Codica’s Adventures in 2021: End-Year Review

Another year is coming to an end. So, it’s time to reminisce about what was special about 2021.

This article will describe how the Codica Team spent 2021 - how we worked, partied and what results we achieved.

Fasten your seat belts and let’s go!

Codica team grew to 50+ employees

2021 was truly a brand new start for Codica.

We are proud to share that our team grew to 54 experts.

In 2021 we started multiple complex projects, which required more staff to cover all the requirements, so we hired qualified specialists for these needs. It’s worth mentioning that it doesn’t only mean technical experts, but we expanded our project management, recruitment and marketing teams as well.

We are confident that a strong team is the key to building successful products, and are happy to welcome everyone on board.

The beginning of the year was marked by another huge event - a move to a new office which is a larger space that has everything you need for comfortable work and good rest.

Successfully launched complex software products

We have worked very hard throughout 2021 and successfully launched projects which included such services:

We put our heart and soul into each of our projects, multiple hours of analysis, coding, and phone calls with clients. And that is because we all have one goal - to make the world a better and more convenient place with the help of user-friendly digital products.

For instance, we helped the most popular African news portal Duma to scale the existing solution and improve customer experience in the media market. Since the local Internet in Africa is slow, we improved the page load speed time by two times on mobile devices. We have done a great job of optimizing the site and helped our client’s business grow.

Also, we created a dental portal to help the Israeli dental imaging center switch to digital referrals management. At first, we created a minimum viable product, and when our client got feedback from early users, the Codica team helped with developing the dental portal to a fully functional solution.

Moreover, our team succeeded in creating a recruiting Progressive Web Application to help recruiters and companies quickly hire staff members worldwide.

Other examples of our projects are the custom job matching website Wowner and the online marketplace PlanMyKids.

Let’s take a closer look at the PlanMyKids solution, which allows busy parents to plan and book after-school activities for their kids. The Codica team started working on PlanMyKids from scratch and managed this project from the discovery stage to delivery. Finally, our client was able to test their idea with minimum investment, as the product was delivered under budget.

We are proud of our projects and are happy to receive positive feedback from our customers. For example, we were glad to receive the first video review from our client David Watkins, founder of PlanMyKids.

Welcomed clients in our office

At the end of October, one of the stakeholders of the project in the medical domain that our team is working on, came to visit us.

Gidon arrived in Kharkiv from Israel to get to know our team better, to discuss the progress on product development in detail, and of course, to determine plans for the future.

It was a very warm and productive day full of meetings and workshops. We are glad that we had the opportunity to meet with our client.

We are mentioned again in the world IT-companies rankings

For the third year in a row, the Codica team was included in the list of the best developers in Ukraine, according to the leading rating agency Clutch. We are delighted to receive this award and will continue to provide our customers with quality services!

Moreover, Codica was named a top e-commerce web development company by Clutch’s sister website Manifest, which is also a business news platform.

Codica was mentioned in top IT rankings in 2021

We were also listed among:

Expanded collaboration with universities

Met students of Kharkiv Aerospace University

We love meeting young talents! This year we had a chance to talk to students of Kharkiv Aerospace University.

These guys and girls were very interested and motivated. It was a great pleasure to talk to them, answer their questions and tell them about career opportunities at Codica.

We can't wait to have more live meetings like this!

Started collaboration with the Department of Electronic Computers of Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics (NURE)

Furthermore, Codica's CEO Dmitry Chekalin had a meeting with the Head of the Department of Electronic Computers of Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics. We discussed promising areas of cooperation in a friendly and warm atmosphere.

Our CEO with the Department of Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics

Donated to the charity fund

For over 6 years, the Codica team has been supporting the Orphans of Kharkiv Foundation led by Oleg Abornev, in every possible way. Under the auspices of this fund, there are children from single-parent or large families, children in difficult life situations, children with disabilities, and others.

We are always happy to help the Foundation, and this time we had a great opportunity for that - the Children's Day. Together we raised and donated money to the children to buy clothes, food, toys, everything to study.

During our cooperation, Oleg always provides checks and a full report on the money spent. So we're sure: the children received every penny.

Participated in a city-wide job fair

Every year Codica team takes part in job fairs in different universities because it is a good chance for young talents and employers to meet one another, establish professional relationships, and discuss potential job opportunities.

Let's look back to a warm September day when the Codica team took part in a job fair organized by the City Youth Council. We had fun meeting new cool young people, telling them about our vacancies and the Codica family.

By the way, we're hiring now! Take a look at our open positions.

Published 100+ articles

Have you ever heard the famous quote from the book "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll: "We must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere, you must run twice as fast as that."?

As new trends constantly emerge, it is necessary to keep up-to-date. Together with the technical experts, our content creation team works hard to create cool and useful content. They regularly track the latest trends to create high-quality content for all of our blog readers.

And then, in 2021 we reached the 100th article milestone in our blog. Let's see which ones were the most popular within different categories.

Design:

16 Latest UX/UI Design Trends That You Should Know

Entrepreneurship:

Development:

Technology:

Started our Youtube channel

We can't keep silent anymore! In 2021, Codica started active work on the YouTube channel. Now we regularly publish videos on various relevant topics.

Product development tips and insights

…and videos from our company’s life

There you can see cool videos of us going kayaking, and partying together.

