As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes on the 5th of November, 2020, there is almost no company in Croatia, and certainly in the world, which hasn't been affected by the coronavirus crisis, and mostly negatively. Dorsi, a Zagreb company, has gone as far as to make sure that your protection - is protected.

From the first days of the pandemic and all of its many social and economic consequences, entrepreneurs have had to quickly adapt to the new circumstances or fail, either by strengthening their online presence and delivery methods, or by updating their range with what are now sought-after items. This primarily refers to relatively simple and cheap products such as protective equipment, mainly masks, and disinfectants, which became the most sought after products on a global scale back in mid-March. Over time, the situation, primarily with the opening of logistics supply chains, has normalised to an extent, but some companies have found niches in the market that will allow them to keep selling well long after the coronavirus crisis passes.

One of them is certainly the Zagreb-based company Dorsi, which trades in promotional items and business gifts as well as outdoor branding and printing, and which, now very seriously, has positioned itself here on the Croatian market as a manufacturer of protective cases - more specifically protective cases for protective masks.

As Sinisa Dorotic, the director of Dorsi, explained, we usually wear protective masks when entering shops, closed indoor spaces, public transport and the like, and the need to wear them is usually reduced to a shorter period. Therefore, most people don't throw away their disposable mask after one use and there is a need for a mask case so that we can store it in a hygienic way, and not carry it in our pockets, bags or wallets.

"We first made about a hundred cases for our own needs and distributed some to our acquaintances, partners and friends. We received positive feedback and decided to commercialise the product and put it on the market,'' stated Dorotic, adding that they are satisfied with the current market interest, but they're sure that it will increase, primarily due to the need for such a product, as well as its practicality.

''We're currently printing 12 motifs, 12 new motifs are being prepared, and cases can be personalised as a promotional gift for business partners. The cases are currently only available in pharmacies through the wholesale drugstore we work with. We're currently in negotiations with some retail chains and other retail stores,'' Dorotic pointed out. Asked if they're afraid that with the discovery of the vaccine against the new coronavirus and the slowing down of the spread of the disease, this business niche will be called into question, they point out from Dorsi that such cases have their use value for as long as people have to use protective hygiene masks.

Given the fact that Dorsi already has ample experience with occasional corporate gifts, there is no doubt that for the upcoming Christmas period, despite the coronavirus pandemic and all of the unfavourable limitations brought by the pandemic and the economic crisis itself, this will be among the more popular Christmas gifts that companies will, of course in branded form, distribute to their employees and business partners.

According to Poslovna Hrvatska/Business Croatia, Dorsi has a dozen employees, and last year they generated impressive revenues of HRK 13.3 million.

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November the 2nd, 2020 - Four Croatian companies have designed a system that ''stops coronavirus'' right at the entrance of wherever it is placed. From schools to dental clinics and many other facilities, this device is working to slow the spread of the new coronavirus.

As Jutarnji list/Matija Boltizar writes, at the very entrance to the Zagreb Dental Clinic lies a very special device. It measures the temperature of patients entering the building, checks whether they are wearing a mask and disinfects their hands and shoes, all without the assistance of any of the employees of the polyclinic. The same can be found in the Zagreb School of Economics and Management, as well as in the Zagreb Elementary School ''Ivan Cankar'' and at the front door of about a hundred other institutions. Namely, it is a unique integrated system for the prevention of the spread of infections, abbreviated as IPS, behind which stand four Croatian companies that decided to give their contribution in the fight against the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus during the ongoing pandemic.

The idea for this innovative product was conceived by Krokoteks, a company from Sv. Ivana Zelina, which has been specialising in renting and washing hospital laundry and equipment for many years now, and the story of the development of this device starts at the beginning of the year when they introduced a new mat rental service.

''With the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, standard mat rental services were no longer a complete solution that met the needs of users, which is why we turned to seeking an adequate solution for footwear disinfection. We found that very solution in a PVC mat in which a stainless steel tub is integrated, in which there is a disinfectant,'' pointed out the director of Krokoteks, Hrvoje Mandic.

