The Human Resources department plays a pivotal role in a company’s overall growth strategy and is an integral part of any modern-day organization. In the last years, the responsibilities of the HR department and HR managers have grown considerably, and now a professional HR department encompasses many roles and activities.

Being an HR professional requires commitment and dedication. After all, they are responsible for managing a company’s human capital, its most important asset.

Besides managing the employee life cycle like recruitment, hiring, onboarding, training and firing, employee relations, and benefits management, they are also responsible for protecting the employee’s well-being and keeping them satisfied. They also play a crucial role in shaping and reinforcing the company’s culture and creating a positive working environment while focusing on company values.

Given that many activities in the workplace are impacted by HR, a strong human resources department is the best way to ensure employee satisfaction, productivity, and future growth, thus setting the foundation for a thriving company.

The HR strategy at Cosmic Development is simple – be a high-performing company and a great place to work. Our HR team is our partner in business. They are the company’s driving force because they manage the most critical and valuable resource we have – our people.

Cosmic HR managers and other related professionals work hard together to support the needs of our employees at various stages of their careers. HR ensures that they have the right tools and resources to perform to thrive and maximize their input.  They focus on employee well–being and offer professional support in addition to compensation, benefits, career advancement, and work-life balance.

HR has always been important, but the past two years have demonstrated why it is instrumental in keeping businesses afloat. We successfully navigated the challenges in recruiting, retention, and safety and managed to assist our employees during the pandemic’s stressful circumstances.

The best way to acknowledge employees’ roles, efforts, and achievements is to celebrate them throughout the year. Today, to mark the International HR Day and recognize the hardworking and dedicated HR professionals, we will offer you a glimpse of the individuals who work hard to help Cosmic Development constantly improve, accelerate, and grow. Meet three ladies of our HR team.

Who is Marina?

Marina is a graduate economist in the accounting, finance, and audit section, but as a person who loves to work with people, her career path took her to human resources. She spends her time with her loved ones and friends, reading books, and cycling.

When you joined Cosmic Development, you had the chance to become part of a rapidly growing team with a lot going on. How was that experience? What do you love most about your job, especially here? 

Joining a rapidly growing company was challenging to do on the one hand. Still, it was like an adventure to discover and learn new things, get more professional in my experience, and meet new people. The work is very dynamic but having flexible working hours and working remotely when needed gives me the freedom to manage the tasks properly. The flexibility and the right HR team besides me are the things that I love most about my job.

Who is Liljana?  

Liljana is an IT recruiter at Cosmic Development. She has a Master’s degree in Human Resources Management and enjoys working and communicating with people. She loves encouraging employees and strives to create a happy workplace. When Liljana is not busy recruiting new talent, she enjoys spending time with her sons Matej and Luka.

Your expertise is recruitment. But what does it mean to be a tech recruiter? What traits do you need to be successful in your field?

Yes, my specialty in Cosmic is recruitment. To be a recruiter, you have to be many things. You need to be curious by nature and ask the right questions. You need to have excellent research skills and be up to date with the latest trends. You also need strong negotiation skills and be able to communicate with potential candidates effectively. People skills and knowing how to listen are essential for building relationships.

Another important thing is to be a good storyteller and tell stories that answer questions and provide the information the candidates need to decide if the company is a good fit as an employer. Storytelling is the best way to connect potential candidates with your brand and work culture and communicate what a company offers. The same skills that apply to sales marketing, like communication, strong organization and negotiation skills, and patience, apply to recruitment. You need skills to “sell” the job to the candidate and “sell” the candidate to the client. 

Who is Andriana? 

Andriana has almost five years of experience in the human resources field and has been Cosmic Development’s HR manager for the past nine months. She has a Master’s degree in Business Informatics and Management from the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia and started working for Cosmic just a few days after finishing her studies. Initially, she began as an office manager, moving to the HR assistant position, and finally, the most recent, HR manager. 

Besides her professional responsibilities and obligations, Andriana always tries to fit physical activities into her busy schedule and spends at least an hour daily doing exercise or in nature. She enjoys traveling and visiting new places. She is also an animal lover and a devoted owner of two dogs. 

