January was a top, and December was a notch: Barrage 2023 recap 

They say that time flies fast when you are having fun - and in our case, when you do something you truly enjoy, the year just whizzes by!

2023: a challenging year for the IT industry

Let’s be honest — 2023 wasn’t easy for the IT companies worldwide. 

Every company has seen changes, whether in services, staffing, pricing models, or investments; everyone has adopted strategies to ensure their sustainability. 

But as it says, when the going gets tough, the tough get going - which is an unofficial motto in our company.  We don’t fight changes - we embrace them, adapt, and use our new knowledge for the better. 

Catching up with the projects

We are truly proud of our achievements in 2023.

This year, some 30 projects were active - some larger, some smaller; most were client-oriented, while a few were internal.

Special kudos go to our design team, whose outstanding proposal and dedicated work have knocked a client, a big name in the telecommunications industry, off their feet. Their design and creative vigor have secured us at least 3 new projects this year! 

If you create value constantly, your efforts are always recognized. 

We also boast finishing the MVP of one of our key projects in the last two years: this HPC-related project (high-performance computing) served as a catalyst for initiating 3 additional HPC projects, which is praise unto itself.

As far as our in-house projects go, we constantly aim to improve internal processes, so this year, we first completed a tool that we started working on last year. This tool is customized to our needs, and it helps us keep track of our teams’ expertise, which we also boosted with a token award scheme so we can give praise where praise is due! 

In addition to that, for the sake of making the transition from the design to the development phase even smoother, our frontend team, together with our UX/UI designers, continually worked on ensuring optimal quality using stable, competitive technologies aligned with project requirements.

Telecommunications, Cloud computing, AI and ML, Data center engineering, Blockchain, Fintech, TravelTech, EduTech… we’ve covered so many areas this year. As always, we’ll continue looking for challenges and ground-breaking opportunities rather than making common yet uninspiring choices.

What’s new with the teams?

Much like the projects, it was dynamic within the teams.

Our software development team saw organizational changes, which is why we assigned 9 more team leaders and coordinators to improve communication on projects and communication within teams. Issues (or, as we call them, "growth opportunities" :D) are identified and resolved promptly, contributing to a better working atmosphere and enhanced efficiency.

This year, we boast 39 well-deserved promotions across all departments - kudos to everyone! 

We attended 34 different educational courses; All of our developers are now Hedera-certified, and some have already applied this knowledge to the mentioned token award scheme. Great work, guys!

We enjoyed teaching and collaborating with 11 bright participants of our internship program Forge: we foresee a bright future for such promising potential.

Our data center team also had their hands full: they conducted an internal audit of some 70,000 pieces of data center equipment and fought fire and 2 total blackouts, all the while ensuring that the performance of the data centers was over 99%.

Our accounting smoothly transitioned us to EUR, the research crew set the foundations for more than a few projects, while our social media team showcased our work and activities meticulously… They all deserve to be lauded for their contributions throughout the entire year.

Barrage all over the world and in the Eurodom 

In 2023, we attended more than 20 events with over 40 employees, both at home and abroad. We traveled over 60,000 kilometers to promote Barrage and make new contacts.

We attended 7 professional conferences, 8 talent attractions and 4 business opportunities events.

Some of the best events for us were the .debug, Infobip Shift, Digital Labin, and The Geek Gathering conference. But, if you ask our running team, they will always say it is a B2run event. In 2023, they ran two races for the first time - in Osijek and Zagreb. For 2024, they have big plans, and we hope that they will succeed in realizing them.

As in previous years, we were represented not only as exhibitors but also as guest speakers. In 2023, we held ten guest lectures and workshops at conferences, universities, and primary and secondary schools.

In addition, we had internal events in which we strengthened team relations. We started the year with a birthday celebration in March. We had a little excursion in Baranja, and it was a blast. 

A few months later, we organized a summer party at the American Bar Dollar, where we hung out with our partners and clients. We don't have many photos of this event - we didn’t want to invite a photographer so that people could relax and enjoy their time. If you want to know how it was, ask the people who stayed until 6 am at the afterparty :)

Summer went by in a flash. We celebrated the comeback from vacation in the best possible way by applying the finishing touches to the organization of The Geek Gathering (TGG) in September and hosting the main event in October. 

The TGG anti-conference was bigger and better than TGG 2022, so we were proud of our team and ability to make something like this in Osijek. We gathered over 400 people in one place and created a fantastic atmosphere for people to socialize and exchange ideas - an event to which they will return next year. 

At the end of the year, we traditionally organized a Secret Santa gift exchange in our office. We can proudly say that this tradition is the best thing in our office, where everyone tries to find the best gift for their colleagues. We need to find out things about the people we didn't know so well and buy something for them. So, when the gift exchange comes, there is no lack of laughter when someone opens a present.

What does 2024 have in store?

More work, more passion! More amazing design, more clean code, more exciting challenges, more brilliant ideas…

Besides working hard at the office, you will be able to find us at:

• .debug
• Infobip Shift
• Digital Labin
• Miami Bitcoin 
• Money 20/20 Amsterdam
• The Geek Gathering

and many more!

We make plans, yes, but we are also highly flexible, as it’s the only way to thrive in a competitive environment. But whatever 2024 has in store, be sure we are ready for it! 

Hey, you! What do you think?

At the start of every year, we’re ripe and ready for some new and juicy projects - so why would 2024 be any different?

If you have some great projects in mind, feel free to contact us.

Maybe you are the one we’re kicking off the following year with!