Feb 24, 11 PM EST (5 AM in Ukraine), our US clients got the news that Russia started a war. Here in Ukraine we already knew that, as our cities were bombarded.
Right away, MobiDev’s Account managers started to get messages from clients asking if everything was okay and what was going on. European clients did the same in the morning. Every first reaction was about teams’ well-being, security and offers to help.
Sadly, this attack was not the first attempt by Russia to invade Ukraine. Back in 2014, Russia attacked Ukraine and occupied part of our territory (the Crimean Peninsula and parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions). At that time it was really unexpected, but Ukraine managed to stop the invasion and localized the conflict to those near-border regions. Since that time, the company has been well-prepared and had a business continuity plan in place with a few scenarios in accordance with the level of threat.
I, as a President of MobiDev, wrote a letter to all our clients about a week before the invasion, talking about the company’s actions and additional measures to ensure that MobiDev is in control of data storage and is capable of providing secure services. As the war began, I wrote another letter with two main messages: our values were as always to secure the team and to secure every delivery. I also told that the nation was ready, the army was fighting and our morale was high. The number of replies to my letter was just unprecedented, and these were all meaningful letters – I was answering for three days in a row.
Since this first letter, we made daily updates about the status of projects and teams’ availability. As well as that, I kept sending weekly Business Updates for the clients with the relevant information about the company and general situation. We were very much disturbed about our client’s reaction to the events and connected risks, so a clear and regular dialog was a necessity from day one of the war. As a result, even in such hard times for Ukrainian businesses, our clients were proactively supporting projects – no one stopped their cooperation.
The first two weeks were the hardest for the work organization as the general situation was quite unpredictable, but most employees were relocated to safety and even in the first days, 65% kept on working. MobiDev people acted to battle the enemy – some of our guys joined the troops, others were donating to the Army, a lot of voluntary activities were launched within the company’s community. In their turn, clients almost immediately addressed AMs asking for ways to help and support Ukraine with real action. And there were plenty.
Most clients collected money for the Army through fundraising activities and personal connections. MobiDev UK client Andrew gathered humanitarian aid and brought it to the borders between Poland and Ukraine, saying that he was “ready to collect and host up to 6 people, drive them by his car from Poland to UK and find them a home among his friends.”
There were multiple proposals of this kind from USA clients as well. For instance, our client Jeff offered that anyone could stay with his family if there were team members who can/wish to fly to the US.
Besides these generous offers, some clients offered to compensate for all the hours that our project team members were unable to work due to unsafe conditions or relocation. Kevin from the USA was worried about each team member and continued providing moral support and financial assistance till all team members were safe. Gavin from the UK found and ordered a set of special radios and earmuffs for Ukrainian defenders. Others, like our USA client Amine, gathered his friends and together they donated to our Army Forces and local Kharkiv funds. Also, Amine promised to help people whose homes were damaged and donate money for renovation. And there are multiple stories like these.
To stay aware of the true events taking place and to raise awareness among foreign societies is another aspect of this confrontation. MobiDev clients were active in this as well by signing the petition to close the sky, reposting pro-Ukrainian messages. Mike from Canada was willing to inform his community about Ukraine by watching documentaries about Ukraine and even making Ukrainian dinners. Our clients also understand the long term goals of Ukraine and locally advocate for 2 things: a speedy procedure to bring Ukraine into the EU as a member state and into NATO.
It’s just a matter of time until Ukraine wins this war, but at the moment what adds up to the success of Ukrainian battle is the help of other countries. As many other businesses, MobiDev warriors support the economic defense of the country, supplying the Ukrainian Army and volunteers with much-needed items. This is possible due to the continual and stable cooperation with our clients. This attitude really uplifted MobiDev teams, because for us, such moves are a sign of trust and solidarity. The Ukrainian nation is united as never before and the support of USA, UK, European clients means the world to us!
A few words about the future – it looks bright for MobiDev and we are grateful to our clients, who stand with us in hard times. New contracts with existing clients prove the quality of our long-term commitments and signed contracts with new clients mark the state of things as stable and growing. Throughout this period the company didn’t stop the recruitment process and hired IT professionals to cover the growing demand. We also expanded our Polish office with Ukrainian engineers and managers – the Lodz office meets new colleagues and has a potential to grow into one of the company’s central units.
This all is possible due to MobiDev clients’ active support no matter what. Such trust is what Ukraine needs at this moment the most, so a true help would be to continue believing in Ukrainians.