What are the future company plans and goals?  

At this moment, the company is growing rapidly, and we constantly have new positions open. In the first quarter of 2022 alone, we’ve had 16 new colleagues. In fact, hardly a day goes by without communicating or interviewing potential candidates, whether for IT or non-technical job positions. That is clear evidence of the company’s growth and makes me incredibly happy.

In the future, we will continue working in the same spirit. We already have plans to continue growing our team. We also plan to make internal organizational changes and introduce new benefits. And our priority will remain the retention and encouragement of our employees.

As the main HR Manager, what’s the secret formula to making all things happen?

HR encompasses many things—from effective communication, patience, ability to analyze and see things from different angles to planning and multitasking. What’s most important for me and most challenging at the same time is establishing a healthy relationship and collaboration with the employees – which is the essence of being an HR professional. In terms of the secret formula, I would say that besides loving what you do, you’ll also need ideas and a strong will to make things happen. With thorough planning ahead, you can achieve anything.

Final Thoughts

A company is only as good as its people and the HR team is in charge of creating and maintaining a solid team. Strong HR departments help companies get the most from their people and help people get the most of the companies. They serve as the advocates for employees and help companies recruit and retain top talent to help a business succeed. That is why investing in Human Resources should be a priority of every company.

Cosmic Development succeeded in building a strong and effective HR department. Our employees can use HR to voice concerns and experiences. At Cosmic, we believe that only by working hand in hand can managers and employees build an environment that inspires and engages.

If you want to work in a thriving company that is focused on improving employee experience at each stage in the employee lifecycle and a company that offers numerous benefits and a flexible work schedule, we encourage you to check our open positions.

The post Talk with HR: Sneak Peek at Our Human Resources Department appeared first on Cosmic Development.

Websites and online forums thrive with numerous opinions on when is the perfect timing for a company to begin outsourcing IT services. If you are considering this option, you probably started an online search for the pros and cons of outsourcing. If that’s what brought you here, you are in the right place. Get ready to get inside information from a company offering outsourcing services for more than 10 years. Read our hands-on experience in addition to an ebook that will guide you on how to get started.

We are a Canadian IT company specializing in providing IT solutions and staff augmentation to other brands, and we discovered the numerous advantages of outsourcing IT services a long time ago. In this article, we’d like to share our practices to help you decide if outsourcing is the right choice for your organization.

First, let’s elaborate on the questions that probably started spinning around in your head from the moment when you began thinking about outsourcing. “Is it safe?”, “Why do companies use outsourcing?” or “Will outsourcing make you more good or harm?”. To help you clarify your ideas and thoughts on outsourcing, we decided to provide you with answers to the questions most often asked. Here we cover some of the fundamental questions that many ask before outsourcing IT services.

Basic Benefits of Outsourcing IT services

There are numerous reasons why you should begin outsourcing IT services today. Companies use outsourcing to cut costs, save on resources, operations, and increase the company revenue without hiring more employees. We have already covered the basic benefits of outsourcing in this blog post. As there are numerous reasons why you should begin outsourcing tech today, here is a summary of what is discussed in our ebook:

• Obtaining a high-quality product for a lower price
• Saving time by avoiding to figure everything out by yourself
• Finding employees that are valuable, trustworthy, and dedicated to growing your business

Outsourcing will not only help you save money and time, but it will also aid you with cutting down the exact amount of expenses on the needed resources. Alongside the overall cost-saving process, companies may also save on salaries, employee benefits, and training costs. Furthermore, outsourcing may prove helpful in terms of company rearrangements by adjusting the business model. Hiring different talents and experts from various industries on a global level might help you bring freshness to the current team and provide new perspectives for the company itself.

Hire a Dedicated Team for Your Brand

When hiring a remote team, note that the process may vary from one software house to another. Therefore, we offer you our simplified approach in five easy-to-use steps:  

1. State your preference in terms of needs, timespan, and budget  
2. Search along with initial selection (pre-vetting) 
3. Decide who will be invited for a final evaluation
4. Pick the right fit 
5. Sign one simple agreement and get started

Discover the three stages for finding a reliable software house and our five simple steps for hiring a dedicated team for your brand by downloading our ebook.

