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The year 2014 was the first year of operation of SOITRON GROUP in a new, coherent structure. At the end of 2013, the parent company changed its legal form and since December 2013 operates on the market as SOITRON GROUP SE (Société européenne).
In 2014, Soitron Group (SG) subsidiaries continued in integration activities emphasizing on synergies resulting from international business, sales strategy and cross competencies. Regarding the brand awareness activities, SG participated in a number of major international events as the Gartner Strategic Sourcing & Vendor Relationships Summit 2014 London and The Nordic IT Sourcing & Innovation Forum, Stockholm.
In 2014, a number of activities related to new SG product strategy defining were executed. The main goal was to achieve sharing of competencies among Soitron Group subsidiaries. Three main fields of operations were defined within a SG portfolio of products and services: International System Integration, Managed Outsourcing Services and Special Solutions. Special solutions include professional IT solutions as Integrated communication for Air Traffic Control, Mobile Units Solution, Operator´s Infrastructure for Multiscreen Video and Other Service Provider Solutions.
In 2014 the substantial preparation and definition of group management responsibilities took place. From 2015, Marián Skákala, started to focus entirely on Soitron Group matters in the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Soitron Group. Peter Horňák, member of the Board of Directors, holds the position of Acquisitions and Marketing Director and Zoltán Vašš became responsible for the financial management of the whole Soitron Group. The aforementioned functions came into validity at the beginning of 2015.
Soitron Group continued its expansion activities also in 2014, when the 100% subsidiary, Soitron, Ltd. was founded in London. The business focus is based on the fact that the market is very mature in the field of outsourcing services. As headquarters of large enterprises are situated in UK, the market provides us with big potential for business growth.
In the future, we are continuing in integration activities and development of the cross competencies among Soitron Group. Apart from sharing the technological competencies, the highest priorities are to unify back-office systems and financial management.
In 2014, situation on the Slovak market did not change significantly compared to previous year, the growth after the crisis was still restrained. Companies on the market invested very wisely and focused more on ROI. This was reflected in prolonged life cycle of procured IT projects, not very extensive market growth and less market opportunities.
We decided to reflect the situation on the market by adapting the company management. The company operates in new structure since 1 January 2015 being more agile with 9 individual Bunsiess Units and their own P&L responsibilities. As a result, a new flatter structure has been created with the main intention to better meet our customers’ requirements. One of the first tasks of individual business units was to precisely define their portfolio of products and services what is crucial for their subsequent strategic planning, portfolio positioning and definition of marketing activities.
As a result of our successful project of Mobile Police Force, a separate Business Unit dedicated to this solution has been formed within the new structure of the company. Its main task is to design and implement strategic solutions not just within markets where Soitron group subsidiaries are operating, but also in other countries, where this type of technology may be useful and interesting.
Speaking about 2014, it is necessary to mention three the most important projects. The first one deals with comprehensive video conferencing solution for Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic. Our customer was provided with effective tool which harmonizes and streamlines court procedures and thus contributes to cost effectiveness and shorter trials. Another major project of 2014 was the video conference solution for Metodicko-pedagogické centrum designed for education and coordination of the academic employees. The third project, called “KAMO”, represents a network of integrated customer centre for Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic. Thanks to the installed system, citizens gain an opportunity to handle with all necessary state-relating agenda and documentation at one place.
In 2013, significant changes in management of the company have been executed with the main goal to support and strengthen Soitron brand on the Czech market. In 2014, the aforementioned changes reflected in increased number of business activities, but due to unexpected delays in some projects, financial results will be reflected in 2015.
In 2014, Soitron, Slovakia and Soitron, Czech Republic joined professional forces and launched a comprehensive project of corporate intranet system on Microsoft SharePoint platform for Česká Lékárna Holding, which runs the largest pharmacy network in Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland under the brand, Dr. MAX. This project represents the model of cooperation how the synergies among SG members will be developed.
In 2014, Datanet has changed its management structure. Country Manager of the company, and one of its founders, Vasile Velicu retired and after his leave he sold half of his shares to Soitron Group and the other half to Datanet Systems shareholders. Thus, structure of shareholders has slightly changed, currently Soitron Group owns 57% of shares and a team from Datanet Systems management owns 43% of shares. Peter Horňák and Marián Skákala, two members of the Board of Directors of Soitron Group, undertook most of coordination work and intensified their activities in Romania.
