We're looking for good developers and managers currently, and while writing to potential people to who could join Srijan, we are often asked more about us. So, I thought of writing this blog to describe the work we do, team strength, environment, culture, core-values, and other stuff which may be important for any person considering Srijan as a career option. Let me try and classify things under several heads and write bullet points to describe all the above aspects of Srijan. Organisation Structure Srijan has the following groups:
Services Group:
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- specialises in delivering Content Management Solutions based on a PHP driven framework called TYPO3; lately we have also added Drupal to our repertoire
- this group also works on any PHP framework and have delivered solutions on MediaWiki, eGroupware,
- they have also integrated PHP applications with proprietary systems and databases like HarvestRoad Hive, A-Select SSO, others
- they help customers build portals, small to large websites for a range of customers, including corporates, across verticals, such as Manufacturing, Education, Travel, Social Sector among others
- it works extensively on TYPO3 projects outsourced by TYPO3 and Web agencies in Europe
- the team size is as on today, 9 people - developers, senior developers and managers currently; we would like to see this grow to about 13-15 people
Products Development Group
- specialises in building large web applications based on modern open frameworks such as Ruby on Rails, Django (Python), and PHP based frameworks like Symfony, CodeIgniter, Seagull, ATK, others
- it typically has only a few customers, from India and abroad, and works on large applications
- the team size is about 5 senior developers and managers currently; we would like to see this grow to about 8-10 people
Enterprise Linux Support
- this is a very small group of 2 people
- we setup and manage Linux servers and environments
- we're looking for more people to help expand the business and operations
Product Conceptualisation, Information Architecture and Design
- Srijan helps customers turn their ideas into wireframes which are used by tech teams to estimate time of development, and also, advise on technology to be used for such development
Projects we do
Srijan has worked on a range of projects and products on various open source frameworks over the last few years. Notable among these are:
- Customisation of Aspell for Hindi : Done for a Hindi Search Engine called Raftaar.com
- Ship Blacklist application : A database intensive web application created with Ruby on Rails and PostgreSQL with a custom administration back-end
- Resource Mint : This is a Project Planning software being developed by Srijan, primarily for its internal us, and eventually to be made a hosted solution. This is being written in Ruby on Rails and Adobe Flex 2 framework. Please check: http://resourcemint.wordpress.com.
- SmartCampaigner : A product in Python/Django (www.djangoproject.com) to manage mass-email and SMS based communication with different user groups
- LMS mashup with TYPO3 and HarvestRoad Hive® : A mashup of TYPO3 and HarvestRoad Hive® resulting in a learning management system for the Delft University of Technology
- Japanese dictionary application : A Japanese script converter and dictionary (from any language to Japanese) application built on the TYPO3 platform.
- TYPO3 user authentication against any A-Select AuthSP : The A-Select Authentication System is an innovative system for authentication of users in a Web environment. Since TYPO3 is often used in intranet environments we wrote an integration API between TYPO3 and A-Select
Culture, Work Environment and Values
Srijan has a fairly flat organisation structure, a democratic work environment, lots of transparency and involvement of all/key people in taking important decisions. There are some really good things about us, which are mostly non-existent in the Industry at large. Some key things which have been in demonstration at Srijan are:
- an equal opportunity to all members to prove their skills and rise up the value chain in technical, managerial and monetary areas
- lots of freedom
- nothing is hidden at Srijan - salaries, expenses, earnings, profits and investments
- profit sharing : even though this has yet to become a reality there is a clear collective intention to do so
- we often go out of the way to support people during personal challenges and new developments in life, and in achieving their personal and professional goals
- personal touch in work relationships
- lots of sharing of concerns, 360 degree feedback during project and quarterly review sessions
- fair amount of contribution to open source communities through means of sponsorships, donations, and general support
- Sharing, Growth, Freedom, Integrity, Joy and Enthusiasm - these are the core values we carry, which we have attempted to demonstrate in our corporate Logo; our logo got carried in a German logo design magazine as a Case Study - the only one from India