T-Systems Brazil: Information and Communication Technology Company

Interview with Ideval Aparecido Crespo Munhoz, President of T-Systems Brazil

Please tell us about the innovation and technology sector in Brazil.

The innovation and technology sector is performing well. If you compare the PIB, Brazil has an overall market growth of 2.6% this year but if you look only at IT, the projection is a growth of 9.5% this year. In Brazil, the overall IT market will grow much more than the overall economy. This is good for the market that we have today. There continues to be a lot of investment in IT to help them perform their business better. I think this is good for IT companies like T-Systems in Brazil. We can perform better and we can help our customers to perform and to grow more. Helping our customers means they can help their customers using more technology. This is our main target for this market here in Brazil.

Could you give us an overview of T-Systems?

T-Systems, a Deutsche Telekom Company, operates information and communication technology (ICT) systems for multinational corporations and public sector institutions. T-Systems provides integrated solutions for the networked future of business and society. The company is positioning as number one in ICT provider in Germany, number on in automotive and manufacturing in Europe.

The brand T-Systems started in 2001 in Brazil with the acquisition of a company in Brazil called Debis Humaita, the Daimler/Mercedes Benz IT team in Brazil. This was our first step in Brazil. In 2006 we acquired another operation – Gedas, the previous Volkswagen IT team. With these two acquisitions, we made our company a strong presence in the manufacturing industry on automotive sector. It was a good start for T-Systems in Brazil which has more than 25 years of experience and nowadays is positioning as top 4 in the manufacturing industry for overall IT market.

After that we grew in other industries such as finance, retail and energy. Finance was another industry in which we were growing quickly this past year. T-Systems do Brasil is based in Sao Paulo and has about 2.000 employees and offices in 8 cities in the south and southeast. In Brazil, we have four data centers to support our customers in Brazil as well as global customers. We have some main global customers including Daimler and Volkswagen that we have been supporting since 2001. The main companies that we are exploring in the local market are in banking, manufacturing, energy and health. This is our main purpose that we have in the local market.

What type of solutions do you offer?

We deliver ICT outsourcing and are pioneer in private cloud solutions since 2006. We are strong in the data center and cloud services market and have a robust portfolio ranging from application management, storage, and business continuity to data center transformation, professional services, SaaS and IaaS offers.

T-Systems also employs system integration specialists with expertise in many vertical industries, including the banking, manufacturing, automotive, retail, energy, services and health. In automotive, for example, we attend all processes of the value chain of the industry, whether in the corporate, financial and fiscal ERP environment, as in engineering and product development, manufacturing, supply chain, EDI, dealers environment as well as innovations, such as SAP HANA, Big Data, Connected Car and Inovar Auto.

In other industries such as energy, we have a standard portfolio in infrastructure and systems, but also services like smart metering and gateway communications services and smart grid. We have a pilot project here in Brazil with one big customer. In the future, we plan to offer this solution to other customers. Another important industry is health and we have specific solutions for that industry as well: solutions for connecting doctors, patients, hospitals, health insurance providers and care facilities, as for example temperature and blood pressure metering via mobile phone.

These solutions are supported by our innovation process. We have our headquarter in Germany which invests a lot in innovation. All the investment that we are doing at our headquarters in innovation solutions, we are using in our operation too, like Big Data, M2M, SAP HANA, Future Workplaces. T-Systems Brazil invested recently in the development of a M2M know how and now is a consolidated M2M provider with some references in different segments like health, automotive, manufacturing and retail. We involve customers and partners in the innovation process to develop new ideas and solutions. With T-Systems solutions, customers become closer to their customers. As everyone knows, we have 22 operations around the world and Brazil is one of them. As Brazil has a huge market for different industries and we have the opportunity to install these new solutions in the local market.

Please tell us about your clients and your big projects. What have been the main achievements of T-Systems in Brazil and what are the main projects that you are working on currently? Can you describe the specifics of the solutions that you offer?

I can give you some examples in utilities, specifically in energy. The solution that we have is called smart metering. This is a solution that in the near future in Brazil will be spread to a lot of states and cities. This solution can be installed in your home and it is a meter for all the energy consumption in the house. The main purpose is to optimize energy utilization because in your daily activities there are different costs for energy. The main objective is to use the lower-cost energy and apply some equipment that you have in your house to use the cheapest energy. This is one specific solution that we install here in Brazil.