The company reported in 2014 an increase both in revenue and profitability, obtained by taking cost-efficiency improvement actions. Datanet increased the volume of completed telephony and data infrastructure projects as well as developed new business lines. 2014 was a year of consolidation and development for Datanet Systems. A new team for software development, integration and implementation, mainly oriented towards call centre applications, customer service, network management and cloud computing systems, was founded.
In 2014, Datanet Systems prepared plan of marketing communication, which will be implemented in 2015. The plan includes change of the company logo and its visual communication rules, launch of a new corporate website, development of the online PR and advertising, launch of a new company profile and set of new case study brochures emphasizing the orientation of the company toward IT system integration.
The year 2014 was very successful for Sekom, especially in a field of TELCO. Sekom managed to confirm its professional technical competencies and stable position on the Turkish market especially in a field of Service Provider Solutions.
Customers from financial segment continued to invest in their on-premise Data Centres, where Sekom’s competence in new generation DC switching was on demand. In addition to being the first partner to sell Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure solution in the region, Sekom team was conducive to integrate existing 3rd party solutions under the new virtualized Data Centre network.
Another strategic solution delivered by Sekom to both, existing and new customers, was performance management & monitoring. Depending on the customer needs, network and/or application performance were monitored to proactively avoid and discover root causes of incidents.
In 2014, Sekom intensified its focus also on marketing activities. Besides realization of professional workshops and support of major events, Sekom successfully launched the new website.
The year 2014 represented the first full year of operation of the company. Assumptions and expectations of entering the Bulgarian market have been fully filled and our customers as well as management of Soitron Group consider operation of Soitron, Bulgaria as very successful. In terms of project implementation, in 2014 we continued in realization of SALES HUB or PMO projects. In 2014, number of employees more than doubled comparing to the previous year. Bulgarian market seems to be very stable, providing us with great conditions for future growth.
Regarding the organizational changes, Tomáš Turkovič, Outsourcing Director, currently fully covers the management of Soitron, Bulgaria.
In 2014, Soitron Group entered the British market. By founding a new subsidiary in London, we came to a completely different market, what had to be reflected also in different business activities and marketing communication. At the beginning, it was crucial to precisely define the portfolio of products and services.
Portfolio of the UK subsidiary is based on providing nearshore managed outsourcing services delivered mainly to UK customers from other locations in Europe, where Soitron Group operates. In British market, we build on successful cooperation with existing customers, as AT&T and HP, hand in hand with opening new business opportunities with potential customers. We build on our long-term experience, successful outsourcing projects, certifications and expertise of our employees.
2Ring’s focus on a global market has proven to be a right step. Total number of employees as well as the number of 2Ring business partners, is constantly growing, what is reflected also in the increasing amount of business activities and projects. Software development in the field of call centre desktop plugin represents very good, stable and potential basis for future growth.
In terms of organization changes, one team of 2Ring has been moved to Soitron, Slovakia structure to be more coherent with the daily business of the integration part of the company. Inclusion in the Soitron structure should provide better focus and engagement of individual employees.
Soitron Group achieved following results in the selected indicators (in million EUR):
| Type | 2013 | 2014 |
|---|---|---|
| Equity | 51.17 | 50.7 |
| Revenue from Sales of Goods | 67.85 | 58.9 |
| Revenue from Sales of Own Products and Services | 41.1 | 46.4 |
| Total Sales Revenue | 108.95 | 105.3 |
| Operating Profit (Loss) | 5.7 | 9.2 |
| Profit before Tax | 5.1 | 9.6 |
| Average Number of Employees | 576 | 601 |
| ROE (Return on Equity) | 8.9% | 15.8% |
| Return on Sales | 4.7% | 8.6% |
| Gross Profit | 28.8% | 33.16% |
Metodicko-pedagogické centrum (MPC; Institute for In-Service Teacher Education and Training) is an organization operating under Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic. The main purpose of the MPC is to ensure continuous education of teaching and non-teaching employees of the schools, universities and other educational facilities.
As a part of “Activating methods in education” program, Soitron (SK) provided MPC with modern communication system – a unique package of communication tool designed for education and coordination of the academic employees. Solution is based on Cisco Telepresence equipment, which is placed in 29 locations in 12 Slovak cities.