With this, he says, they solved the problem of disinfecting shoes, but there were still the necessary actions prescribed by the profession to deal with - hand disinfection, wearing protective masks and measuring body temperatures. At that time, Mandic pointed out, there was no effective product in Croatia that met all these requirements together, but all of them were individual and had insufficient quality solutions. So then, the idea arose to gather a set of partners and work together to create an IPS integrated system that would prevent the entry of the new virus into institutions and companies.

Let's start now with the "analysis" of this unique Croatian solution. The housing of the device is produced by the company Promming from Cakovec, which has been manufacturing equipment for all types of shops and business premises for 30 years now. Their clients are large Croatian and foreign retail houses such as Mercator, Konzum, KTC, Tommy, Spar, E-plus, Migros and others. With the outbreak of the pandemic, many of their clients initially needed, due to epidemiological measures, to upgrade their cash registers with a protective partition made of Plexiglas. At Promming, they landed the task, and soon after that point, they noticed that there was a shortage and  a growing demand for hygienic stations or dispensers for hand disinfection.

''During the lockdown, we dealt with almost 70 percent of production, because our warehouses were full due to the stopped export. We didn't want to wait with folded arms until the borders reopened agaun, so in March we developed our own hygiene stations and disinfectant dispensers in just one week, which we put on the market over the next month,'' explained Tomislav Kralj, the CEO of Promming.

Then, just a few months ago, they received an offer to develop a special series of pillars with Krokoteks that will also have a disinfectant mat. Here we now turn to the third Croatian company behind the production of IPS, and that is the Zagreb-based institution URIHO. Their collaboration with Krokoteks has been going on since back in spring, more specifically since they cut PVC mats that are integrated into stainless steel tubs, and then they only continued that work when the production of the first IPS devices began.

''Krokoteks supplies us with material and we cut, it isn't a problem because it doesn't take up too much time and space in the plant. Namely, we're primarily engaged in the production of work protective clothing, and in the pandemic we dedicated part of our production to the production of cotton masks, so, in the last half a year, we've made more than a million masks,'' said Goran Folnegovic, the assistant director of URIHO.

Krokoteks now had a housing and a mat with disinfectant, but they still lacked a component that would measure the user's temperature. In order to eliminate the need for additional staff at the entrances to companies and institutions and to ensure the truly accurate measurement of body temperature, they decided to install a thermal camera of their own.

Here comes the last Croatian company that participates in the production of IPS, and it is AVT from Zagreb, a company that has found its niche in thermal cameras and audio systems for the police and the army. During the pandemic, they adjusted the operation of the camera and made one of the most accurate devices for the non-contact measurement of body temperature and the detection people not wearing masks. Their camera built into the IPS measures body temperature at 9,600 points on a human face at a distance of 1 metre, while IR sensors measure the temperature at one point with the device having to lean very close to the person’s forehead.

''Our thermal camera looks at the hottest spots on the face - the eyes, ears, neck, nose, and detects body temperatures by making up to four measurements in one single second. Another great advantage is that external conditions such as wind don't reduce the accuracy of the data as much. Namely, we tested the laser pistol in severe outdoor conditions and found that the readings are accurate, with deviations of a mere two or three degrees,'' explained Ivica Mijic,the  director of Zagreb's AVT.

So, thanks to Croatian companies, a combination of intelligence, IPS, a unique integrated system for preventing the spread of infections appeared on the market in just five short months. Even the Dr. Andrija Stampar Institute gave a recommendation for the use of IPS, stating that this device should be installed in kindergartens, schools and homes for the elderly. Krokoteks revealed that they have already installed about a hundred devices in various facilities.

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October 28,  2020 - After being declared one of the fastest-growing companies in Europe, Croatian company Q received another prestigious award.

Index.hr reports that according to Clutch, the world's leading research agency for ranking IT companies, Q is one of the 20 best global web development companies in the world, among the top ten in Europe, and the best B2B company in Croatia, the company reported.

