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So far in the How We Do It series, we’ve covered the organizational structure at Scalefocus and our role in managing distributed teams, as well as our efforts towards ensuring high code quality. This week, we’re exploring the way our company approaches recruitment, onboarding of new hires and upskilling initiatives to keep our expertise sharp, boost employee morale and inspire innovation. Wondering what makes our talent management special? It’s quite simple. We stay true to the human factor while balancing the positive aspects modern technology brings to optimize, improve and excel. We treasure our most valued resource: the people that work to bring exciting ideas to life, the ones with a zest for learning and growing together. Throughout the entire journey – from a candidate’s application to the moment they greet their team and start their first project, to when they celebrate their work anniversary, Scalefocus projects a personal attitude, consideration and warmth that all contribute to say, “We’re a family and we’re here to make you smile.” Talent Acquisition: We’re Constant Learners At Scalefocus, we put a spin on how things are usually done. We are both people and technologically oriented. What does that mean? Well, it means that we place a large emphasis on expanding our understanding of the latest technologies, while always balancing it with the human factor. Our latest practices in hiring are aimed towards creating a meaningful candidate experience, eliminating hassle, improving hiring strategies, and detecting talent with the highest potential. In our talent acquisition process, we combine both the technology and personality aspects of candidates in every step of the process. Our HR specialists, who are dedicated to a specific department or technology, over time, accumulate proficiency in many technical areas. Recently, for Monika Pecheva, Human Resources Generalist, that specific area, which has become her favorite is Dev Ops. Scalefocus encourages our HR specialists to take part in business meetings and trainings that elevate their knowledge and introduce helpful strategies to bring them closer to selecting the best candidate for the job, and how to have a meaningful and insightful conversation for both the candidate and the recruiter. Monika shares: “In my position, technological knowledge is crucial. Our department often attends external trainings that explain different profiles in great detail. Later, we get together for internal meetings in which we share our findings and any new observations through presentations. We also take part in trainings organized by hiring managers. The latest one was with our Project Managers who discussed key methodologies, a project flow and qualities of a successful candidate for their team.” We believe another aspect of what makes our recruitment unique is our dedication towards optimizing the process and having the candidate leave with a positive experience, regardless of the final hiring decision To ensure the safety of everyone, our entire recruitment process including interviews is currently done online. We still do recommend dressing for the position and exhibiting a professional attitude in order to stand out in the large candidate pool. Monika comments: “First impressions are important but shouldn’t be used to entirely judge a candidate right from the get-go. That’s why there are a couple of stages in the process. We understand that interviews from a distance are more difficult, so we try to connect with our candidates and express emotion by leaving our webcams on and maintaining eye contact throughout the whole conversation.” Our HR specialists advise the hiring manager not only on who they believe will fit in best with the crowd but evaluate and share their insight on vital soft skills a candidate must possess. We are staying on the lookout for the strategic skills of tomorrow which would make the difference in our fast-paced digital environment. Interpersonal traits such as a growth mindset, adaptability, critical thinking, problem-solving and emotional intelligence would definitely make you a good fit! When the hiring decision is made, it’s our policy to give constructive feedback to each candidate through a personal discussion over the phone, being open towards answering any questions that might still be lingering. Whether you join us at Scalefocus or your journey takes you elsewhere, we promise to be honest, listen to your comments and concerns, and encourage you to continue courageously in your professional path to success. A New Onboarding Experience Our HR team is currently preparing a complete redesign of the onboarding process with a threefold goal: to empower the best adaption to company culture, ensure high performance in a timely manner, as well as the most positive employee experience that leads to long-term engagement. It aims to develop an individual approach towards every new hire’s first steps with the company. The approach required to reach this goal includes many efforts of which some key ones are a stronger involvement of direct managers, digitalization of milestones and expectations through our customized platform, along with a dedicated buddy and mentor. Welcome to the Team! After being welcomed, our new team members receive our Scalefocus Welcome Kit – wherever they start from! This is a personalized gift box with goodies that will make work more enjoyable and funny office quotes to make you smile. We’ll keep what’s inside a surprise, but let’s just say it might include a prickly plant to take care of and a glamorous beverage bottle. With remote work in mind, our customized onboarding platform includes a virtual office tour. When working out of office, Scalefocus encourages team members to set virtual coffee breaks in which they can catch up and talk in an informal setting. Overcommunication with the manager is encouraged in order to give new colleagues a peace of mind and a sense of belonging in their position. At the end of the first week, the new hire has seen and met his team, as well as dived in the culture of the company and the nature of his own work. Our colleagues from HR also make a personal call to the employee and checks how things are going. They see if there are questions left unanswered or any support is needed. A personal touch is always appreciated, especially during the first few days in a new company and Scalefocus keeps that in mind. By the end of the second week, work begins on the new hire’s first internal or training project. What Happens Next? Up until the end of the new employee’s third month at Scalefocus, the onboarding journey enters a series of trainings. These are client interview trainings, effective meetings trainings organized by HR staff, culminating in a third-month feedback session for giving and receiving feedback. Afterwards, there are a few presentations including a specific project orientation, an in-depth discussion on corporate values and culture, as well as an opportunity to meet with Executive Team Representatives in a fun, informal setting. Our Learning and Development department’s role is to build an onboarding process so that it covers all necessary steps, maintain it, evaluate its efficacy, and strive towards excellence – constantly improving the overall experience. Hristina Bogdanova, Learning and Development Manager at Scalefocus, shares what makes her role exciting: “Communicating with people and making something for the people is very exciting. My duties and the ones of the L&D team are very different – from personal development plans to internal corporate calendar, preparation of upskilling programs. Developing people’s potential is the best part of my job. Current long-term goals are related to building new programs for the people reflecting the needs that the pandemic brought forward.” Knowledge Transfer & Upskilling At Scalefocus, the transfer of knowledge doesn’t stop at the end of the onboarding process, in fact it