Our portfolio

In addition, on the channel, you can see our case studies. For example, we demonstrate our recent projects as PlanMyKids marketplace, the online vehicle marketplace, the online job-matching platform Wowner, the online recruitment platform, and some others.

Interviews with employees

Besides, a new regular column about the Codica team has appeared on our Instagram. Here our colleagues share their expert tips and stories about their first steps in IT, everyday work, and so on.

For example, Tatiana Maksimenko, our HR Manager shares some advice on how to prepare for an interview.

Therefore, you can find many interesting and useful videos on our YouTube channel and socials.

Celebrated 6th Codica’s birthday

Just once a year, Codica celebrates its birthday party. We usually celebrate it in a team circle, talking about how it all started, what we have now, and discussing the plans for the future.

This year we celebrated the 6th Codica birthday!

During these 6 years, we have grown from a 2-specialists company to a great team of professionals. Our software agency has mastered the leading technologies, delivered multiple successful projects, and gained our clients' trust.

We are constantly learning and improving our skills and never going to stop.

Thank you, everyone, who has become a part of the Codica success and progress and everything we have achieved together. We love you, guys!

Celebrated our team’s anniversaries

At Codica, anniversaries are a very important moment in the company's life. We are very proud and grateful to our colleagues for their enormous contribution to the company's development and for our vast potential.

We had many anniversaries this year, but especially significant for us were the third anniversaries of our front-end developer Dmytro, Ruby on Rails developer Maksym, UI/UX designer Inessa and content marketing specialist Yulia.

Furthermore, our Ruby on Rails developer Sergiy celebrated his 5th anniversary with the Codica team.

Throughout their work, these guys have made a huge contribution to the development of the work and culture of our company—introduction of new technologies, training of younger colleagues, and expanding and sharing expertise. Once again, we want to congratulate you on passing this point and wish you further success.

Had fun together

At Codica, we are true adepts of an active way of living and resting. We totally love sports and do fun like nobody else! We believe that spending time together is an excellent way for everyone to have lots of good memories and form relationships inside the company.

Let’s look at the most entertaining activities our team took part in.

Went kayaking

Kayaking is our good old tradition at Codica. We crossed the midsummer 2021 kayaking with a route, more than 40 kilometers long. It was really two crazy fun days and nights with colleagues. Moreover, we had an unforgettable party on the banks of the Seversky Donets.

You can see how we spent time and get a bit of our summer vibes in the video below.

Held Counter-Strike Cup

One more good Codica tradition is Counter-Strike Cup.

For the second year in a row, our guys are gathering for the WCCC company’s championship, World Codica CS 1.6 Cup.

This year there were ten participants, two teams, and three hours of fierce struggle—our congratulations to the winners, and honor and thanks to all involved in crafting Codica traditions.

By the way, for those who are interested, next time, we might step back from the old-school Counter-Strike 1.6 theme and try something new, like CSGO.

Codica team took part in Counter-Strike Cup

Had a paintball game

Paintball is another tradition for our team. Playing paintball is a great way to get exercise, improve your mind, and have fun all at the same time.

This time, as usual, we had a lot of fun together.

Held table tennis competition

We try different kinds of sports. For example, this year we had the first table tennis tournament in Codica. Our guys participated in the competition with great enthusiasm, and the winners got very cool prizes.

Thanks to all participants for the cool level of the game and positive vibes!

Codica team played table tennis together

Had an awesome Halloween party

The Halloween night with the Codica team was simply awesome! We had a themed party and contest for the best costume. Furthermore, at the end of the evening, we watched a classic horror movie together.

Codica team enjoyed Halloween party in 2021

Celebrated programmer’s day with a picnic

To celebrate Programmer’s Day and all other professional holidays in September, the Codica team had a traditional picnic. We played board games, enjoyed good food and nice weather, and had a great time with our teammates.

Codica team had a picnic to celebrate programmer’s day

Broadened new horizons

Traveled in Ukraine and beyond

Traveling helps us take a break from everyday life, shake off stress and problems, and re-evaluate our life. Visiting other countries or cities, relaxing at resorts, splashing in the warm sea, we look at the world in a new way, and also get to know ourselves better.

At Codica, traveling is a part of our life. After the lockdown, we started traveling to other countries and also continued to discover new interesting places in Ukraine.

Our teammates visited different countries this year, and we are happy to share some of our impressions with you.

Codica team had beautiful pictures from different countries

Sent our teammate to Mars

Also, we managed to leave our mark on Mars! NASA's Perseverance rover landed on the surface of Mars on 18 February 2021 and began its work. The mission sent back its first images, and they are incredible. An exclusive shot of our Miriel is right here in front of you!

And enjoyed a great New Year’s corporate party together!

Corporate events for us are not just a banal gathering before the holiday, but, first of all, a companionship, a chance to learn something new about each other, and share positive vibes.

This year, at Codica, we decided to hold an event in our office. We traditionally played Secret Santa, received cute gifts, took part in fun contests, and ate a delicious cake.

We had a good time together and got a lot of positive emotions!

Onward and upward

2021 has been a busy and productive year for our company. Our portfolio was replenished with new large-scale projects, we started our YouTube channel, got positive feedback from our clients, received new awards, started traveling after the lockdown, and much more.

New events, projects, plans, and goals lie ahead of us. We believe the best is yet to come! Unexplored but promising and definitely cool - 2022 year is just around the corner. The Codica family wishes you joy, happiness, success, and victories in 2022.

2021 for Codica: a Year in Review