It is the same in the automotive industry. In the near future in Brazil, we have a Connect Car that we can install in your car to provide internet access and more devices so that you can use more of the benefits of the internet in your car. For instance, if you are driving your car along the road, there might be shops on the street and these shops could send you a message on the cost of gas, hotel prices, etc. This information can help you choose the best place to stop, to eat, or put gas in your car. We have some cars using this Connect Car solution, especially in Germany. When you buy the car, the technology is inside the car. In the near future in Brazil it will be the same.

Then as a global company, we have the facility to bring this kind of solution easily. It will be fast to install it here and bring it to our customers. These are some examples of the technologies that we are working on. It is important to mention that this kind of solution is to support the end user, or in other words, the customer of our customer. To support this solution, we have in the background a group of solutions that allow us to connect the end solution and the background solution. These are some examples that we have here that we are using for our market.

This is something that differentiates our operation because the more innovation we can apply to our customers, the more comfortable our customers will be with us because they know this kind of solution that is implemented here in Brazil was already consolidated elsewhere, such as Europe, US or Asia, and it will be easy to expand and apply it to our customers. This is the business model that we are using in Brazil.

One of our biggest customers in Brazil is Mercedes Benz in Brazil. As I mentioned, in 2001 when we acquired the operation they became our customer and they are still a big customer for us. We do a lot of service in IT and some innovations too. Another important customer is Volkswagen and we are doing a lot of IT for them, not only in Brazil but in the US and Europe. We call them a global customer. We have some other big local customers in Brazil that we have developed since we opened the operation locally. They continue to be our big customers when we are doing a lot of development and implementation and some solutions that we apply here. We are using the local employees here and it is a Brazilian team that is applying the solutions that we are developing in Germany.

We have sites in the south of Brazil, with one big site in the city of Blumenau. There is an overall capacity for 500 people but most of those people are exporting services to Europe or Asia. We have some customers for which we are monitoring the entire environment or facilities from Brazil and our team here implemented and monitor the systems in Europe and Asia onsite. There are some critical systems that we are working on using the facilities we delivery from Blumenau and Curitiba. We have a huge capability to support local and global customer in other cities like in Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais.

Let’s talk about your expansion plans. You are present in many areas of Brazil. Do you plan on expanding even more?

Our big plan is to consolidate our brand here. As I mentioned, we have been in Brazil since 2001 and we spread out to the various sites but the plan is to expand on the key points that we support our customers on today. The main locations that we have in Sao Paulo, Rio and South of Brazil have huge potential for expanded business for current customers and for acquiring new customers. This is the main objective that we have – to expand.

Our company has a guideline we call IT Transformation. The main objective is to support our customer and transform their business. What this means is that our customer has a challenge to compete more and to expand their operation. To expand more, they are using more technology. To use more technology, they need a partner like T-Systems to support them to grow more and to grow quickly. This means that we must be a partner to transform their business and support their IT.

A company like us that has a global structure and global competence can understand their business. That is the most important part for us – understanding the business for our customer. When we understand the business for our customer, we are able to provide the right solution and the right transformation. Right now in 2014, we are at a good moment to transform businesses using the new technologies. We have a Cloud Solution and we have Mobility. These are the kinds of solutions in which we have global competence. We also have a social business. There are many websites that bring solutions, like Facebook, Google, and others, and this social business helps the customers a lot. We are very capable in supporting our customers.

What is the philosophy of your company and the things that differentiate your company?

The big difference is how supportive our headquarters has been of us. Brazil is one of the top regions the company invests in when they are expanding their business. We have 22 operations around the world but we are one of the top regions when the company wants to invest more. Investment means bringing new innovation or innovation that was consolidated worldwide, and innovation related to big data, mobility, social business and cloud solutions. There are innovations we have been working on for a few years and we have applied them in Brazil. The market is open to absorve these solutions and to start implementing the solutions.

One example is regarding the cloud solution. It has been more than eight years that we have had a cloud solution that was already consolidated for a big customer. We have big customers like Shell and Heineken. These are customers that are already using this kind of solution. The Brazilian market is now more open to use these kinds of solutions. We have the agility to bring these kinds of solutions to Brazil, especially with the cloud. Cloud technology brings to all customers the benefit of reducing their costs. We have the agility to implement a new solution and a new application.

It is the same in mobility. Mobility is connected to the cloud solution. In mobility, everyone nowadays is using their telephone and we can bring many applications with people using their smartphones. With the smartphone, you can apply more and more applications. You can combine the smartphone, cloud, social business and big data. In big data we are the top because more and more we receive information. We use information. But the question is how I can use more information in a smart way ? You have information in your hands, but how can you use information in your business ? The Big data will give the ability to use this information in the near future.

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