never does. Our company takes pride in offering our employees several avenues for technical and interpersonal growth – from external though internal opportunities to develop and learn, always looking to provide support and mentorship along the way. We approach the development journey of our people through several different aspects: from career paths linked with training passports, through focused development programs; internal knowledge and experience sharing initiatives; self-paced learning from different platforms; to inspirational leadership talks. Let’s also not forget the opportunity to learn and grow on the job. We believe that there is a personal development path for each one of our employees, and we provide our colleagues with the opportunity to work on what is suitable for them. We help them build themselves up and venture successfully through it together. One of the proven successes we have had throughout the years has been our training academies for junior specialists, in which they learn new skills side by side with an expert, supporting them throughout their entire journey. The Spirit of Scale: A Versatile Approach to Employee Engagement The Spirit of Scale is a brand-new employee engagement program driven by our employees, inspired by our values. Its goal is to spread team spirit and engage everyone in meaningful activities while creating precious memories and contributing to our company culture. This is also a great opportunity for our employees to practice their interests and passions, alongside colleagues from other departments. In the current social distancing environment, both from COVID and from the digitalization, we strongly encourage community-building initiatives and support bringing people together. Employees can choose to participate from four different streams that reflect both our company values and their personal interests. The first stream, We Play, focuses on sports and fun initiatives such as mountain trekking and board game tournaments. The second stream, We Care, shines the light on social responsibility, education and green initiatives like school supply donations and tree planting. The third stream, We Thrive, brings personal well-being into the picture and gives the opportunity to join events on topics like smart financial planning, overcoming remote work challenges, and effective parenting strategies. The final stream, We Share, is centered on the power of exchanging inspirational ideas and knowledge that each one of us carries with us. This may be technical, creative, physical or spiritual initiatives such as tips on discovering your leadership voice, yogic dieting, or DIY home hacks. After selecting a stream, employees can either enroll to become an ambassador and be the driving force in its event organization and execution, or they can simply join a stream and become a community member joining other colleagues to discuss topics of interest and stay up to date with internal and external events. Scalefocus is excited to be rolling out its first Spirit of Scale events for each stream in the weeks ahead! We Owe our Success to You Well, that’s a wrap on this sneak peek behind our talent management processes. We hope you found it honest and insightful. What do you think about our approach to talent management? Let us know on social media – we’ll be happy to hear from you and start a discussion. We’re always striving to optimize, improve and grow into an even more diverse, inclusive and exciting place to work at. Breaking new ground in software development innovation doesn’t come easy, and we know our continued success wouldn’t be possible without the hard work, dedication, passion and teamwork of each Scalefocusarian. And that’s a fact.

We are introducing a new model of work, presenting an updated employee benefits package, and launching several initiatives. A few months after our CEO announced the decision to switch from a service-oriented company to one which offers repeatable software solutions, we would like to announce a few other new things as well. Earlier in September, we introduced the popular Work from Everywhere (WFE) model. Work from Everywhere will be a hybrid model of working from home or another location or the office, providing a good work-life balance and better overall productivity for employees. Physical offices will continue to be the cornerstone of our identity and operation, yet they will function more as hubs for collaboration, communication, and time spent with the team. The second novelty is the updated package of employee benefits. We found that new reality requires us to adapt quickly and offer what the team really needs. That is why we have included additional days off, based on years of experience in the company, as well as health initiatives, which are especially important during a pandemic. The development of the benefits package will continue in 2021. We plan to move entirely to the so-called Flex Benefits model (personalized benefits). Each employee will be free to choose what to benefit from, according to the individual needs and the stage of his/her career at the moment. This model is characterized by its exceptional flexibility, as well as an emphasis on each individual in the company. Currently, there is no other Bulgarian company that has introduced Flex Benefits. “The Spirit of Scale” is an employee-to-employee driven initiative that aims to unite people in the company by interests and empower the creation of internal communities. One of the key elements of this program is the active participation of people through the involvement of ambassadors - they set the direction, ideas for initiatives, and actively participate in the implementation. “The Spirit of Scale” is divided into four main areas - "We Share", "We Care", "We Thrive", "We Play". The initiative is already experiencing great interest and over 250 employees have joined one of the four streams. The diverse initiatives in the four streams include donations for high school students, campaigns with UNICEF, and participation in the Race for the Cure competition, the largest sporting event in Europe that aims to publicize women's health and breast cancer. More events are coming up. The renewed onboarding program aims to make the first six months of new employees an adventure that clearly outlines the framework for their career development, expectations, current, and future challenges, growth program, and to ensure their good integration within the team. Since each profession has its own specifics, the program is tailored to the different roles and levels in the company. The technology-oriented colleagues go through a specially prepared onboarding, tailored to their project and team orientation. The next stage for employees could be our new "LEAD" program, which starts in September. It aims to provide professional and practical training for future leaders in the company. The program reflects the new reality through a combination of short video sessions and mentoring. The interactive content that everyone goes through at their own pace shows the latest trends in leadership, followed by our reading through the culture of the organization by our board and senior management. All this comes to life through mentoring, where real situations are shared and discussed. Currently, over 35 people are going through the modules of the academy, and this is only the first group. We are actively working on improving the already started initiatives and on the launch of new ones in 2021. We opened a new office in the sea capital Varna and in recent months we have started the process of recruiting new employees, with regards to the growing portfolio of clients and new deals. In recent months, Scalefocus received SAP Gold Partner status and was among the winners in the Deloitte Fast 500 EMEA list. We continue to develop a stable portfolio of long-term and new customers, the division for repeatable software solutions is also gaining momentum and this affects the stable interest in our open positions.

