How Was the Year 2023 at Droptica? Memories and Numbers

This was a special year for us and for the industry. On the one hand, we celebrated our 10th anniversary, and on the other hand - there is no denying it - the crisis hit IT and many technology companies. Times are tough, but we’re happy that we managed to move forward without financial troubles, still participating in many technology events and launching new services. Let's see how 2023 has been shaping up for Droptica.

Figures important for Droptica in 2023

The past twelve months for Droptica are best reflected in the numbers:

• number of new customers: 13,
• number of employees: 73,
• number of Drupal certifications earned by developers: 72 (in 2023, we obtained 8 new ones),
• years of experience: more than 10 years.

The last bullet point is particularly significant to us, as it was Droptica's 10th anniversary in February 2023.

Even more technology and services

One of the goals we set ourselves a year ago was to expand our offerings. We’ve succeeded 100%, resulting in the following services and technologies we’ve incorporated into our business.

Magento and Shopware for ecommerce

We decided that we at Droptica would develop ecommerce for clients. So, we added Magento and Shopware to our range of services. This is how we provide end-to-end solutions – we not only create and design online stores but also provide a whole digital shopping experience. We offer integrations with third-party software (e.g., CRM systems, ERP, or marketing tools), analytics, consulting, and plugin customization, as well as migrations of existing online stores to the platforms mentioned earlier.

WordPress, Python, Keycloak

As part of our services centered around WordPress, we create and develop various types of projects: from corporate blogs and business websites with multiple features to simple websites and portfolios to complex online stores. We also implement SEO and page speed optimization solutions. In addition, we guarantee technical support and UI/UX design.

In turn, using Python and its frameworks (Django, Flask, Pyramid, CherryPy) since 2023, we allow our clients to use its rich ecosystem. We build content management systems and financial, educational, and e-learning platforms, among others. In addition, we provide support, performance optimization, and feature enhancement for existing projects.

We’ve also incorporated into our offer the implementation and maintenance services of Keycloak, an open source solution. We enforce its features, such as two-factor authentication (2FA), centralized user management, and single sign-on (SSO). Security issues have always been in our minds, so we help our clients effectively secure their systems in this way.

Discovery workshop

Another initiative we introduced in 2023 is a discovery workshop. Through such sessions, we enable customers to define, for example, their needs for implementing new solutions. They allow them to better understand the requirements of their own business (e.g., by discovering challenges, identifying with their target group, developing a plan) and determine the project's scope, thus saving time and money.

AI Development

In the past year, we also couldn’t remain indifferent to issues related to the rapid development of AI (Artificial Intelligence). What have we started to do, and what can we do? As part of our new AI Development service, we help clients choose the right AI engine or model, integrate it into a product or platform, and test various scenarios to ensure the reliability of the project.

Team extension services

Since 2023, we’ve been helping companies fill gaps in external project teams. Suppose our clients don't want to get involved in the recruitment process because they prefer to focus on managing the organization or executing the marketing strategy. In that case, they can use the team extension service.

At Droptica, we have experienced professionals on board (not only programmers but also designers, project managers, or DevOps specialists), thanks to whom a project can be completed quickly and efficiently. We offer two models of cooperation – a dedicated team with a leader and single professionals strengthening companies with their competencies.

Drupal for universities

The thread related to new services culminates with our offering dedicated to teaching, namely Drupal for higher education. Thanks, for example, to the multisite feature in this CMS, educational institutions can manage multiple websites from a single platform. In addition, for the needs of universities, we provide a robust API framework, flexibility and scalability, secure data handling, and several integrations with external tools.

New projects and case studies

In 2023, we’ve completed many projects for our clients. Here, we’d like to detail two examples of case studies.

B2B marketplace for Henry Schein

• Using Drupal 9, we created the Dentist to Dentist Place platform, which connects dental professionals and equipment vendors,
• we’ve provided websites for multiple markets and in different languages,
• we made it possible to manage products with a single CMS Drupal system,
• we continue to work with the client – we’ll eventually extend the platform to Drupal Commerce to provide editors with more ecommerce functionality and more accessible data analysis.

A home page of the Dentist to Dentist place platform

Digital content platform for EM360

• We built a platform functionally similar to LinkedIn,
• we created, among other things, content workflow, article categories, user accounts, login option via LinkedIn API, integration with payment gateways,
• we’ve developed a content platform where users create accounts, publish articles, and interact with others.

