{"id":22351,"date":"2019-04-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itcluster.lviv.ua\/itid\/in-niche-we-grow\/"},"modified":"2023-02-15T11:42:14","modified_gmt":"2023-02-15T11:42:14","slug":"in-niche-we-grow","status":"publish","type":"itid","link":"https:\/\/itcluster.lviv.ua\/en\/itid\/in-niche-we-grow\/","title":{"rendered":"In Niche We Grow"},"content":{"rendered":"
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PLVision<\/a> is a niche custom software development company, specializing in SDN (Software Defined Networking), NFV (Network Function Virtualization) and IoT, with a track record of serving global businesses since 2007. The company helps network hardware vendors embed or enhance network connectivity functionality in their products, and also<\/span><\/i> enables system integrators and industrial companies to accelerate the development of IoT solutions<\/span><\/i>. Headquartered in Lviv, PLVision has a development center in Odesa and a representative office in Krakow, Poland. Today, Olena Kozlova, the company\u2019s Co-Founder & CEO, talks about what makes PLVision different from other mid-sized tech companies, and how the niche brand remains the company\u2019s biggest strength. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Connectivity of Tomorrow<\/b><\/p>\n

Our company definitely doesn\u2019t fit any definition of a technology company. On the one hand, we\u2019ve been on the market for 11 years already, on another <\/span>\u2013<\/span> people really learned about us only two years ago. PLVision is a custom software development company, a niche player in Computer Networking and Industrial IoT ecosystems. We enable network and cloud connectivity of various vendor devices that meets a specific customer\u2019s business need (i.e. increased security, predictive maintenance). No wonder why our motto is \u201cConnectivity of Tomorrow\u201d. Our customers are both manufacturing giants of network equipment and semiconductors, as well as medium-sized companies producing various equipment and devices. Our advantage is that we understand our clients and meet their business needs in connectivity, have a strategy and successfully implement it <\/span>\u2013<\/span> this is a rather unique case in our local market.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"\"Most of IT companies today are either outstaffing\/outsourcing giants that do any type of projects or small mono-project ones <\/span>\u2013<\/span> these are product companies that in reality are just development centers located in Ukraine. Everyone likes this buzzword \u201cproduct company\u201d now. I define product companies by a simple principle: if the team doesn\u2019t have product marketers, business analysts, sales managers, business development managers \u2013 it\u2019s not a product company. Most often local \u201cproduct\u201d companies have a foreign founder and do not make decisions about development or sales of a product. PLVision doesn\u2019t fit in any of these categories, so it\u2019s difficult to compare us. We are a Ukrainian business, and we make all decisions on our own and here in Ukraine.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

According to a recent research by Deloitte, by 2020 there will be 50 billion devices in the world. Our company is working in a very niche and needed direction <\/span>\u2013<\/span> we connect different types of devices: from household appliances to factory and data center equipment. We do this for large and medium-sized product companies and industrial companies. Recently, we have created an IoT platform for managing equipment in the Oil & Gas industry. It enables clients to monitor the state of an entire system in real time and receive alerts in the event of a malfunction or warning about a high probability of failure. When indicators that control the state of equipment exceed acceptable limits, the equipment automatically switches to a \u201csafe\u201d mode, for example. The system is integrated with ERP and CRM systems, which allows you to follow the product in real time and quickly make changes to its functionality.<\/span><\/p>\n

Technical expertise vs. soft skills<\/b><\/p>\n

Most of our clients are companies from California and Israel. We\u2019re specifically targeting these regions as that\u2019s where innovations thrive, and a flow of investments doesn\u2019t stop. We\u2019re developing innovative solutions, needed by our clients for entering new markets or creating new products. <\/span><\/p>\n

We have a lot of fixed-price projects, meaning that we offer our clients ready-made solutions <\/span>\u2013<\/span> it\u2019s both interesting and responsible, as it involves a lot of risks. One of our main principles is that we start projects very carefully, conduct several sessions to understand the customer\u2019s needs. This is the most important moment. Because everything connected to a project implementation is what we know best. The success of a project means satisfying the needs of a client in the best way, not only technical implementation. Even if we make the most innovative solution according to the requirements of a client, if we don\u2019t completely understand their pain points \u2013 the client won\u2019t be satisfied. It\u2019s important to understand that the things a client is requesting are almost never the things that meet their needs. Therefore, you need to listen very carefully, ask questions, and search for additional information about the client\u2019s needs. We do care about the future of any project we take up. It\u2019s important for us that our clients achieve their business goals with the help of our solutions. Only this way we can move on.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"o3\"As to the sole importance of the technical expertise, I\u2019d like to mention that two years ago we experienced a so-called crisis of values: despite deep tech expertise, our engineers lacked soft skills. We realized that superior technical expertise is not enough <\/span>\u2013<\/span> you need to communicate well, negotiate, present possible solutions, understand a client\u2019s need. We have to build relationships with a client, community, team <\/span>\u2013<\/span> and these are soft skills and soft expertise.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