The post Everything You Need to Know About Outsourcing IT Services and Hiring a Dedicated Team for Your Business appeared first on Cosmic Development.

Get a free IT consultation and cut up to 50 percent of your operating expenses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Business owners who are facing financial problems due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus can now contact us for free IT consultation and get the most suitable IT solution for their businesses.

Many people and companies are trying to find different ways to help others in difficult times like the ones we experience nowadays, as a result of the Coronavirus outbreak. IT companies are constantly offering many benefits to ease the time spent home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the most excellent IT companies in the world, such as Microsoft for instance, offer free online courses that are accessible to every person on the planet. Furthermore, restaurants and fast food places provide food discounts and/or free delivery for their customers. There are also numerous food delivery applications that people use more during this period.

Following the countless examples of other companies throughout the world that have changed their ways of working during this new situation, Cosmic Development has also decided to ease people’s lives as much as possible. As you already know, we are an IT support services company that offers IT solutions and staff augmentation services to worldwide clients. During these hard times caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, we decided to provide free IT consultation and discounts in the vast range of services we offer on a daily basis. Continue reading below to learn more about the free IT consultation and discount of services we offer during COVID-19.

What Cosmic Did to Help People During the Coronavirus Outbreak

We provided our readers with different content in order to help them deal better with the Coronavirus pandemic. As a company that allows its employees to work from home when needed, we created an article with the most important aspects of how to work from home during the Coronavirus period. In it, you will find information about how to protect yourself from COVID-19, the top ten free-to-use tools of our choice and helpful tips on how to manage your time when working remotely. 

After guiding regular employees on how to deal with the new “work from home” situation, we decided to help out our clients who are business owners to learn how to manage their business during the Coronavirus pandemic. To do so, we provided the five most important insights that will teach them how to deal with their business management issues. 

Finally, we made an overview of the current financial situation in the world that happened as a result of the Coronavirus outbreak in every country. We have explained which industries are most affected by the current pandemic and how we can recognize that a recession is happening. Moreover, we have explained what business owners need to do in a time of global financial crisis and recession.  

What Cosmic Offers to Current and Potential Clients

Aside from providing our readers and clients with the essential information that will help them with their business issues in these difficult times, we also decided to provide our current and future clients with something even better. We offer a free IT consultation for business owners who are searching for new employees to hire but are unsure of what exactly they need. Therefore, they can contact us and get a free IT consultation where they can explain what their business needs are so that we can deliver the most appropriate solution to them. In addition, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we decided to offer short-term heavy discounts on our services.

All you need to do is to schedule a free IT consultation by following the link above and completing the form so that we can get back to you with the best IT solution created according to your personal needs. Let our team of professionals build your brand, especially now when we are facing an invisible enemy (the Coronavirus). For those of you who still are unaware of the types of services we offer, these are our three main categories of services:

• Software Development
• Digital Marketing and Sales
• Administration and Virtual Assistance

Software Development

The primary type of services that we offer is the software development services. We have professional developers who have been working with us for many years and have shown to be experts in their fields. The IT solutions we provide to you are not only about web development software but also about building web and mobile applications for your company. Our experts will create the software you need for your business to work during these difficult times we face. They will use specific programming languages and a series of programming code required for the software you want for your companies.

Digital Marketing and Sales

Another type of service we offer to other companies is digital marketing and sales. Although marketing and sales services can be done separately, we believe that nowadays they are so intertwined that they cannot go one without the other. Therefore, we help business owners to get the best professionals on their team and create not only an outstanding digital marketing strategy but also a sales plan of action. That way, companies can build their brands with the help of our experts who know how to compete in the modern world and who follow every change in digital technology. Moreover, they will discover the vulnerabilities of your competitors and help you win battles that will raise you above other companies.

Administration and Virtual Assistance

If you are looking for remote workers and virtual assistants, you are in the right place. We offer administration and virtual assistance services for companies who want to lower their expenses on such teams but get professionals who will complete their work qualitatively and most efficiently. Our team of administrative specialists will deal with your daily administrative tasks and schedules remotely, without the need to be physically present at your office. Moreover, you can outsource your business processes to our team of experts in finance, accounting, human resources, etc. 