Cisco Webex application, which is also part of the project, serves for online training of 7,500 teachers under the guidance of 75 lecturers.
Webex system is also used for effective communication among the offices and employees of MPC. Last but not least part of the project is an online archive – a storage site for educational materials, assignments, home works, trainings recordings and project and organization documentation. What is more, archive contains also Cisco Show&Share system (corporate “YouTube” channel) – web portal for multimedia content sharing.
Webex system is also used for effective communication among the offices and employees of MPC. Last but not least part of the project is an online archive – a storage site for educational materials, assignments, home works, trainings recordings and project and organization documentation. What is more, archive contains also Cisco Show&Share system (corporate “YouTube” channel) – web portal for multimedia content sharing.
Maria Sklodowska Curie Hospital is medical institution started its operation in 1984 as one of the largest children's hospitals in the country. It gathered renowned pediatricians from different hospitals in Bucharest, which turned it into one of the best medical centres dedicated to the children’s care in Romania.
Maria Sklodowska Curie Hospital is medical institution started its operation in 1984 as one of the largest children's hospitals in the country. It gathered renowned pediatricians from different hospitals in Bucharest, which turned it into one of the best medical centres dedicated to the children’s care in Romania.
Datanet Systems (RO) provided its customer with complex video conference systems serving for monitoring, recording and archiving of the entire medical activity and the evolution of the patient status. The whole system serves for supervision of 18 stations for children in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital.
Thank to this solution, medical staff may provide its service more effectively. It offers advanced communication options, simplification of routine operations, investigation of incidents and their prevention. System has also a special benefit for parents of the hospitalized children. It is possible to use a special secure account through which parents can access online the video surveillance system in order to see their children during hospitalization.
Design consisted of next generation Cisco video conference and video surveillance systems. The Cisco products have been “all-in-one collaboration” type instruments - DX80 Cisco TelePresence hardware and video cameras from the 6900 family.
Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic is the central body of the state administration for courts and prisons. The main field of operation consists of preparation of the legislation in each field of law (constitutional, criminal, civil, etc.). It supervises activities of individual institutions in the resort of Justice and represents Slovak Republic at Court of Justice of the European Union.
Soitron provided Ministry of Justice with complex videoconferencing system with the main intention to harmonize and streamline court procedures and thus contribute to costs effectiveness and shorter trials. Design consists of different types of endpoints: multifunctional video systems at selected premises (as courtrooms, boardrooms), personal endpoints in smaller locations (as interrogation rooms, judges offices) and mobile software clients serving for wider audience within resort of justice. Video infrastructure is supplemented by large IP Telephony solution for 5,000 users, which significantly increases the overall efficiency of the communication.
Aim of the project is to eliminate costs, security threats and time delays concerning the defendants and witnesses transport to court hearing or interrogations; streamline the criminal procedure by providing a solution for fast and operational decision-making. System is based on international standards, thus solution is capable to communicate and integrate within a comprehensive network of video-communication systems of the EU, with the intention to intensify and improve cooperation in the field of justice and law. Videoconference system serves also as a tool for online trainings, consultations and discussion of judges, senior court officers, employees of Ministry of Justice, court experts or other specialists.
Aim of the project is to eliminate costs, security threats and time delays concerning the defendants and witnesses transport to court hearing or interrogations; streamline the criminal procedure by providing a solution for fast and operational decision-making. System is based on international standards, thus solution is capable to communicate and integrate within a comprehensive network of video-communication systems of the EU, with the intention to intensify and improve cooperation in the field of justice and law. Videoconference systems serves also as a tool for online trainings, consultations and discussion of judges, senior court officers, employees of Ministry of Justice, court experts or other specialists.
Halkbank is the sixth largest banking group in Turkey and is well-known as one of the industry’s strongest institutions serving its clients through nationwide branches. Halkbank has 14,500 employees at 900 branches and 3 Headquarters in Turkey.
The bank considered an investment on a new platform to solve application performance problems during business peak hours and related user experience problems. Sekom and Riverbed teams cooperated to design and deploy an Application Performance Monitoring solution, in order to determine why an application fails to execute successfully, or why resource consumption and latency levels diverge from expectations.
The solution provides actionable advices and reduces time to troubleshoot. Thanks to APM solution, application and networking teams can work in a collaborative way to solve the problems and optimize the application performance. What is more, simple and customizable dashboard provides clear and complex information for users on operator as well as admin level.