"We are proud that Clutch, as the world's best-known IT ranking platform, has recognized Q as one of the best agencies in Europe. As many as 9 of Qa's 10 largest clients are the world's leading companies in their industries. This is a great confirmation to the whole team we are raising the projects we are working on to an even higher level,” stressed CEO Filip Ljubić.

With this recognition, Q continues with top results, they added in a statement.

When compared to the last six months, marked by the global coronavirus pandemic, in the same period as last year, Q’s revenue grew by more than 50%. During this period, the Zagreb company acquired 22 new clients from eight different countries. The team of top experts has been enriched with 46 new people, and ten additional benefits are available to employees.

“During the COVID period, we did not want to cut costs. In fact, we hired additional people in sales and communications in the first wave and decided to focus globally on non-crisis industries such as medicine and pharmacy, and today we have six clients from this fast-growing sector,” Ljubić explains the moves that led to the expansion of the business and new recognitions.

Every year, Clutch's prestigious IT ranking platform compiles a list of the best companies according to customer satisfaction. Clutch performs analyzes, contacts clients, makes surveys, all for the purpose of obtaining the most accurate results or clients' attitudes about the company they work with. Clutch's results are unique and objective because they provide a comprehensive and credible insight into global projects and business processes of companies around the world, which is why this is a great success for Croatian Q, which is among the top 20 in the world.

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As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 9th of October, 2020, Serengeti, a Croatian consulting company that provides enterprise solution development services and is one of the largest such developer companies in Croatia, and Besplay Adria, a Zagreb-based startup that developed the RedAI application, recently signed a contract by which Serengeti becomes a co-owner of RedAI application. In addition, a collaboration with Tricentis, which has been recognised as a leader in automated testing by Gartner, Forrester and IDC, has been announced.

"By partnering with Besplay Adria, ie the co-ownership in the RedAI application, which is based on the application of advanced machine learning technologies and artificial intelligence, we've made a step forward into a new, attractive area. In addition, by including the RedAI application in our portfolio, we've entered the retail industry, which is recording its latest boom thanks to the application of innovative software solutions that allow both small and large players on this competitive market to be as agile as possible,'' commented Serengeti's CEO Goran Kalanj. He added "Serengeti has long been present on the market as a reliable partner for automated software testing, and cooperation with the world leader in this field, Tricentris, further confirms this and gives us the opportunity to apply our knowledge and best practices in this area in terms of further development and functionality of the software testing solution,''

"We're extremely pleased to be able to start a business synergy with Serengeti, which is established here on the Croatian market as one of the leading IT companies. Considering that the RedAI solution is also 100% made in Croatia, we're glad that in the future two Croatian companies will try to position RedAI commercially outside of our own borders, as well as continuously technologically improve the solution in the years ahead. FMCG/CPG is the primary industry where RedAI has proven to be a "must have" product for leading companies within the industry, but our goal is to offer complementary digital solutions in other industry niches and improve their business,'' said Domagoj Borsic, CEO of Besplay Adria.

''RedAI is an application that delivers current results on your device in correlation with your predefined KPIs. The user photographs the shelf or refrigerator with a mobile device or tablet with simple guidelines built into the app. AI software detects, processes and classifies each SKU previously defined by the client and delivers results to the user on site, as well as the management team, and compares compliance with established KPIs or contract terms with individual retailers,'' the director of Besplay Adria explained.

2020, although marked by the ongoing coronavirus crisis, is the year in which Croatia's Serengeti started a number of new projects on both the Croatian and foreign markets. In the retail industry it accelerated the implementation of advanced solutions. Numerous clients on foreign markets are the best proof of Serengeti's domain knowledge and the name of the company is known in the countries of Western Europe.

