TECHNOLOGY

With the dramatic acceleration of technology and the digital transformation in the last two years, technology companies have to overcome strong competition and supply issues to remain successful.

Jorge Kramis Vázquez MANAGING DIRECTOR, VENTURESSOFT

IN 2020, we decided to change our implementation process. We reviewed two methodologies in the market: human-centered design, a methodology focused on social impact; and the change management methodology, used by many companies when installing a new application. We analyzed and combined both methodologies and we designed our own methodology Human Centered Change Management. It is not only about installing the product with the rule of the business; the idea is to analyze the customer culture and the way to have an effective social impact, so we generate a new business process when we are implementing a new product. In this way, we have completely changed the way we staff a product in a company. This is the real impact of the digital transformation. One can launch a product with great new technology, but sometimes it does not impact the organization completely. We implement products with a high level of organization communication to make sure all the employees are participating in the new business process.

Flavio Gomes REGIONAL DIRECTOR LATAM, LOGITECH

MEXICO WAS A KEY COUNTRY for Logitech. The country surpassed all our growth expectations, even more than in many other countries in Latin America. In Mexico, a few key things happened. The gaming business exploded, as did working remotely. Many employees continue working from home, so sales of extra equipment jumped by triple digits across the board. Another thing that we did not expect is the gaming industry to grow even faster. For example, before the pandemic there was one racing contest throughout the year: our own Logitech G Challenge. Six months after the pandemic, we counted 26 different gaming tournaments about racing going on at the same time. It was not just studying and working from home that boosted Logitech’s results but also the need to keep everyone entertained that brought a growth in gaming. That growth was even bigger than the growth for personal workspace products. Gaming is a priority for us in general and will continue to be. Esports is becoming an Olympic sport. The world is changing, and we need to change with it.

Edgar González CEO, SWIFT DE MÉXICO

ONE OF OUR MAIN CHALLENGES concerns the development of e-commerce. Our product is not for the end-consumer, as we are not selling something to the mass market, but to a niche one. We have a market of up to 100,000 prospective clients who can buy our products. The main problem is that e-commerce also remains a niche market. Our e-commerce is based on understanding changing customer needs. In 2020, for example, business models changed, and e-commerce boomed. We have to continue developing it and put forward a hybrid model. Last year was economically difficult, with over 1 million businesses ceasing operations, accounting for 21% of all businesses in Mexico. Despite that, technology is paramount for business growth. The challenge today is to do more, with less. There’s a scarcity of products, and to address that situation, we conduct strategic purchases of value-added goods. We do an analysis with algorithms to forecast the possible future demand of products by client. We are trying to move ahead of our clients to anticipate our customers’ requests.

Carlos Perea VP LATAM, CRADLEPOINT

IN THE LAST YEAR AND A HALF, we decided to expand to Latin America. Our strategy for international expansion was to first settle in one country and then expand onto others, and Mexico was the perfect starting point. Our strategy was to start with Mexico in January 2021, after all the planning we have done in the last three months of 2020 and before Ericsson’s acquisition of Cradlepoint. Our international growth comes mainly from the global expansion of many of our corporate clients and multinationals such as FedEx and Walmart that need global deployment of technological mobile connectivity. In Mexico, there are two ways to approach the market. One is by being part of the 500 most representative companies of the country, ranked locally and internationally. The second is to develop strategic alliances and work closely with providers of mobile services, the ones with their own networks such as América Móvil, Telefónica, and AT&T. Mobile virtual network operators are exponentially growing and offering companies connectivity with private networks. We are going in this direction.

David Román SALES DIRECTOR LATAM, SHURE INCORPORATED

MEXICO IS ONE OF THE LARGEST markets for audio and sound in Latin America, and we see a constant growth in the consumption levels throughout the various fields of the industry in which Shure participates. As a result of the pandemic, new consumption trends and habits have emerged in the audio market, and Shure has been able to offer solutions to all its clients. For example, for the home office and hybrid remote education, products such as the MV5C have been essential. There was also an increase in the consumption of sound systems for musical learning and/or content: streamers, gamers and podcasters. Shure will continue to support the industry with our solutions. The greatest value added by Shure is our connection with the final users. As a company, we are focused on understanding the solutions to our clients’ problems. We have our own office and staff in Mexico, which allows us to understand and work very closely with our business partners and final users in order to comprehend the market and find solutions to our clients’ needs.

Peter Kroll CEO, SOFTWAREONE

WE ARE STRATEGIC ADVISORS to our clients in everything that has to do with modern technologies, migrations to the cloud, application modernization, and hybrid working models, amongst others. We tailor our approach to the clients’ needs and optimize so that they pay only for what they need and control their expenditure. In a nutshell, it all starts with a discussion about the current technology that they are using and an attempt to understand the needs and the challenges. Then, we start the journey to make sure that the client is using the right technologies and getting the most value. In 2022, we will increase our service business. SoftwareOne was born about 25 years ago as a Microsoft reseller. We are now present in 90 countries worldwide. Although we remain the dominant player in the market for many software vendors, Microsoft being the most prominent example, the real value that we bring to our clients is our technology services. That means the knowledge that we provide so that our clients can make the best use of their technology: the technology transformation journey.

Diego Altúzar COUNTRY MANAGER MEXICO, VIVO

WITH 26 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE in the smartphones industry, vivo has learned to operate under the concept “more local, more global.” In terms of units sold, Latin America is the second region in the world after Asia, so it is no surprise that vivo selected Mexico as a key country for its global and local strategies, following the steps of Chile, Colombia, and Peru. The company has 10 R&D centers around the world, and 70% of employees in the headquarters are in R&D. vivo was one of the early adopters of NFC payment systems, the use of improved cameras in smartphones, and other features such as face recognition. Our key objective now is to position the brand, which is what we did in Colombia. We have addressed three passion points of the Latin American market: football, for which we will be sponsors of the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup; music, in which we signed a sixmonth contract with the band Fobia to use the song “Me siento vivo” (I feel alive); and photography, where we have signed an agreement with National Geographic to launch a photography contest.