In TPNET we celebrate 15 years this 2023. For this reason, we want to take advantage of the launch of the Easy&Smart Software 2023 to celebrate, somehow, our anniversary. Through the main brands of the sector, we will know how it has evolved the management tool over time.
These companies have years of experience in the development of all types of management software and have taken a tour to show us what was happening with these tools, back in 2008. Surely more than one will surprise you!
«From individual systems to the interconnected approach»
Pedro Luis Ramos, Commercial Director of Aqua eSolutions.
In the last fifteen years, business software in Spain has undergone several significant transformations, moving from individual, disconnected and local systems to a more interconnected, flexible, scalable approach and with new software-as-a-service models.
The rise of cloud computing, around 2008, marked a key shift. Instead of using local systems that required constant maintenance and updating, companies began to migrate their operations to the cloud. Aqua eSolutions was at the forefront with the Aqua eBS Cloud, providing benefits such as easier and more secure access to data, as well as greater flexibility, scalability and cost reduction.
The rise of mobile led to a more intense focus on creating enterprise software, making it more accessible and effective on these types of devices. This allowed employees to work remotely and access information in real time.
Read the full article here.
“A Journey from Venus to Pluto”
Luis Cadillón, Director of the Small and Medium Enterprise and Professional Offices business unit of Cegid in Spain.
15 years, depending on how you look at it, can be a breath or an eternity. If you stop to think about where you were in 2008, you might get the impression that not much has changed in that time. However, looking back and analyzing where society was technologically and digitally 15 years ago, it can be a bit dizzying. Smartphones had not yet come into our lives, Facebook had just landed in Spain (although, true to our country, we would continue using Tuenti for a few more years…) and concepts such as Cloud Computing, Smart Cities, IoT or Gamification – which now sound, even, somewhat hackneyed – were very little extended outside the most innovative technological sector.
This provides a clear vision of how technology has changed in all this time. Specifically, if we zoom in on a product as essential for business as business management software, we realize that 15 years ago they were less sophisticated tools, mostly on-premise and much more expensive. Almost anyone who is reading this forum will remember what it was like to work 15 years ago with the help of software, so it makes sense that we focus more on the present and especially on the future because, although we do not know what the future will be like, software in the year 2038, we can look at how fast we’ve grown and where we’re headed.
The implementation of SaaS technology, thanks to the cloud, has made business management software much more advanced and accessible. In fact, cloud computing is essential and we cannot conceive of working without it, in the same way that process automation has become a necessity for SMEs to survive in such a changing, globalized and transactional world.
Read the full article here.
«Adapting to regulatory changes: this is how business management software has evolved»
Èlia Urgell, Senior Product Manager of Taxation, Accounting and Billing at Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting Spain.
The development of management software, in recent years, has been marked by the promotion of the Public Administration, which has promoted changes to improve and streamline its relationship with companies and citizens, promoting telematic activity for the management of different procedures. and the fight against tax fraud.
This evolution has had effects at three levels: the legislative change and its relationship with taxpayers, the adaptation of management software to these new regulations and the more direct involvement of companies in their tax obligations.
Regulatory evolution, accompanied by technological evolution, has favored the presentation of tax obligations in a more automated waywhich has caused greater tax control by the Administration.
Thus, the presentation models before public bodies have evolved over the last 15 years: from pre-printed formats with matrix printers without control or technological link between them or with the Administration itself, going through modules for printing on blank paper, filling in PDF and printing from the institutional website… up to the present, with purely telematic models in which the connection between the taxpayer’s software and the Administration is direct.
Read the full article here.
«15 years are few for the history of management software»
Carles Ransanz, Vice President of Sales of Sage Spain.
I am especially excited to participate in this special, since through these lines that I am writing now I can remember the evolution of management software in Spain from a first-hand experience. Much of my professional career has gone hand in hand with this evolution.
I remember, at the end of the 60s and the beginning of the 70s, the first data processing centers in Spain, especially companies such as the Sabadell Calculation Center, Seresco and Lógic Control. SMEs and professional firms paid a fee to these companies to process data related to accounting and billing. For this, perforated cards made on a cardboard containing information in the form of perforations, according to a binary code, were used. These were the first means used to enter information and instructions into a computer, being the figure of the “perforator” well known in the business world of that time.
The 80’s was decisive for the consolidation of the technological revolution and the beginning of the digitization of companies. In 1981, the IBM PC was launched on the market, which would become a commercial success and mark a revolution in the field of personal computing. A year later, Microsoft introduces its MS-DOS operating system.
At first, SMEs could not cope at the high cost of acquisition, but the large companies that were able to get hold of the first units found themselves in need of management software capable of processing accounting, billing and order data.
Read the full article here.
«15 years ago digitization was unfeasible»
Monica Granda, CFO of Okticket.
In the last 15 years, management software has evolved a lot. From my point of view, there are several aspects to highlight. In the first place, the ERP concept appears as we know it today, that is, as a product to control expenses. This has been fundamental so that financial directors can have a 360 vision of the business. Now, with a single tool, we can control inventory, pending orders, orders in progress, merchandise in transit, treasury management, sending remittances to the bank, etc. The possibility of applying all the rules, guidelines and procedures that could not be carried out with traditional management systems has allowed us to talk about business intelligence.
must not forget the automation, the fact of being able to integrate management with accounting has been another great advance. Not only is the flow of data more fluid, but we have been able to spend less time on repetitive tasks in favor of others that really add value to the company.
Digitization as we know it today was also unfeasible. Take out a photo to a ticket and invoice And that it is registered for its management in real time? 15 years ago we could not even imagine that we would have solutions like Okticket, which allows you to take a photo of a ticket from the app, record the expense and get rid of the paper receipt because it is approved by the Tax Agency. All expense information stored in a secure cloud environment, accessible at any time and, most importantly, for CFOs: tidy. Nothing to do with the manual management of expense notes that we had to deal with until recently. With manual errors, without traceability, always done at the last minute…
Read the full article here.
“From million-dollar licenses to pay per use”
Higinio Duque, CEO of Aliquo Software.
Having technology in organizations has always allowed them to improve their competitiveness. This may seem obvious but, at the beginning of the century, companies were not technologically aware and the processes were very manual, with a lot of paper spending. Only those departments that had advanced leaders were able to improve the profitability of their companies, thanks to the use of management tools.
The innovation that is happening year after year has also caused more companies to enter the market, thus generating a “normalization”, which causes technological tools to be more affordable than in their beginnings. If we look back, we see that the contracting model used by companies was through the acquisition of software, completely different from the one we currently have, opted for pay-per-use.
In it ERP Procurement Model, In many cases, companies made millions of investments, not only because of the cost of the software but also because of the cost of the infrastructure that they had to set up to put this type of tool into operation. Today, all this has changed, the infrastructure is more powerful and cheaper, and all organizations have to do is choose whether they want to place the ERP on their own servers or in the cloud.
In recent years, with events such as COVID-19, the cloud and pay-as-you-go solutions have become more popular and this is due to a change in mentality due to the new needs that occurred.
Aliquo Software, since its inception in 2005, was a pioneer and opted to market a pay-per-use model, among other options, that would allow organizations to invest in technology at a low monthly cost, thus improving competitiveness. Currently, it offers small businesses and self-employed cloud alternatives that are truly competitive in price so that they can prepare for the new obligations that come in 2024.
Read the full article here.
