot and Azure OpenAI Service. Throughout the day, employees tested the solution’s functionality. They showcased their most innovative creations later that night. “Even developers that hadn’t immediately seen the need for GenAI in their workspace saw how much it helped their coworkers that day,” recalls Buan. “We got a lot of good feedback from the hackathon, and since then we’ve had the majority of our workforce give GitHub Copilot a try.”

Glendrange has observed a similar adoption story for members of his team, who have already incorporated GitHub Copilot into their work. “GitHub Copilot feels a bit like magic,” he says. “We were stunned initially, but really quickly thereafter the speed boosts and problem-solving aid it generates became a part of our day-to-day work.” Whether its employees are junior developers learning the ropes or seasoned professionals working in coding languages they are less familiar with, Visma is seeing wide-ranging efficiency gains thanks to best practices, new ideas, and guidance shared through GitHub Copilot.

Buan, who has recently used GitHub Copilot while working in C++, which he is less familiar with, was impressed with the level of aid the solution provides. “We have an idiosyncratic code style, and GitHub Copilot understands it,” he notes. “It’s not just looking up documentation; it’s helping you work in languages, code styles, and repositories that it would otherwise be challenging to adapt to.” As the company’s adoption of GenAI continues, Buan believes these benefits will soon be shared by a broad spectrum of Visma employees, from developers and quality assurance personnel to product specialists and management teams. “Generative AI is a nice companion to have,” he explains. “It's not taking anything away. You still have full control. You just have a wider array of suggestions to consider as you go about your work.”

Even those working on projects they are highly familiar with have seen improvement, as Visma reports as much as a 50 percent reduction in development times. Overall, developers who use the solution very often write code faster and with fewer errors. “GitHub Copilot is a good idea generator and a great sparring partner,” says Buan. “It’s easy to get stuck in your ways, but even among our developers who’ve been working on the same code for 30 years now, we're seeing a wellspring of innovation since adoption.” The company’s customers seem to agree. Since adopting Github Copilot, Visma has already seen an increase in customer retention and satisfaction, faster time to market, and expanded revenue and market share.

Find out more about Visma on X, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

“GitHub Copilot is a good idea generator and a great sparring partner. It’s easy to get stuck in your ways, but even among our developers who’ve been working on the same code for 30 years now, we're seeing a wellspring of innovation since adoption.”

Benjamin Buan, System Developer - Data Science and Optimization Team, Visma

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