What do a developer, a wild puma and a global sports brand have in common? Sii engineers have adopted pumas at the Gdańsk ZOO
Sii, the leader of IT and engineering services in Poland, has adopted pumas from the Gdańsk Zoological Garden. This initiative was the idea of the developers of the Digital Competency Center, who carry out IT projects for an international client of Sii – PUMA, a globally recognized sports brand known for providing the most innovative solutions for sportsmen and women in the world. In June the company became an official sponsor of two pumas – Orlando and Columbia.
Why has an IT company decided to enter into cooperation with a ZOO? Joanna Murawska, in everyday life a Junior Java Developer at Sii, the originator of the idea of adopting the puma sums up this innovative enterprise – we wanted to show, that to us working for Puma is much more than standard work “from – to” and coding. We are proud that we have such a great team, that we carry out advanced projects which provide us with the opportunity for development – and for a prestigious client, with whom we strongly identify. What is more, we can help together. We will oversee the pumas at the zoo with great pleasure and take care of them – to us it is another area in which we can seek self-fulfillment and an opportunity for integration.
The Sii project team, which has initiated the adoption of the animals comprises of 50 Sii engineers from Gdańsk and Lublin, who in their work, take advantage of diverse technologies – from Java, through .NET, up to SharePoint and Microsoft Business Intelligence. Most of them are involved in a flagship technological project for PUMA under the name Phoenix which involves building a product lifecycle management system. The solution supports the users in the process of ordering tools necessary in shoe production and allows to trace related investments and amortization. Thanks to the new system, the developers, designers and managers of the product will be able to work together on their ideas, from the initial concept phase, through the prototype phase up to the approved end product. The project is based on such technologies as JAVA EE, Vaadin, EJB, Hibernate and IBM DB2.
– The adoption of the pumas is a combination of the will to bring help, a need of the heart and the engagement of our engineers in the project for our partner. The Sii Puma team is very well integrated and strongly identifies with the project and the client. We have decided to support their actions, which are fully in line with Sii’s CSR policy and they are of special value to the team. The decision of taking the pumas under our care is a great combination of all of these goals, which have to do both with corporate social responsibility as well as the satisfaction of our employees. The most important thing is that , as a result, we improve the wellbeing of the animals and support an institution which is involved in the protection of endangered species – explains Grzegorz Brzostowski, Business Unit Media & Services Director at Sii, who is responsible for the long-term cooperation with PUMA with its seat in the German Herzogenaurach.
– I am very happy that the programmers from Sii have decided to link their work to the adoption of pumas. It is nice to see that our offer of supporting our animals is becoming more and more popular among companies as well as private persons. Such animals like lions, red pandas, seals, lynx, wild cats, the hippopotamus, zebras, kangaroos, donkeys, crocodiles, araraunas and black swans have been adopted so far. The possibility of adopting the animals from the Gdańsk ZOO has been available from only under a year and in this time we have already gained over a dozen sponsors. In our offer we still have more than 50 species available, which are waiting for their sponsors. Our pumas, Orlando and Columbia have just found their carer. Thanks to the support, our animals get toys, additional snacks and new elements of equipment for their enclosure – says Michał Targowski, Director of the Gdańsk Zoological Garden.
– Columbia and Orlando, two pumas adopted by Sii, are a very agreeable couple – says Anna Gembiak, the keeper of predators in the Gdańsk ZOO. – The lifespan of pumas, which are also called mountain lions is 20 years. They inhabit both Americas: from the cost of the Atlantic to coast of the Pacific ocean and from Argentina and Chile to Alaska. The males are significantly larger than the females, they can weigh up to 120kg. Our pumas spend their time lying next to each other and basking in the sun. They are gourmands. Sometimes we even have to restrict their appetites and limit the amounts of food that we give them. A daily ration of meat for the male weighs around 1,5kg and for the female 1kg. Thanks to pumas’ sponsorship they will get more treats – emphasizes Gembiak.