By taking over part of the ownership in the RedAI application, Serengeti has become an exclusive partner of Besplay Adria and will support this startup company in the further development of the application as well as its presentation in foreign markets. It is an application that uses artificial intelligence technology and is used by sales representatives to improve the sale of consumer goods. Thanks to this innovative solution, sales representatives can analyse a shelf in a shopping centre as well as products in refrigerators in the HoReCa sector in just a few seconds. The next step in the development of the application is 3D mapping of products within the application, which requires the further application of advanced and modern technologies.

Smart software testing is the next step in the field of automated testing where Serengeti will work with Tricentris in a way that their consultants will strengthen the existing team and develop new functionalities towards smart software testing solutions. Tricentris is a globally recognised company that has been at the very top of the software testing industry for several years in a row now, according to independent research. Their solution encompasses the entire process of testing software functionality from an end-user perspective.

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As Novac/Andreas Koscec writes on the 8th of October, 2020, Real Grupa, a Croatian marketing communications agency, has done an excellent job in Brazil. The company devised a brand new store concept, redesigned the existing ones and created a new strategic positioning campaign For the Spanish retail chain Dia, which has 900 stores in this huge market of 211 million people. On top of all of the above, it also is continuing Dia's campaigns on a monthly basis.

''I must admit I wasn't ready for Brazil. I worked on markets like Lithuania, Ukraine and Portugal, so I considered myself a cosmopolitan immune to the phenomenon of culture shock. I believed that our client would be similar in temperament, life and business habits to the Mediterranean-Portuguese, and thus to our way of life. Brazil presents itself through football, movies and series as something close to us, but in practice the life of a Brazilian is as similar to ours as the life of someone in Japan. I had to dare to fight with my own Eurocentrism and the perception of everything unknown and different as primitive,'' describes Goran Pecanac, Real Grupa's art director.

''To get to know the customer's habits first hand and help construct what we call the shopping experience, I went with a colleague in the cheapest training clothes with only a printed copy of my passport and several thousand reais in my pocket in the infamous favela Capao Redondo and walked. Only then is it possible to abandon some of the prejudices and truly get to know people and their lives. Communication problems on the market are endless and difficult to explain to someone who hasn't actually experienced it,'' explained Pecanac.

Real Grupa has been working for large international clients for many years, and works on the Brazilian market according to a proven principle - using the knowledge and experience of the parent agency as a driver of creative strategy and local partner agency MRM / OU which is part of McCann Erickson Group.

However, Brazilian marketing campaigns, as it turned out, are conceptually different from Croatian ones. Brazilians love solutions rich in different communication elements. In addition, just one display of an advertisement on TV is enough to make an impressive sales effect in the largest country in South America, which is incredible for Croatian media terms.

''It took some time to get rid of the established visual values ​​to which we're accustomed, which have so far been part of automatism and which haven't been questioned in the previous setting of communication. It was necessary to relax in exaggeration, allow myself to go a few steps further than usual, use a much broader colour scheme, more visual elements, more sound and effects, and then revise and reduce all that if necessary. I managed to make a mascot that was accepted as an element on which to base any further communication suggesting freshness, product variety and bargain purchase, and when I managed to lay it as a foundation for further communication, I knew we'd managed to overcome the initial barrier and that it would all be much easier from that moment on,'' said Matko Jovicin, a fellow art director.

The creative director of Real Grupa, Maro Pitarevic, came to his senses when it turned out that he didn't study Portuguese in vain.

''At the first meeting, the Brazilians couldn't believe it when I gave a presentation in Portuguese. I felt so satisfied that me, from little Croatia, without a translator, managed to come up with the slogan 'Melhor em cada dia', which is an ambiguous message and means 'every day better', but also better (products and prices) in every Dia store,'' Pitarevic explained, adding that the advertising industry is like football.

''Brazilians are the great masters, but sometimes even little old Croatia can achieve great results,'' he claimed.

''Organizing a communication strategy in such a place is an extremely difficult task, which is why I'm proud of what we've managed to achieve,'' revealed a satisfied Pecanac.

