29 Jul How MintHCM became a multilingual HCM platform?
When we came up with the idea for our mint-fresh HCM software,? we really hoped it would get world-wide recognition some day.
Nothing happens overnight. But slowly we started to notice downloads from very distant parts of the planet. ? We are very happy to see the community to grow. And this map below, to turn even greener.
Not that long time ago in a galaxy not that far away…
we were just a group of Open Source Code enthusiast with a time tracking issue.
At the beginning of our road, we have decided to go with SugarCRM CE’s code and adjust it to our own HR-related requirements. What we have ended up doing blew everyone’s minds and highly exceeded initial estimates. The potential we have noticed led us to reinventing the purpose and architecture of a well-known software. We were able to create something totally different, for a whole other business sphere.
Stage #1 of our project was all about time tracking. This is the first feature we have required internally.
It was July 2017 (rather long before we even dreamt of releasing the code). Our organization reached about 30 employees, and we have struggled to keep track of everyone’s schedules. The idea was simple. Let’s use a tool that we know really well and which won’t create additional costs for our young organization.
SugarCRM CE required no licensing charges and was one of the most popular Open Source applications at the time. We were also using the commercial version as our CRM system, so we knew how it was designed. It did not take much for us to get encouraged by the result.
Sadly SugarCRM CE was abandoned by the producer not long after that.
Mid next year, we were switching to SuiteCRM, which is considered its successor. This is when we came up with the name MintHCM and the idea for the new system’s theme. Everything should feel fresh and… minty!
After committing to SuiteCRM as a base… we basically got rid of all its core CRM features. It was around that time when we thought we could potentially share our efforts with Open Source community. During stage 2 we have focused on developing as much HCM typical modules as possible. We were able to cover 15 areas (at the time) of the so-called Employee Journey.
Stage 3 started with official MintHCM’s launch in May 2018.
We hope since then to have created a thriving Open Source HCM project that is going to help modern companies take care of their most valuable capital – their employees.
We are still at the beginning of our journey, but very glad to notice some signs of unknown developer activity.
Multilingual HCM platform
Suddenly, almost like it happened over night, we find translations of our software to other languages.
Right now, there are two 100% translations of MintHCM to Polish and Czech. What a truly remarkable thing for a young startup like ours to get such a strong crowd of supporters right in the middle of Europe!
Perhaps, it also means a trip to Prague and Warsaw for us, when things get back to normal. We hear the beer is quite good over there. Fingers crossed for the pandemic to be over soon, also for this very selfish reason. ?
Common effort ?
Our adventure might get even crazier, as we recently found two more in-progress translations on CrowdIn that totally surprised us.
Looks like we have attracted the attention of some Spanish and Swedish-speaking developers as well. Enough for them to kick-start a new language pack project! It is only the beginning, but so nice to see, that someone cares.
Sadly, no one in our team speaks fluent Spanish or Swedish to be able to pick up the work. But then again, no one here speaks Czech either. And look what happened.
Great things are possible with a little help of our friends. The Beatles knew it. Joe Cocker knew it. And so do we. Common effort will take us places. So thank you, for all you do to help out. Thanks to people like you we can officially call MintHCM a multilingual software. Looking forward to see what’s next!
Let us know, if we could be helpful along the way.