Everything in the Universe has its own story – people, animals, things… the Universe itself has a story. And usually, it all starts with one sparkle, one idea to make things better, or ease people’s lives. 2020 has been all about going back to our roots, to the basics, to who we are, and how we have started. Thus, before entering 2021, we decided to share the story of ⋮IW or the idea behind our company.
Connecting to the world
It all started back in 2004, on one cold Monday morning, in one small city in North Macedonia – Bitola, when a group of enthusiastic programmers, set together and started writing the history of IWConnect The place was so small, and looked like a garage, but actually, it wasn’t. It was just a small space on the ground floor, and it definitely didn’t have the smell of a garage. It had the smell of creativity and optimism. We turned on our desktop computers (laptops, as we know them today, were still not invented) and connected to the Internet via our Dial-Up modem… And we connected to America!!! We had an optimistic idea to do programming for America (afterward we learned that Outsourcing is the proper name for that activity).
We knew programmers from China and India were already in the market, but we were confident in our abilities and vision. A small team of top experts with a great vision and strong programming backgrounds started this journey. Our idea was that IT has limitless possibilities and, if leveraged properly, can lead to tremendous business growth. And that is how it all started.
Connecting to TIBCO Business Works and expanding
In the beginning, we worked with technologies that were not mainstream in our city or country: Java, WebLogic Server, and Oracle as a database backend. The product we started building relied on TIBCO, marking our first encounter with this stellar technology. It soon became the basis of the InterWorks brand, along with Java. We were the only ones dealing with TIBCO Business Works in the region, and we were extremely proud of it.
Realizing the potential of TIBCO BW and the numerous other technologies we could learn and use to provide value to our clients, we had to expand our team. Within the first six months, our office size grew significantly, posing the challenge of finding a new office. This led to our first office expansion. We moved from a “garage” to a nice office in the heart of Bitola. The atmosphere remained warm, creative, and positive.
Learn, Grow, Inspire, Connect, Succeed
Our thirst for knowledge and contribution has always been high. Working in a constantly changing industry, we realized that the educational system did not meet the market or our clients’ needs. So, we collaborated with an educational center, sponsoring 15 candidates to learn Java development and later explore Enterprise Data Integration. Some of them joined our company after completing the course. We have kept this practice of teaching, learning, growing, sharing knowledge, and contributing to all those that want to learn even today via our ⋮IW Education Center (IWEC).
Fast forward to 2007 and the global financial crisis
In 2007, our technology portfolio expanded to include Hibernate, Ajax, DWR (Direct Web Remoting), WebLogic Portal, and Fuego BPM. During this year, a client from the US visited our small yet impactful company focused on knowledge and providing outstanding value to clients. We believe in connecting with clients both online and offline.
Within four years, our employee count exceeded 50, necessitating another office expansion. We moved to our current location shortly after. Despite the 2007-2008 global financial crisis closing down many companies, we remained steady and thriving without losing any projects or employees. We are grateful to everyone who supported us during this period. Once the crisis ended, the market flourished again, and we continued growing and expanding. By 2009, our QA services, especially our Extended Unit Testing (EUT) model, saw great expansion.
Networking and collaboration
Once the world recovered, we signed a memorandum for collaboration with the University in Bremen and started working on the Micro B3 project, financed by the EU. The project’s main objective was to create an integrative database, open to researchers worldwide, featuring innovative tools for data analysis and a legal framework for genome-based environmental research. It was exciting to be part of such a project.
Towards the end of our first decade, IWConnect became a Microsoft Gold Partner with full-stack developers, numerous libraries, participation in the open-source community, and certifications. We also participated in many conferences and organized social gatherings, including mountain climbing. We weren’t just developers but also nature lovers and sports enthusiasts.
Throughout this period, we have also been part of a lot of conferences, and we have organized social gatherings which included mountain climbing – Pelister, Jakupica, Solunska Glava, Vigla, and many others were easily conquered. We weren’t just developers, but also nature lovers and sports people, something which usually doesn’t go together.
Ten years went by in a flash. Challenges, happy moments, difficult times, projects, new technologies, new friendships, social gatherings, events… painted the picture of ⋮IW and we were ready for the next period.
Major Changes at ⋮IW
They say change is inevitable, but growth is optional. The world we live in is dynamic and ever-changing. To survive, we must be flexible and ready to adapt to marketplace changes. The first decade established a solid ground for InterWorks to grow and prosper, leading to the next five years focused on improvements to deliver exponential value to our clients. Here are some highlights:
Partnerships
Enterprise Data Integration with TIBCO BW has been our foundation. Given our clients’ diverse needs, we added another integration platform, SnapLogic, in 2015. A year later, we started using MuleSoft to optimize and maximize clients’ businesses.
In 2016, we became an official Atlassian Solution Partner and licensed seller of Atlassian products. Our goal was to provide solutions for every specific client need. Besides Atlassian, we also explored ServiceNow and Salesforce.
In September 2018, we renewed our Microsoft partnership, gaining an additional gold competency for Data Platform. A year later, we added a gold competency for DevOps, totaling four Gold competencies. In 2018, we also became partners with Inflectra and XRay to ensure faster and quality software development.
People & Offices
To continue providing exponential value, we needed to grow in terms of technology and people. In 2018, our employee count exceeded 100, leading us to open a second office in Prilep, North Macedonia. The following year, we opened an office in Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia, and soon expanded to the Dutch market with an office in Amsterdam.
⋮IW Education Center
Educating young individuals and employing them in our company is proven to be the best solution to the recruiting problems in the IT industry. Thus, following our well-established and long practice of sharing knowledge, we opened our ⋮IW Education Center in 2019. Within the first year of operating, more than 100 students enrolled, 70% got employed in the IT sector out of which 50% are employed at ⋮IW. Working at full speed, our IWEC offers courses in different areas in IT – integration, .NET development, quality assurance, project management, etc.
And this is not everything, during these 5 years we have changed a lot, expanded in a great deal, we had some of the greatest team-building events and visits to conferences and more. In 2019 we had our 15 years anniversary party as well, where we reflected on our beginnings, achievements, happy and sad moments, and set the tone for the next period.
To be continued to…2020 at ⋮IW
