Geno Solutions is a proud Folderit reselling partner based out of Argentina. They deal in document management for professionals and SMEs with the focus of helping people reinvent their business, digitize their information, and enable a world that can telework safely. We had the pleasure of talking to the Director, Mr. Gabriel Ballone and we learned many great things from our conversation.
The Journey of Geno Solutions
2001, in a time of economic and social crisis in Argentina, Geno Solutions was founded with the intention of providing digitization services for companies as a means to overcome the predicament.
The company was founded as a partnership between father and son, both technology enthusiasts and enamoured by computers. They decided to call the company Geno Solutions, and they called their document digitization service “e.paper”. At that time, it was a cutting-edge solution, something very disruptive that very few companies had even considered as a solution at the time.
Within a few months, they made customers out of an insurance company who quickly trusted Geno Solutions to start digitizing their massive volumes of documents.
This was the start of Geno Solutions cementing their expertise in the field as they took on new challenges. They understood a need in the market for companies that wanted to start digitizing their documents in such a way that they could be stored and accessed.
Mr. Gabriel told us, “So, we decided to find a way to offer that service as well.”
They started off developing their own document management system, called “a.Doc”, but that proved too costly to implement at the time.
Mr. Ballone added, “That is when we decided that it was a better option to look for a tool that already had advanced development and which we can trust to offer a quality service”.
Mr. Gabriel Ballone continued, “We began researching various DMS software options both domestically and globally. We found a very wide range that ranged from the very simple for personal use only, to the very complex with too many specific functions that werenot useful for all companies. Also, in terms of costs, especially in the case of systems of large companies outside Argentina, the access fee was too high to become a reseller”. This was compounded by the fact that the Argentine Peso was priced very unfavorably against the dollar.
Mr. Gabriel shared, “After a long time of sifting through options, we found Folderit”.
Mr Gabriel believed that Folderit met their needs and they were very excited to become a Folderit reseller. “The contact was very pleasant, and we quickly established a commercial and collaborative relationship” he added.
Today, Geno Solutions is recognized as an authorized Folderit Reseller for Spanish-speaking countries and Folderit couldn’t be prouder of this relationship.
Argentina and digitization
We learned that Argentina has rapidly started to digitize in the past decade. At the business level, Argentinians seek to increase process efficiency, especially in document management. This process is known colloquially as, “de-paperization”. This consists of digitizing physical documents and creating only digital documents with the intent of storing them digitally only. At the national and government level a certain amount of digitization has been achieved in the same decade.
Mr Ballone also informed us, “With the motivation to de-bureaucratize the state, the previous government began a process of radical changes that today allow many procedures to be carried out online and in a few minutes that previously took several days or required a lot of follow-up effort to get resolved. Digitization levels are not yet reached in the state comparable for example with other countries in Europe, such as Estonia itself where Folderit has its headquarters, but we are on the way. Another sector that has advanced in the use of digital services is banking, thanks to measures by the Central Bank that made the adaptation of its services to the cloud more flexible”.
The perception of cloud services in Argentina
According to surveys conducted with various companies in Argentina, the use of cloud services has experienced an annual growth of 30% from 2018 to 2019. And it is fast becoming a necessity for any company that does not want to be left behind.
Nowadays, companies looking to take their ecosystems to the cloud to reduce their capital costs and focus on operational costs. Even end-users are turning to the use of cloud services for productivity and entertainment purposes. One of the attractions in addition to the ubiquitous always available luxury of cloud computing is the pay-per-use mode or adaptable plans that allow users to easily control costs.
The Argentinian market is different from the rest of the world
“Latin American countries and Argentina in particular are always a bit behind the rest of the world when it comes to emerging market maturity” Mr. Gabriel informed us. He also highlighted how economic uncertainties or exchange restrictions in foreign currency can delay or even discourage people from hiring internationally priced services.
On the upside, this has also led to the appearance of localized solutions that compete by offering better benefits such as lower latency in data access and providing physic infrastructure as well as technical support in native languages.
It is also common for companies to engage international cloud services with long-term contracts that fix the price in local currency in order to avoid fluctuations in the price of the dollar or other foreign currency.
Folderit is a suitable solution for Geno Solution and the Argentinian market
Mr. Gabriel Ballone said, “Folderit and Geno Solutions have established a great business relationship based on cooperation. Geno Solutions has found in Folderit a solid company focused on offering a quality service in constant evolution. Since the beginning of our relationship, many new features have been incorporated that make Folderit a mature product. We believe that Folderit is a very favorable option for the Argentine market as it is adaptable both for personal use and for small and large companies and it is very easy to use”.
He also said how Geno Solutions believe Folderit offers highly accessible plans that, despite local pricing concerns, aren’t barriers to entry in this region.
COVID-19 and Geno Solutions
As in the rest of the world, COVID-19 has created a new normal that has not spared anyone in Argentinian markets. On one hand, many companies suffered operational losses, especially early on credit to uncertainty and extreme withdrawal of spending by the public. Some people have had to cease operations or pivot to continue to survive.
However, in companies better prepared for contingencies, COVID-19 has accelerated any digital transformation plans. The rapid normalization of teleworking has required many companies to drastically reduce their dependency on paper and look to solve their problems digitally. This has resulted in greater efficiency and transparency for end users.
The pandemic has also opened new opportunities for startups to solve emerging needs. Either through the implementation or creation of new solutions that have created jobs that did not even exist before.
So, if you are operating a small to medium business out of Latin America, check out Geno Solutions.