On strategy and future plans<\/b><\/p>\n

Our marketing and R&D departments constantly monitor technology and business trends in our niche and make assumptions about the future of the market. Based on this analysis, we adopt technologies that might go viral in three to five years. We don\u2019t predict for longer periods as technologies change very quickly. For example, one of the directions we\u2019re currently actively developing is P4 programming as we find it one of the most promising nowadays. We cannot be sure whether it becomes successful or not, but we take this step deliberately because we won\u2019t survive in our niche otherwise. We need to constantly be at the cutting edge of innovation. In a similar way, our CTO noticed the emerging SDN (Software Defined Networking) trend some time ago. As a result, we were one of the first in the world to develop SDN projects for our clients. <\/span><\/p>\n

There are more and more devices connected by traffic, therefore, there\u2019s a serious threat that this traffic can be intercepted, substituted, and devices seized. At PLVision we have enough expertise not only to connect and monitor devices but also to manage network security. Recently we finished a project that solves security issues of mission-critical networks <\/span>\u2013<\/span> for example, a nuclear power plant. In case of a cyber attack, it is localized in a certain part of the network, while the rest of it continues to work without interruption. This solution is now used by the Ministry of Energy in the USA.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our strategy is to keep our high level of expertise and be the best in our niche. This is not easy but very promising. People are united around this very idea. We don\u2019t believe that you can attract people to choose an employer with cookies or smoothies \u2013 people want to be proud of what they do every day, and they want to leave behind noticeable results of their work. We create things that haven\u2019t existed before. <\/span><\/p>\n

After working at PLVision, one can easily transfer to adjacent technologies. Even SpaceX uses technologies that lie in the core of our company\u2019s expertise. When you understand the logic, know how everything works on the architecture level, you get a qualification needed on the market. Despite the fact that we are a niche company, our niche is actively developing, and more adjacent niches are emerging. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As a result of our strategy, PLVision has a great number of personal publications on tech and innovation <\/span>\u2013<\/span> I\u2019m not sure that big companies pay so much attention to this. Our engineers have the opportunity to research innovations and global trends not only within their projects, but to create the future within our R&D. That\u2019s another factor why people are eager to work with us.<\/span><\/p>\n

PLVision is a niche player in the global ecosystem. We don\u2019t want to imitate anyone, we want to be the pioneers of the cutting-edge tech. This year we joined the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) <\/span>\u2013 the international open source consortium, <\/span>dedicated to the development and standardization of software-defined networking<\/span>. We have built several open source SND solutions, we develop such solutions for our clients and keep developing them within ONF. Open source coding requires strong knowledge and experience in architecture and has an extremely high-quality standard. We repeatedly prove that it is an easy challenge for us and we feel comfortable in such high responsibility conditions, which demonstrates the professionalism of our specialists. We are very proud of it and will be ready to tell more about our ONF projects starting in 2019.
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\n<\/span>Our R&D team has recently built an IoT platform, which enables devices of any complexity for the Internet of Things. It is an accelerator, which helps to reduce about 50% development time for an IoT solution compared to building it from scratch.<\/span> Based on that accelerator we create an IoT platform which is tailored to client\u2019s needs and fully integrates with their infrastructure. It\u2019s a semi-ready product which is created according to all required product principles.<\/span><\/p>\n

Small steps for big changes<\/b><\/p>\n

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The problem we\u2019re facing <\/span>\u2013<\/span> the market is full of engineers, but finding a real expert is a challenge. We don\u2019t have many resources, but we\u2019re constantly working on developing the expertise, both internally and externally. A few times a year we organize PLVision Training Center \u2013 a course aimed to help applied sciences students learn about network technologies and get ready for their first job. We take only 12-15 students per course to be able to pay maximum attention to everyone. The selection process is very thorough. Later, graduates do internships on our projects, most of them get a job. However, we only select the ones ready to learn, self-develop, and move the industry forward.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

We are rooting for Ukrainian education, so we do our best to contribute to changes. Our engineers have recently modernized five degree programs at Lviv universities. We were driving the establishment of the Internet of Things department at Lviv Polytechnic National University, and now many of our experts are mentoring students. Last year, 10% of our engineers took part in an \u201cHour of Code\u201d, which is a huge number compared even with bigger IT companies. It\u2019s all voluntary work. Our employees simply like to share knowledge with the youth and help them in their development. Engineers benefit from lecturing and mentoring too \u2013 they develop their managerial and communication skills.
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\n<\/span>I believe that by taking such small steps we can make a huge difference. We don\u2019t sit waiting for the future, we create it: helping our clients succeed, developing our niche, and driving changes in Ukraine and globally.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22352,"template":"","itid":[],"class_list":["post-22351","itid","type-itid","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itcluster.lviv.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/itid\/22351"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itcluster.lviv.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/itid"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itcluster.lviv.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/itid"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itcluster.lviv.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itcluster.lviv.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"itid","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itcluster.lviv.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/itid?post=22351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}