Our Resident, Sii – a leader in IT and industrial engineering in Poland – adopted pumas from the Gdańsk Zoological Garden:) This is an idea that was born on the initiative of the employees of the Digital Competency Center, which implements IT projects for Sii’s international client – PUMA. It is a world-renowned sports brand, providing the most innovative products for the fastest riders in the world. Since June, the company has become the official caretaker of two pumas – Orlando and Columbia!
Why did the IT company decide to cooperate with the zoo? Joanna Murawska , Junior Java Developer at Sii, the originator of the adoption of cougars, sums up the innovative project – In this way, we decided to show that for us, cooperation with PUMA is more than just standard “work from-to” and coding. We are proud that we create such a close-knit team, carry out advanced and developmental projects for a prestigious client, with whom we strongly identify, and we can help together. It will be a great pleasure for us to look after the pumas in the zoo and take care of them – this is another area for self-fulfilment and integration for us.
The Sii project team, which is the initiator of animal adoption, is made up of 50 Sii engineers from Gdańsk and Lublin, who use various technologies in their work – from Java, through .NET, to SharePoint and Microsoft Business Intelligence technologies. Most of them are involved in a flagship technology project for PUMA called Phoenix, which concerns the construction of a product lifecycle management system. The solution supports users in the process of ordering the tools needed for shoe production, as well as allows them to track the associated investments and depreciation. With the new system, developers, designers, and product managers will be able to work on ideas from the initial concept phase through the prototype to the approved final product. The project is based on technologies such as JAVA EE, Vaadin, EJB, Hibernate, IBM DB2.
– The idea of adopting pumas is a combination of the desire to help, the impulse of the heart and the commitment of our engineers to the project for our partner – says Grzegorz Brzostowski, Business Unit Media & Services Director at Sii, who is directly responsible for the long-term cooperation with the client PUMA, based in Herzogenaurach, Germany. – The Puma team from Sii is very integrated and strongly identifies with the project and the client itself. We decided to support their activities, which are in line with Sii’s CSR policy and are of particular importance to them. The decision to take care of cougars is a great combination of all these goals, which are related to both corporate social responsibility and employee satisfaction. The most important thing is the fact that, as a result, we jointly improve animal welfare and support an institution that deals with the protection of endangered species – Brzostowski explains.
Michał Targowski, director of the Gdańsk Zoological Garden, says – I’m very glad that Sii’s programmers decided to combine their work with the adoption of cougars. We are pleased that the offer of support for our wards is becoming more and more popular, both among companies and individuals. So far, lions, baby pandas, seals, lynxes, wildcats, hippos, zebras, kangaroos, donkeys, crocodiles, ararauns and black swans have been taken care of. The offer of sponsorship for the charges of the Gdańsk Zoo has been available for less than a year and during this time there have been a dozen or so people willing to support the animals. There are still more than 50 species of animals on offer, waiting for their sponsors. Our Orlando and Columbia pumas have also recently found their caretaker. Thanks to the support, our pupils receive toys, additional snacks and new paddock equipment.”
“Columbia and Orlando, cougars adopted by Sii, are a very compatible couple ,” says Anna Gembiak, carnivore keeper at the Gdańsk Zoo. – Pumas are also called mountain lions and live for about 20 years. They inhabit the Americas: from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast, and from Argentina and Chile to Alaska. Males are much larger than females, their body weight can reach up to 120 kg. Our pumas spend their time lying next to each other and basking in the sun. They are gluttons. Sometimes we even have to curb their appetites by limiting the amount of food they eat. The daily portion of meat for a male is about 1.5 kg, and for a female 1 kg. Thanks to the sponsorship, the pumas will receive additional delicacies – emphasizes Gembiak.