''The relationship with the client was also atypical, in the most positive sense, there was a rare feeling in agency practice that we're together with the client in an attempt to solve the problem, that the project is joint and that success will also be,'' he added.

Kresimir Renzo Prosoli, President of the Management Board of Real Grupa, is also satisfied with the work on the market of 211 million inhabitants.

''We're proud of this cooperation and we're glad that as an agency we 've proven that success is possible anywhere. Since its establishment, we've based our business strategy on working in Croatia, but also on other, foreign markets, which are also a challenge for us and we always look for good opportunities no matter where they might be,'' concluded Prosoli.

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As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes on the 2nd of October, 2020, in the first annual EC report on the functioning of the rule of law for the Republic of Croatia, the fact that 91 percent of Croatian companies consider corruption to be widespread (the EU average otherwise stands at a significantly lower 63 percent), and that for 57 percent of Croatian companies it poses a problem in business (with the EU average being a far lower 37 percent), is greatly concerning.

Although the Croatian judiciary has made progress in reducing the enormous backlog of cases, there are still many problems with efficiency, independence and quality, while the matter is even more complex with regard to the corruption perception index, which is always a very hot topic indeed in Croatia.

According to Transparency International for the year 2019, the Republic of Croatia ranks 18th in the European Union and 63rd in the entire world, but it unfortunately ranks as the worst in the 2020 Eurobarometer survey in terms of citizens' perceptions of corruption: as many as 97 percent believe it is widespread (the EU average is otherwise 71 percent) and 54 percent of them feel personally affected by it in their everyday lives (whereas the EU average stands at a lower 26 percent). The report also points out that in September 2020, the Minister of Justice and Administration announced a new anti-corruption strategy.

The EC report, which is the latest strategic document, accompanied by three two-year action plans and largely implemented, is lacking due to the postponement of some initiatives to strengthen ethics and integrity among top executives and members of parliament and to regulate lobbying. Corruption at the local level remains a cause for concern, due to, they say, structural weaknesses and the management of local state-owned enterprises.

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As Jadranka Dozan/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 28th of September, 2020, applications for support for the month of September began ten days ago for groups of employers and Croatian enterprises for whom the Government's job preservation measures (ORM) were extended until the end of the year.

For those Croatian enterprises eligible for part-time support, which was introduced in the middle of the year, the deadline for submitting applications for the period from September to the end of the year expired at the end of August, and applications for support start in October. The Croatian Employment Service, through which certain programmes are implemented within the framework of the ORM measures, has so far paid out a total of 6.6 billion kuna in these grants. The majority of it was paid in the first three months of implementation (salaries for March, April and May), and with the relaxation of epidemiological measures restricting work and the number of employers and employees, the total monthly amount of payments was significantly reduced.

Payments for Croatian enterprises for August are ongoing

In June, a total of 304.7 million kuna was paid out, for the salaries of 78,322 employees to a total of 18,000 employers who fell into the proper criteria with a drop in revenue. According to the latest CES data, 247.7 million kuna was paid to Croatian enterprises in the name of these grants (until September the 24th, 2020). Payments for August, they say, are still ongoing, and 121.7 million kuna has been paid out so far.

Measures to reduce working hours, intended for Croatian enterprises with more than 10 employees and the expected decline in the fund of working hours of at least 10 percent, were used by 143 employers in July who were paid more than 15.2 million kuna in support. So far, one million kuna has been paid out in the name of this type of support for nine employers for the month of August.

The CES stated that 570 applications from Croatian enterprises have been received for this support so far. The majority of payments under ORM measures in July and August refer to those requested by Croatian enterprises according to the criterion of declining income (more than 60 percent) and belonging to the activities most affected by the crisis (transport and storage, catering/hospitality, events, arts and entertainment).

These subsidies amount to 4,000 kuna per worker, more than 185.5 million kuna (for 7,329 beneficiaries) was paid in July, and slightly more than 100 million kuna (for 4,353 beneficiaries) was paid out in August. According to the criteria established after June for micro-enterprises (up to 2,000 kuna), about 11.5 thousand of them received aid in July, and the CES forwarded them more than 46 million kuna, and for August so far, slightly more than 20 million kuna has been paid out.

