We celebrate 2 years of VHUG Technology in Novi Sad

Establishing a Developer Unit in Serbia: From the Search for Skilled Personnel to an Unplanned but Promising Solution

It's been two years since our Managing Director and founder Mirco flew to Serbia with me. Why did we get on the plane? Because we simply couldn't realize our vision of creating our own developer unit at VON HELDEN UND GESTALTEN. Covid lockdowns and the general lack of skilled workers turned a good idea into a mission impossible. But we heard about the Tech University in Novi Sad and so we set out with the courage of desperation and a large portion of optimism. And as luck would have it, we found the perfect match in Novi Sad: Markus and his team. The big advantage: with Markus we have a German team manager on site, who is keen on creative web development and loves new challenges. And this at a location that produces a large pool of talent every year thanks to its technical university.

Successes and growth: From the start with 5 employees to expansion to over 15

We started in Novi Sad with 5 employees. We now have 15 employees and, since the beginning of the year, a new office that offers enough space for our growth. Our talents from the areas of HR, project management, frontend development and backend development help us to implement our digital projects faster and more effectively, but above all bring our innovative strength to a new level.

Since the opening of the site, we therefore have the perfect digital extension of our agency and also provide our customers with comprehensive support in the digital area: from strategy and conception to development, programming and support. In this short time, we and our team have realized such large corporate websites for Kurtz Ersa, Struktur Management Partner and Viacor. The city of Fellbach got a digital city magazine fellbach-erleben.de. The bicycle helmet manufacturer KED has meanwhile arrived in the digital now as a lifestyle brand. We accompanied the summit of the Start-Up-BW state campaign with an event page, and entertaining and innovative campaign landing pages have gone live for our clients GEZE and Knauf in recent months. We are also digitally on the move in employer branding and have strategically realigned the Mercedes-AMG GmbH career website.

Creative and innovative: New tools with great impact.

As part of our strategic and conceptual thinking on employer branding, we developed an innovative tool: the full-service campaign generator ODEC. This allows companies to easily and effectively use their employees as brand ambassadors and communicate their pride to the outside world. The best argument for new talent. In close cooperation with our innovation unit, further web applications and new products for our customers will be developed here in the near future. Ready programmed and ready to use, thanks to our own developer unit in Novi Sad.

Creativity meets programming: From the idea to the service. Everything from a single source.

In addition to web development, long-term digital support is also part of our offering. In various packages we offer hosting, technical support, content maintenance and consulting and implementation in the topics of content management and data protection.

The opening of our new location and the hiring of new employees required a lot of effort, especially at the beginning. Despite the physical distance, it was important to work very closely together and grow together as a team. Sure, there were one or two   challenges, but quick successes helped to master them quickly.

It was also important that I, as Digital Director, and Markus Milkereit, our Site Manager and Technical Director in Novi Sad, coordinated our work at least twice a week in a call. This way, we always ensure that communication between our two sites runs smoothly and that we achieve our goals. Last year, we were also in Novi Sad with a creative team from Stuttgart to work out the ideal workflow between the units. This is an agile process that is challenged and further optimized in every project.

Cross-site collaboration and shared spirit: regular coordination, workflows and joint activities

In order to carry our spirit at VON HELDEN UND GESTALTEN to each location, it is important to get to know each other in addition to our daily work. Last year we were all together at a 4-day retreat in Allgäu. Every 2 months, we organize our Heroes' Table at both locations. Through regular Value Roundtables we make our values visible and tangible again and again. And with the VHUG Friday Academy, we have created a format through which we can exchange knowledge, present projects and share exciting topics with everyone.

Our goals for the future are to continue to expand our team and improve our technical skills. This will ensure that we are always on the cutting edge of technology and provide our customers with the best possible digital solutions. In addition, our next step is to expand our e-commerce expertise and actively engage with AI development and how we can integrate it into our everyday lives in a meaningful way.

Courage and success: Why it always pays to be brave.

Our decision for a second location shortly after Covid was courageous. But exactly right. We have learned a lot in the last two years. We know that it is important to rely on the talents and strengths of each team member in order to be successful. And that sometimes the second step must come before the first.

We want to continue to grow: in projects, challenges, with our team and our customers. And with you!