زيارة Spyrosoft في وارسو – مقابلة مع مدير الموقع Rafal Gruszczynski

How can you keep a homely office atmosphere in a fast-paced capital city? Why are employee relationships key to team building? And in what areas is Spyrosoft Warsaw developing? A conversation between Anna Zurek, Employer Branding Specialist and Rafal Gruszczynski, Site Manager.

كيف تصف مشهد خدمات تكنولوجيا المعلومات في وارسو؟ هل يختلف عن المدن البولندية الكبرى الأخرى؟ 

The IT market in Warsaw is, above all, large. There are a lot of IT companies located here, and many of our clients have their headquarters or development centres here as well. The Warsaw IT landscape is, therefore, vast, both in terms of supply and demand.

I believe there is no clearly dominant technology in the Warsaw market. In Warsaw, as in Lodz or Cracow, the business mainly revolves around the financial sector – not only banks but also other financial institutions. Another branch would be enterprise technologies.

إذن فيمَ يتخصص فرع Spyrosoft في وارسو؟ ما نوع المشاريع والتقنيات التي تعملون عليها هناك؟

Our portfolio is actually very diverse. Gaming is something that dominates in Warsaw right now because a lot of our employees work on projects for our gaming client, Steelseries. It’s even noticeable in the office! When we walk in, we are struck by desks illuminated with neon lights, adorned with gaming posters, and equipment laid out. We’re really into this!

However, this is only one segment. The others are quite diverse because we deliver solutions for the financial sector and the automotive industry, and we also do classic Java, .NET, manual and automatic testing, and artificial intelligence. So, as you can see, it’s quite a range.

In the Warsaw site, we have also launched our database operations, which extend data processing from data engineering to visualisation. In addition, in this department, we have now also extended our AI experts team, which completes the whole process of advanced, end-to-end data processing.

Another vital part of what we do is cybersecurity. Our services range from data security, which is the most significant value our customers entrust to us, to keeping certain standards when it comes to building software with all kinds of security dimensions. We have designed a best-practice framework that we follow and implement for our clients, but we also share our expertise with others. Just recently, we had a chance to present our approach and know-how during the most recent SoDA Breakfast.

ما الذي يميّز Spyrosoft عن شركات تكنولوجيا المعلومات الأخرى الموجودة في وارسو؟

Let me start by saying that we are very people-centered. We maintain close professional relationships and foster them regularly. The function of Line Managers works very well at Spyrosoft. We select people carefully for that role, focusing on their ability to work with people. Our LMs genuinely put their employees first.

This contact is important for many reasons. Getting to know people better allows us to find projects that are as close to their preference as possible, related to their experience or the direction they want to go out of passion. And it’s hard to get that type of connection from a job application or a report — conversation is a must.

What’s so nice about Warsaw, and what the employees appreciate, is that the atmosphere is very friendly and relaxed. It’s the atmosphere between us, between employees. Everyone is always welcome here.

هل تبتكرون أيضاً فرصاً كهذه خارج ساعات العمل؟

We have a few of our rituals, various sports tournaments or afternoons of board games and console games. We also have a monthly meeting called InSpyro, where we share our interests and passions to inspire others. The topics that come up are very diverse. They that range from artificial intelligence, computer vision, ecology, travel, science to social trivia. These meetings always attract people and then bring up all sorts of interesting discussions.

نحن حريصون على الإلهام، ومن هنا جاء اسم الحدث – InSpyro. سرعان ما أصبح طقسنا وعلامتنا التجارية.

رافال، ما هي فلسفتك في إدارة الأشخاص؟ وما هو الأمر الأكثر أهمية من وجهة نظرك؟

Individually, the most important thing is getting to know and appreciate the employees. At Spyrosoft, we hire people for the company, not people for projects. We are planning for the long-term. Each of our line managers devotes a great deal of attention and time to building and maintaining relationships to ensure that we know what is going on with our people. We support them where they need it, whether providing encouragement and opportunities for professional development or simply challenges in their lives that we can help tackle.

As far as teams are concerned, this is more complex. One of the most important things is providing fairness within the team. We achieve this through mechanisms that have been implemented in the company, like a skills matrix describing the competence required for a particular position. We have also implemented transparent salary ranges. This way, everyone knows what they are working towards. Transparency is vital to earn trust.

كم عدد الأشخاص الذين يعملون من المكتب، وكم منهم من المنزل؟

The vast majority work hybrid. And everyone has their own definition of this, too. Some are in the office four days a week, others once or twice a week. These are individual choices, and most of our employees work with clients remotely, often abroad. Hence the flexibility in choosing your own system.

كيف تبدو عملية التعاون مع العملاء؟

It depends on the client. I work as an Account Manager in one of the projects. I have contact with many people in the client’s organisation, and our relationship is direct and very friendly, yet very effective.
The direct contact with our clients calls for excellent communication skills, which we put a lot of emphasis on in our recruitment process. It is also great that many clients allow our employees to act not only as executors of the assigned tasks but allow them to step more into a consulting role and use their experience.

ما الذي يخبئه المستقبل لـ Spyrosoft وارسو؟ ما هي الخطط لهذا العام؟

سوق وارسو كبير، ويحدث فيه الكثير. في Spyrosoft وارسو، نركز الآن على التقنيات والخدمات المحددة التي نقدمها لترسيخ موقعنا كخبراء.

يُعد Qt أحد المجالات التي نريد إظهار خبرتنا فيها. ستتاح الفرصة لذلك في أبريل. نحن ننظم حدثًا آخر فعالية Spyrosoft Learn & Chill بعنوان "بالتآزر مع Qt". أُقيم في شتشيتسين العام الماضي، وقررنا إحضاره إلى وارسو أيضًا. نحن متحمسون لمشاركة وعرض بعض المشاريع التي نعمل عليها وربط اسمنا بهذا المجال.

Cyber security is another area we’re focusing on. This is quite a specific topic, as clients often have their own security departments and only reach outside in exceptional situations. However, we believe that these are the times when cyber security is crucial.

And last but not least, data. We have created a lot of different functionalities for efficient data processing and will continue to do so. We are keen to show our customers how much value can still be squeezed out of these huge data sets.

لذا، من حيث التطوير والخطط لهذا العام، هذه هي الركائز الثلاث التي سنركز عليها. ومع ذلك، نبقى منفتحين على التغيرات الديناميكية التي قد يجلبها المستقبل.

شكراً على المشاركة ونراكم في أبريل!