Subscribe to Print Edition | Wed., January 07, 2009 Tevet 11, 5769 | | Israel Time: 02:17 (EST+7)   Back to Homepage web haaretz.com Haaretz Toolbar Diplomacy Defense Jewish World Opinion National Print Edition Car Rental Books Haaretz Magazine Business Real Estate Joy of Giving Travel Week's End Anglo File

i-rox: Where Zionism, religion, and crisis meet and thrive By Tali Heruti-Sover Tags: israel news Walking into the offices of i-rox Software Products, you might be forgiven for thinking it's a ghost town. Silence reigns at this company, utter silence. No voices are raised, no phones ring. But the rooms of this company, which develops software for other firms, are manned - by dozens of ultra-Orthodox women, bewigged and seated in front of computers. There is no glittering state-of-the-art high-tech kitchen and nobody takes a leisurely hour-long lunch break. At most they use the glatt kosher microwave oven or eat their sandwich from home sitting in front of their flickering computer screens. The two women behind i-rox are co-CEO Rutie Margalit, 29, an ultra-Orthodox woman from Bnei Brak, and Yehudit Swissa, 44, a secular woman from Shoham who doesn't wear a long skirt. She wears jeans. They founded the company three years ago and parade through the corridors like proud mother hens. These are days of crisis, and most companies are slashing costs wherever they can. Margalit and Swissa feel, on the other hand, that they have found the solution. They have 60 diligent employees who undergo intensive training in programming and who earn 30% less than the going market rate, which makes i-rox particularly competitive. Advertisement "We provide the ideal solution: software development at a high level at low cost," says Swissa. "That is exactly why companies went to India, but we provide the solution right here in Bnei Brak. It's a lot easier to come to us, communication is easier, and beyond the economic facet there's a Zionist element, too. The work remains in Israel." i-rox is a play on the words Internet and Orthodox, and it isn't the first company in Israel to take advantage of ultra-Orthodox women's eagerness to work. Information-technology company Matrix also discovered this resource years before, setting up branches in places such as Beitar Ilit and Modi'in. Matrix chief executive Moti Gutman, a guru in local outsourcing, has often said it's better to employ a local population hitherto absent from the workforce by retraining in programming than to take advantage of cheaper labor overseas (though Matrix has software houses in Asia and Europe as well). Swissa and Margalit, it seems, leaped on the bandwagon less because of ideology than pure business sense. And the market smiled on them. I-rox's turnover in 2008 will be about NIS 8.5 million. The company started with four employees and today has 60. If not for the global economic crisis, the two founders would have expected a meteoric rise in turnover to around NIS 15 million this year. But they aren't afraid to give numbers, perhaps hoping that the grim market conditions will continue to work in their favor. "A client who comes to us doesn't leave until the project is finished and will come again for the next project," says Swissa. "The problem is that most managers aren't aware of the potential to cut costs through us. If we manage to market ourselves a little more aggressively, to gain more exposure, we'll overcome this crisis period big-time." It actually all started 10 years ago when Rutie Margalit, a member of the Gur sect and today mother of three, was retraining from teaching mathematics to computer science at Sivan College. When she finished her studies, she set out to find a job. "It wasn't trivial," Margalit says. "About 80% or 90% of the women who retrain never make use of their skills because they don't want to work for a secular company. I was determined to use my skill." She applied to ECTel, where she met Yehudit Swissa, a senior manager. "I liked her," says Swissa. "Her tests were excellent and I knew she'd do the job, but I ran into a lot of resistance. It isn't easy for an ultra-Orthodox woman to work in a secular company. They said to me, what for, she'll be pregnant all the time, maternity leave all year, with lots of small kids at home, who needs it. But I insisted and it turns out I was right." Six years later, in 2006, Rutie Margalit began to think about opening a company. "I talked with a highly talented friend who finished Sivan with distinction and had the same problem - where to work. There was nowhere, certainly nowhere appropriate near the home. And then I had the idea. I thought that since the work was needed and there was a workforce that would be glad to work for lower than market levels of pay, why not connect the two elements and establish a software house right here in Gush Dan [the greater Tel Aviv area]." Margalit, whose main venue is the technology, knew she couldn't hack it alone. She suggested that Swissa join the effort. Swissa had been blissfully unaware of the problem of jobs for ultra-Orthodox women and the hidden business potential in that environment. "I liked the idea right away because I'd never supported outsourcing to foreign countries," she says. "It always annoyed me that I'd be outsourcing work to Ukraine, for instance. There were a lot of communication difficulties. We needed translators for every conversation. We didn't understand each other and the whole thing was conducted unprofessionally, and wasn't Zionist. In parallel I remembered how hard the fight was to get Rutie accepted to work, and I understood that was a road that many ultra-Orthodox women had to travel." You left a secure workplace for the uncertainties of a world you didn't really know. "I practically didn't think about it at all. The solid business logic behind the idea was clear to me." What about the fact that you're the only secular woman and all the rest are Haredi? "I once asked Rutie if I had to come with a skirt, and she said, 'Of course not.' Each to his own way of life. The only thing I can't do is put my dishes in the microwave. But even if it was okay, I wouldn't have the patience to wait." Margalit and Swissa wrote a business plan and looked for investment, somebody from the ultra-Orthodox community who'd appreciate the concept. With the help of Margalit's husband, they found a businessman willing to put in NIS 4.4 million. Neither Margalit nor Swissa put in a penny of their own, but the work is all theirs. Swissa, who handles sales and marketing, got their first projects from ECTel and "graduates" of that company. "We called, we told them about our new software house, gave at-cost prices and received small projects," she relates. The first four workers, who spent a month in training, began to work. Slowly word of mouth did the trick and jobs began to stream in, though not without bumps in the road. "Clients always ask if men can come to the company," Margalit says. "Of course they can. Our team leaders meet with them and talk with them about work. It can't happen that a man stays alone with a programmer at night, but everything else is perfectly normal." The working conditions are also perfectly normal. Other than on the fast day of Tisha B'Av, the company closes only on Hol Hamo'ed - the intermediate days of a holiday. Employees who excel receive bonuses. According to Margalit and Swissa, work doesn't stretch out to all hours of the evening - because the women are efficient. "That's how women are at all companies, they don't waste time," Swissa quips. Inside a year and a half, i-rox broke even and then started to turn a profit. Margalit is proud to relate that 30 women finished their course in 2006. By now 160 have taken it: they are realizing that there's work out there for them. I-rox itself hires only the ones who excel at their studies but other companies are eager to snap up the rest. The secret of success goes beyond low salaries and high quality products: Management is lean. "We do everything," says Swissa. "There are no needless positions. We hire, manage the technology, marketing, sales, advertising and collection. There's no flab to cut." It all sounds terrific except that a devoted Haredi employee doing exactly the same work as a devoted secular worker is earning 30% less. Margalit and Swissa are unmoved. "The women are happy with what they have and the clients who pay less are happy too," says Swissa. "At the bottom line, everybody wins." Bookmark to del.icio.us   'With total determination' Widow of IDF soldier killed Monday remembers her fallen hero. Anti-Semites unite! Protests against Gaza op worldwide have had a hateful, violent tone.

