We regularly discuss the help of the Vinnytsia IT Association partner companies in wartime. Today, we will talk about the Swedish-Ukrainian company Sigma Software 👇
Vira Soldatova, PR manager at Sigma Software, spoke about Sigma Software's assistance to employees and the country as a whole.
The company had a plan in case of war, and it worked. Most people from Kharkiv, Sumy, Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipro and small towns were taken to safe places, along with their families and pets. The volunteer group Sigma, organized in the first hours of the war, did impossible things. For example, evacuation buses from Kharkiv went even on the most difficult days. We provided everyone, including those who evacuated with their own transport, with temporary housing and everything necessary for work and a normal life.
Sigma Software leased several recreation centers in Morshyn (270 places) and Truskavets (150 places) for a long time and equipped co-working spaces there for comfortable work with full administrative and technical support. More than 95% of people were transported to safe locations and could return to work. About 20% of people went abroad: to Poland, Hungary, Germany, and Sweden. Some did not want to leave their cities and still live in Kharkiv, Kyiv. Those who joined the ranks of the Armed Forces or Teroboron have their places reserved. Payments to specialists are made regularly.
Vera also notes that more than five years ago, Sigma Software registered its charity fund to support numerous social initiatives. On February 24, 2022, the fund became operational in new directions - assistance to the population and the military. Specialists from Sigma Software and IdeaSoft, a Kharkiv IT service company that became part of Sigma Software Group a year ago, became the main coordinators.
"Everything started as a continuation of the business continuity plan, which involved the evacuation of specialists. At the same time, we began to receive requests from citizens for help with the evacuation. It wasn't easy to stay away in such conditions. So, companies joined the evacuation of citizens, and more than 1.5 thousand people," says the PR manager.
Among Sigma Software Group specialists, many volunteers help the population and the army daily. It would be strange for the company not to support them. So, from the first day, Sigma Software and specialists contributed to the support of various projects. Yes, about 10 million hryvnias were collected and transferred to the "Return Alive" fund, and 500 thousand hryvnias were directed to the Lviv IT cluster for work with refugees, and taxes were paid in advance.
More than $2.5 million has been donated by Sigma Software, IdeaSoft, and their dedicated customers to various charities. However, there is a need for immediate help in many places: thanks to the charity fund, it is possible to help people in trouble and defenders.
It is also worth mentioning the Swedes for Ukraine portal, which helps to find free housing for displaced people in Sweden. Previously, the Vinnytsia IT Association discussed the fund on its social networks. We will remind you that the initiator of the creation of the portal was the well-known Swedish entrepreneur and philanthropist Dan Olofsson, and the portal helps Ukrainians coming to Sweden to find temporary housing in a short period.
Also, Sigma Software and their customer and partner, the company Bezyl, created a Ukrainian version of the application to support the mental health of Ukrainians. Sigma Software has been a technical partner of Bezyl for two years, during which time the company's specialists were involved in the creation of an application that aimed to support US military veterans and people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). When Esther Howard, founder of Bezyl Inc., saw the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Ukraine, she decided to make the Bezyl app available to Ukrainians to help them get the support they need. Specialists of Sigma Software gladly joined the localization work.
The Bezyl application can be downloaded from the App Store and Google Play.
Sigma Software continues to develop the educational direction in the company and helps everyone who wants to discover the world of information technologies. Based on our university, Sigma Software University, recruitment for social courses for relatives and friends of colleagues was launched in March. The programs cover today's technical trends in PM, BA, .NET, JS, Basibases, recruiting and HR, and software testing. Over 2,000 registrations were received within two weeks of accepting applications.
Since the start of the full-scale war, classes have been resumed at programs for beginners - camps and internships in the following areas: NODE. JS, Angular, Java, PHP, Big Data, Support and .NET, GameDev.
For those who want to delve into blockchain technology, enrollment is currently open for the Solidity for Beginners course; all funds collected will be sent to help the Armed Forces 🇺🇦
Let's start with the fact that the Vinnytsia IT Association took a comment from Vira Soldatova, PR manager of Sigma Software in March, since then the company has been given many more opportunities for development and assistance. Therefore, we suggest following the company on social networks, Facebook and Instagram, to learn the latest news.