From a small software company to a successful million-dollar software house (Forbes Slovakia)

A small dark office on the outskirts of the city and a few enthusiasts who liked to hammer away at the keyboard. That's how you could sum up CODERAMA's beginnings in 2006. Today, the company has offices in five Slovakian cities, more than one hundred and fifty technical employees and, despite the crisis, a growing turnover that reached 7.6 million euros in 2022. Company owners Matej Štafurik and Daniel Beke talk about how they made it, CEO Matej Facuna and COO Ján Tinák talk about the current situation and future plans.

Introducing CODERAMA. What services can clients find with you?

M. F.: CODERAMA is a software house specialising in high-quality technical outsourcing. We offer our programming, analysis and testing resources to clients in Slovakia and abroad. We treat each client individually, fairly and flexibly. We can quickly provide our clients with individual staff or a whole team of experts who can cover all phases of a project from design to maintenance. We are "full stack", we have specialists in technologies such as Java, . NET, React, Angular, automated and manual testers. As we say ourselves, "We are not experts in everything, but we have experts in everything."

What was the first impulse to create CODERAMA?

M. Š.: During my career as a developer, people from the companies I worked for asked me if I knew any other developers as smart as me. This clearly pointed out the lack of Slovak IT outsourcing and the hole in the market, so I founded CODERAMA in 2006. The company gradually grew, and in 2016 Daniel Beke joined me as a co-owner and we started to develop it further.

What is your favourite moment from the beginning and why?

D. B.: I don't have a specific moment, it's more of a feeling. Before I came to CODERAMA, I worked as a developer in different companies, and I worked in each company for a year at most. When I started at CODERAMA as a developer, it was only after two years that I realised how long I had been here, and that was unique for me. I had the feeling that I was in the right place with the right people, that the company had a firm moral compass and was worth investing in.

You've grown from a small company to a million-dollar company. What is the secret ingredient you owe your success to?

D. B.: Behind every success there is always hard work, quality and the ability to adapt to a given situation. That's why it's very important what kind of people you surround yourself with. It may sound like a cliché, but the secret ingredient is our people. We owe where we are now to them. They are the ambassadors of CODERAMA, we put them first. We create teams that are compatible not only in terms of professionalism but also personalities. Because a happy and well-matched team is stable, flexible and, above all, productive.

IT outsourcing is used by more and more companies. Why is CODERAMA the ideal partner for cooperation?

M. Š.: We save our clients the time and cost they would need to hire and train their own quality IT specialists. We have many years of experience in different areas and cooperation proposals. We approach each client individually and fairly. We care about the quality of our experts, which is why only thirteen percent of our candidates make it through all rounds of the interview process.

You have more than a hundred successful projects in your portfolio. Which big clients have you had the chance to work with and what did it bring you?

J. T.: We build long-term partnerships. Every cooperation takes us to the next level, which makes CODERAMA a valuable player in the IT sphere. That's why we value the cooperation with each of our clients. In fintech we can mention for example CRIF, UNIQA, ČSOB. In e-commerce we work for NOTINO, the most successful company on the Czechoslovak market, in the automotive sector we participate in projects for Škoda Auto and in the telecommunications sector, we are the IT partner of Slovak Telekom.

Your people are among the top IT people in Slovakia. What is your company culture and why do people want to work for you?

J. T.: An important criterion in the selection process is not only professionalism, but also the human side. If a person doesn't fit our personality, we'd rather not take him. Together we set up an environment at work where we feel at home. We motivate our employees especially by forming a team of the best. In addition to various "standard" benefits, events and teambuilding, we also do non-standard ones, such as work & travel to interesting parts of the world, a cruise in Croatia or the opportunity to use a company camper van in Iceland for employees and their families.

What are the main benefits of IT outsourcing?

D. B.: It is important to remember that every project is unique, and I don't want to generalize, but I will mention the most important ones from my experience. When you have the right IT outsourcing setup, you can get several benefits right away, such as: implementation efficiency will increase, you may see cost reductions compared to an in-house model, lower ongoing investments in hardware, software and administrative space, the ability to flexibly change the capacity of the IT team, access to innovation and easier entry into new markets. A well-configured IT outsourcing model can also adapt in that, for example, you can keep project management in-house, which many of our clients take advantage of, and there is room for flexible strategic planning. For example, do you need to reduce the development time on a project? In some cases, you can have the capacity of an external team already secured from the next month. The benefits of IT outsourcing are many and every company will find their own.

What are CODERAMA's plans and ambitions for the future?

M. F.: We are trusted by major players in the domestic and foreign markets, so our goal continues to be to help our partners develop software solutions that exceed their expectations. Our ambition is to become a leader in IT outsourcing, to continue to build long-term partnerships and to be the natural first choice for both current and future clients. Inside the company, our plan is to continue to build a family atmosphere based on trust, accountability and freedom.

 

Original article link: https://www.forbes.sk/z-malej-softverovej-firmy-uspesny-milionovy-software-house/?fbclid=IwAR3vd4OEQP__rE0noP7QSQScedNVzWB76okgdL2F_rTULoNRsO5y7raYF3o