Read & React Bradley Burston / Gaza War Diary III: If Mexico shelled Texas, like Hamas shells Israel Responses: 151 At least 30 die in strike on Gaza school; IDF: Troops fired in self-defense Responses: 103 ANALYSIS / Israel is on its way to reoccupying all of the Gaza Strip Responses: 32 ANALYSIS / Price of stubborness over Gaza exit is dead Israeli soldiers Responses: 59 More Headlines 02:12 Abbas at UN calls for Gaza truce, fresh peace talks 01:51 Israel to establish 'humanitarian corridor' for Gaza Strip 01:55 Egypt's Gaza truce plan: ceasefire followed by border security talks 00:21 IDF shell kills 30 in Gaza UN school; Israel mulls appeal over Hamas fire from UN facilities 22:47 Obama breaks silence on Gaza, calls civilian deaths 'a deep concern' 23:03 Al-Qaida No. 2 urges Muslims to attack Israeli and Western targets over Gaza op 23:50 Five Israeli soldiers killed in 24 hours, as IDF closes in on Gaza cities 23:42 French TV claims photos from 2005 showed damage from Israel's Gaza operation 16:21 Gaza rocket hits Gedera, 30km from Tel Aviv; baby lightly hurt 17:12 ANALYSIS / Price of stubborness over Gaza exit is dead soldiers 18:20 Get up to the minute coverage of the warfare in Gaza directly to your email 00:22 'You'll be proud of me, yet' slain IDF soldier told family before entering Gaza 21:45 The view from Ramallah / An Intifada in its infancy? 22:19 Turkey-Israel basketball game canned after pro-Gaza protesters storm court 14:37 ANALYSIS / Israel is on its way to reoccupying all of the Gaza Strip 19:17 'Iran pledged Hezbollah won't respond to Gaza op,' says top Lebanese MP 18:39 Jewish and Arab students clash on Gaza offensive 13:06 ANALYSIS / The unspoken goal of bringing down Hamas in Gaza 20:07 Hospitalized but defiant, Israeli soldiers eager to return to Gaza battle 13:40 Israeli general: Never knew I was evacuating my wounded soldier son from Gaza 13:00 Burning car rams synagogue in southwest France 13:46 Egypt bars doctors from entering Gaza Strip 05:44 Hamas puts Gazans in danger by drawing IDF into urban warfare 18:21 PICTURE GALLERY / Gaza incursion sparks protests around world Previous Editions Select Day 06 jan 05 jan 04 jan 02 jan 01 jan 31 dec 30 dec 29 dec 28 dec 26 dec 25 dec 24 dec

Special Offers Advertisement Summer in Israel Israeli style - Tzofim Chetz V'Keshet 2009 You can make a direct IMPACT! on the life of an Israeli soldier State of Israel Bonds During this time of market volatility, Israel bonds can help. SURF RAMBAM Keep current about new-wave medical care, education and research. Summer Camp in Israel The best place for your children this summer Academic Studies in Israel All the Q & A at the IDC HERZLIYA Open House, January 9,2009 Fattal Hotel Chain Perfectly located hotels on best resorts of Israel. Eldan Rent a Car Israel's leading car rental company offers you a 20% discount on all online reservations Jewish Singles Personal Ads Find the love of your life on JDate.com Junkyard Junk a car - get free towing nationwide and a tax-deductible receipt

Home | TV | Print Edition | Diplomacy | Opinion | Arts & Leisure | Sports | Jewish World | Underground | Site rules |

Real Estate in Israel | Travel to Israel with Haaretz | Hotels Israel | Restaurants Israel | Tourist attractions Israel | Shops Israel

birthright Israel | Search engine marketing

Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.

© Copyright  Haaretz. All rights reserved