“Stuart Dean and I were working in the tech team of one of the early digital agencies, getting more and more frustrated with technology sitting as an afterthought to the ‘imagineers’. We came back to work at the beginning of 2005, resolved to start a business of our own. We couldn’t afford to do anything in London, so we looked at Poland, which is where my family is originally from. We started out in a garage in Poznań with our old boss as our first client.”
Cognifide’s Engineering Centre is still based in Poznań and has become a recognised incubator for technical talent in Europe. As the company has grown, acquiring an ever-bigger roster of clients, it has opened offices around the world: in 2006 in London, then in New York in 2016.
Cognifide is constantly welcoming people from different backgrounds into the company, bringing with them new and different ways of thinking. In 2018 another Development Centre, and Cognifide’s newest outpost, opened in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Today, Cognifide’s headcount is over 400 people worldwide.
Cognifide’s technology
In the early days Cognifide’s team worked for different agencies as an outsourced IT department. Then they started to specialise in content management systems. These have now evolved into customer-experience platforms and sit at the heart of the websites, apps and everything else in the digital marketing mix.
“We’re the experts in digital who make the complex simple. We design, build and operate large, sophisticated digital platforms for the world’s leading organisations and we’re market leaders in terms of the quality of our solutions.” says technology director Albert Cenkier. “To achieve this, we foster a culture of innovation to stay ahead of the technology and to attract the best people.”
Cognifide has over 12 years of experience in delivering digital programmes for some of the world’s biggest brands. Its staff have deep expertise in the leading content management technologies, working with Adobe Experience Manager and across the Adobe Experience Cloud. And it is one of only 41 companies in the world awarded Platinum Partnership status by Sitecore. Additionally, it has a strong history of developing its own toolsets and applications for speeding up and improving the quality of digital implementations, including Zen Garden and the Sitecore Experience Accelerator.
Cognifide’s people
“The two words that make up our name – cognition and fidelity – sum up everything that’s important to us,” says managing director Marcin Stańczyk. “Cognition reflects our experience, expertise and the attitude that we bring to that work. Fidelity is all about the way we treat the people we meet in the course of our work; clients, suppliers, agencies, and colleagues.”
In an independent 2017 survey of Cognifide clients by Digital Clarity Group, 91% said that they chose Cognifide because they demonstrated a superior understanding of client’s individual needs. Cognifide has lived and breathed digital for well over a decade. Its people and teams have real depth of experience and unmatched expertise. However, it’s the Cognifide culture that really makes the difference.
Cognifide was founded with the intention of being a fun and stimulating place to work with friendliness and good humour as a part of the DNA. Cognifiders work in agile teams, sharing knowledge and putting a premium on creativity and openness. In 2018, the Polish daily newspaper, Puls Biznesu, introduced the Architects of Innovation Awards, paying tribute to businesses embracing the spirit of innovation. Cognifide was awarded first prize for 'building a culture of innovation'. In 2017 Cognifide was awarded the title of Master Champion (the first company ever) in the Force of Attraction awards, aimed at showcasing companies in Poland that excel in employer branding.
Cognifide takes care of its communities. Each year the company sets aside a percentage of its profit and a portion of everyone’s time to promote and help social and environmental causes. In 2018, almost 30% of Cognifide’s workforce gave their time and energy to causes that they care about and got involved in knowledge-sharing activities.
Cognifide - a WPP company
When WPP bought Cognifide in 2014, it became part of the biggest creative transformation company in the world, alongside some of the great names of advertising, digital, and direct marketing; names like Ogilvy & Mather, Young & Rubicam, AKQA and Wunderman Thompson. In 2017 WPP was named Holding Company of the Year at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity for the seventh year in a row, with 42 of its agencies winning awards at the event. “We have access to some of the leading specialists in the industry through our sister agencies, Wunderman, Possible, Acceleration, Wunderman Commerce and Burrows.”, says Marcin Stańczyk. “Together we were ranked fifth in Econsultancy's Top Digital Agencies report for 2018.”
The future
“The immediate impact of Brexit on our business is likely to be minimal, with the biggest short term risks being to currency rates and additional bureaucracy around travel,” says Miro Walker. “Cognifide offers compelling services and products that are in high demand. We have an incredible talent base of highly skilled specialists and have grown into a global company in one of the fastest-growing areas of the worldwide economy. We will continue to invest in opportunities in the US and across Europe, and fully expect growth in these areas.”