Everything started in 1998. A small group of programmers consisting of NSTU graduates and students got a proposal from DVForum GmbH (Germany) and started working on the DICE 4.0 project (for 4th generation browsers) in October. Little by little more and more fresh creative force was joining the group and in May 1999 it included 13 people; at the same time the DVForum changed its name to Novolabs and founded a branch in Novosibirsk. At the end of July, as a result of inner transformations, the group became independent and started its activities under VGroup name, working on projects for both Russian and foreign customers. During this time the company nearly doubled its size, gained a lot of experience in various IT fields and extended its line of business, which was initially limited to web-development only.