Tech up your software with SoftTeco!

BERLIN, Germany - This fine Spring morning we are super excited to introduce SoftTeco! Born in Minsk 13 years ago, the Java-focused—but fully full-stack—software development company has been with Pangea since 2019 and has been a valued partner ever since. So today, let’s learn a little bit more about these Belarusian brainiacs!

Hard Work, with a Soft Touch

Founded back in April 2008, the Belarusian software development company SoftTeco began as a simple Java development house with just two employees: co-founders Alex Kutsko and Serge Zenevich. Nearly thirteen years later, the company has grown by leaps and bounds, employing 288 different team members spread between the Minsk HQ and their satellite offices in Gomel (Belarus), Vilnius (Lithuania), and Warsaw (Poland)—with a new development center opening soon in Kyiv (Ukraine)! To Alex, this success directly stems from the company’s dedication to the businesses they serve:

“SoftTeco was launched to bring a new level of innovation and quality to businesses worldwide. Our ultimate goal is to help businesses grow through state-of-the-art software solutions designed to bring value both to our clients and their customers.​”

Thanks to their impressive growth and their commitment to their local community, SoftTeco has been lauded many times in their home country. In 2011, it was named as the 3rd Best IT Employer by tech blog dev.by, who nominated them again the following year for Best Work Environment! The company was also acknowledged with the HR Brand Belarus 2017 Award for its stellar workplace culture.

Two years ago—after sitting down with the company’s management and interviewing a slew of their (many) satisfied customers—we awarded SoftTeco an Overall Pangea Score of 8.3/10.0. This score was supported by ten client testimonials, who awarded the company with a whopping 8.7/10.0 and 8.5/10.0 on technical expertise and project management respectively. This score is even more impressive since it doesn’t even consider their wonderful company culture that is grounded in family values.

Competent and Congenial Collaboration

“But there is something we need to talk about - the SoftTeco people. Each team member is a bright and unique individual, and together, all our employees compose a reliable and professional team that is a pleasure to work with.”

- Alex Kutsko, Founder

As Alex emphasizes, SoftTeco is a place where “team members collaborate, share knowledge, and support one another.” Because employees know that someone has their back, they feel comfortable enough “to ask questions, have confidence, speak up,​ and take on challenges.” Not only does this benefit the company, but it benefits the employee's personal growth.

SoftTeco employs a so-called “Friendly Policy” that is specifically designed to cultivate a culture of openness, confidence, and development. All strategic decisions are made together, and the whole team takes ownership of their product. Employees enjoy numerous perks, convenient and flexible working conditions, and a robust training and development program to help them stay at the top of their game.

When we talked in 2019, the company had a 96% first-year employee retention rate and had reduced their overall employee turnover to just 7% the previous year. Not only that, but they have been attracting a truly impressive number of new hires recently, nearly tripling their team size over the past three years. Women comprise a full third of the company’s employees, which reflects SoftTeco’s commitment to gender equality that saw them collaborate with the “Gender Opportunities” NGO.

Some of the SoftTeco crew enjoying a summer retreat

A Company That Cares

SoftTeco’s commitment to corporate social responsibility doesn’t end with its employees. Since 2017, the company has been a part of the United Nations Global Compact, committing to sustainability with their “Green Office” policy that encourages energy and water savings, low waste, and local food. In 2019, the company collaborated with the “Good Deeds” Fund, who listed them as one of the most socially responsible companies in Belarus.

Plus, from supporting the World Bank’s R&D RoadLab project in 2016 to designing UNICEF’s volunteer digital platform in 2020, SoftTeco has a wealth of experience working with many of the world’s most important charitable organizations. During the COVID-19 pandemic this past year, the company partnered with the Red Cross to develop a free volunteer application designed to support the elderly and has donated money to support local medics.

Beyond their charitable work, SoftTeco has delivered over 150 successful projects to clients in 74 locations across Europe and North America, in industries including healthcare, real estate, transportation, fintech/e-commerce, telecom, and education. Their project portfolio includes work for globally recognized brands like Samsung, Evernote, and Barnes & Noble, who contracted SoftTeco for help with software for the Nook e-reader).

From complex e-learning portals to progressive web applications, the Belarusian company consistently delivers, as reflected by the feedback of their clients:

“We can confidently say that SoftTeco's commitment to professionalism and their willingness to provide the best service to their partner has been consistently impressing the internal team, including myself. I am more than happy to refer to this company once again.”

- Shai Maron, VP R&D @ Waycare

”Softeco is really outstanding in technical competence and business understanding, and have brilliant overview and communication skills.”

- CTO @ SME

“SoftTeco’s project management, dedication, and proactiveness makes them feel like a partner instead of an external resource. They were flexible and willing to scale their team to meet demands, and also provided transparency regarding internal processes. Their independence maximizes productivity.”

- SME @ Computer Software

Softteco had the knowledge of the tech we wanted, and had the experience and ability to come up with solutions before I knew there were problems!”

- CEO @ Consultancy

SoftTeco employees at a company event

Your One-Stop Development Shop

As you can see from their Tech stack, SoftTeco’s nearly 200 engineers are well-versed in all the cutting-edge languages and frameworks you could want. From web (Angular and React.js) to custom software development (Java, J2EE, .NET, Docker, PHP), the company emphasizes scalability in its software solutions. They can design mobile applications on iOS (Objective-C, Swift), Android (Java, Kotlin), or cross-platform (React Native, Xamarin), and are no strangers to cloud computing (AWS, Microsoft Azure).

In addition to prowess on both the front- and back-ends, the team is especially skilled at designing elegant software architecture, providing top-notch Quality Assurance, and ensuring robust security with commitments to keeping your data safe. Plus, they have recently begun exploring the fields of Machine Learning and Data Science with the acquisition of a new team of expert engineers. In terms of Engagement models, we feel the company is best suited to New Product Development, Team Augmentation, and Support & Maintenance.

As we often do here at Pangea, we’d like to close this week’s company spotlight with SoftTeco’s corporate values: process transparency, commitment to results, high quality of services, teamwork, and family values. From what we’ve seen these past two years, the company certainly embodies its mission and has already become a truly valued member of the Pangea family.

If you’d like to know a bit more about one of the best Belarusian software development companies, please don’t hesitate to reach out and we will be sure to connect you with the team over at SoftTeco. We know you won’t be disappointed!