Balancing small-business mindset with big-business capabilities - Coherent Solutions Lithuania

  • 2025-01-24
  • Linas Jegelevicius

In December, Coherent Solutions Lithuania, a software product engineering and consulting company with an international presence, celebrated its fourth anniversary. „Over the past four years, Coherent Solutions Lithuania has witnessed significant growth, expanding our team to include over 100 top-tier professionals. The group of companies we belong to has development teams distributed across 10 locations globally and the Vilnius team is proud to be the most senior team in terms of experience and competence of the engineers,” Lina Siumete, the CEO of JSC Coherent Solutions Lithuania, told The Baltic Times Magazine.

You’ve recently expanded into the UK and other European countries. Could you discuss this?

For over 25 years, we have predominantly worked with US customers. It was a natural dynamic, given the company was founded in Minneapolis, USA, in 1995. The organization has flourished, maintaining strong customer relationships. Our dedication and partnership mindset, over time, have won us long-lasting relationships with 95 percent becoming returning clients.

Over time our client base became more diverse, and more and more opportunities were coming from Europe. As a part of the business growth strategy, we decided to investigate opportunities of approaching Europe more strategically and focusing on specific countries to grow our business presence. The UK seemed like a natural place to start, given the size and state of the economy, language, and the fact we already had five active clients.

Our team works with clients distributed globally but we are also happy to be working with local clients, which allows us to benefit from the proximity at the same time bringing to the table our experience from almost 30 years in the IT industry in the USA.

What is at the core of your company’s philosophy?

We have a saying that we are a big small company – we operate with the agility of a small company, creating a family-like atmosphere while we are already 2000 people strong. We bring our partnership mindset to our clients and strive for the best business results in every project we deliver. Our clients and employee retention, speaks to the quality of the talent we proud to have in our organization.

Our employer philosophy puts a lot of emphasis on nurturing employees‘ sense of purpose and community. Therefore, contributing to the local community became an integral part of our day-to-day. We have worked to create partnerships with local organizations, that would allow each individual team member to get engaged with the activities they feel passionate about. Our employees have actively participated in various social responsibility initiatives, such as supporting Maisto Bankas, volunteering with Tautmile Animal Shelter, and organizing forest cleaning projects. Our engineers volunteered to create Herojams.lt, a platform for people to donate goods for Ukrainian war refugees. We are proud to have won the National Socially Responsible Business Award for Community-Oriented Company of the Year for two consecutive years.

How do you differentiate from others in the field?

Our distinct approach involves partnering with clients rather than merely serving as vendors. We deeply invest in these relationships, customizing our services to address the unique challenges of each business. We listen, advise, and together work to find the best solutions for our clients, irrespective of how much business it creates for us. Honesty and respect are crucial for us. We believe that our clients know their business and their company culture best. Our value in partnerships is being experts in software engineering. Working together, we can create solutions, that drive the business forward and help organizations to succeed. This is what we consider a success. We aim to have long running and scalable partnerships and we are ready to invest in building the relationships and projects together.

Who are some of the notable local clients in your portfolio?

We work with a variety of clients across different industries. While the exact list of their clients may not be publicly disclosed in full due to confidentiality agreements, our typical clients include global enterprises, technology companies, startups, healthcare and financial services.

Do you operate in other Baltic and Nordic countries?

Yes, we serve several clients across the Baltic States and are actively exploring opportunities in the Nordic countries.

Is it challenging to hire diligent, smart, and creative team members nowadays? Is AI replacing some of them?

Recruiting skilled and dedicated professionals is always challenging but for us – it is almost a core business, so we are very strong in this area. Our attractive technology stack and diverse projects help us attract top talent. While AI enhances the productivity of engineers, it complements rather than replaces the essential human creativity and insight. Our engineers are also involved in numerous R&D initiatives, intended to find new ways to utilize emerging technologies, and successful pilots are often included in our work with clients. Important to mention that the company has a strong Training Centre with over 100 professional trainers, helping our engineers improve their skills within their domain or entirely switch technologies, reflecting to changing demands of the industry.

Do you collaborate with local universities to identify the brightest talents early in their careers?

As of the first year of our existence in Lithuania, we started working closely with leading technical universities like Vilnius Tech, Kaunas University of Technology, and Vilnius University. Our support includes hosting lectures, company visits, and internships as well as funding laboratories and providing scholarships to top students.

Where do you see Coherent Solutions in 10 years?

We aim for substantial growth, striving to attract many new clients globally and significantly expand our team. Our vision is to be recognized as the top employer in the Baltic States, continually enhancing our workforce and client services.