Marin County’s Svitla Systems readies for threats to its Ukraine operations

As tensions rise along Ukraine’s border in the event of a possible Russian invasion, a Marin County-based multinational custom software developer and testing provider with operations in the Ukraine is “hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.”

“We listen to news reports about the pending aggression and ultimatum from Russia, and know we have to be on alert and prepared should diplomacy fail,” said Nataliya Anon, president, CEO and founder of Svitla Systems Inc. with headquarters in Corte Madera.

Anon, a Stanford Business School graduate with Ukrainian heritage who is fluent in several languages, said she is very concerned about the safety of her 500 employees in five Ukrainian cities including capital, Kyiv. The company has more than 800 workers around the globe: Costa Rica, Mexico, Montenegro, Poland and 20 in the U.S.

“The border between Ukraine and Russia is tightly controlled but not completely closed, with only a passport needed to travel between the two countries,” Anon said. “Ukrainians can freely go to Europe, the U.S. or elsewhere in the world — but not many are going to Russia these days. We are seeing investors and capital fleeing from Ukraine, while we — along with most residents — are standing firm.”

The conflict began eight years ago, when Russian invaded the Crimean Peninsula and annexed it from Ukraine in 2014. The difference between now and then is that back in 2014 the Ukraine did not have an army.

Today Ukraine has a standing army of some 250,000 soldiers and an equal number of reservists, according to the New York Times. The country is also receiving weapons, material support and troops from the U.S. and other European nations.

Anticipating that the current conflict could escalate, Anon offered her employees the option of relocating to Svitla offices in Krakow, Poland, and Guadalajara, Mexico.

“We considered chartering an Airbus (aircraft) that could fly our staff out of the country, but a majority of our people have determined to stay, and there have been minimal relocations,” Anon said. “An emergency hotline was set up so employees could express their concerns and get more information. Only eight have called in. Ukrainians are tough and resilient people. Our employees are critical for us.”

Anon believes her firm has been successful by getting ahead of this pending crisis. Six years ago the company created a strategic plan that looks at all contingencies, including preserving Svitla’s sensitive administrative and human resource files, proprietary employee and client information, along with critical payroll and financial records stored in the cloud.

The company utilizes point-to-point security measures, encryption technology and uses multiple internet service providers. Svitla has increased redundancy among its critical network systems with backup distributed in several centers around the globe, including Amazon Web Services in the states.

Beyond the intensifying war of words between Russia and Ukraine, Anon said her company to date has not experienced supply chain issues.

“We anticipated such contingencies and placed orders for additional computers and related equipment in advance,” she said. “We expanded telecom links over hardlines and acquired cell phones for accessing the internet and cloud storage. In addition, we also installed more emergency battery backup facilities that can satisfy our electrical needs in the event of power failures.”

Looking back to the beginning of the current conflict, she said in 2014 when fighting first broke out Svitla was not able to acquire any new customers, but what customers it did have stayed with the company throughout that crisis.

Svitla focuses on the business, medical and financial services industries as well as information technology and management companies.

In 2021 and now in 2022, she said demand for Svitla’s services has remained high. Clients are asking the firm to provide more developers and tech-support specialists to meet expanding needs for custom software solutions and to help digitize mountains of material to put it in the cloud.

Anon said right now there is a shortage of IT and software professionals due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company continues to recruit seasoned developers from around the globe.

In an era increasingly characterized by remote and hybrid work models, Svitla has been a pioneer by tapping into the expertise of a large number of computer software and IT professionals with expertise across virtually all programming languages and coding platforms who reside in the Ukraine to provide services to its clients on several continents.

Svitla originally leveraged its experience in Ukraine to start developing its delivery capabilities in producing engineering and IT solutions.

“As our clients demands expanded for more options and flexibility we expanded the ability to have teams and resources in Latin America, India, United States and Canada,” Anon said. “We also expanded our EU presence to deal with more European clients.”

It provides consulting services to help customers plan and evaluate projects and uses an AgileSquad model to offload customers from development tasks on demand.

“We’ve found that although we often work remotely, it gives our customers comfort to know we have offices and representatives close to their locations. Such was the case with a client in the Mill Valley area of Marin County who was happy to learn our home office was nearby in Corte Madera.”

Established in 2003, Svitla has served a wide range of customers from innovative startups in Silicon Valley to large corporations such as Amplience, Ingenico, AstraZeneca and Logitech. Some 84% of the company’s clients are in the U.S. with the remaining 16% in Canada and Europe.

She said the company’s focus now is on Central and South America with requests for more company teams in Mexico and Argentina.

The company reported 2021 revenues of $44 million and estimates 2022 revenues of $60 million.

“Our border with Russia is like having a Berlin wall between our nations. With talk of increased escalation, we are hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.” —Nataliya Anon, CEO

Anon said she has seen the harsh rhetoric changing. The Kremlin has insisted it has no plans for an invasion, and she doesn’t think there will be a full-scale countrywide attack, but there could be incursions into parts of Ukraine where Russian separatists are located.

“Our border with Russia is like having a Berlin wall between our nations,” she said. “With talk of increased escalation, we are hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst. I pray every day that we can get through this and that tensions will relax. Meanwhile, our people in Ukraine are ready to go, if need be, with their documents in hand, bags packed and gas in their cars.”

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