Keep on reading our weekly blog articles in order to discover more useful tips and insights that will help you get over the Coronavirus pandemic period. You may even get a better overview of the working atmosphere in our company and implement some of our ideas in your company. Stay tuned.

Sources:

• linkedin.com/feed/news/us-hiring-hit-by-covid-19-5155530/
• nbcbayarea.com/news/coronavirus/list-companies-offering-deals-discount-freebies-coronavirus/2256595/
• barrons.com/articles/cvs-facebook-walmart-target-coronavirus-pandemic-51584479961

The post Free IT Consultation During Coronavirus appeared first on Cosmic Development.

How many times have you heard the phrase “content is king”? Too many times, I’m sure, if you are one of the content creators in the digital marketing world or any other Internet-related industry. That dazzling, almost prophetic statement originates from a 1996 essay by Bill Gates, the founder and former CEO of Microsoft. In the famous article, Gates argues that technology will transform the way we design, publish, and consume information:

“One of the exciting things about the Internet is that anyone with a PC and a modem can publish whatever content they can create. In a sense, the Internet is the multimedia equivalent of the photocopier. It allows material to be duplicated at low cost, no matter the size of the audience. The Internet also allows information to be distributed worldwide at basically zero marginal cost to the publisher. Opportunities are remarkable, and many companies are laying plans to create content for the Internet.” 

Slightly over two decades later, we are practically living that reality. That was one of the key reasons why we decided to contact Joshua Mendelssohn, the co-founder of Factinate.com, and asked him to shares his insights on online publishing, the content creation process, and what IT services provider such as Cosmic Development has to do with it. 

Joshua Mendelssohn and Jeff Myers, Co-founders of Factinate

How did you come up with the idea of creating Factinate.com? Please tell us more about it – what is the mission of your website, and who is it for?

Jeff Myers and I have always had a passion for facts and trivia, so we wanted to create a website dedicated to that. Factinate’s mission is to share fun, educational facts about anything and everything that interests our readers. It’s for trivia lovers everywhere, with a specific focus on folks interested in pop culture, history, and science.

How is Factinate different from other fun-facts sites? What makes it unique?

We try to differentiate ourselves through the quality of our content. Our content creation process is meticulous, and we rely on seasoned career writers to make our articles shine. We have a wonderful team of editors that polish content, fact check, and inject a sense of fun into the writing. We pride ourselves on having high-quality, engaging images, and the team at Cosmic Development does an incredible job making sure our images are a cut above our competition.

How does Factinate.com function? Who makes your team?

Our team of freelance article writers, which includes 20 or so seasoned writers, make the first drafts of all Factinate articles. We have a team of content creators, split between Toronto and Macedonia. The Toronto team (three full-time editors) focuses on editing and writing marketing copy for distribution. The Macedonia team (four full-time content creators), which is provided and managed by Cosmic Development, focuses on finding high-quality images, optimizing for SEO, and scheduling our Facebook page. We also have a team of media buyers who help make sure our content reaches trivia lovers everywhere.

When did you realize that your project may benefit from outsourcing and staff augmentation services? What challenges were you experiencing before we first got in touch?

We were outsourcing to Cosmic Development since the beginning. At launch, we outsourced our development to Cosmic because they had the development skills that we didn’t: the Cosmic team knows exactly how to build a website that looks great and can handle high volumes of traffic. Additionally, Cosmic is much more affordable than a senior developer based in Toronto.

As for content creation, we started working with Cosmic Development a bit later. Approximately six months in, our Toronto team found themselves burdened by time-consuming image insertion. The Cosmic content creators were extremely affordable, so having them take this off our plate was a no brainer. Having dedicated resources focused on images improved the quality of our images, and the team also ensured proper sourcing and crediting of all images.

How did you learn about Cosmic Development? What convinced you to use our services over another solution?

We knew Chris Pavlovski, one of the founders of Cosmic Development and the founder and CEO of Rumble.com, from our time working at a previous employer, who was a Rumble client. The major drivers to choose Cosmic were cost and expertise.