The latest detailed data on beneficiaries of ORM measures refer to grants for June. The list of the top 10 according to the total amount of co-financing is mostly made up of the largest tourist companies led by Valamar  (9.6m), Plava Laguna (4.86m) and Maistra (4.4m), and in the top 10 users are four more hotel companies. The Student Centre of the University of Zagreb with 3.4 million in grants and two transport companies - Cazmatrans (2.66 million kuna) and Autotrans (2.42 million kuna) were among the ten largest in June. At the same time, as of June, production companies such as AD Plastik from Solin and Boxmark Leather from Varazdin were no longer in that group of Croatian enterprises.

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As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 19th of September, 2020, the story of the Croatian company Nanobit and its two founders, Alan Sumina and Zoran Vucinic, can be ranked among the most successful Croatian stories in the last five years. It started, as is often the case with IT startups - "romantically", without any capital, with only two computers, but with the idea and the will to gain global success in a very competitive industry - the mobile game industry.

The Croatian company Nanobit's founders have been building the company for a full 12 years now and have grown to 125 highly educated employees, their games have been downloaded more than 145 million times in total, and are played by more than 10 million active players worldwide on a monthly basis. And what has crowned their success is an extremely successful sale or, in startup terms, "exit". They sold the company for almost a billion kuna to the Swedish Stillfront group, which has 14 more gaming studios in its portfolio.

Namely, Stillfront, whose headquarters are in Stockholm and which is publicly listed on the Nasdaq First North Premier Growth Market, will pay 100 million US dollars in the first tranche for 78 percent of the Croatian company Nanobit's shares, and after two years, they'll buy the rest of Nanobit at a price that will depend on the movement of profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of Nanobit in the financial years of 2021 and 2022.

When asked why they decided to sell and not to further their independent development, Alan and Zoran answered for Vecernji list:

''The industry in which we operate is very fierce when it comes to competition and there's a real struggle on the global market. It's currently rapidly consolidating and the choice was to join those who will develop the company or stay alone against everyone.

True, we may have once had the idea that we will be the ones to buy other gaming companies, but we should be realistic considering that it's almost impossible to realise this operationally from Croatia, primarily because there is not enough capital. For such a thing we had to start things up in another country, for example, like our customer, in Sweden. As a Croatian company, even if we were listed on the Swedish stock exchange, we wouldn't get such visibility as we are now when we're a component of a Swedish company. It's much harder to do all this from Croatia because companies need a lot more capital for acquisitions, so we believe that this was the best we could do in the right timeframe, and the situation with the coronavirus crisis also contributed to this move,'' Nanobit's founders say, adding that they didn't just fall for the first offer they got and that they had at least a few bidders every year.

''There were various providers, from those related to this business to those who have nothing in common with Nanobit whatsoever. We chose the Swedish company because we estimated that we'd continue to work and develop with them, have knowledge and cooperation with all their components, or with 14 other gaming studios or specifically with 800 quality employees and experts in this field,'' added the founders of the successful Croatian company Nanobit.

What was almost crucial for them was that the company stays in Croatia and has high autonomy in decision-making, ie that everything stays more or less as it was before, with Nanobit's employees getting the opportunity for personal development that ultimately directly affects the company's results.

''During the negotiations with the Swedes, some new bidders appeared who offered us even more money. However, what our goal was is that the company still exists as it is, that it has its headquarters in Croatia and that its employees are safe and taken care of in the best way with the new owner,'' say Alan and Zoran, who will surely remain at the helm of the Nanobit for another two years and continue to work, although their contract doesn't stipulate that they must remain at the helm of the company.

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As Bernard Ivezic/Novac writes on the 1th of September, 2020, Infobip, the first Croatian unicorn startup, and Span, the largest Croatian software exporter and one of the ten largest IT companies in Croatia, have entered into a sales partnership. Infobip became famous on the market for its SMS services, and now Infobip and Span are a force to be reckoned with.

