30 Most Influential Companies of the year 2020 (Special Edition)
CIO Bulletin
BRISA America Corp. presents some exceptional offers: Software packages for the hospitality industry, Customized Software Development, Software Integration, Software Testing and Automated Courtesy Calls along with various other services. Since 1988, BRISA has been providing business solutions and communication technology services through the development of strategic and technical projects. BRISA has 5 offices, 30+ years of experience, 20,000+ projects, 10+ million test cases, projects in more than 20 countries, and methods based on leading market practices. In 2016, BRISA expanded to the United States with BRISA America Corp. To know more about the company, we had a word with Paulo Toledo, the CEO of BRISA America Corp.
Why BRISA is so special?
BRISA America, originally established in Latin America, is part of a multinational group, with 30+ years of market presence. BRISA, since its beginning in 1988, has an entrepreneur DNA and irrevocable focus on innovation. The company brings to its clients a long experience in pioneering technological projects, year after year performing consistent R&D investments, and having a proven ability to incorporate the newest technologies that are always revolutionizing the very competitive Information Technology & Communications (IT&C) market.
BRISA pioneering spirit, R&D intensity, and innovative bloodstream make the company one of the best IT vendors to help your business adopt new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Robotic Desktop Automation (RDA), among many others.
What’s BRISA’s current portfolio?
BRISA America diversified portfolio includes hotel and property management software products, automated communication systems, customized multiplatform (web & mobile) software development, software integration, and software testing.
Our software product offers addressing the hospitality market have proven extremely useful through this pandemic, where social distancing is a challenge to most companies in this business. Our online check-in, the front desk kiosk, the Guest App, and the Housekeeping App are current examples of cost savings.
Please, tell us about software testing and the enhancements you have been doing in this area
BRISA has a comprehensive offer on software testing, with a wide range of client sizes, from small companies and NGOs to giant global players, like the mobile devices testing we perform, in the whole Americas region, for the giant Korean company LG Electronics.
BRISA is recognized as an expert in testing automation, and we are providing functional tests, performance tests, load and stress tests, exploratory tests, usability tests, compatibility tests, field tests, and also customized tests to a wide range of clients. BRISA has developed a new test methodology, called Flash Testing, where we provide online testing results for clients that hire us by short testing cycles (“testing sprints”), thus reducing the overall testing costs for those companies
What about BRISA’s communication solutions? How do they make communication easier for clients?
BRISA has developed its technology to manage and integrate large volumes of messages, e-mails, and even phone calls. This R&D approach has brought us an extraordinary competitiveness edge and flexibility to comply with customers’ specifications that no other company is able to do: it is our code, we know it more than anyone else, and we can provide flexibility, adaptations, and compliance to customer requirements.
BRISA also developed simplified versions of this automated communication platform, targeting specific industries such as hotels, property management companies, clinics, buy-here-pay-here, etc., in order to make our powerful technology easy to use even for non-technical users, as are most small business owners and end-users in general.
Tell us about the success of software development and integration.
A long time ago all IT used to be customized. Then some pioneering companies, like Lotus, Microsoft, and others that followed, started offering customized standard software, at much lower costs, and this way they took over the market. The methodologies for software development and integration have evolved very fast in the last few years, and today nobody builds a new system from scratch. The best IT service providers, like BRISA, have a “building blocks” approach, sewing existing software solutions to each other, many of them available for free, in a way that very powerful and complex solutions can be brought to life timely at very affordable costs.
Tell me a little about your experience of doing business in other countries, with people from such different cultures.
There is no way to be successful with business abroad if you do not know the culture and habits of your customers and prospects. Do not disregard that local legislation can be quite different, from one country to another. In this way, expectations regarding the operation model can vary enormously. For example, the number of hours a day a worker can be at the company’s disposal varies from country to country.
In some places, there is no absolute limit. In others, an extension of just 3 hours in the daily journey can characterize a serious crime.
There are many other areas of attention, such as taxation, export restrictions, import limits, local cultural habits, etc. etc. My advice is: first learn, as much as possible, about the new country where you intend to operate. If viable, find a local partner to help and speed up your adaptation to the rules of the new country, and only start a business when you are aware of the rules you will face and the benefits you can gather.
In a nutshell, what is the current moment of BRISA?
BRISA differentiated software services offers have been successful in meeting our customer base needs, and more than never, during this pandemic, our solutions have proven to be extremely useful to help clients implement social distancing, preventing lines while saving costs and upgrading productivity.
Our flexibility, agility, and the constant updating of our team of specialists bring us the conditions to create, innovate, reinvent, and successfully operate in different business sectors, helping our clients reach their objectives and goals. After more than 30 years of life, BRISA is still an innovative company, with entrepreneurial DNA and the energy of a startup.
Founder/CEO bio:
Paulo Toledo is a serial international entrepreneur, technology enthusiast, a true “world citizen”, with ventures in areas such as information technology, telecommunications, wine, retail services, real state, tourism, etc. – in different countries as Brazil, Argentina, USA, and Spain. He is an electronic engineer, graduated in 1982 (UnB – Brazil), with a specialization in digital communications in 1984 (Inictel - Peru), an MBA degree in 1995 (USP – Brazil, in partnership with Vanderbilt University, TN/USA).
Paulo started his career in 1983, in the telecommunications industry, working for the largest telecom operator in Brazil. In 1988 he participated in the inauguration of a new startup called BRISA, in Brazil. In 2016 Paulo Toledo started BRISA America, where he is the current President and Global CEO for the BRISA group. He is also a visiting professor and a Consultative Committee Member at Fundacao Dom Cabral, ranked top 10 business schools in the world, by Financial Times. He has been nominated among the 10 best entrepreneurs of 2020, by Industry Era Magazine.
“BRISA has over 30 years of experience supporting companies through the use of information technology and telecommunications.”
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