In September we contributed to a cause which helped 450 children in need to start the new school year with a smile. Within the charity initiative “Ready for school”, we collected more than 1000 notebooks and other student equipment for disadvantaged children. Scalefocus donated another 771 notebooks to the good cause.Through the Wе CARE initiatives we strive to make a positive impact in our community.

At the end of August, Scalefocus hosted a webinar on a topic that has become a hot subject in 2020 like never before. Last-mile logistics is transforming and the urge for fast adaptation for logistics companies, retailers, carriers, and businesses has been accelerated tremendously because of the COVID-19 pandemic. To delve deeper into the subject, we conducted a fireside chat with special guest lectors to determine how businesses in the sector can fit best in a world turned upside down and even become new leaders on the market. Georgi Boyadhizev and Varbin Dichev from Scalefocus were joined by Markus Reckling, Managing Director at DHL Express Germany, and Alex Hann, Head of Transport & Logistics at Bringg for EMEA. Watch the whole webinar in the video, or continue reading to grab the main points in the recap. How Demand-Supply Patterns Change and Is There a New Normal The fireside chat started with a short recap of the obvious: last-mile logistics is looking different in the COVID and post-COVID era and demand-supply patterns are changing. The question is: will they return to normal or have they changed inevitably, and what will the new normal look like. "We are definitely in a situation where we see a lot of movement in last-mile delivery and the b2c delivery process and in my opinion that will change even more.", says Georgi. On his part, Alex Hann shared his perspective as a leader in a brand that orchestrates millions of shipments every day via the Bringg platform. He says that in his opinion, the so-called new normal is constantly changing, and "there is no normal right now". He marked the huge rise in shipment volumes over the last six months (500% globally) and noted that last-mile is "already driven by customer expectations and is not focused purely around cost, but also around reliability, flexibility and speed". "Everyone in the logistics space has felt the need to optimize. We don't know how long the process will last, but we will have to adapt. We will absolutely will not be going back to the kind of volumes we have seen in the last months, but there needs to be a huge amount of innovation and change." Alex says that there is, of course, a huge differentiation between well-prepared organizations or at least some amount prepared before the crisis with scaling with a digital infrastructure. "It was those who were well-prepared that could adapt very, technologically very quickly - for example, to be able to bring new modules aboard, to move to click-and-collect, or curbside delivery, to have the interconnectivity of a much broader ecosystem that connects other third-party carriers as well as the crowdsource fleet." Markus Reckling, as a Managing Director for Germany for one of the biggest providers of shipping solutions, has witnessed first hand the impact of COVID on supply chains, customers. He shared that he doesn’t think things are in a new normal yet, more like “somewhere between crisis 2.0 and crisis 3.0. Habits are changing,” he adds, “and I would say resilience will be a much bigger aspect of the supply chain than before.” Leveraging Technology & Moving Forward With the dynamic situation, businesses need to run towards a more efficient distribution channel, with available tech tools. Varbin shared that during the crisis, a lot of Scalefocus’ clients started looking at and rethinking their processes, how to make them more practical with the new possibilities of technology. Getting the whole supply chain communication, using the data, and getting new visibility to the supply chain are the accents in most businesses’ moving forward. Alex says that there are three core parts to maximizing this: finding the right technology partner using technology and data to optimize the process being more customer-oriented and having the perspective built around the customer The data-driven and tech-driven partner is vital and “now, every business should be technology-driven”, according to Alex. “To work quickly, be agile, and have the capabilities to solve initial challenges immediately.” After the spike of deliveries in e-commerce and drop in b2b, there will be some balancing out, but b2c will stay high – at least that is the prediction. ” And that again comes back to technology and being data-centric and making intelligent decisions with this data. Technology enables businesses to grow and expand without significant investment in the operations.” Being customer-centric is something both guests talked at length in the webinar, and understanding the customer experience is how “companies adapt towards the demand.” According to Markus, “It’s all about data” and good data integration with the provider gives the best experience that makes the customer comes back. What Will Last-Mile Become in the Future Safe to say, next years will be interesting for last-mile logistic; whether we will see big platforms take over or more shared-economy, asset-sharing type of business model, where it’s all about ecosystems with data orchestration (and businesses collaborating instead of competing). Аccording to Varbin, the shared economy is an interesting idea and gives many possibilities for optimization, so businesses can see the demands and give the best solution. Alex added that “Utilization and collaboration network is a huge part of the future.” He again says that the focus is driven towards consumers and it still depends on retailers and brands as they move away from brick-and-mortar traditionally and going online. “This process should be taken more seriously now, as it’s more integral for the success of their business. They should know the future is here and it is vital for carriers, retailers, brands, logistics companies to be innovating.” “Convenience, flexibility, sustainability, speed, resilience will be the keywords you need to think about.” Аs for what lies ahead, Alex says it will probably be a mix of the big platforms (the “Amazons” of the world) and shared economy for the smaller companies, collaborations, and balance, “creating a delivery ecosystem without taking away the differentiation of the different service providers.” Markus Reckling adds that “what we need is a culture of trial and error, nobody knows what the future holds, but we believe people should try new things – the more, the better.” Watch the whole webinar and stay tuned for more events by following our Facebook page.

