Against all odds: the story of how COAX Software conquered adversity & thrived

February 24th is the day that forever changed Ukrainian history and the lives of more than 40 million people. The day of the full-scale invasion of Russia. This story is about how our business adapted to new realities, overcame difficulties, and contributes to a free future.

A few weeks before and from the very beginning of the full-scale invasion, most Ukrainian companies actively transported their offices to the territory of Western Ukraine, away from the combat zone. However, we were lucky. Our main delivery center is in Ivano-Frankivsk, 593 kilometers from Kyiv, where active hostilities occurred in the first weeks of the war and around 1000 kilometers away from the current front line.

What is the War for Ukrainian businesses? Difficulties make us stronger, forcing us to quickly adapt to multi-day power outages, communication, and internet outages. Moreover, we did it.

Electricity & Internet, how we became autonomous during the blackout

Power generator

After the first attack on the energy infrastructure, acquiring a generator became the first necessity. We purchased and installed a commercial gas generator allowing us to provide autonomous office operation for a total of 10 hours every day.

Modernization & Internet 

To ensure uninterrupted connectivity for an office with more than 60, we invested in a complete upgrade of office equipment, transferred almost all employees to modern laptops with powerful battery charges to be able to provide autonomous operation using Gigabit Passive Optical Network technology, connecting the charging station to a WiFi router, which allowed us to conduct the almost fully autonomous activity.

But that was not enough, we understood that a Gigabit Passive Optical Network would not allow us to work entirely in multi-day blackouts, so our solution was Starlink. Acquiring a satellite internet station allowed us to ensure complete autonomy for the entire team, regardless of the duration of power outages, and the COAX headquarters was packed with state-of-the-art equipment.

Cybersecurity 

Ensuring the security of our client's data and source code has always been our top priority, and measures to maximize safety were implemented as early as 2019-2020 during the pandemic. In this regard, we were prepared for the challenges of the War, as all software, codes, and access are stored in a foreign cloud, not locally in the office, and we use closed channels with VPN access everywhere. Our employees only use secure and verified services, such as Jira, GitHub, etc., for daily work.

Certification & security 

Our business has been ISO 9001:2015 and ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certified, and after the start of the full-scale invasion, we reconfirmed it. As part of this, closed channels were created to transmit sensitive information, but more was needed, as always. The security question can only be definitively closed with total control of physical space, so we established a multifactor entrance to the office, strengthened security clearance protocols, and implemented a video surveillance system.

However, in the end, since the start of the full-scale invasion, we have not recorded a single incident related to information security and data protection, which means that our system works.

Relocation 

How much is in this word? Quite a lot, because the safety of our remote employees is just as important to us as internal security. Although most of our team is located in Western or Central Ukraine, we offered relocation assistance to all our employees and successfully moved the families of two of our workers.

The phenomenon of the Ukrainian IT sector during the War

Why major companies trust Ukrainian outsourcing 

According to the results of 2022, the IT industry provided foreign currency inflows into the Ukrainian economy of $7.34 billion, as evidenced by data from the National Bank of Ukraine. The volume of exports increased by $400 million compared to pre-war 2021. Despite the War, the IT industry suffered relatively small losses compared to all other sectors of the economy. Moreover, despite a 40% economic decline, the IT sector fills the budget with currency. But why?

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The main factors that influenced the growth of IT service exports, in our opinion, are:

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• The ratio of affordable prices, high quality of exported services, and high loyalty to Ukrainians.
• Long-term partnership relationships between companies and clients, in which replacing the executing company, can bring more losses than profits due to already established and well-functioning business processes.
• Stability in performing assigned tasks despite difficulties with energy and the Internet.
• Rapid stabilization of business processes in the Ukrainian IT cluster due to timely relocation of employees and offices and high responsibility of team members towards clients and employers.

Charity with Ukraine in mind

At COAX, we have a strong sense of social responsibility and believe that we have a duty to give back to the community in which we operate. When the full-scale invasion in Ukraine began, we recognized that many people at that moment desperately needed support. As a result, we decided to set up a charity fund to efficiently gather resources and provide aid to our brave personnel and their loved ones. 

COAX fund

We are proud that our fund has made a practical approach to helping Ukrainians during the most challenging time in modern history. Since June 2022, we have gathered more than $11,000 from donations and our revenue share, and we don’t plan on stopping. We're glad to be doing our part to help during this challenging time, and we're grateful for the unwavering support of our team members who share our vision and values.

Charity pizza for the glory of Ukraine

Unity, humanity, and an unwavering spirit of hope - are the qualities we hold dear in our team. Our folks aren't just experts in their field, they're also some of the kindest and most wonderful people you'll ever meet. Since the invasion began, our team has been entirely behind the initiative to channel funds usually reserved for corporate events into our charitable foundation. The only event left is our traditional Pizza Party, which turned into a charity gathering which raised over $6,000.

Final Thoughts

COAX has been doing business in Ukraine for nearly 13 years; it has been a challenging ride. We have faced many challenges, like the big economic crisis in '08, currency devaluation in '20xx, and many other ups and downs. However, we did more than survive. We thrived and grew our company even more.

At COAX, being flexible, innovative, and creating the right environment are the keys to success, especially during tough times. We love what we do and are always ready to take on new challenges, so we are optimistic about the future. With the start of the full-scale invasion, we retained 97% of our clients and ended the year 2022 with +20 new clients without any interruptions in the delivery.

If you are looking for experienced professionals committed to finding the best solutions for your project, we are here to help.