Cosmic Development Content Creators

What service does Cosmic Development perform for you, and how do you manage your augmentative team that operates from Macedonia? 

Currently, we have four full-time content creators provided by Cosmic Development (soon to be five!). The focus of the Cosmic team is on finding high-quality images, optimizing for SEO, and scheduling our Facebook page. Additionally, we often have the Cosmic team handle tasks that are labor-intensive and require critical thinking. We’re currently adding new meta tags to our entire article database, and we have a Cosmic employee spearheading the initiative.

As for management, some training is always required to teach an employee a new task. However, the Cosmic team learns quickly, and they are generally self-sufficient after the first training session, so neither Jeff nor I really need to manage them actively. We do have a simple process in place for tracking work–our editor in chief assigns articles and the Cosmic team track completion in a spreadsheet. Other than that, it’s really hands-off.

We also have bi-weekly company-wide check-ins, but these are less for active management and more to make sure everyone feels connected to other divisions.

What are the benefits for your business that came out as a result of our work together? If you have an opportunity to recommend us to others, what would you tell them?

It’s tough to outline the “benefits” of working with Cosmic Development because they are so integral to our operation. In a certain sense, the benefit is that they allow our business to operate. To get into specifics, one of the major benefits is cost savings. Having our entire content team based in Canada would have been prohibitively expensive. Another major benefit is that they make our content better. The Cosmic employees working on Factinate are awesome, highly educated people who are very dedicated to the work they do, and this shows in the results.

I would certainly recommend Cosmic Development (and we have to many now-clients of Cosmic)! To folks in our industry (online publishing) or looking to get into the industry, Cosmic has unique expertise: they can build and manage the website you need. Additionally, Cosmic’s business process employees and content creators could help so many businesses in a variety of industries. The economics just make sense, and the people are top-notch.

Sources:

factinate.com

craigbailey.net/content-is-king-by-bill-gates/

The post First-Hand Reasons Why Outsourcing Content Creators Is the Right Way to Go appeared first on Cosmic Development.

Have you ever thought about IT outsourcing or relocating some other business processes into a foreign country? Well, if you haven’t – now is the time! Even though it seems that we are still relatively far from setting up the real galactic enterprises (our Cosmic crew can hardly wait for that to happen), humankind did manage to make the 21st-century world interconnected better than ever before. The new technologies made it all unbelievably accessible and efficient, and that means doing business on a global level has never been easier. The companies are no longer limited to local markets nor local resources, so why not use those new circumstances?

Practically, no matter what type of business you are dealing with, you can set it up wherever you seem fit – from your own neighborhood to the most distant place you can imagine. Cosmic Development as a Canadian IT support services company has chosen Serbia and Macedonia to set up its operational centers, and here are the top 5 reasons why.

• Excellent pool of professionals
• Communication and cultural affinity
• Ease of doing business
• Great logistics
• Outstanding value

(In Addition to IT Outsourcing) Serbia and Macedonia Have Much More to Offer

Beside strictly business-related reasons why Serbia and Macedonia remain our first choice for relocating our operational centers there, there are other exciting details about these two countries and their people.

For instance, did you know that seven Serbian-American scientists and engineers have participated in the construction of Apollo spaceships and helped to put a man on the Moon? Moreover, the well-known message “Okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here,” spoken by Jack Swigert to the NASA Mission Control Center during the Apollo 13 spaceflight, was in fact received by one of those seven Serbs, now retired NASA engineer David Vuich. Furthermore, brilliant minds and world-famous scientists and inventors such as Nikola Tesla, Mihajlo Pupin, and Milutin Milanković, were also Serbs.  

A pioneer of performance art and one of the most influential figures of contemporary art, Marina Abramović, was born and raised in Belgrade, Serbia. She has been using her own body as both art subject and object since the early 1970s but truly gained worldwide fame in the 2000s, especially after her now-legendary retrospective exhibition/performance in The Museum of Modern Art, titled The Artist Is Present. Right next to Marina, stand the pleiad of giants like Emir Kusturica, movie director and two times winner of Palme d’Or at Cannes, Volter Bogdanić, a three-time Pulitzer prize winner, Karl Malden, the first Serbian Oscar winner, Vlade Divac, one of the first Europeans to play a vital role in the NBA and, of course, Novak Djoković, the world’s best tennis player.