Scalefocus is excited to announce that we are currently pursuing a strategic initiative in Smart Cities through a comprehensive platform, which aims to encompass and lead the digitalization of urban communities. Currently, our Smart Cities platform includes solutions for smart waste management and community parking management. The system relies on a patent-pending network of affordable sensors, in conjunction with a cloud platform to deliver a scalable solution for the digitalization and next generation of community services in our cities. We decided to give you a brief overview of what we’ve been up to throughout the platform’s design process. Smart Parking Using the Smart Cities platform, citizens can easily plan where to park throughout the city by viewing a map with available parking spots and their states: Occupied, unoccupied, pending ticket, assigned ticket, confirmed pay, as well as the time allotted. The weekly operational hours are displayed, and a credit card payment automatically secures your spot and updates the system accordingly. Automatic parking spots can be requested near a person’s residence from the municipal authorities and used without payment. Traditional mobile text-based systems for parking spot management can still be used in conjunction with the smart cities platform through the concept of micro-zones and indeed enhance such systems functionally and analytically. For organizations managing the parking spaces, the platform gives the ability to easily track the profitability and usage of parking spots available in an efficient manner, manage entire sections of the city for events, and indeed use the available parking spaces and chartering new such spaces in a data-driven manner, in accordance with the usage patterns of the available spaces. Meanwhile, for the traffic wardens and ticket enforcing units, the system has clear to follow instructions, leading directly to the next offender and eliminating the need to patrol the streets. It is therefore extremely effective in either administering a ticket or assisting in the removal of punitive devices from vehicles. The most important impact of the system, beyond significantly increasing the efficiency of using parking spaces and generating additional revenue for communities is the decrease in unnecessary traffic in the most congested parts of the cities and reduce pollution in the cities we live in. Smart Waste We’re proud to be working on a highly cost-efficient and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional waste management solutions. The application and patent-pending sensor network enables to identify bin status – fill factor, fallen or flooded bins, and bins on fire. Garbage pickup routes are synchronized optimizing the collection process, and emissions and traffic are significantly decreased. KPIs directly tied to the efficiency of waste management can be measured, tracked, and set as KPIs to subcontracting companies by communities. Analytics on waste generation patterns and new systems for waste management can be developed, using the data and analytics on the waste generation in the platform. Separated waste is weighed and analyzed with initiatives to produce less and promote reusing and recycling. The Platform’s Structure Users The Smart Cities platform follows a hierarchical user–based control. Root account:Thisis the system administrator, to which all data, user control and functionalities are visible. Municipalities: Theyobserve dashboards, oversee progress of contractors, whether KPIs are being met. Potential contractors or companies: These are users thatofferdifferent services (garbage, water, heating). They are the direct users of the platform as they will access useful data such as routes for garbage pickup, damaged containers or ones in flames and need of repair. The contractors see whatever applications the municipalities give them access to. Citizens:Depending on the application,the city’s citizens can view and access certain features, information and analytics. Groups Groups, or organizations, also follow a hierarchical tree structure. This makes the creation of sub-organizations possible in which custom data can be segregated into. Organizations can be municipalities, companies, any contractors and so on. Each organization has assigned applications — either Smart Waste or Smart Parking. In addition, the applications are linked to a network of edge devices, which are accessed by a set number of users with assigned roles. The subscription-based model is dependent on the number of devices and users, which a municipality agrees upon setting up as required. The Process Choose an appropriate group name Assign roles for each application — for Smart Parking: mayor, accountant, driver; for Smart Waste: garbage collector, data analyzer, device technician, etc. Assign users to roles — John Smith, applications: 2: Roles: 1 The accumulated data in the applications comes with their own set of functionalities, e.g. export documents into Excel, review a dashboard, reassign a user. What is a Smart City? A smart city uses technology to solve infrastructural and societal problems, while promoting sustainability and increasing operational efficiency. Its citizens are at the core of its framework. By focusing on continuous development of its key components, a smart city aims to substantially improve our daily lives. Here is an overview of its components and the technologies that link them together. Smart Living: Optimizes and protects water supply, saves fuel costs, optimizes traffic flow and strives for better utilization of urban area through real-time parking availability, offers location-based services and city event info. Smart Environment: Aims to reduce carbon footprint through use of autonomous technologies that monitor overall environmental health and prevent any negative impact, promotion of renewable energy sources, practice of green energy policies and procedures. Smart Mobility: Ensures a fully accessible, open and strategically linked network for optimal movement and safe passage of citizens and vehicles. Smart Economy: Offers an entrepreneurial and innovative culture, inspires productivity, provides local and global interconnectivity. Smart Governance: Includes citizens in the decision-making process digitally, online administrative services, democratic engagement and electoral rights. Smart People: Embraces a creative atmosphere, inclusive education and society, as well as regular training opportunities. Internet of Things: A system of physical objects with unique identifiers (UIDs) that talk to each other, and easily transfer data through a network, without the aid of human-to-human or human-to-machine interaction. Internet of Services: Web-based interactive services with information that is easily accessed and shared through social networks and tagging and is of mutual use to human and machine. Internet of Data: An organized network that embeds virtual tags which record all activity of passing data entities since their creation. The information is later used for data identification, data tracing or data analysis. Internet of People: Humans and their personal devices play an active role in the internet through a centralized infrastructure of interconnected peer networks in which applications are tailored to work around a person’s unique day to day needs, while also communicating with users of similar profile interests and exchanging information. Key Trends The United Nations estimates that by 2030, 67% of our population will be living in cities. This figure was 54% in 2014. The movement of middle-class families towards urban centers in search of better opportunities, along with the transformation of emerging economies into global players, like China, will create a strong demand for smart city technologies. In 2019, the smart cities market was worth $624.81 billion. Green technology being the driving force of its success, it is projected to reach a value of $1712.83 billion by 2025, with a 18.30% CAGR from 2020 to 2025 (Mordor Intelligence). The largest smart cities market is currently in Europe, focusing on climate and energy. Europe holds 45% worth of the smart cities market followed by Asia-Pacific with 35% and North America 20% (Markets and Markets). Asia Pacific will experience the highest market growth in the next five years. India and China are singled out as the nations that will benefit the most from the development and expansion of smart cities in previously rural surrounding regions. Compared to China’s impressive 500 smart city projects that are ready for construction, India is catching up with 731 approved projects, and 100 planned for construction by 2022 (Mordor Intelligence). The two major challenges faced are security of IOT devices and high costs of building refurbishment. System security developers are forced to rethink creative strategies and implement specific security measures to IoT devices, in order to eliminate the threat of enterprise data breaches and protect consumer privacy. Meanwhile, the question whether to demolish or restore older buildings is creating dialogue between defensive citizens looking to preserve their communities against local governments on a tight budget. The impact of Covid-19 has resulted in an increased demand for telehealth services. In addition, there is a projected 12-20% price increase in the cost for IoT sensors and hardware necessary to facilitate physician checkups and overall health monitoring without physical contact (Markets and Markets). Let’s Build a Better Future Together What is your take on smart cities? Is your city implementing smart parking and smart waste management strategies? Do you wish to be a part of that process by taking an active role alongside modern technologies? Reach out to us and let’s get the conversation going. We’re thrilled to keep sharing new initiatives and developments on our projects with you, especially when they help communities grow stronger and inspire positive change. Follow us on social media to keep up with our latest online events, webinars, podcasts, and get an inside look at the talented teams and individuals who work at Scalefocus.

