The Covid-19 pandemic shook the national economy and forced many Portuguese to invent ways to adapt their businesses, something that boosted the growth of software companies, which also had to adapt to the a new reality.
"It has changed almost everything in the way we work and relate in the corporate environment. It has changed the way we relate to our customers, the market and the different stakeholders of the organization", reveals Alexandre Rosa, Noesis CEO, to Jornal Económico.
Requested works are among the changes introduced by Noesis, and Alexandre Rosa guarantees that "the issues related to the exponential growth of available data in organizations, caused by the increase in digital channels and e-commerce traffic, besides customer experience related subjects ", are areas that have been in development since the arrival of the pandemic.
"Companies are more online prepared. We noticed demand, when it was something that was often overlooked," admits JE Pedro Alves, CTO of Altyra, who has grown 20 to 30% in his projects since the coronavirus changed the lives of millions of Portuguese.
As for teleworking, Pedro Alves admits that "there was difficulty in adapting, but then there was a productivity improvement". "In this area, I think it makes perfect sense. We are considering adopting this system, because people are able to deliver their work sooner, perhaps because they do not spend so much time commuting to work. As a team, there is a lot of devolution", guarantees.
Pedro Alves believes that there is still a long way to go in this matter. "For now, the companies culture is not adapted to this reality, there must be legislation adjusted to this new situation", he says.
Expansion signs
These changes are reflections of “adapting businesses", explains Pedro Silva, CEO of Set Up Technology, whose growth in this period was from 30% to 40%. "We have received a lot of budget requests, a lot of requests for online stores, people are beginning to realize that online is an added value because it works under any conditions", says the official.
The company has always been dedicated to developing online stores, but Pedro Silva confesses that "we have never had as many orders as in the past few weeks, and this shows that people are willing to upgrade their business". The expansion was also felt at Void, says João Mota, one of the company's managers. "We had new projects and an increase of 30% in average activity", he recalls. Orders came at "e-commerce level. A lot of focus in this area, where we were not very concentrated", he reveals.
Recently, Void has been focused "on the Leiria Market, which the City Council decided to make available to local businesses", and on the online platform they created for the maker movement, dedicated to the creation of 3D visors. In the international market, orders have also expanded. "We had an increase in the international business, such as Switzerland and United States", namely through the development of an application that works as a social network in the work environment and that allows distance contacts between members of institutions.
The growing demand of companies, from the most varied sectors, for new IT solutions leads João Mota to believe in a sharp technological development in Portugal. "We did in one month what would take ten years to happen," he says to JE.
And he adds: "now there will no longer be a setback because we have a new reality, regardless of what the end of this pandemic may be. We must create forms of resilience so that our work is not so exposed to this type of risk", he warns the Void administrator.
*Published in Jornal Económico.