As a result of previous business moves, the Croatian unicorn, Infobip, which is led by Silvio Kutic, has more than four billion end users and more than seven billion monthly transactions. The business, in turn, collaborates with huge clients such as Facebook, Google and Uber.

In the meantime, Infobip has expanded its offer and, in addition to SMS solutions, created complex IT solutions called Moments, Conversations and Answers. In addition to making it easier to reach a billion-dollar valuation, the new software products forced the Croatian IT ace to start building new, global sales infrastructure. That's where Span comes in.

Aleksandar Daic, strategic manager for users and partners at Infobip, says that today there is no organisation that isn't moving towards digital transformation. He stated that in cooperation with Span, he will accelerate the digital transformation of existing and new clients.

"That's why we believe that technology companies should join forces and bring their expertise together in order to deliver the best communication solutions to customers and accelerate business change," explained Daic.

Span is, much like Infobip, a global company. It has more than 1,500 clients on six continents. In Croatia, Span, led by Nikola Dujmovic, is one of the ten largest IT companies in terms of revenue, the largest software exporter and the longest-serving partner of Microsoft in Croatia, ie the longest-standing partner of the largest software company in the world. This means that it has vast experience in selling not only simple bundled software but also the most complex IT solutions.

This year, Span was even recognised as Microsoft Partner of the Year in Croatia. It is a title for which more than 3,300 companies from one hundred countries competed. The partnership with Microsoft is additionally interesting to Infobip, because Span has proven to be a great sales partner that is both very efficient and innovative in the way it sells solutions based on Microsoft technology. It is a winning combination that Infobip also wants to achieve.

The company Span is atypical for Croatian conditions. About 15 years ago, Span's management bought the company from the then owner, the Hungarian Synergon, for 10.56 million kuna. It was the first buyout management in Croatia. Soon, Span became one of the biggest cloud players in Croatia, boasting global contracts with the likes of McDonald’s, Heineken and eventually Rolls Royce Marine.

Infobip, on the other hand, is the fastest growing Croatian software company. In 2019, it had revenue growth of 38 percent to 602 million euros. Infobip has been growing at a similar pace for years, so it is on the list of the ten fastest growing companies that develop subscriber software which is purchased over the Internet, so-called SaaS. Atlassian, Salesforce and Slack are on the same list. This explains why Infobip has to look for new ways to sell its software and why Span is precisely the company to help them do it.

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As Poslovni Dnevnik/Lucija Spiljak writes on the 15th of September, 2020, the Croatian company Lemax, the largest Croatian exporter of tourism "know-how" specialising in tourism software, is celebrating 30 years of having been in operation, which is marked by new investments, growth in the number of employees and continued expansion of business outside Croatia.

The company was founded in the Dalmatian city of Sibenik, has a branch in Zagreb, and the latest news is that they are opening a new office in Osijek, where they already have five employees. More about the company's novelties and plans was revealed in an interview between Poslovni Dnevnik and the Croatian company Lemax's director Mate Kostovski.

According to the latest information, the opening of a new office is underway, which will be located in Osijek. When do you expect to move in and how many people will you employ?

We've been preparing to open an office in Osijek for some time now, and we already have five employees there, but we're now completing the opening of a physical office, which was initially planned for May. The contract for renting the space has been signed, the works on arranging the space are in progress, and we expect the move-in to occur at the end of October.

The employees in Osijek currently work from home, as do some of our employees in the Zagreb office. The number of employees in the office in Osijek will increase in accordance with new projects and real needs, and we anticipate that in the next three years we'll reach the number of 25 employees.

In February, the Croatian company Lemax announced that the number of employees would increase from 85 to 130.

Our company is constantly expanding and increasing in terms of the number of employees. Employment in Croatia was a bit slow during lockdown, but 11 new colleagues have joined us since June. Lemax currently has 100 employees, and the exact number by the end of the year will depend on the real needs that we'll have to adapt to in regard to the situation in the tourism sector.