The solution provides actionable advices and reduces time to troubleshoot. Thanks to APM solution, application and networking teams can work in a collaborative way to solve the problems and optimize the application performance. What is more, simple and customizable dashboard provides clear and complex information for users on operator as well as admin level.
The Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic is an executive body of the state administration which ensures creation of condition for development and presentation of the culture in all fields of art and state language and coordinates Ministry´s activities relating to state cultural policy implementation.
The Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic is an executive body of the state administration which ensures creation of condition for development and presentation of the culture in all fields of art and state language and coordinates Ministry´s activities relating to state cultural policy implementation.
Due to heterogeneity of the infrastructure and a need to unify management of the individual networks, Ministry of Culture decided to create a Private Cloud.The first major part of the project was to prepare hardware background serving as a core pillar. Soitron (SK) provided Ministry of Culture with necessary delivery and configuration of HP servers operating on virtualization platform, NetApp storage and back-up system based on IBM Tape Library and VEEAM backup & replication software.
Subsequently, all organizations falling under Ministry of Culture will be gradually connected to this system. Pilot migration was executed for the Slovak National Museum when all of its physical and virtual servers was successfully migrated or newly installed. Project continues also in 2015 when other organizations falling under Ministry of Culture will be gradually migrated into built infrastructure.
VakıfBank is the sixth largest bank in Turkey in terms of asset size. Modern banking products and services offered by VakıfBank, covers retail and private banking as well as corporate, commercial and small business banking sector. VakıfBank also provides its customers with a wide range of financial services such as insurance, leasing and factoring services.
VakıfBank and Sekom Enterprise Solutions team successfully designed, deployed and completed 17,000 seat IP Telephony project based on Cisco Systems solution, with the main intention to reduce annual telephone expenses by more than 50%.
Besides the cost savings, the project provided operational benefits – the bank could centralize the management of their telephony and IVR systems for all 900 branches. Various applications such as billing, CRM, Video Conferencing, Corporate Directory , MS Lync systems were integrated. Last but not least, Sekom teams completed the migration phase with zero down time and with a strategic partner approach, providing know-how trainings and workshops for Vakıfbank teams.
With a premium volume of approximately 9.7 billion EUR in 2012 and 23,000 employees, Vienna Insurance Group is one of the leading insurance groups in Austria and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). OMNIASIG Vienna Insurance Group, the leader of the business segment on general insurance market in Romania, offers insurance products and services both for the safety of natural persons, and for the protection of businesses.
Management of the company realized that a non-secured management of data may bring important financial losses within the company. In order to prevent the occurrence of such situations, OMNIASIG Vienna Insurance Group has decided to deploy a platform for the management of mobile devices. Datanet Systems (RO) provided its customer with comprehensive MDM system ensuring for instance verification of the user’s identity before granting access to the mobile device; guarding installation of applications or keeping the company´s information on the device in an encrypted format.
Solution allows also deployment of security policies, granting access only to those mobile devices’ applications and functions that comply with the company’s security policies. In case of loss or theft of the device, it is possible to delete all company data and applications. OMNIASIG Vienna Insurance Group benefits also from remote management of the whole system.
Management of the company realized that a non-secured management of data may bring important financial losses within the company. In order to prevent the occurrence of such situations, OMNIASIG Vienna Insurance Group has decided to deploy a platform for the management of mobile devices. Datanet Systems (RO) provided its customer with comprehensive MDM system ensuring for instance verification of the user’s identity before granting access to the mobile device; guarding installation of applications or keeping the company´s information on the device in an encrypted format.
Solution allows also deployment of security policies, granting access only to those mobile devices’ applications and functions that comply with the company’s security policies. In case of loss or theft of the device, it is possible to delete all company data and applications. OMNIASIG Vienna Insurance Group benefits also from remote management of the whole system.
The Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic (MISR) is a central body of state administration in the areas of security of persons and property, the safety and flow of road traffic and amongst others, administers the police force.
As a part of government program ESO (intended to bring effective, reliable and open government to citizens), Soitron (SK) launched a first phase of the KAMO project. KAMO (“Kontaktné a administratívne miesto občana” = Contact and Administrative Place for Citizens) represents universal point of contact where citizens are able to handle with all necessary state-relating formalities and documentation as car registration, issue or change of the license plates, ID card or passport issuing or Cadaster or Birth Registry services.