Plus, officially the Best Major European Festival, and one of the world’s leading music festivals in general, takes place in Serbia! Every summer the Exit Festival gathers hundreds of thousands of young people from all over the world at the Petrovaradin Fortress in Novi Sad, Serbia, for almost two decades. During all these years almost nearly every major music artist has performed there, but the biggest celebration is yet to come next year when EXIT 2.0 will mark 20th anniversary of the world-renowned Serbian festival.

On the other hand, Macedonia offers breathtaking landscapes and restful place just outside their capital city. Besides the beautiful Vodno mountain that rises right next to Skopje and serves as a daily haven from the hustle and bustle of the city, less than 12 miles from Skopje lies a canyon called Matka with Vrelo, one of the deepest underwater caves in the world. The assumed depth of the cave is more than 1,650 feet (500 meters), but only 787.4 feet (240 meters) of it has been explored so far. One more exciting spot in the northern part of Macedonia is called Kokino. It’s considered to be the fourth oldest astronomic observatory in the world, along with Abu Simbel in Egypt, the famous Stonehenge in Great Britain, and spectacular Angkor Wat in Cambodia. This Macedonian Bronze Age archaeological site is situated less than 20 miles (about 30 km) from the town of Kumanovo.

Another natural beauty in Macedonia is the town Ohrid, which lies in the south-western part of the country. Ohrid is one of the oldest settlements in Europe, and it bears the nickname “Jerusalem of the Balkans” due to the disposal of a large number of churches and monasteries in such small territory. Moreover, Ohrid lies on a beautiful lake, which is three million years old and is one of the oldest and deepest lakes in Europe. The beauty of the town combined with the lake that mirrors the buildings proclaimed Ohrid as one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites.

All these and many other astonishing Macedonian sites, as well as the city of Skopje, deserve more considerable international attention. So, it wouldn’t hurt to remind that Mother Theresa of Calcutta, the world celebrated humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was actually born in the capital of Macedonia. The Memorial House of Mother Teresa is one of the most visited sites in the city.  

Sources:

forbes.com/best-countries-for-business/list/

forbes.com/places/serbia/d

doingbusiness.org/en/rankings

pentalog.com/blog/IT-ranking-world-top-developers/

eserbia.org/sapeople/science/129-apollo-11-american-serbs-team

serbia.com/10-famous-serbs-world/

exitfest.org/en/

unesco.org/en/list/99/

macedonia-timeless.com/eng/things_to_do/senses/sight/caves/vrelo-cave/

medium.com/@TheGentleman/25-things-you-didn-t-know-about-republic-of-macedonia-999ac8725b3c

The post Top 5 Reasons for IT Outsourcing to Serbia and Macedonia appeared first on Cosmic Development.

IT.mk is a Macedonian online media platform that informs about the latest IT news and trends from the local and international IT scene. This article is a part of IT.mk series, which aims to promote local companies that are present in the IT Index service. It offers a review of our company and the IT services that we provide.

The original article in Macedonian is available here.

Cosmic Development – a Canadian software and IT services company that develops and innovates software and mobile solutions

1. The date when you officially started work:

Cosmic Development’s office in Skopje, Macedonia began to operate in February 2011.

2. Who founded the company?

Cosmic Development is a global, privately owned IT company that was founded by Ryan Milnes and Chris Pavlovski.

3. The first product or service you offered and successfully sold was:

We started as an IT support services provider and web development company.

4. How many people were in Cosmic’s original team?

We started with a team of only eight people in Skopje, in an office space which was smaller than 90m² but with the hope that we will contribute to increasing employability. Our ambition hasn’t been changed to this day, but fortunately, our office has – we now enjoy a large office with over 350m² of space at the top of Manhattan Business Center in Skopje and 3 more offices in Toronto (Canada), Belgrade (Serbia), and Bitola (Macedonia).