We're always open to hiring quality people for software development, while by the end of this year and next year, we'll be placing an emphasis on hiring in commercial roles, ie positions in sales and marketing departments. We expect that global tourism will begin to recover in the second quarter of next year, when we expect a positive trend and significant investment in technology, which will create the need for increased employment.

Two years ago, the Croatian company Lemax generated revenue of 1.85 million euros, an increase of 85 percent over the year before. What were the results like for 2019?

In 2019, which was the best year so far, we achieved significant revenue growth. It amounted to 2.54 million euros and grew by more than 40 percent. This year is also significant for us because we increased the number of employees to 85 and we achieved the preconditions for opening offices around the world.

And the first half of this year? What are the estimates for the rest of it?

Regardless of the coronavirus situation, which significantly affected the entire tourism sector, and thus IT in tourism, we managed to achieve growth in the first part of the year. We had a great first quarter, but unfortunately a drop in the second. But all in all, in the first half of the year we recorded revenue growth, and we expect it at the level of the entire 2020.

This year has been quite specific for everyone, including the tourism sector. The pandemic forced travel agencies to reduce costs, but also to optimise their business processes and think about how to get out of this crisis even stronger. So, as difficult as the situation in tourism is, the coronavirus pandemic has actually served as a catalyst for change that will lead to the removal of market-leading companies; many companies will cease to exist, and those who invest in digitalisation will emerge victorious from this crisis.

You've announced an investment cycle until 2023 with an investment of ten million euros in modern architecture. What exactly does such an investment involve?

The investment includes investing in new work processes, which will enable us to be more productive, and to be able to deliver new modules and product functionalities to the market faster and with better quality. In addition to new technology and architecture, the investment also refers to a complete change of the user interface, which will be modern and in line with the trends.

This year, our main focus is on our own processes and our infrastructure. Given the great growth we've had in the previous two years, we've started working intensively to improve internal processes to strengthen the foundations for further growth and become the world's leading provider of software for travel agencies and tour operators by the year 2023.

You operate on a dozen markets, from the US to New Zealand, Malaysia and Italy. Two years ago, you signed your biggest contract with Thailand’s largest travel agency, Asian Trails, which supports more than 700 employees and more than 4,000 partners across eight markets as part of the deal. What are the results of the project?

The Asian Trails project was successfully delivered, and the client continued to invest further in the digitalisation of their own business. Despite the difficult situation in which they find themselves today, they recognised the current situation as a great opportunity, and they continued to make significant investments in digitalisation, so that they could be ready to welcome the return of tourists to Southeast Asia, which at this point in our conversation is, unfortunately, completely closed to tourist visits.

Has the need of the tourism sector for IT services been particularly highlighted this year?

This is a year in which travel companies have become more aware of the need for IT services than ever before. As travel companies are forced to lay off employees due to lack of income, at this moment more than ever before, they're wondering if there is a more efficient way of doing business and are ready to consider advanced IT solutions to do the same job with fewer employees in the future.

As the trends in global tourism market is still negative, ie most countries around the world are still closed and it isn't known when the borders will open again, companies are currently focusing mainly on maintaining cash flow, and less on investment.

But when countries start to open up and when the first influx of foreign travellers starts to be felt, we expect the trend to reverse and more and more companies to start investing in IT solutions because they already see that this is the only way to emerge victorious from this crisis.

The digitalisation of the Croatian economy has been talked about intensively for years. What is the degree of that digitalisation in your opinion?

More and more companies, but also the public sector, understand the need for digital business. The coronavirus pandemic has affected faster digitalisation, and with our solution, we're enabling the process of digital business transformation. From the publicly available data, Croatia is boldly moving towards the path of digitalisation, we believe that it will find a good example for the end users of these services and that we'll follow European and world standards. We certainly have the knowledge and the solutions.

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