Without a doubt, this 2022 will go down in the history of the Primavera Group, A Cegid Company, not only because it was the year of its official presentation but also because, just a few weeks after what seemed like a complex operation (however, at its launch it already had 14 brands) they announced its purchase. Last summer, the news broke that the French group, Cegid, which in Spain was known for having taken over Meta 4 (becoming Cegid Meta 4) had closed an agreement to take over the newborn Spanish company.
A few months later and with a little more landing, from MuyPymes we have made the first interview with Santiago Solanas after the merger, whose current position is CEO of Cegid Iberia, LATAM and Portuguese Africa. The manager has given us a lot of headlines and cleared up many doubts about how this process began, the future of the company, and what will be in store for management software in 2023. One of the most notable changes that he has announced to us exclusively is that Grupo Primavera brand will end up disappearing, and will become Cegid”in just a few months.”
We told Santiago about the surprise that Cegid bought the Spanish brand, just a few weeks after its official start-up.. If on June 1, the initial business organization chart was officially announced, with the 14 brands; On July 27, we already echoed the accession agreement, being officially at the beginning of September when we could already talk about Primavera Group, A Cegid Company.
«Since Silver Lake entered the capital of Cegid, it had declared its intention to grow inorganically outside of France, which was its main market. The Iberian Peninsula was a natural place of expansion for a company that aspires to be a leader in Europe and elsewhere. Strategically, it was a very important market and we were a company that had gotten into a pretty strong position, very quickly.”
Solanas acknowledges that, within the team, Cegid’s interest was no surprise. “We were in the crosshairs of any company that wanted to enter the market”. In summary, the operation arose from the confluence between interest in a region and the availability of a company.
Complementarity and values, the keys to success
As with personal relationships, business mergers require shared values and complementary businesses. To make it work. «Our offer fits very well with hers, we do not collide in any way. It’s like we designed it ourselves.” Solanas tells us about her new matrix. «They are focused on larger companies and we are focused on smaller ones. In this way, we can contribute more in the sector of the SMEs and the self-employedwhere we are very strong, while Cegid does the same in other market segments.
«It is very important for us that we share the same values, as well as the cultural aspect. At Grupo Primavera, one of the aspects that we strengthened in this process was establishing values and a way of operating. In fact, our motto is ‘Together we grow’ and that of Cegid, ‘A universe of possibilities’. This means that we are very aligned on our mission and we felt very comfortable with them. It is vital that we feel that there is a common cultural element and that the way of working and the team is respected”.
What will happen in 2023
Surely the clients of the group are wondering how the changes that have occurred this year are going to affect them. Santiago Solanas has assured us that they will not notice anything, at the product level, «they will continue even with the same names, although perhaps the name of Cegid will be added, we want users to continue to identify solutions without issue.”
Moreover, the manager stresses that this company is very customer-focused and that they don’t want them to notice any change, if it’s not for the better. «We want to ensure that, from this union, comes a value for the client, a better integration and better products”.
In addition, next year they assure us that they will continue to buy companies related to management. The latest to join was the Madrid company, Gestión Remota, specialized in mobility software for asset maintenance management in real time. Regarding the “shopping list” that Cegid has, it includes «companies that add value to our portfolio and include products that we do not have».
In this sense, Solanas assured us that they are «delighted” about what startups innovative companies knock on your door, provided they are presented with management-related tools.
in the coming months, its objectives are more than clear, the integration of both companies, its consolidation and leading the market segments of the different countries are among its main priorities. While in Portugal the group is the leader in almost all segments, in Spain “we have a good position”, but there is still work to be done.
Locally, The products of Grupo Primavera, A Cegid Company have already been adapted to the legislative changes that are taking place in Spain, at the level of management software. Two of the most important are the Create and Grow Law and the Anti-Fraud Law. Both will affect manufacturers and users, so it is essential that products comply with the law. «The billing software regulation, in line with the Crea y Crece law, is a regulation that is quite similar to what we already have in Portugal, so we have experience in such situations. We are working for when this is a reality, to have all our solutions ready.
Grupo Primavera, A Cegid Company is the digitizing agent of the Digital Kit for SMEs and freelancers, which the group considers «an opportunity to transform society”. These changes are in line with other advances that are already being noticed in the Spanish market, such as the adoption of the clouds. According to a study by the company itself, the use of software in the cloud has already reached 40% of companies in the country, with a growth rate greater than that of its European neighbours.
In addition to increasing cloud penetration, Solanas was ahead of us Other trends in the management software sector for next year. Among them is the automation of processes, adaptation to legislation and the introduction of Artificial Intelligence to data analytics.
