A New Chapter: Fortech Turns 18 & Reaches 1000 Team Members

23 November 202123 November 2021 | News

The Fortech Group celebrates 1000 People & 18 Years of Crafting Custom Software for the US and West-European clients
Milestone sets in shortly after being selected by the German conglomerate Bosch in its preferred suppliers’ network for 2021
Year-end brings in a new EVP and 120 job openings
Company ready to keep in tune with the pulse of clients as the market changes

The Romanian-owned software development provider announced it had crossed the threshold of 1000 team members on the eve of turning 18 years since it delivers custom software services for Western Europe and the US.

Hitting 1000 people places Fortech once again in the league of the largest and most sought-after technology companies in Romania. In a business landscape dominated by international tech brands, Fortech is one of the few who maintained the rhythm and the standards imposed by the big tech players throughout the years. Following an ascendent path throughout the years, Fortech has become an engineering hub, with robust branches in 4 regions across Romania: Cluj, Iași, Oradea and Brașov.

“It makes us proud to be an employer of choice for so many people. It’s a very rewarding response to our endeavors of building a work environment and a community where people passionate about technology can perform and live fulfilling careers. To do it properly, we listen to the feedback from both clients and employees, learn from their satisfaction scores, and engage them in the building process.
E.g., we have recently refreshed our employer value proposition, and 60% of our team members took part in shaping it. The result is an authentic declaration of who we are. This spirit of collective participation makes us a community. We put effort into building it every day.” – mentioned Alexandra Achim, Chief Human Resources Officer.

Turning 18 years old has special significance in Romania, as it marks the transition from adolescence to maturity. It’s the moment youths step out of their comfort zone, heading to new horizons. This represents well the stage the company is in today.

With a stable bedrock, reflected not only by its membership base but also by its financial status, the Group is well-positioned to enter a new chapter of business growth. The last fiscal year reports outline a turnover of approx. €33,5 million and sustained annual growth of over 15% in the previous years.

At the anniversary moment, the company acknowledges the team efforts that propelled it to the tech scene. Concomitantly, it sets forth some of their cornerstone activities that keep the organization thriving.

“I never imagined we were going to achieve two important milestones at the same time. Now, it happens, and it’s very special to us. Beyond the numbers, successes, or failures, we celebrate the idea of partnership. This is what we strive to be every day, a reliable partner, who offers stability and perspective to our clients, our team members, and the local communities we belong to. Due to their collaboration, our roots are strong, and our aspirations are high.
I thank each one of them for this and invite them to further participate in building a more promising future fueled by technology” – said Călin Văduva, CEO Fortech.

An Articulated Technology & Business Vision

The company’s management team ponders over its business vision. This has been the lighthouse they navigated towards amid the waves of disruption that have repeatedly affected the tech sector. It revolves around the idea of building a learning organization that can adapt both its IT skills and its collaboration models in tune with the pulse of the market while remaining true to its mission.

As technology is moving from the back-office (e.g., from building the internal management systems) directly at the heart of the products clients are using today, the software providers, Fortech included, are called to articulate their vision and raise their value proposition.

Building on its legacy, Fortech looks ahead for ways to move up the value ladder, as outlined in the strategic plan previously announced. Future ambitions include strengthening the end-to-end software delivery practice, evolving its engagement models from team extension to teams as a service, investing sustained effort in constructing joint ventures, investments, and acquisitions. The company also continues to deepen its expertise across the chosen strategic segments, which benefited from significant investments in the past years. These include healthcare software, automotive, financial, industrial manufacturing, and professional services.

“More than ever before, today, the promise of providing custom software & afferent services is associated with a broader class of competencies and expectations. In the past, a thorough understanding of a traditional or emerging technology or a tool was almost enough to define the custom software service term. It has become imperative to understand how a mix of technologies work together and how they integrate within pre-existing tech systems.
Moreover, the market challenges us to understand how different technologies work in a specific industry and business scenario. And we, as a tech partner, need to engage in new ways with the client to provide the total value contained by the custom software service term.” – added Călin Văduva, CEO Fortech.

New-Age Skillsets

The external market shows evidence of a deepening tech talent gap in the wake of the pandemic-induced digitalization. Software providers are challenged to employ creativity by finding new ways of designing software (e.g., using low code/no code practices), adapting the process and methodologies to create it, and expanding their pool of software creators to include and train non-traditional programmers. Although it is well-positioned in the IT services market, Fortech continues to strengthen its team and technical expertise.

“We are old enough in the software space to be able to work well through the legacy software and the monolith systems still in use at many companies. We are also young enough to craft modern applications in agile ways.
Our tech competence diversity, plus the project management experience we’ve accumulated over the years, allow us to move confidently between these two territories. We can say that this is one of our competitive advantages.” – added Mihai Călinici, VP of Software Engineering.

By forming different team compositions, Fortech can sustain clients to build a software product end-to-end, place technology as a central element of their business model, or scale their operations.

Currently, the company has over 120 job vacancies in Java, .NET, React, Angular, Full-Stack, Python, DevOps, Salesforce, and automation testing for different levels of seniority. The new colleagues will be able to work from anywhere in Romania, in a hybrid or a fully remote work setup.

A Revitalized Cultural DNA

In addition to technical expertise and originality, Fortech aims to attract and promote engineers who demonstrate a set of values that helps the company function and succeed in a competitive market.

“Entire branches of medicine are becoming telemedicine; banks are challenged by fintech, cars by electric cars, etc. Through our client and software work, we are part of advancing digitalization, and this is meaningful. We have always wanted to build a team that is creative, highly adaptable, and very passionate to be part of such work.
The capacity to manifest learnability, along with the ingenuity to maintain a warm, friendly culture, despite growing large and old, are our best-kept secrets. These make us strong and will remain our guiding compass. I’m equally proud and inspired by our team members who live by these standards. Congratulations and Happy Birthday, everyone.” – said Marius Vanca, VP of Software Engineering.

At the beginning of November, Fortech launched its people promise, together with a new tagline: Craft & Grow. Together. The new brand story embodies the essence of Fortech’s culture: a place for software crafters who can build their paths while helping others grow. It comes to life through four value pillars: community, reliability, perspectives, empowerment. Read more here.

Proper Internal Process

Creating satisfactory deliverables for clients starts by creating an equally positive experience for the team. Fortech places tremendous attention on developing the internal processes, infrastructure, and structures needed to sustain performance.

Many have been done to support and maximize people’s contribution from providing the appropriate software development frameworks and project management tools to cloud infrastructures.

Beyond the suite of third-party tools adopted as part of the workflow, Fortech empowers its team to build in-house tools to meet some of their back-office needs. While providing a playground for creators, and a space to learn, such investment leads to small projects that grow to serve critical needs in the organizations and may evolve as stand-alone products.

Selected Momentum Highlights

Launched a refreshed EVP, with the participation of 60% of the team members;
Embraced the hybrid setup, adopted by more than 30% of team members;
Completed 30+ internship programs for the local IT community;
Launched an organization-wide Performance Management System (iGROW), with 80% of team leaders and project managers already trained;
Built on traditions to bring familiarity and stay connected in the remote world, through Fortech Moving Challenge, with 30% of the team enrolled;
Ranked by Catalyst among the most 100 desired employers in Romania in 2021;
Selected by Bosch Global in its Preferred Suppliers Network in 2021;
Ranked by the Bucharest Stock Exchange among top 15 Romanian business players;
Ranked in 2021 IAOP Top 100 Outsourcing Providers;
Completed the first software company acquisition signed by Fortech;
Reached the mark of 260 all-time clients.

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