Interview with Oleksiy Nagatkin, CEO - Digis

Oleksiy Nagatkin  

CEO, DIGIS

Give us a quick overview on DIGIS. When and how did you begin this journey and what were your motives to be successful in app development?

DIGIS is decoded as Do IT Global Innovative Solutions and is a truly international software development business - our Head Office is in Cyprus and R&D Center is in Ukraine (Odesa). The official date of birth of DIGIS was 2015, but the journey had started even earlier, in 2009. That time I was one of the co-founders at Alpha Crew Agency that provided manning services for ship owners and ship managers. The agency was growing and it led to the increase in the number of paper and electronic documents we had to process. We spent a lot of resources, both labor and time, to cope with the document disaster but we failed. So we decided to develop an internal document processing and storage system. For this purpose we set up in-house IT department to develop such a software system. 2 years later the system was released and allowed us to cut our expenses more than by a magnitude of 3, proving its efficiency and costs we had spent to build it.  4 years later, in early 2015, I realized that ship crew manning niche is approaching its peak and would start falling soon, so I decided to switch to another business. I saw that time that IT industry in general and software development in particular would have a great growth potential due to the expansion of technologies, so that was my choice. I talked to my partners and bought out Alpha Crew’s IT department which was reorganized and became a foundation for ‘Do IT Programming Solutions’ company which you now known as DIGIS. As it regards my motives to be successful, they are very simple: I wanted to do what I like and wanted to help other businesses use all the benefits offered by the modern IT technologies.


What is your role in the management and development of DIGIS?

I am the company’s Chief Executive Officer and co-founder. I am responsible for general management of the company activity and strategic planning of its future operations. I paid in my own money as the initial contribution to the company’s authorized capital, so, you know, I’m quite interested in the company’s proper business activity and performance.


Tell us about your biggest achievement in the industry

First of all, I think that my biggest achievement in the industry is that I have managed to find and unite people who share my vision and philosophy - to bring innovations to our everyday life. It’s a great success, as people are the main asset and value of any business, I think.
As regards our achievement in the software development, I believe it is the fact that we managed to attract such globally known corporations as PwC, Energias de Portugal and Roomster. We are very proud that our hard efforts to ensure the highest possible quality of our products were noticed and properly estimated.


How do you schedule the development phases of the apps to promise the timeline to your clients?

Actually, I don’t do scheduling or anything alike. I follow the principle that everyone should do what he or she is best at. I am good at corporate management and strategic planning. DIGIS HR talents are good at finding and hiring professionals in sales, marketing, software development etc. My kudos goes to DIGIS HR team as they have found extremely experienced and talented architects and project managers. That’s, actually, what solutions architects do in collaboration with our project managers - they review the client’s requirements, analyze them for viability and draft a schedule based on the resulting system architecture and development approaches. We never promise what we cannot fulfill and we never try to seduce our respected clients with unrealistic timeframes or budgets.


How do you help your clients in choosing the right yet profitable platform for app development?

Our software engineering experts analyze the client’s requirement and draft a high-level architecture of the future solution. And this architectural map is then analyzed for implementation, i.e. which of its components can be implemented with which technologies or approaches. Based on our technology expertise and past projects experience we offer the most suitable platform for the future system implementation for the client’s approval. We provide all needed arguments to prove our choice, but it’s up to the client to decide, as you may guess.


How do you scheme your pricing model? How do you fix your budget?

Project cost is the cost of all project work. The exact cost can be announced after the requirements are agreed upon and a prototype is created. At this stage, the main vectors of further developer actions are determined. The extra requirements are discarded, the missing ones are recorded. We correct our budget in the event that new tasks are added that were not considered initially. And so we try to always stick to the primary budget.


How helpful are the mobile apps developed by your team, for enhancing your clients’ business?

Judging by the reviews of our clients - our applications are very useful; they complement, simplify and improve the business of our clients. To track the success of our clients, we even publish success stories of our clients in our Linkedin group. Who gets into the TOP 10 real estate applications (like a Roomster for example), and who greatly simplifies a business with the help of the applications we have developed.


What according to you are the best practices to attain client satisfaction?

In my humble opinion and experience I can say one thing - this is the support of contact with the client throughout the development of the software product. It is necessary to listen to the opinions of customers at each stage of application development, often the initial vision of the application differs from the final version. We try not only to listen to the client, but also to advice on how to do it right on the program side. Only then, in the end, you can get a positive experience from cooperation.


How do you update your business system to be in pace with the technological advancements?

We are moving to new frameworks and libraries, we are trying to use modern methodologies in the design, and we are not afraid to experiment in business. We also hire and train young personnel, create comfortable conditions for the work and development of our employees, and, importantly, listen to them.


What are your thoughts about AR, VR and Internet of Things (IoT)?

Behind them the future! AR,VR and IoT technologies are rapidly evolving. Improvements to these technologies are, in turn, improving the virtual world user experience, enabling users to do things that have not been possible before.

VR technology allows users to enter the virtual world and interact with virtual things. In addition, AR and VR create opportunities to connect augmented/virtual displays to online platforms for sharing the views of AR/VR users. AR enables viewing virtual information overlaid on the real world.


What do you think will be the future of Mobile technology?

I think in the future mobile technologies will change beyond recognition. Already, devices with flexible screens, new forms of authentication, more capacious batteries, 3D sensors and many others are entering the market. We will only have to keep track of these achievements and adjust the development processes for such innovations.