Aware that successful business results stem from networking and continuous learning, we organized the first regional study visit to Serbia from September 12 to 16. Besides representatives of the cluster’s executive office, our delegation included member companies: Alicorn, Amplitudo, Bild Studio, AI Solution, Codeus, Oykos Development Hub, Čikom, and Simes Engineering.
Study visits are an ideal opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience. The intensive agenda included visits to numerous IT companies, innovative organizations, and economic entities in Belgrade and Novi Sad, including: BioSense Institute, Vega IT, Zesium, Incubator, Nordeus, Levi9, Schneider Electric, Innovation Fund Belgrade, Nova Iskra, Science and Technology Parks Novi Sad and Belgrade, and the Serbian Games Association.
Our hosts, to whom we owe special thanks and without whom this study visit would not have been so successful, were Nebojša Bjelotomić from “Digital Serbia” and Milan Šolaja from the Vojvodina Cluster.
Below are the main conclusions we drew from this study visit, ranging from the impact of professors in the IT industry, through different content used to motivate employees, to the importance of synergy between industry and academia.
The “Digital Serbia” initiative implements projects focused on developing hybrid work models and close cooperation between academia and industry, aiming to retain teaching assistants who could become professors. This need arose due to low university salaries, and companies are trying to enable professors to spend part of their working time in the industry, gaining experience and earning a dignified income.
At the Novi Sad Business Incubator, they emphasized the importance of teaching with many associations and concrete life examples. Their mentors are mostly professors who strive to awaken interest and transfer knowledge to younger generations. Interestingly, the initiators of this institution were actually three professors.
Given that we live in the era of the “internet generations,” it is necessary to work with professors who can effectively and engagingly transfer knowledge and hold the attention of new generations.
Employee satisfaction is very important if you want to retain them in the company, but this is not always measured only by salary increases. There are many other factors that contribute.
For example, Levi9 pays special attention to various employee activities through sports and social events, while at Schneider Electric, benefits include:
Strengthening work-life balance, transparency, excellent benefits, and more frequent expressions of gratitude help boost employee morale.
When asked how they retain people, Vega IT answered:
At the well-known gaming company Nordeus, care for employees is shown through numerous facilities employees can use to relax when taking breaks from work: recreation rooms, gaming consoles, table tennis, foosball, and even an arcade machine. There’s also a restaurant, cafeterias, a kids club, and many other amenities for employees.
Conclusion: Developing and incentivizing employees costs money but yields results.
… especially for those focused on IT innovations.
Collaboration with the startup community allows companies to keep up with trends and stay in constant contact with new ideas, ways of thinking, and approaches, which later enables companies to better utilize their own resources and technology.
At the Business Incubator in Novi Sad, we received confirmation of the necessity to connect the academic and business communities in order to scale and prepare as many ideas as possible for the market.
Besides providing office spaces at particularly favorable conditions, the Business Incubator also offers mentoring support, monthly consultations, and meetings. A common mistake is that a startup team consists of members from the same profession, so, for example, they know the technology but not the business side.
A very positive aspect is that the Investment Fund has recognized the importance of this issue and has programs to stimulate innovation and provide financial support to innovative startups.
Not all support has to be financial or mentoring. “Nova Iskra” offers an open space where digital nomads and startup enthusiasts gather, work, and exchange experiences and ideas. The belief is that a space without a community is useless, so the strength of the community here is the key benefit.
ICT HUB also provides a space and community where startup enthusiasts and digital nomads gather, meet, and receive consultations, education, and support.
Key takeaway: By supporting the startup ecosystem, new jobs are encouraged to open, talent development is fostered, and generally, promoting entrepreneurial efforts stimulates growth in the IT sector economy as well as the overall economy.
Bonus key takeaway: We noticed that Montenegro does not have a freelancer map.
Here we return to the primary function of technology: improving people’s quality of life.
The BioSense Institute works on improving agriculture and the environment through innovative technical solutions.