5. How many employees does Cosmic Development have now?

Together with the other offices in Canada, Serbia, and Macedonia, we have 200+ employees. 

6. What services or products does your business offer? What are you specialized in?

We are specialized in web and mobile applications, software development, social media, outsourcing, consulting services, and new product development.

Our teams of experts and software developers are proficient in Java, PHP, C, SQL, Python, JavaScript, WordPress, Android, iOS, and always eager to experiment with the newest technology. 

We develop dynamic web and mobile applications, e-commerce solutions, portal applications, applications with CMS. Our people carefully plan and analyze each step of the software development process to provide superior results. In addition to these services, we offer digital marketing, sales, and virtual help.

7. What differs you from your competition?

People, organizational culture, working atmosphere, and friendship. There are no typical employee-manager relations in Cosmic Development. We are all at the same level, and we are all equal and treated equally. We all share the same goal, and that is to offer the highest-quality services and products – from strategy level to implementation and maintenance.

We have flexible working hours, autonomy, and many other benefits that can rarely be found in other companies (in the region). We allow our people the freedom to choose when they work, support their personal growth, and ensure a quality work-life balance.

We offer excellent opportunities for professional development and career advancement. We are proud that our people regularly attend the most relevant technical conferences and training, both as participants and speakers, year after year. We love hackathons and innovation challenges, but most of all, we love witnessing our employees’ growth. For instance, our CTO has started as an intern.

We care for our people and their families. We celebrate happy moments together. Our employees who become parents receive a baby package and are allowed to work from home for as long as they need.

We love food, and we have our own office kitchen. We have even created a food ordering application, and we are happy that each of our employees gets healthy food every day.

We love hanging around together. We have a very cool 50m² big gaming room (yes, it’s almost as big as an entire apartment!) and a huge cinema room. We often organize different sports activities like running or hiking off-trail, basketball, volleyball, and football tournaments, and even swimming “competitions.” We love our Happy Fridays with popcorn and beer, and from time to time we do open networking events where we work remotely close to a swimming pool, a river or at our premises with amazing cocktails. Still, nothing compares to our team buildings. They are simply legendary! 

8. Who are your main clients?

We’re proud to say that 90% of our clients come as a referral from our other clients. We’ve been working with many worldwide and fast-growing tech companies, from America’s Funniest Home Videos and Rumble.com, to Bookmark, Some Spider, LittleThings, Fantasy Draft, and many more.

9. What would you change about the current Macedonian IT scene if you had unlimited resources?

Cosmic Development is dedicated to helping our IT community and startups. We’d love to see new innovative and successful Macedonian startup companies, and if we had unlimited resources, we’d invest in a well equipped scientific technology park where every startups’ enthusiast could come, consult with mentors and develop their product from scratch. 

In our new premises in Skopje, we actually offer rent-free space and support to startups which want to come and work with their team to develop their ideas into products.

As before, we plan to continue to support and participate in the organization of various IT events, training, and student practices. We have hosted DIGIT, a positive social change event organized by SP Fini. We also hold lectures and master classes pretty regularly and gladly accept invitations to attend student events at the technical faculties in Skopje and Bitola. We’ll keep sharing our knowledge, skills, and expertise as mentors and coaches, hackathons’ judges, and speakers wherever we can contribute to the development of future young leaders and, of course, our IT community.

10. What will Cosmic Development do in 2023?

We’ll conquer Mars!

11. Share one “fun fact” about your company.

There are so many, but let’s name a few most interesting ones:

Our guys enjoy their work so much that the office feels like home. In fact, some of them even wear slippers at work.

When the weather gets too hot, we don’t hesitate to take a #remoteworkday and go to work together by a pool.

We are true nature lovers! Each and every plant in our office had its names and is considered a part of our Cosmic family.

We love sports too. We sponsored ZFK Top Gol, a female youth football team in Bitola, and we hope they will become national players one day.

We are proud supporters of Macedonia2025. We’ve recently received a special thank you award. One of our founders, Chris Pavlovski, is Macedonia2025 board member and he’s been helping startups and other IT companies since the start of the Macedonian IT scene.