At Scalefocus, we love making memories. The kind of memories, which bring smiles on our faces even long after the day we’ve created them. And that’s exactly what happened during and after our Team Building 2019. We wanted to unplug our colleagues from their daily routine in the big cities, and that is why the theme of our team building was B|Unplugged. B|Unplugged recreated a festival of smiles, teamwork, fresh mountain air, music, sport and a lot of creativity - in all forms. Let’s take a trip down memory lane together and recap the emotions - because it was worth it. Scalefocus Unplugged in Borovets For IT people the virtual world can be a favorite place and even a home, but evеry once in a while, it’s good to ‘unplug’ and find a way to connect to the outside world and the real people in it. In Borovets, in a specially created festival under the sky, we managed to do that. Our colleagues traveled from all office locations in Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, and Burgas. We gathered in the heart of the mountain and spent time together for the many diverse activities and fun performances on the meadow. Scalefocus and Nasimo: Crafting Art One of the best ways to express ourselves is through our hands and through the creation of art - and it really comes in many forms. At B|Unplugged, Nasimo (Stanislav Trifonov) joined Scalefocusarians to paint with them on big canvases and help them create something to be proud of. The peaceful and artsy atmosphere drew a lot of people to become artists for the day. The paintings will soon be on display around the office. Scalefocus and Destructive Creation: Building Benches On the other side of the meadow, a lot of colleagues joined Destructive Creation in making and painting wooden benches. They did a brilliant job and the gorgeous creations will adorn the area in Borovets, so people may sit on them and enjoy the gorgeous nature. ScaleFocus and Uti Bachvarov: Making the great IT lyutenitsa A lot of people were happy to try making one of the most traditional Bulgarian foods - lyutenitsa. To help make the first IT lyutenitsa (dubbed Scaleцето), Uti Bachvarov himself joined us in this ambitious endeavor. The famous cook and reality star gave instructions and personally helped ScaleFocusarians make and then put into jars the delicious IT lyutenitsa. ScaleFocus for the win: Human Foosball And right across the lyutenitsa makers, there was a true sight to be seen - several teams engaging in Human Foosball - or human ‘jaga’ in Bulgarian. The vigor and passion of the teams were truly astounding and they deservedly had a lot of audience to support them. Chilling & Partying The B|Unplugged team building was centered around people doing what would truly make them have a memorable time. There were, of course, those who simply wanted to chill out, but even for them, there were a lot of options on the meadow - several classic arcade games which brought forth the real masters in gaming, a scene for musical and comedy performances and a bar with drinks, with an area for chatting and chilling out. The day ended with a great party, where Scalefocusarians showed each other what it’s really like to have a good time. And, of course, busted out the dance moves to amaze and impress. Since no memories can exist without the people to first create them together and remember them after. And that is exactly why ScaleFocus' Team Building 2019 had all the ingredients of a memory that will not fade.

Radostina Kondakova is a Technology Team Lead in Scalefocus’ cybersecurity team. Radi’s been with the company for two years, and even though her journey started in the financial sector, she says she’s found her “calling” with IT and cybersecurity in particular. Read more what Radostina, our Person of Scale for August, shares about herself. On who she is personally I recently turned 29 years old. I am half Bulgarian, half Belarusian, and I was born in Dobrich, a town I love very much, but I like to look at myself as a citizen of the world because I love traveling and meeting people from different nationalities. I began my career journey in the IT sector a little bit as a joke. Ever since school, I was engulfed in studying finance, financial management, and economics, and I had a dream of becoming a financial consultant or a broker. It was what I studied at university, too, but soon I realized it was not my calling in life. Once I was with some friends of mine who were long-term developers, I told them I had the desire to try in the IT sector. They joked that it was not a trade for "pretty girls." But I decided, stubbornly, to try, I completed a master's degree, several courses, and academies, and soon realized I found what I was looking for. My modest experience of several years includes time as a developer, Manual Tester, Automation QA, PM and now - cybersecurity. It was "love at first sight" - I went to my mentor and told him this was what I wanted to do; it's my calling. He, in turn, made everything in his power to help me develop it. Thank you, Chocho! I've been at Scalefocus for almost two years and currently, I'm a Technical Team Lead of the Cybersecurity Team. If my position can be described in three words, it would be: dynamic, learning, inspiring. On why she likes her team at Scalefocus Because even though it's small, there are truly fascinating people in it and every day with them is an adventure. Together we grow, and they inspire me to learn and give more of myself every day. On the qualities needed to be in cybersecurity To do this job, a person needs to have more than several important qualities. In our business, it's vital to be adaptive and ambitious, because the work is super dynamic, and you need to be able to quickly react in different situations. But in order to truly be a good lead, in my opinion, you should not underestimate one particular quality - tolerance. A good manager should talk to people and help them find special abilities that distinguish them as good specialists in their area. On overcoming doubts and fears My first rule is to try not to panic. Instead, I strive to think and look at the situation from different angles. Sometimes I seek several different opinions from people who are close to me (when it's not about work). And when it's something work-related, I am thankful to have capable mentors and managers at Scalefocus, who always help me make the right decision. On risks Risk is something that usually leads to a win, but it's important to be within reasonable limits. My work at Scalefocus demands quick reactions and decisions, but my decision to retrain myself and go work in another sector is the biggest risk I've ever taken. I gave up my job in the USA, where I was an assistant manager responsible for the salaries of the employees. I came back to Bulgaria, with the firm decision to start over. This risk paid off completely. On technology & work Lately, for a number of reasons, I am not able to do so much technical work at Scalefocus, but overall, my technical focus is mostly on SSDLC SecOps, all kinds of automation and Risk & Compliance. The technologies are quite diverse and comprehensive, as security is involved at all levels in the development process. On inspiration Many things inspire me because I am a creative person at heart. For work, I find