Grupo Softland Internacional (SP)

SP was founded in 1982, in times when for a small company in Spain buying a computer was like buying an empty box. On top of being expensive, when a company bought computers to manage its business, it was common to call a programmer to design a company-specific software, which was quite costly and often useless. Thousands of companies put aside computers that had cost a fortune because they couldn’t run them. It was in this context that two young professionals, Fernando Escolar and Álvaro Ramirez, realized that what a number of companies needed was a low-cost, hassle free and standard software. 1985 was a key moment for SP, because it started to develop a program that meant a revolution for the …ver más…

So the main adaptation of the products was its translation to Portuguese.
The jump to America

In view of the results of its Portuguese incursion, in 1997 SP started to think about growing/expanding into more foreign markets. After consolidating their Iberian (Spain) operations, Spanish companies often have to choose between the Latin American or European markets. SP had no doubts: “When we started to internationalize, our market share was lower than 25%, so we had a long way to go. With a market share of that figure you ask yourself where are you heading towards to, and then you come to think that a similar market can have similar needs to those that you had success with, only being some years behind, it has to be successful there with just a few adjustments. What worked in Mexico would have being unthinkable in Germany, with a completely different market, and way of thinking, and form of company. Everything is completely different”. Moreover t, European software markets are as mature and just like or more saturated than that of Spain, which means they can only grow at the rate the economy does, while Latin America had virgin markets where the company could grow opening market, like it had done in Spain, without the need of fighting for taking market share from established competitors. Latin American activities started with the opening of an affiliate in Miami. Florida is often think of as the gate into Latin America. SP