untitled design

A. Papathanos (CPI): Development in the present era presupposes collaborations

At a time when Greek companies are being called upon to make a digital leap that will cover the competitiveness gap with the rest of Europe, domestic IT companies are emerging as key partners in what we call “digital transformation”.

But, as he points out in Capital.gr the CEO of CPI, Aris Papathanos“Real transformation requires more than equipment and know-how and a change of culture.”

“During the difficult years of the crisis, as Greek companies, we learned to survive. Now we must learn and grow,” said Mr. Papathanos, noting that this requires significant changes in the way businesses are run and operated with an emphasis on partnerships.

He explains in practice what it means to create strong partnerships through the course of the CPI, of which he has been in charge since 2014 and reveals the planning of the next day for the Greek IT company, listed on Athens Stock Exchange since 2000.

Interview with Costas Ketsietzis

From the outbreak of the pandemic and then the digital transformation entered our daily vocabulary. What does this mean in practice for Greek companies?

The pandemic did indeed act as a catalyst, mainly in understanding the need for companies to adopt digital solutions for their most efficient and productive operation, supply and sales. Of course, what matters is the degree of digital maturity of each business.

Now, with the additional funding through the Recovery Fund, it is a prime opportunity for Greek companies to fill the gap that separates them from their European competitors in the digital field, as shown by the relevant indicators.

But I do not know how ready we are, as Greek entrepreneurship, to make this leap and in fact successfully. We need a change in the way we learn to function. During all these years of crisis, Greek companies have learned to cope with the difficulties and to adapt to the new data so that we can survive.

Now, after 12 years, it is time to learn how to grow which is very different from introversion, defense and survival. Development in the present era has as a necessary condition the logic of collaborations.

The digital transformation also creates opportunities for the IT industry in which CPI operates. What areas do you focus on as a company?

CPI has been on the side of Greek companies since 1990 providing products and services that improve their competitiveness and workflow. The solutions we provide are aimed at several markets starting from that of printing as official distributors of well-known brands such as OKI, Sharp and Toshiba. Also in the scanning market we have innovative equipment and vertical applications from Avision and Kodak, as well as Docuware document management and digitization software.

In addition, we have BenQ and Optoma projection and viewing equipment as well as interactive solutions that apply to Private and Public Education. Also important are the complete surveillance and security solutions we provide with Axis and Vivotek equipment and software, in combination with Qnap Network Storage. In the Retail market we offer POS and Kiosks systems of the company Posiflex which is a leader in the manufacture of products that improve the Customer Experience. Finally, in collaboration with global leaders such as Zebra and Datalogic, we provide barcode printing and mobile terminals solutions for the retail and logistics markets.

At the same time, we offer complete Managed Print Services solutions for the whole range of companies, fully undertaking the printing fleet and the technical support of our corporate clients.

In addition to the services we provide for the products we represent, the provision of IT services is a strategic position of the CPI. We are exclusive Service Provider of Dell since 2002 and Lenovo since 2009 for the products under warranty providing our services nationwide. Overall, service revenue accounts for 20% -25% of our annual turnover.

The Recovery Fund also brings digital projects to the State. Is it something you are interested in?

It goes without saying that we are considering our participation with synergies in the IT projects that will come out through the Recovery Fund and other resources. Especially in document digitization projects we have the ability and know-how to work with other IT companies and System Integrators in order to participate in them, either as part of consortia, or undertaking some parts of these projects.

These projects will be demanding and the time of their implementation is a bet. I believe that the IT industry has proven that it can implement such projects and a lot will depend on the synergies that will be created.

You talked about a change of culture and new collaborations. How do you implement this change in your company?

Our goal is to make the Greek companies we work with more productive. Thus, it is natural for us to make moves that improve our productivity and efficiency. For some years now we have outsourced IT support to our users and systems, as well as the management of our Finance department.

It is important for us to have partners who know their subject very well and give us outlets that we could not easily discover on our own. In this way you share knowledge but also risk, while releasing forces to focus on your core tasks.

In addition, in our effort to continuously improve the way we work with our partners, the company invests in the development of the skills of its people through a series of trainings. At the same time, we proceeded to the creation of a new B2B portal, which will go live in November in order to have the opportunity for more direct contact with our partners throughout Greece. Finally, lately we have become more extroverted in order to strengthen our presence in the IT market.

We have been seeing acquisitions and mergers in the IT market lately. Are you as a CPI planning such a move?

Healthy development is our long-term goal. We want to constantly improve our market presence, developing our services and offering new solutions. We achieve this through organic development by utilizing and improving the processes we already have and our nationwide network of partners and sellers. Thus, we are constantly looking for new services and products that we can offer in the best possible way.

The key for us is to stay focused on what we do well. We have great potential to grow through the markets in which we operate as well as through new products that would make sense to sell in the Greek market. But in addition to organic growth, we always look at acquisition and partnership opportunities, without this being an end in itself.

The goal is to find a partner who can add value but also grow himself through us, taking advantage of each side the strengths of the other so that the result is the maximum possible. We are not interested in making moves just to increase our turnover, we want the risk we take to be reasonable and everything we do has a business sense.

Source From: Capital

You may also like

Get the latest

Stay Informed: Get the Latest Updates and Insights

 

Most popular