After choosing the most appropriate space for installation, we provided our customer with necessary construction changes, cabling work and installation and configuration of the kiosks and navigation screens. Unique serial number and navigation screens direct citizens to the workplace, where they will deal with their issue with office employees. First phase of the project consisted of 20 locations around Slovakia and was completed in 2014. Second phase and installation of another points of contact continue in 2015.
As a part of government program ESO (intended to bring effective, reliable and open government to citizens), Soitron (SK) launched a first phase of the KAMO project. KAMO (“Kontaktné a administratívne miesto občana” = Contact and Administrative Place for Citizens) represents universal point of contact where citizens are able to handle with all necessary state-relating formalities and documentation as car registration, issue or change of the license plates, ID card or passport issuing or Cadaster or Birth Registry services.
After choosing the most appropriate space for installation, we provided our customer with necessary construction changes, cabling work and installation and configuration of the kiosks and navigation screens. Unique serial number and navigation screens direct citizens to the workplace, where they will deal with their issue with office employees. First phase of the project consisted of 20 locations around Slovakia and was completed in 2014. Second phase and installation of another points of contact continue in 2015.
Česká Lékárna Holding operates the largest pharmacy network on the Czech, Slovak and Polish market, under the brand Dr. MAX. Chain of 360 branches is active on the Czech market, what represents 14% of the whole market of public pharmacies.
IT environment of the company consists of more than 3,000 work stations. Management of such huge platform of devices started to be very difficult and time-consuming. Soitron (CZ) helped its customer by implementation of the centralized end station management, LANDesk Management Suite and LANDesk Security Suite to gain absolute control over IT environment.
Solution serves for hardware and software inventory and utilization monitoring, distribution of security patches, software updates and license reporting. Concerning support services for end user, IT administrators are able to help their colleagues through remote access to their desktops. In general, Česká Lékárna may benefit from time and cost savings, process automation, centralized management of work stations and preconditions for smooth expansion of the infrastructure relating to hardware gradual replacement.
Solution serves for hardware and software inventory and utilization monitoring, distribution of security patches, software updates and license reporting. Concerning support services for end user, IT administrators are able to help their colleagues through remote access to their desktops. In general, Česká Lékárna may benefit from time and cost savings, process automation, centralized management of work stations and preconditions for smooth expansion of the infrastructure relating to hardware gradual replacement.
In less than 5 months after opening Soitron (UK), we succeeded in starting new business cases with new clients = international departments of Hewlett Packard in United Kingdom, Italy, France and United States.
Soitron (UK) signed 7 contracts dealing with outsourcing services in various departments at Enterprise Services division and components of HP’s Standard reference architecture. Two contracts were signed under the project for HP division Global Engineering. Our employees, most of them seated in Bulgaria, are in charge of managing various productivity tools ensuring the functionality of Standard Reference Architecture (SRA) in HP. Within three other contracts, our expert team, consisted of our Bulgarian, Slovak and English employees, provides three different customers (ENI, Flemish Government and Shell) with migration to HP Standard Reference Architecture. The last two contracts refer to SOM ARCHIVE project, ensuring the data archiving needed in migration process, and ITO 2.0 project dealing with migration of reporting solution to SRA.
Change of contract from personnel leasing to a service model (the customer does not pay according to the number of employees but according to the amount of services provided) was highly appreciated by our customer.
Soitron (UK) signed 7 contracts dealing with outsourcing services in various departments at Enterprise Services division and components of HP’s Standard reference architecture. Two contracts were signed under the project for HP division Global Engineering. Our employees, most of them seated in Bulgaria, are in charge of managing various productivity tools ensuring the functionality of Standard Reference Architecture (SRA) in HP. Within three other contracts, our expert team, consisted of our Bulgarian, Slovak and English employees, provides three different customers (ENI, Flemish Government and Shell) with migration to HP Standard Reference Architecture. The last two contracts refer to SOM ARCHIVE project, ensuring the data archiving needed in migration process, and ITO 2.0 project dealing with migration of reporting solution to SRA.
Change of contract from personnel leasing to a service model (the customer does not pay according to the number of employees but according to the amount of services provided) was highly appreciated by our customer.
