First people, then data. 5th anniversary of SoftServe in Poland

SoftServe, one of the biggest technological companies in the world, bets on Poland. This is where it develops its activity within the field of Big Data and DevOps, and hires data analysis and migration specialists.

They have been active on the Polish market since 2014, when their first office in Wrocław was established. They now hire about 400 employees in five locations – apart from Wrocław also in Gliwice, Białystok, Warsaw and Poznań. Their team consists of programmers, architects, IT testers, business analysts or project managers.

In our everyday work, we use latest technologies. We modify and optimize the way in which enterprises all over the world conduct their business activity. We have experts in the field of Big Data, IoT, Machine Learning, DevOps, Cloud, e-commerce or UX – says Paweł Łopatka, Managing Director at SoftServe Poland.

For SoftServe, 2019 was the year of dynamic growth. The company won the title of the fastest developing technological enterprise in Poland, awarded by the Pro Progressio Foundation within the framework of the Outsourcing Stars competition. What is more, a few months ago the Wrocław branch of the company moved to a modern CU Office building at Jaworska Street.

SoftServe team grew so much that it was necessary to rent bigger space. It is a perfect summary of our presence for slightly longer than 5 years on the Polish market. We bet on people, building the team of experienced experts and visionaries and the awareness that such individuals want to work with us, constitutes for us great motivation for further action – says Agnieszka B. Dąbrowska, Director of the SoftServe Poland Wrocław branch.

We are lucky to work in the industry which is constantly developing and can manage quite well also in the era of crisis. The demand for modern IT services is a fact all the time – explains Paweł Łopatka.

LEADER IN THE FIELD OF BIG DATA

SoftServe is an international company with its seats in Lviv in Ukraine and Austin in Texas. But Poland is the country where the company wants to develop the field of Big Data, extending its team mainly with data analysis and migration specialists.

Why is this field of modern technologies developing the fastest? Applying Big Data, IoT or Machine Learning in order to use the data in an appropriate way provides companies all over the world with tangible financial benefits and builds their competitive advantage. It thus should not be a surprise that on a global scale, already 53% of enterprises are using Big Data and 80% of them confirm important advantages resulting from undertaking such steps. Business bets on data analysis, which makes Big Data market grow (by 18% in 2018) and it can soon be worth as much as 77 million dollars.

Data is the source of knowledge which can be useful in commercial activities or protect against loss. It is nowadays used by many different entities, in particular the financial sector, but also medicine, media or manufacturing industry.

One of the most interesting projects we worked on concerned a huge open pit mining. Special sensors have been installed in the wheels of the trucks that transported the raw materials on the premises of the mine, indicating the location of the vehicle and measuring, among other things, the speed and tyre pressure. When a truck was approaching an obstacle, e.g. a larger stone, these parameters changed. This information was collected in the cloud and analysed on an ongoing basis. If there was a change in similar parameters for several trucks in a given place, we knew that there was an obstacle on their route that needed to be removed. In this way, we were able to prevent accidents and breakdowns, avoiding work stoppages and, consequently, huge financial losses – explains Adam Wiszniewski, Big Data Technical Leader at SoftServe.

NEW MARKETS AND NEW CLIENTS

Among the clients of the company there are international corporations and enterprises, mainly from Silicon Valley and Europe. New technologies emerging on the market create the demand for new competencies and tools, especially in traditional banking. It opens the door for cooperation opportunities for such companies as SoftServe with the FinTech branch.

We cooperate with financial centres and banks all over Europe. Especially for them we create for example the solutions supporting risk management and making it possible to maximize profit. We want them to be scalable and easy to implement within the future management scheme within the organization – says Paweł Łopatka, Managing Director at SoftServe Poland.

In 2019 the company decided also to develop in Southeastern Asia, opening to the clients from Singapore, Malaysia or Indonesia.

We are gradually opening to new markets, mainly in Asia, as in these countries we notice huge business potential. We are aware of the fact that the diversity of this region – both economic as well as cultural – is considerable. But we wish to benefit from it. As an organization we are in possession of the knowledge and solutions which on one hand satisfy the needs of highly developed countries, but on the other may support technological transformation of countries with growing economy – Paweł Łopatka explains.

NOT ONLY BUSINESS, BUT ALSO CONSTANT IMPROVEMENT

For the companies, the development of their staff is what matters most. They consider the opportunity to act with the use of the latest technologies in ambitious and demanding projects as the greatest benefit for their staff. SoftServe also offers very precise career paths.

We have developed a special system based on a career map. Each of the employees is literally able to “click through” their career development path on this map, check the criteria necessary to get promoted, the date of the upcoming staff evaluation as well as find the materials necessary to prepare for this evaluation – says Agnieszka B. Dąbrowska, Director of the SoftServe Poland Wrocław branch.

So called Centres of Excellence also function within the organization, concentrating experts in a given domain, e.g. Big Data or Data Science. The task of those who contact them is to support both the client as well as their colleagues from other teams, mainly within initial project stages.

We analyse clients’ needs, develop solution prototypes and forward to the staff responsible for implementing the solution. We also constantly support them with our knowledge – explains Adam Wiszniewski, Big Data Technical Leader at SoftServe Poland. – I work in a dynamic environment, often changing the project, client or domain, which stimulates the development of my career. This dynamic makes me able to share my experience and knowledge with a bigger number of companies – he adds.

The company is also proud of its internal educational projects, implemented within the framework of so called SoftServe University, the opportunity to work from different locations all over the world or its unique, non-corporate atmosphere.

SoftServe is the official technological partner among others of Amazon Web Services or Google Cloud Platform.