An associate of ABES, Centric Solutions is a technology company that offers a portfolio of solutions with a focus on implementation, training and support to help sustain the development of its clients' projects of all sizes and branches of activity.
The company provides solutions and products from different global players for help desk, service desk, active directory, cloud, IT security, network performance, compliance, data protection, applications and remote app. It also offers training, through the Centric Academy, and provides 24x7 real-time monitoring services for processes, businesses, networks, links and mission-critical systems.
With headquarters in São Paulo and a team of 20 employees, Centric surpassed the mark of 3 thousand customers, according to Otto Pohlmann, CEO of the company. Among them are: Banco Safra, Crefisa, Unimed, CPFL and companies in the hotel market. The ABES portal interviewed the executive to learn about Centric's performance in 2020 and the prospects for 2021. Check out:
1) What were the effects of the pandemic on Centric's business?
It made us review our growth and investment plans for 2020 and forced us to implement the home office. We had to face a much more cautious and restrictive market for IT investments. But, despite the budgetary difficulties of the companies, we had a nominal growth of 35%.
2) How did the company adapt to the so-called “new normal”?
Due to the fact that we are providers of solutions that facilitate the home office, our adaptation was very fast. We started to use at home the tools we already sold to our customers. The biggest difficulty was managing the team remotely, a characteristic that we had to learn and in which we continue to evolve.
3) Within the company's diversified portfolio of services and products, which are the main ones?
The need for remote access to the companies' centralized information has awakened a product that was in decline in use and returned with full force: the GO GLOBAL of the American Graphon. It became the best-selling product again, mainly due to the fact that the company took the attitude of launching a promotion of economic recovery, cutting prices in half in order to facilitate access to a much-needed tool to enable remote access to applications and data centralized in the cloud. Paradoxically, an attitude that should reduce revenue, has done us more than double it in this specific line.
The other products that stand out are Manage Engine, an Indian company, with a broad portfolio with more than 50 IT management solutions. It was the line most affected by the pandemic, mainly due to the restriction in the budget investment of companies. Despite this, we had a good year in the specific segment of Manage Engine solutions that meet the implementation of the General Data Protection Law (LGPD), such as identity control, analysis and monitoring of threats, etc. Unfortunately, there was no price reduction campaign to meet budget restrictions.
4) Does Centric maintain partnerships with other software companies or IT infrastructure?
Yes, it was a year in which we strengthened our partnerships with major cloud providers, such as Oracle Cloud, AWS, among others. A tool like GO GLOBAL meets the trend of migration to the cloud, reinforced by the pandemic. It was also a year in which large companies providing application software, mainly in the ERP segment, reinforced their strategy of selling their solutions as SaaS, a strategy supported and made possible by our GO GLOBAL product.
5) What are Centric's plans for 2021?
Our goal for 2021 is to maintain our growth at around 30%, even with the pandemic persisting. We have maintained this objective during the first quarter and it seems that we will maintain it throughout the year. We expect that, starting in the second semester, economic activities and investments will return to normal.
6) What are the main trends in the IT sector in Brazil?
The growth in the use of cloud will continue to be an important trend. We also foresee very large growth in the IoT segment, mainly from the implementation of 5G, which will promote an avalanche of automation and control that is difficult to imagine. We foresee a very large need for control tools, and manufacturers such as MANAGE ENGINE, will certainly act decisively in this segment.
