The Portuguese group Softlimits, which was established in 2006, decided it was time to change its name to BOND in late March to reflect its growth, accomplishments and progress as a united company. The idea was for BOND to consolidate in 2010 with the acquisition and integration of companies with innovative and fresh skills to add more substance to its client offerings. It was predominantly the entrepreneurial courage, belief and professionalism of the leaders at the helm of Softlimits which led to the capitalisation of openings to acquire various domestic companies in the information technology market. The five acquired companies that embody BOND are: Actis, Agile, Best for Business and Inforflow.
Paulo Ramos, the CEO of BOND, reflects on the company strategy: “After the acquisition of the different companies we decided to rebrand to incorporate all the previous company cultures into a single brand. We are building a new culture network dynamic to help symbolise consistency of cultures with different product offerings. The creation of BOND amalgamates all companies into one and assists them in trying to work together and grow together in what we call solid ties. A united spirit is important to us and defines our new identity.”
The re-brand of the company also marked a new era of growth for the business in its native Portugal and on an international level. The group indicated that the purchases were made also to increase the powers of the company and achieve the objective of upholding a distinguished place in the market because in the IT industry, according to BOND, “innovation and differentiation is everything”. The push for growth has allowed the group to position itself as an organisation of reference in the development, management and commercialisation of novel technological solutions for both, the public and private sectors. BOND, which is an acronym for Building on Network Dynamics, presented its new identity to the market as part of a rebrand, to help it promote the idea of being a network of sector skills in the market offered through an ecosystem of companies.
Professional attitude
BOND has a wide-reaching and highly experienced team with advanced skills in state of the art technology. With 151 employees now spread across its office locations, which comprise two offices in Portugal’s Lisbon, Luanda in Angola and Maputo, Mozambique, the team is now able to offer solutions and services combined with IT and IS consulting. In addition BOND also has a vast array of technology partners to support the development of its products and solutions globally. Partners include Microsoft, Sas, SPSS, Siebel, Outsystems and MicroStrategy.
The organisation now counts over 500 clients to its roster. It has several high profile names on its private sector client list, but some of the most established ones include Mercedes Benz, Crédito Agrícola, Soares Da Costa, Bacardi Martini, BNA, Banco Espírito Santo, Unilever and Somague. Amongst the public administration arena, clients include amongst others, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Culture. Ramos, commenting on BOND’s clientele, says: “Clients of any company are drawn to companies who offer dexterity, reliability and integrity. BOND possesses those qualities and is good at keeping its promises. Over the years the credibility and recognition of our professionalism has grown and clients tend to contract with us because we can deliver.”
Products and services
The company uses various tools to help its clients achieve the results required and has developed its own software to assist. “Solutions that focus in automating and optimising the processes of our clients and simplify dealings with their own clients are a speciality of ours. We go from business issues to technology solutions,” Ramos notes.
BOND’s Matriz software is used to register, classify, manage and provide tens of thousands of works of art from tangible and intangible cultural heritage. An estimated 120 museums countrywide are on our customer list. Ramos notes: “Matriz is a very significant product which aids in the management of all cultural heritage held by foundations and museums.”
Two other software programmes offered are OfficeWorks, which helps to manage millions of documents and processes and leads to a better efficiency and quality in information management, and MSWait which manages support processes and wait queues in hundreds of service counters.
A further tool used by BOND is IntraPub, which offers organisations an autonomous corporate TV channel. This clever resource helps to increase efficiency and impact of the organisation’s communication with customers, and aids in significantly increasing business and quality of service.
SGC – the Consular Management System is a smart software solution and the most profitable business management solution to BOND, as there are many Portuguese living abroad in constant need of consular services. The CMS reduces the distance between citizens’ resident abroad and the central administration of their countries.
The company also develops a Real Time BI that integrates with business intelligence engines in the back-end and offers users up to date information directly on their desktops.
In addition, BOND offers six areas of specialism to its clients:
Customer Process Management
This area provides automation solutions, process optimisation and integration for customer interaction through Bond’s own products.
Business Technology Consulting
This area offers the design of business solutions driven by technology.
Business Intelligence
Here the team uses technology solutions to optimise, extract and report information to assist the decision making processes.
Enterprise Management Systems Outsourcing
Solutions offered in this area allow for data, business processes and operations of any given organisation to be automated and integrated into a single system.
Outsourcing
This specialism focuses on the selection, employment, placing and support of resources and specialised ITS processes.
Education
Through this service the company provides training solutions for its clients in the following areas: Document Management and Workflow, Project Management, Business Intelligence, Performance Management, CRM Analytics and custom training solutions.
The company has several methods in place to ensure that customer satisfaction is consistently met. “An online customer survey is set up to daily check through a set of questions to assess how happy people are with the services they have received. We take this process seriously because people evaluate on a daily basis what we can do to improve client service,” BOND’s CEO says.
Ambitions
The company’s ambitions go far beyond the borders of its own country now as they start exploring opportunities in Congo, Kenya, and some countries in the Middle East. Latin America’s geography also poses an interest to BOND as there are many opportunities.
According to Ramos the company plans up to two more acquisitions for 2011. “Our approach is to take a closer look at the markets in Brazil, Peru, Mexico and Argentina because in those countries if we want to grow faster we will do this through an acquisition, joint venture or by buying a stake in a company. In Africa this will have to be through organic growth as we can grow with other international entities but will not buy any local entity.”
BOND has so far shown a rapid and sustainable growth with a €2m turnover in 2006, €5m in 2009 and €10m in 2010. Ramos notes: “If we grow organically we are looking at a turnover of €12m for 2011 and €15m for 2012. However, if we make acquisitions, 2011 could return between €12m-€17m while 2012 could bring in a turnover of €20m-€22m.”
Market recognition
With the status of Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Gold Partner Oracle and SMES Excel and Innovate, BOND stands out for its products, solutions and highly accredited services.
BOND was recently recognised with an award from World Finance as the best “Business Intelligence Software provider 2011.”
“Market acknowledgement is important and highly rewarding. Not only is it is good for the ego of professionals, it is also significant because it certifies that the market recognises that we are providing something other companies cannot. The world will see this as a stamp of recognition. We are grateful to our clients for putting their trust in us,” Ramos said.
He added: “Things are moving and changing very quickly however and we take nothing for granted because the market is tough and quick and although we are resilient, flexible and adaptable we will continue to work hard.”