inspiration in various books, or I find it by following people in the industry who have succeeded in specific areas and observing what they share. I get inspired also by simply looking at my colleagues. On hobbies I love nature and animals (I have a cat and a dog!). One of my all-time favorite things is to travel, and I always find time to do it. I like getting to know the world and the people in new places. Also, I love sports and experimenting with more unusual stuff like windsurfing & wakeboarding. But on a daily basis, I go to the gym, yoga, spinning, and I visit the mountains. I try to lead a balanced lifestyle and not to overdo it, and everything is moderate, of course, it doesn't always work out, but still one of my favorite things after a hard day is to sit down to play with my pets or talk to my fiancé. To be honest, if it weren't for them, I would have a hard time with the pandemic. I also love to paint; this is one of my few childhood passions that I have kept. For a long time, I devoted time and effort to learn how to do it, today it remains a hobby. On advice for people now starting in the field To be in cybersecurity, you need to be persistent, brave, and patient, to aim high and not to give up, even if people do not believe in you. It is essential to believe in yourself and your abilities. After all, a craft is not learned, but stolen, which takes time, and for our generation, patience is not a virtue. On life lessons Life is the best teacher. I've lived through some hard lessons, like when I got sick with a severe infectious disease that endangered my life, or when I got burn-out when I was 23. It made me realize how much I value my health, my family, and that nothing in life should be chased "at any cost". On changes Things changed a lot during the last months. At the beginning of the quarantine, I worked overtime and on the weekends. Now things have returned to normal, and I think that all of us have managed to get back to a normal rhythm. I did not have a problem with isolation - probably because I still have a memory from the time in my past when I was isolated for 60 days in a hospital. On daily life Now, I try and find time to get out more, move more. My days pass quickly, with conversations with many people, since our team is quite needed. I communicate with the guys from the team, especially with Stoyan, our architect, with sales colleagues, delivery managers, other colleagues, clients, and people from the board. The rest of the time, I try to catch up with my work, the work related to the development and development of the team, our portfolio of services, vision, and strategy for the development of colleagues, as well as the positioning of our team at Scalefocus in the cybersecurity market. To meet Dyanko, the doctor who became an iOS Practice Lead, click HERE.

Salesforce is one of the best CRM cloud software in the world and its main purpose is to manage business relationships with customers. It’s a platform for applications that can manage any business process. Now we wanted to share the team who at Scalefocus works hard to implement Salesforce solutions and to advise clients. Because it’s not easy being the go-to people for any Salesforce project - but it certainly is exciting and rewarding. Here’s a little peek into the team, who say their motto is “Scale the Sales, Focus the Force”. The Force Behind The team currently consists of programmers, consultants, technical and solution architects. Тhe consultants are at the helm at the start of any Salesforce implementation project and become the link between our customers and the dev team. Those are the tech-savvy, problem-solvers, process minded people who are handling the project first before turning it to phase two - involving the team of Salesforce developers, whose task is to turn the customer requirements into a working solution. To do so, they use configuration, process automation, and Apex programming language and they have to be “a mix” of both technical and business experts. The Solution Architect is the face of Scalefocus in front of the client and is responsible for creating the solution design and the overall implementation. Focusing The Scale The team’s biggest project right now is Apttus. Apttus is Salesforce's main technical partner for quote-to-cash applications. This is the Apttus team in Europe who holds technical, business, and architectural positions. Apart from Apttus, they are currently very focused on expanding the team's expertise in the Salesforce modules of Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Community Cloud. The team constantly has to deal with the specific challenges of the platform. One of the challenges is to always keep up with the latest developments - learning is an ongoing process in the team. Another hurdle that the team has to deal with is the different business cases of the clients. They continually learn from the clients’ best business practices. This helps them build broad business expertise and improve the capacity of Scalefocus as a Salesforce consulting partner. But Who Is The Salesforce Team? They are not only great professionals - they actually like each other. “Everyone in the team is very different from one another but we are very united as a team”, says Tanya Marinova, a Salesforce Consultant. “The team is a unique combination of warmth, smiles, high spirits, jokes, and good energy”, adds Irina Ivanova, a Software Engineer. Other people from the team share that one of the best things about it is the proactivity spirit and the fact that they keep constantly learning from each other. “ Our team is like a Salesforce Cloud - we have a lot of everything and whenever you need us, we are here. Whether you need a good listener, a piece of advice, someone to boost your mood - or even have a quick confrontation to take the edge off - you have a colleague at your disposal.”, says Mariya Ivanova. And how do they deal with stress? Well, there are a lot of options. “Strong music and а good deal of complaining from time to time”, says Mariya. In those tough times and since the start of the pandemic, they have made sure to keep the bond strong by meeting online and sometimes playing computer games after the end of the workday. “At the beginning of the lockdown, we applied the Niko Niko technique - each person in the team shared how they have felt during the past week and told a story that doesn’t have to do with work.”, shares Nikolay Bizev. Some of the new team members, like Irina, still haven’t seen the others “live” and are very excited to do so when things calm down. Turning Hardship Into Success The team shares that initially, they have started their work as a closely specialized division for quote-to-cash applications of Apttus. Then, in less than 6 months’ time, most people from the Salesforce team gained certificates to broaden their expertise: with a mentorship program, knowledge-sharing sessions, etc. “We always count on each other”- that is the common answer when asked how they deal with difficulties. “The most valuable and at the same time the most difficult thing is paving the way ahead and choosing the way to go. But it’s most valuable because the opportunities are endless. Our focus is on success and for us, it’s inevitable”. Тhe team describes themselves with this song.