A home page of the EM360 online platform 

The past year also brought numerous projects in which UX and UI design played an important role. Here are examples available on our Behance profile:

• MSDW – redesign and its implementation for an online media platform.
• Milkrite – developing a refreshed version of the website using our Droopler distribution.
• Nowca Wild – creating a design for a mobile app for open-water swimming.
• Landslide Protection System – building an advanced form with expanded fields for a system for monitoring and documenting landslides in Poland.
• Yuno Energy – designing a multi-stage form project for a modern electricity supplier.
• Intranet visualizations – creating intranet system designs dedicated to the academic industry and work management, among others.

An example of an intranet created by our designers

Events we couldn’t miss

For many years, Droptica has remained very active in the Drupal community. It was the same in 2023. On the one hand, we once again organized DrupalCamp Poland, and on the other hand, we participated in industry conferences and were sponsors of events.

DrupalCamp Poland 2023

This international conference, which we’ve been organizing for ten years, brings Drupal users and supporters together. Speakers from different countries share knowledge, discuss the latest trends, and show valuable solutions. The DrupalCampPoland YouTube channel features all the lectures and talks, including those by Droptica specialists.

The next DrupalCamp Poland will be held in Warsaw on May 18, 2024.

The DrupalCamp Poland 2023 conference participants

Other industry events

As for other events in which we participated in the past year, however, some really great initiatives came together:

• Infoshare (Gdansk, Poland) – a conference gathering business representatives, marketers, investors, and startups, of which we were a silver partner. Participants discuss the future of technology.

This is how actively we participated in Infoshare 2023

• Drupaljam (Utrecht, the Netherlands) – a one-day event bringing together Drupal enthusiasts, of which Droptica was a gold sponsor.

At Drupaljam in the Netherlands, there were panel discussions and meeting space

• Drupal Developer Days (Vienna, Austria) – a meeting of developers, testers, and project managers aimed at developing the CMS, such as through Contribution Sprints (testing various solutions and designing new improvements). 

In July 2023, we were at Drupal Developers Days in beautiful Vienna

• DrupalCon Lille (France) – a regular and largest Drupal community event, of which we were also a gold sponsor in 2023.

Our representation was present at the DrupalCon conference in Lille

In addition, as sponsors in 2023, we’ve also supported initiatives such as Mautic Conference Global (an event dedicated to Mautic – one of the popular marketing automation tools), Splash Awards (an event that awards the best Drupal projects in the Netherlands) and PHPers in Poznan.

Droptica Webinars

We’ll also mark 2023 as the date of new initiatives. One is Droptica Webinars – a series of free online webinars focused on web development issues. So far, we’ve emphasized website support and maintenance on Drupal. Our CEO, Maciej Lukianski, hosted the sessions and is already preparing the following live streams, which we’ll announce on our social media profiles.

Maciej Lukianski hosted webinars in 2023

Blog posts, e-book, and Drupal Support Verifier

Every year, we summarize the number of articles the Droptica team wrote. And so, in 2023, 77 new posts appeared on our blog. There were many technical instructions, practical tips, and an overview of design, project management, and e-commerce topics.

Another critical moment in 2023 was the refresh of our flagship e-book dedicated to website support on Drupal. We highly encourage you to download Get the Most out of Drupal: A Guide to Website Support, Care and Maintenance, which covers fixing website bugs, monitoring, migrating, and upgrading to Drupal 10.

Continuing on the track of website support, we’ve also launched a proprietary tool called Drupal Support Verifier, which allows anyone to check the current support level for their website on Drupal by answering a few short questions in a survey.

What are we planning for 2024?

2023 is upon us – it's time to uncover some plans for the future.

We keep an eye on the situation in the technology industry and maintain a healthy optimism. We’ve set ourselves the goal of expanding our team and participating in industry events such as DrupalCon in Barcelona.

We’ll once again hold the aforementioned DrupalCamp Poland, initiate DrupalDay, a workshop on Drupal basics, and return to our highly popular DevTalks initiative. We also plan to develop the latest version of the Droopler 4.0 distribution.

Stay tuned, follow our social media profiles to be updated, and join our events to meet us online and offline. Wishing everyone a Happy Drupal Year! :)