---
sidebar_position: 9
tags: [career, php, cms, crm, sms]
---

(2004 - 2006)

## A brief history

[](http://mikare.net/)[![Mikare Baltic](https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/kurapov/image/5ac1121ddf72/original/mikare_160.gif)](https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/kurapov/image/5ac1121ddf72/original/mikare_160.gif "Mikare Baltic")

[Mikare Baltic OÜ](http://mikare.net/) was an Estonian company founded in 1998 by entrepreneur [Mikk Orglaan](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikkorglaan/). The company worked at the intersection of web development, data processing and web hosting, creating websites and application systems for local businesses.

Over time, Mikare expanded from website and CMS development into custom tools for marketing and customer work: CRM, email and SMS campaigns, as well as analytics and automation solutions. Public profiles mention a successful exit from Mikare in 2003; the details of the deal were not disclosed. The legal entity MIKARE BALTIC OÜ was later liquidated in 2019.

Mikk later developed Mailbow, an email-marketing platform. At its peak, more than 300 million emails per month were sent through the platform. Orglaan now advises companies and invests in B2B SaaS startups.


## Projects

At Mikare, I got my first work experience overall and am grateful to Mikk for it. In particular, I worked on integrating the CMS with Smarty templates, developing custom applications (CRM, email sender, SMS gateway), and regular expressions.


| Name | Description |
| --- | --- |
| ⭐️ MCRM | A small Client Relationship Management system with basic functions for adding, editing and displaying company projects, plus annual statistics. Used Smarty for better design integration. |
| ⭐️ [SMS-gateway](http://sms.mikare.net/) | System for personal and bulk SMS campaigns. Maintained existing code, fixed and added features, and managed users. |
| Analysis projects | Projects for analyzing websites, mail and images and automating that work. Confidential, but very interesting to develop because of their global scope. |
| [Paap](http://www.paap.ee/) | Active-recreation locations on islands and beaches. Installed an image-buffering (duplication) system for webcams because of the source's limited bandwidth. Cron copied the image to a database, and client-side JavaScript displayed the image from the new server. |
| [Caritec](http://www.caritec.ee/) | Company producing various metal devices and products. Installed templates and a gallery on the DW1 engine. |
| [Hansamaaler](http://www.maaler.ee/) | Painting and construction company. Installed templates and a gallery on the DW1 engine. |
| [IPL](http://www.ipl.ee/) | Advertising company. Sliced the design and created templates. |
| SBCRM | ITIL-style customer-management system. Each customer message could be turned into an incident-problem-solution chain. Designed the data structure and implemented it with PHP, MySQL and Smarty. |
| [Anvol](http://www.anvol.ee/) | Toy company. Minor graphics work and DW1 CMS configuration. |
| [Kodaehitus](http://www.kodaehitus.ee/) | Construction company. Sliced the design, using several background images in the header and menu. |
| [Renerk](http://www.renerk.ee/) | Initially searched for a suitable [engine](http://www.shop-script.com/) for an online store with Smarty-template support. It turned out that the database was already fixed, so the task became design slicing with several templates. |
| [Teede Projektijuhtimise AS](http://www.tpj.ee/) | Road-construction company. Sliced the design, created CSS styles and optimized it. Installed a template on the DW1 engine and configured rotating banner modules with a header banner changing daily. |
| [Rigging OÜ](http://www.rigging.ee/) | Accounting-services company. Sliced the design, installed the base template on the DW1 CMS, and configured the menu and appearance. |
| Send email | Mailing system. Addresses were imported from a CSV file received from MS Office and added to a group. Supported search and sorting, and sent mail to a selected group. Messages were multipart, containing HTML and text. The statistics system for viewing received emails was not completed. |
| [Sevari](http://www.sevari.ee/) | Company producing bolts, screws and similar products. Laid out the design, installed it on the DW1 engine, configured the admin panel and adapted the code. |
| [Berolina](http://berolina.ee/) | International company distributing printer ink. Laid out the design, created templates for an existing CMS, configured the menu and functional modules for searching and requesting products by email, imported the database, and added admin functionality for changing, adding and deleting products. |
| [EestRaadio](http://intra.er.ee/) | Localized the CMS engine for the site's needs, configured templates and menu structure, built phone-book and birthday modules, and imported the user database. First encountered [Saurus CMS](http://saurus.ee/) and Smarty here. ER later merged with television into ERR. |
| [Pilt-peegel](http://piltpeegel.net/) | Modified existing code and configured the mailing system. |