Challenges in entrepreneurship are not something anyone looks forward to - but inspiration often comes exactly from them. Оn the 12th of August, International Youth Day, Scalefocus took part in the First Edition of Youth StartUp Fest Burgas where startups and modern up-and-coming organizations met. Read more below. Youths Lead The Way The event took place in the newly established Congress Center in the Port of Burgas, on the International Youth Day. All young people, new startups, and presenters were invited to share their ideas, their potential, and show their plans for growth in today’s dynamic environment. Companies and developed brands were invited to share their experience and expertise in specially-crafted workshops and lectures and Scalefocus took part in the mix to support the cause of inspiring young minds to think ahead in the future. Milena Georgieva, a Technical Lead in Scalefocus’ Burgas office, took the lead as a presenter for the company with a topic on Data Science in front of around 30 attendees. Milena’s presentation prompted some of the young people to approach her with questions on the specific usage of data science in their own projects. Presenting: Data Science Besides а Java specialist, a mentor, and a TL, one of Milena’s “side passions” is data sciencе - it was the focus of her Ph.D. Data science, she says, is something that can influence and change lives. Even with the current pandemic, it is still one of the essential instruments that can be used after it is all over. “Its effect on the world is going to change everything we know – hopefully, for the better.” The presentation Milena gave on the Youth StartUp Fest included more general points on data science - its purpose and usefulness, the steps for identifying data-analytics problems and opportunities, determine the variables, and after collecting sets of structured and unstructured data, interpret it the right way to gain value. Milena also covered what skills does a person needs to have to be able to call themselves a data scientist and which specifics in the data science world are the milestones to build a consistent experience in it. She also showed a demo and spoke at length about the incorporation of data science in a startup with several hot points - ad performance, web traffic, app tracking, e-commerce data, CRM and marketing automation data, customer support, net promoter score, financial data, and app database. Тhe Importance of Collaboration At Scalefocus, we have always believed that innovative and entrepreneurial thinking is something to be cultivated. “Each future big idea steps on the shoulders of giants - or so they say”, shares Milena. “Тhat would mean that we can do something big and innovative together and each person from a company like Scalefocus can be useful with their knowledge and experience”. Тhe end result is what motivates people and that is the main purpose behind such initiatives and participation. “At the end of each presentation, you see people eager to know more and in their bright eyes - the interest and inspiration that give you the motivation to continue to share your knowledge and know-how.” Milena says that for every mentor, not only at Scalefocus, is motivated “by personal contact” and it is what makes them keep making the effort to take part in such events. As for why she would recommend more people take part in such festivals - “Such initiatives create an environment in which like-minded people can easily cooperate - and those festivals can turn into hubs for generating ideas and collaboration. In a moment like this, when many of us can feel disconnected from colleagues and like-minded people, those are the places they can find inspiration and support.” Follow Scalefocus’ Facebook page to learn more about our events, webinars, and initiatives.

Scalefocus formed teams in Sofia, Plovdiv, Burgas, Varna and Skopje to take part in Race for the Cure® - Europe’s biggest sporting event supporting breast cancer organizations and hospitals in collecting funds and raising awareness. More than 50 of our colleagues joined the charity run/walk and contributed to the cause.

Оn the 9th of December, an online webinar from the Topics of Scale series took place with special guest lector Charles Lowe - Managing Director of the Digital Health & Care Alliance (DHACA) and a Past President of the Royal Society of Medicine's Telemedicine and eHealth Section. Charles joined the Scalefocus specialists Aleks Bozhinov and Svetlin Panov to discuss how the digitization of the health sector is becoming the much-needed revolution after the COVID-19 crisis. Changes After COVID-19 The IT sector and the health sector are becoming irrevocably intertwined and that is becoming the reality more and more. Charles Lowe shared that in the UK the immediate response to COVID-19 (as in most of the world) was for the GP appointments to be halted and introduce something called total triage. “Record sharing became reality right away”, said Charles and explained that people who used to want appointments now wanted to have their health issues and questions handled remotely as professionally as possible. Most interactions became digital even for the elder people and it actually brought benefits for patients and doctors alike. Patient satisfaction was raised, and there was a huge reduction in GP stress. “Since lockdown began, 99% of medical appointments have shifted remotely compared to a mere 1% of 340 million annual appointments before COVID-19.” According to Charles, online medical services such as remote testing, remote condition management, and online pharmacies are blossoming right now and it has been that way since March 2020. There are, however, he says, outstanding challenges. Record sharing and data governance are considered extremely important right now and must be handled with complete care and professionalism. Implementation of current innovation is happening too slowly and the necessary technologies involve a lot of interactions, inventions, and investment. But, in Charles’ opinion primary and secondary care will be changed forever and there will be a huge boost for online services, in many cases now past “critical mass” and connectivity, data governance will come under the spotlight - and stay there for a long time. Digital Revolution In the Health Sector Aleks Bozhinov, а Digital Transformation Strategist at Scalefocus and the second speaker in the webinar started with some facts about the digital health waves - the digitization that slowly but surely starts happening since the 19th century. “Healthcare innovation is driven by personalized medicine”, shared Aleks, and explained that innovation strategies are the ones that get the most budget - DNA and electronic health data analysis, nano/stem medicine, and the usage of AI, blockchain, and digital technology. The interconnectivity of all devices is important for this revolution to happen. Optimization has to do with introducing healthcare analytics platforms, usage of IoT, and machine learning. Predictive services are also an important factor for high-performance organizations, to