MONK is not just a software company. It’s a reality that gathers a growing number of Geeks who are passionate about work, enjoy challenges and can’t avoid being accountable, yet don’t take themselves too seriously.
It’s a way of relating to work and to life that brings talented people of different spheres together and bonds us (and many clients) with mutual and long lasting respect.
We are often regarded as an extended family who’s ties are based on professional skills, accountability and the enjoyment of achieving tangible results together. We hold friendship as a valuable asset and regard respect as key to success.
Besides our main office in Rome (Italy), we have offices and teams in Krakow (Poland), Milan (Italy) and London (UK). We count on some 30 in-house developers and a small network of free-lance around the world who are part of the family.
“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense”
-Buddha
Starting with the barber shop website in Cave, to the first office in Rome, we developed CRM, ERP, documents databank until we found our true love: mobile development. Today we are a reliable partner for TLC companies with selfcare and IM applications development.
A barber shop in Cave
First web apps
New office in Rome
One new love
Working with TLC
Big challenges
In 2008 MONKsoftware started for real and developed a booking system, a management system and the relevant website for a nationwide transport company. Hence MONK established the first office in Rome to set up proper operations (with the additional benefit of free bus rides).
Next milestone was an assignment by a publishing company specialized in legal documents. MONK was asked to create a databank however it could not resist to develop the entire digitalization process including a website and custom search engine that was so appreciated that it became an official tool of the Italian “supreme court”. This lead to more assignments for the ministry of law and other public entities including the ESF (European Social Fund) for which MONK developed a platform for companies to access funded professional training. A major challenge that scaled the whole project to a different level, came through an Electric Power Company that due to financial turmoil was restructuring and needed a total IT architecture turnaround. MONK software designed and implemented successfully the entire architecture using open source technologies and custom development ranging from CRM to ERP. That company is now enjoying success and is expanding significantly also through acquisitions... and the MONK system architecture supports the scaling happily. In the meantime, the team that had been reinforced with Polish developers, opened an office in Krakow and started to collaborate with an Israeli start-up of ex Google and Amazon managers in the development of scraping and comparative service.
Being “mobile” the true passion, we focus our efforts building a strong mobile developers team. We covered majors mobile Operating Systems, and we started developing a bunch on application for event organization, companies internal surveys, automotive showoff and presentations and many more.
In 2010 MONK found its most fertile ground with a major Italian Telecom Operator for which it started developing enhancements for the VAS business, created a mobile device management systems, designed and developed a Business Intelligence systems and eventually developed the self-care App (which has been rated, year after year, best self-care App in the Italian market). As a strong believer of the return to natural language, in 2015 MONK developed an instant messaging app (EIMe: Enriched Instant Messaging) which evolved into an unexpected success story for the entire telecommunication industry. In the same sector MONK developed a comprehensive app that includes chat, self-care and m-commerce.
With the growing work load, the need to expand productivity resulted into opening a local branch in the Philippines, whilst a big assignment for a major US logistics operator brought to the opening of the Boston MONK office. Because at MONKsoftware instead of meditation they apply creative Fridays, a number of evolutions and products were born around the assignments. Among those, I detected a very innovative social media tool called “Hashtagify”, a big data analytics interface, a push notification engine and CRM tool. In 2015 offices in London and Milan where also opened but this is as much as I managed to gather.
MONK preserves the small company feeling that is needed for an honest partnership approach where understanding of the client’s needs is crucial and sharing with the client our knowledge, potential alternative solutions and our big company experience, needs not many formalities.
We grant speed and flexibility not just because its needed but also because to us success is the value you bring to the client and also the way you have brought it about. We treasure skilful solutions that solve your challenges but also surprise you (and often us too). Being ethical for MONK is a source of joy (that’s why we don’t have a CFO).
MONK is not a kick-starter nor a fundraiser, however if it doesn’t buy into your project, it will not accept the assignment. At MONK we have enjoyed every single project, assignment and product developed... and are determined to continue to do so.