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ISV success stories
TOTVS enters new Latin American markets through joint software development and co-marketing with IBM
TOTVS, an IBM Business Partner based in Brazil, is growing its business across Latin America, and IBM is helping make it happen.
Luciano Bezerra dos Santos, the executive in charge of alliances for TOTVS, credits its IBM relationship with a large role in the company's double-digit growth rate in sales, revenue, and profit, as well as the company's expansion from its headquarters in São Paulo, Brazil, to additional offices and franchises in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, and Paraguay. TOTVS continues to grow throughout Latin America while setting its sights on new markets in Europe and Africa.
"We've been working with IBM since 1995, and every year our relationship has gotten stronger, and our business has grown," said dos Santos. "The financial increases that average 20 percent are far more than TOTVS anticipated," he continued. "We're targeting more customers in more countries with more complete solutions than ever before. We could not have achieved this success without IBM at our side."
TOTVS participates in the IBM PartnerWorld® Industry Networks, which offer a rich set of benefits to PartnerWorld members who want to build their vertical market capabilities, expand their partner network, and attract customers in the markets they serve.
TOTVS also accepted an IBM invitation to participate in ISV Advantage for small and medium businesses (SMB). This initiative is designed to drive the success of independent software vendors serving the midmarket who are committed to achieving a majority share of their business on IBM platforms and going to market with IBM.
TOTVS has taken advantage of the resources for technical enablement and marketing, and the networking opportunities available through these offerings.
Tailored to each industry, TOTVS software is designed to automate primary corporate processes, such as accounting, distribution, finance, human resources, manufacturing, and sales and marketing, enabling its customers to operate more efficiently.
TOTVS enterprise resource planning products include:
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Logocenter Logix, ideal for companies with well-defined processes that require a results-oriented management focus.
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Microsiga Protheus, highly flexible and easy to customize.
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RM Corpore, nearly ready to use, requiring little customization.
The most recent addition to the TOTVS product line is TOTVS Notes Integration (TNI). Developed jointly with IBM, TNI allows Corpore, Logix, and Protheus to be integrated with IBM Lotus® Notes® to form a productivity suite with direct access to the ERP database from within e-mail, word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation functions.
"Approximately 30 percent of the SMB customer base uses the Linux® operating system on the server side," dos Santos explained. "We needed to answer their demand for an effective, efficient system that runs on Linux in a desktop environment. IBM was the only company that could provide what we were looking for."
The joint development activities started at the beginning of 2007, with much work needed to have TNI ready at the announcement of Lotus Notes 8 just a few months later. "We weren't sure that the work could be completed in time, but we made it—all because of the collaborative effort between our developers and three IBM Innovation Centers," said dos Santos.
TOTVS developers used their own shop, as well as facilities and support from the IBM Innovation Center in São Paulo. They worked remotely with the programming team at the SMB Innovation Center in Beijing, China, where much of the coding and the porting to Linux was performed. Coordination was handled through the IBM Innovation Center in Waltham, Massachusetts.
"Our experience with the IBM Innovation Centers is a perfect example of how people from different backgrounds and different cultures can work successfully together on a joint project for a common goal," said dos Santos.
To broaden its reach outside of Brazil, TOTVS uses the co-funded marketing dollars and benefits available to it as a participant in the PartnerWorld Industry Networks and ISV Advantage. Amounting to a 50 percent increase in its marketing budget, combined with other no-charge benefits, these offerings enable TOTVS to promote its solutions more often and in more creative ways.
In the past, TOTVS has found it difficult to form one-on-one relationships with so many companies spread out over such a large geographical area.
"We are now able to demonstrate our products and meet a greater number of customers face-to-face by cohosting a series of live events with IBM throughout the year throughout Latin America," dos Santos said. "It gives us credibility and generates more interest when a prospect sees that we are associated with a respected company like IBM."
Its reach is extended even further with the direct mail and telemarketing campaigns, joint podcasts, and product listings on local IBM Web sites that TOTVS has added to its marketing strategy. It also attends events such as Lotusphere® and the PartnerWorld conference to meet and team with others who have common interests and complementary expertise.
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