be able to stay high-tuned and act before things happen, preventatively. Аnd the time for that is now. In the last ten years, we’ve seen tech giants (like Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon, etc) jump into the field and investing billions of dollars in data management, wellness, mobile health, and analytics. You can see more examples of such long-term investments in the video. But what are the biggest threat and challenges? In the first place, of course, private information leaks don’t exactly create trust in organizations. “The adoption of blockchain technology can save the healthcare industry up to 100-150 billion per year by 2025. Data breaches cost healthcare $6.5 million on average, which is 60% more than any other sector.” Challenges & Solutions To Embracing Digital Health Svetlin Panov, a Blockchain Practice Lead at Scalefocus, еxplained some of the most often encountered challenges for digitization in healthcare. First is integration and the fact that blockchain as a solution has to be thought out and implemented with utmost care. Another mentioned challenge is data storage - blockchain is not intended for large data storage; data access can also be challenging because it can be tricky to access the bulk of data from external storage behind closed firewalls. But to every challenge, there is a solution and every business can mitigate the problem of data storage by using diverse solutions. First mentioned by Svetlin is blockchain consortium - a federated network, and an infrastructure that provides ledger and smart contract service to applications. “It allows organizations to collaborate shared data in a network and it’s operated by smart contracts generating transactions and distributed by every participant.“ Моre examples for the benefits of this solution Svetlin gives in the recording. With permission blockchain, every operation is trackable and auditable. Multiple organizations must agree to the parameters of a chain code, there is a big amount of development languages, and they are also flexible in making very complex business models. Onboarding new participant organization can be streamlined audit-ability is embedded by design. Another solution Svetlin talked about is exposed blockchain network services in а permissioned network. With it, a single organization can own the blockchain network, it is still a technical infrastructure that provides ledger and smart contract services to participating organizations and smart contracts are used to generate transactions that are subsequently distributed to every peer in the network so everybody plays the same rules. Benefits of blockchain service include the existence of a collaboration platform that uses the same digital identity, cryptography, service cost, compared to owning your own blockchain network data and ledger sharing. You have the option of a consent management platform that allows the users to track and give consent for certain actions in different applications/platforms. This type of technical infrastructure can hold your legal documents and provide them to applications. It also tremendously decreases the time for legal actions and agreements. Аll the advice and shared knowledge about how the healthcare business can get more revenue by investing in digitization can be found in the video. For more wholesome advice and webinars related to the hot technological trends of the day, follow our Facebook page to stay informed.

“It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when you’ll be hacked and will you notice it”. Those words from Scalefocus’ CEO, Plamen Tsekov, were the standout point for the live discussion organized by Forbes Bulgaria on the hot topic of Cybersecurity. The topic which, since the start of the pandemic that made millions work from home on a daily basis, has been one of the main and most important problems for many IT and other businesses. Continue reading for the recap, or click here to watch the FULL VIDEO. Remote Work Put Security To The Test During the live session, Mr. Tsekov shared the fact that there were record numbers of hacker attacks worldwide during April and May оf 2020. The reality of so many employees in many companies having to work remotely during the coronavirus pandemic gave an edge to cybercriminals and they have never been so focused in their attempts for breach. Attempts often were successful. The focus now, according to our CEO, is on small and medium enterprises where the problem is neglected. Also, he shared that 90% of all the breakthroughs are coming from email, and 25% of the mistakes that would allow a breach to come from the personnel. That’s why self-preparation is of crucial importance. Addressing The Issues “It is essential that we address the security of the terminal devices and isolate the problem as fast as we can.”, says Plamen. With modern solutions such as AI-based monitoring which limits the threat within seconds, breaches can be minimized. That type of solution can be provided by a department within the company or a professional service provider. Some of the most threatened companies are those with fully digitized or automated procedures and processes because they use a lot of machine learning, IoT and if such a company is hacked, some of the resulting problems may be irreversible. “Cybersecurity engineers are dedicated experts and is hard to keep more than 2-3 per small or medium-sized company. That’s why the remote services are way more efficient.”, says Plamen. He admits that people in his position are often vulnerable because of it. It was covered that a base employee training is essential because a big portion of the breakthroughs are based on insufficient preparation like the one with phishing emails. The new attacks are harder to detect and often the hackers monitor the social platforms and send emails from co-workers. A good example is the email-based cyber-attack “Man in the middle”. Based on some patterns of behavior that we have observed in the past, Plamen said, we can make assumptions as to how would a next breach or attack occurs. Secure Anywhere “People in Bulgaria still don’t acknowledge that information is an asset of real importance. Let’s not underestimate how crucial are cybersecurity and the real threat of cyber crimes in the process of company digitalization. They go hand in hand”, said Plamen. When asked about the solution Secure Anywhere that supports remote work, he shared that it’s a solution based on open-source technologies, including Azure. “We’ve used methodologies and configurations we’ve learned about with many monitoring sessions we take part in with our clients. We created a quick solution that monitors the end-point devices, the laptops. We monitor if there are changes in the processor work and network traffic. That way if a hacker attack is underway or someone clicks on a website that steals passwords (for example), Secure Anywhere can give a quick alert. It can be used as a configuration management tool and anyone can follow what is happening. If there is danger, it can point out to it and the security team takes it from there.”