Specifically, the software tools they develop perform predictions, preserve biodiversity, optimize yields and business processes in agriculture. A few years ago, based on input data from America, by detecting which seed variety grows best on which micro-location, they developed software that optimally distributes seeds. They also developed software that, based on stem details, detects whether a tomato will spoil within the next 5 days, which would cause faster spoilage of others — a significant benefit for the food industry. They have also conducted analyses of the relationship between people’s movement and land use based on mobile phone location data.
Another example of technology in action was heard from the company HTEC GROUP.
A world-renowned shipping company used to work with an old system — notebooks and mobile phones. This was demanding, inefficient, and prone to errors. HTEC GROUP developed a software platform for them, optimized routes, enabled real-time information about competitor ships’ locations, and determined the optimal pricing to take jobs with maximum profit.
They also developed a mobile ECG device called Humids. It works by placing the mobile phone instead of an ECG device. Based on parameters, it predicts when it is necessary to visit a doctor.
Key takeaway: Software that solves a concrete problem will always be needed by humanity.
Anyone who has worked in an IT company surely knows the phenomenon of neglecting the creative industry in IT development.
However, without creativity there is no content, even in the IT world. In recent years, the need to change communication between engineers and creatives has become increasingly apparent.
The importance of creatives and other experts in IT development has been especially emphasized by Digital Serbia and Nova Iskra. Engineers are there to improve the efficiency of a service or product. However, those who best understand users have “a completely different educational profile and professional experience.”
Perhaps one of the best examples of good creative-engineer combination is visible in the gaming industry, as we witnessed during a visit to the gaming studio Magic DoJo.
Also, recognizing the importance of creativity, Vega IT has grown so much that they created their own spin-off design company.
Bonus takeaway: What was interesting besides this in the company is that the director of Vega IT does not have his own office but changes offices every other week. This way, he spends time with his employees, notices small things, and builds relationships with people.
They adopted this concept from the Dutch and decided to incorporate it into their system.
Regarding expanding the user base, Tenderly knows best how to do it. Their idea started as a startup, but after many discussions with investors who affirmed the idea quality but were not ready to invest, the team decided to independently develop the product.
Tenderly decided to offer a free service, which significantly increased its user network. The situation completely reversed after this.
After one year, with a product that has a user network, investors were the ones trying to cooperate with Tenderly. They raised 60 million euros from investors in one year. When choosing, they had larger financial offers but chose partners with whom they assessed the company would develop best.
Tenderly is also one of the initiators of the “Garage” initiative, a forum of IT company directors in Serbia exchanging knowledge and experience.
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Serbia is a good example of science and industry connection that yields results. The Serbian Prime Minister formed her A team from people at ICT HUB, another organization we visited this time. After the A team listened to ICT entrepreneurs and made changes at the state level, the recorded ICT income in Serbia increased more than tenfold.
Straight from the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, we bring you the fact that Serbia had 2 billion euros in software export value this year and is working on an action plan for AI development.
In the Business Incubator Novi Sad, we were also pointed out the need for good connection between industry and science and that sometimes incompetent staff who are not ready to adapt to changes represent a brake in development.
It is interesting that competitions are considered a good indicator of abilities and are used to spot talent.
Also, a good legal instrument in Serbia is a law allowing shares in a company to be granted if a contractually defined condition is met.
In Montenegro, this is not yet possible, but it is expected very soon.
The positive impact of companies on the entire society is more important than ever. There is a noticeable trend of adopting social responsibility and committing companies to community support.
Socially responsible projects are mostly based on humanitarian actions, ecological projects, support for educational programs, or support for employees in every sense.
During the visit to Vega IT, we noticed they have a very strong role in providing support to the local community. It was especially pleasing to hear from their employees praises and affirmation of such company actions.
As the most well-known company in Novi Sad, recording the highest growth in the last 10 years, they feel responsible to contribute to the world they live in.
We can conclude that we have a lot to learn and look up to our neighbors in Serbia – there is much work ahead to connect the IT sector with academia, public administration, and industry, because only united can we use the potential and face all upcoming challenges. However, we must also highlight the great potential found in our members, who are on a very good path to make Montenegro’s IT sector one of the strongest in the economy.
