Colombian firm Open looking to expand its market share in LatAm

Colombian public utility and telecommunications software company Open plans to win new projects that will be tendered this year by firms in Latin America. 

“We're in a business where companies change their management systems every 15 or 20 years … and every year two or three companies appear that want to change their system. We aim to have two of those three this year,” Jesús Sánchez, VP of Marketing at Open, told BNamericas during a visit to Argentina.

The executive is optimistic about the Argentine energy sector and assures that Open “supports the concern that exists regarding the transformation of the electricity sector,” since the local industry has delayed its digital transformation due to the country's macroeconomic conditions. However, the hope is that regulatory and economic changes being enacted by the government can allow companies to improve their capacity for investment.

Open's software is already employed by “the major public service companies in each country in Latin America,” Sánchez said.

“In Mexico we're supporting the development of the natural gas sector and last year we started a project with a gas company in northern Mexico that we hope will go into production this year,” he added.

He also underscored that the first electricity company in Costa Rica to be carbon neutral is an Open client.

“In Colombia we've been growing and in recent years we've entered the biggest potable water company and the largest electricity company in northern Colombia,” he added. “They're very important companies, each handles at least a million clients.”

The company has also been growing in the rest of the region. In Chile its clients include some five electricity companies that currently belong to the China State Grid group. These firms already have Open solutions implemented and are in the process of adopting new modules.

Last year, the company mentioned that Telecom Argentina, Claro, Chilquinta, EPM, AES, Veolia and CNT were among its clients.

Open has a presence in 18 Latin American markets and also has clients in the US. The next step will be to enter Canada, a goal it is looking to achieve within the next three years.

CUSTOMER MIGRATION

Open is targeting increasing the number of clients that have the latest version of its software installed by 10 percentage points. “Right now, 19% of our customers already have the latest version,” he said.

The company expects to end this year with about 30% of users having updated to the latest version (8), which would allow the implementation of artificial intelligence tools.