Everyone who visits our office is encouraged to express their own creativity on our unique wall.

The post Cosmic Development’s IT Services in the Eyes of IT.mk appeared first on Cosmic Development.

Outsourcing is becoming a standard business model for various size companies, from startups to corporations. No matter how big or small your enterprise is, this highly productive and very profitable practice of relocating some of the business functions and processes to a third-party service provider will ensure a whole set of benefits.

Top 5 reasons to outsource are:

• Focus on Core Activities
• Increase Efficiency
• Control Cost
• Increase Reach
• Get Advantage of the Time Zone Differences

Focus on Core Activities (While Outsourcing Other Processes)

The primary benefit of this practice is portrayed in the process of contracting an outside party or business to perform specific procedures and tasks instead of the company. When estimating the need and importance of outsourcing, successful companies realize that it brings significant advantages that affect their performance positively. Below are given the five most important economic benefits of outsourcing that your company may get.

When rapid growth periods occur in a company, business owners and top management may find themselves faced with a lack of employees who will take care of the back office operations. In such a case, companies may have to sacrifice their human and financial resources at the expense of the core activities that brought success to them. 

Increase Efficiency With Outsourcing

To avoid such sacrifice, you may want to use outsourcing to delegate those activities to an outside company while you focus on the core activities that will result in business improvement and profit.

Goal-oriented companies decide to outsource when they want to increase their business’ efficiency. An outside company that has a more significant experience may bring numerous advantages for your business. Therefore, companies who are wondering, “How does outsourcing increase efficiency?” need to get the right partner that has expertise and knowledge of the domain and the outsourcing projects.

For example, if a mobile app will improve your relationship with customers and grow sales, you don’t need to go through the trouble of creating a whole new app development team, but outsource a reliable one that will meet your needs quickly and efficiently. That way, you will increase not only the business’ efficiency but also the productivity of your entire company. 

Control Your Costs Through Outsourcing

Outsourcing is also recommended when companies want to save money and control their costs more effectively. Companies who choose to outsource their operations as a way of reducing overall expenses have better chances to release capital for further investments in other areas of their businesses. 

Your company may more easily take control of its business capital when it has chosen to outsource to different projects. For instance, instead of paying monthly salaries for full-time employees, you may want to decide to outsource a team instead and achieve even better results for less cost. That way, your company will save funds that can later use for developing the business and the company’s brand. 

Increase Reach And Gain Access With Outsourcing

A particularly important benefit of outsourcing for small to midsize businesses is that companies may gain access to capabilities and facilities that they cannot afford otherwise and even increase the company’s reach by investing their money in other resources. Plus, they may also refer to outsourcing as a tool for recruiting skilled and educated resources in their respective business areas. 

That means you and your business are no longer limited to the facilities and employees in your own country. You can outsource and get other companies to find the right workforce and create custom-made teams that transcend the boundaries of the local business ecosystem. 

Get Advantage of the Time Zone Differences

Apart from other benefits that come as a result of choosing to outsource as part of a business strategy, companies may also take advantage of the time zone. In other words, this practice may benefit a company in terms of hiring people from another time zone that will get the work done while the company’s office is closed.

If you want your business to operate round the clock, you should use this advantage and outsource a team that performs while your headquarters is not fully functional. 

What tasks should you outsource?

Depending on your business needs, there is a broad variety of services you may want to consider outsourcing – from IT services such are software development, mobile, and web applications, E-commerce and other IT solutions, to digital marketing and sales, and administration including human resources, accounting, customer related services, and other operations you might need, with no organizational hassle.

Sources:

thebalancesmb.com/top-outsourcing-advantages-2533765

flatworldsolutions.com/articles/benefits-of-outsourcing.php

allbusiness.com/outsourcing-can-help-business-19749-1.html

businessnewsdaily.com/4280-outsourcing-benefits-small-business.html

smallbusiness.chron.com/benefits-outsourcing-small-businesses-23334.html

ceoworld.biz/2018/01/05/4-ways-that-outsourcing-can-benefit-your-business/

nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/advantages-and-disadvantages-outsourcing

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