Netgen's story began in 2002, when several friends from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing decided to start their own company. Today, there are 25 experts working in the Zagreb office, designing and developing web solutions. And this is just the beginning...
These days we are celebrating 18 years of work with the main aim to make the Web better for users and easier for the makers. With a number of projects, the vast majority of which were implemented for the international market, the time has flown by. Netgen has positioned itself in the implementation of web and digital solutions that are developed by using modern methodologies and open source technologies.
We stayed true to our values
Looking back, we are truly proud that we have always stayed true to our values, putting employees first, developing long-term partnerships, and focusing on contributing to the community.
The fact that the current Netgen employees have spent an average of 6.8 years in the company speaks volumes, especially as that is far above the average in the IT industry, where employees are changing jobs far too frequently. Moreover, some of the key long-term employees are even given an opportunity to enter the ownership structure of the company, and this is of course an additional incentive for top staff to stay in the company.
"I think the answer lies in a stimulating and friendly working atmosphere, but also in the fact that we obviously manage to choose those people who fit in well with the already well-established team. All our people, including co-owners, can find a job anywhere in the world at any time, and we consider the fact that they choose to stay, one of our greatest successes", said Ivo Lukač.
Netgen has developed a company culture based on knowledge and internal education. Younger colleagues are gradually introduced to the company’s work through organised mentorships to join the teams as naturally as possible.
Demanding and complex projects for companies around the globe
With key customers - digital agencies and large companies and organizations in Norway, Germany, Austria and Switzerland - Netgen also completed some very interesting projects in faraway destinations such as Vietnam and Togo.
Through many years of work, we made sure to “digitally transform” our clients long before the term became a buzzword. Among our various clients, such as ProSiebenSat.1 Digital - the biggest private media company in Germany, A1 Hrvatska telecom, ESMO - European Society for Medical Oncology, Forlagshuset - publisher and online bookstore in Norway, some cooperations last for 10 and even 15 years (for Iskon Internet in Croatia). Last year, Netgen also won the Somo Borac award for the best website for Tomato, in collaboration with Locastic.
Our continuous open-source philosophy
However, we might be proudest of our open-source philosophy through which we share our knowledge with the whole community. Almost since the beginning, we shared all of our knowledge publicly - through blog posts, participation in professional conferences and through posting program code on GitHub.
Generally, we advocate a fairly open way of working because, in addition to using open-source technologies through our own open-source extensions, add-ons and complete solutions. In total, Netgen has more than 70 open source projects with more than half a million lines of source code.
Less coding with own open-source product - Netgen Layouts
Four years ago, we showed you the first version of Netgen Layouts - our drag&drop interface that provides easy layout and block management, without losing extensibility for complex web projects.
Meanwhile, it was recognised and used by at least 15 companies that we work very closely with for many of their demanding web projects, and as of last year, Netgen Layouts went Open Core.
Netgen Layouts is a layer in your web stack, a Symfony full-stack application that can be integrated with other Symfony apps (such as eZ Platform CMS or Sylius eCommerce) or used independently with headless information systems (such as Contentful CMS). It renders web pages based on layouts arranged by "site builders".
Waiting for 2021 - and Web Summer Camp!
And like all of this isn’t enough, we brought another one of our ideas to life - Web Summer Camp, our mini-conference that gathers up to a couple of hundred web experts every year since 2012 on the Croatian coast - to work together and exchange their ideas. And, yes, to party and sing along during boat trips. :)
The interactive and practical part of the workshops, as well as the direct networking and socializing in the informal part of the program, are the key elements that make Web Summer Camp different. Therefore, the decision to skip this year's Web Summer Camp was the only logical one, because the conference in the online version would not suit its already recognizable character.
Stepping into mid-October, with everything that’s going on in the world - we all have our opinions about 2020. We hope the next year will treat us all better. And we hope to see you at our next Web Summer Camp.
Stay safe and be well!