SOPHOS

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In 1999, four expert consultants in technology from India arrived in Colombia with a project just for three months. The funny thing is that the business trip became an expectation about the financial implementation in the Latin American market, especially in Colombia. This 2021 Sophos Solutions S.A.S celebrates 15 years providing solutions to financial-technological companies in the country. At the begining, investors encountered the language and the cultural barrier. In addition to this, they had to know how technology projects were developed in Colombia, their complexity and the difficulties that a company in the financial sector may encounter in adopting new technologies. Those were the challenges set during seven years in the formation of the founders of Sophos.

Starting in 2007, the founders of Sophos saw an excellent opportunity: Large companies in the financial sector in Colombia had the need to modernize their platforms and work with other world-class technology companies. However, the most important requirement to carry out this process was to find the ideal strategic partner that would allow it to fulfill the development of its implementation. In this way, Sophos was born, who did understand these difficulties mentioned and knew how to find an accurate solution.

Kaushal Sheth, Cofounder Sophos

Gabriel Alzate, Innovation and Digital Transformation Manager

Raúl Zárate, Vicepresident Global Comercial The first handshakes were between Sophos and Colombian companies such as Grupo Aval, Banco Caja Social and Bancolombia. At the same time, the position was being strengthened thanks to international alliances (partnership) with multinationals such as Oracle and Finacle. Sophos would be in charge of being the representative of these brands in a market that needed the update and renewal of financial technologies, while they made a difference.

“We did not want to be just any technology company in Colombia, which is normally looking to offer services in development and testing matters. From 2007 to 2010 we began to form the team in Bogotá, to train them here at the facilities and to expand to other cities such as Medellín, to provide a solution to Bancolombia ”, said Kaushal Sheth, Co-Founder of Sophos Solutions S.A.S.

This project, which was born in the hands of four partners, was soon to break national borders and continue its expansion. Between 2010 and 2015 the number of personnel increased to more than 500 professionals, and with this, offices were opened in Mexico, Chile and Ecuador. But that was not enough to create a purely Latin American team. Today Sophos is made up of 90% Colombian and 10% foreign human talent, with many more experts from India and other countries where the company is located.

2015 marked a milestone in Sophos history. That year, the Colombian Stock Exchange (BVC) acquired this company to complement the capital markets business, backed by a technology expert company that strengthened its value offer. At that time the vision of part and part understood the importance of marking a before and after in the industry. Therefore, since then Sophos has found a strategic partner that allowed it to grow professionally.

But that’s not all, from the beginning, the founders of Sophos understood the reason why they should do business in Colombia, knowing that their clients are here. It was not enough to give life to a financial strategy from a country outside the client. Sophos has expanded to provide solutions without limits in scope. Today you can guarantee this differential value in places such as: Bogotá, Medellín, Chile, Mexico, Panama, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Honduras, Bahamas, Canada and the United States.

Digital Transformation is a process that begins with the people and culture of an organization, and follow with the definition of new business models, to achieve a change in customer experience, allowing differentiation and sustainability over time

Digital transformation was always a key ideal in building Sophos. Twenty years ago, using those words referred to the modernization of strategies for the implementation of new technologies in niches. Today, for Sophos, digital transformation means innovation. A company that generates differential value, subject to good experiences, is a company that is capable of providing solutions to the market.

“We know that any transformation is very complex, it is not only a technological challenge, but also a human talent challenge. We understand and face all these projects and changes ”, concluded Kaushal.

Sophos has a clear purpose and it is to leverage the financial industry in Colombia in its technological transformation to its score system. For 30 years we can say that Latin American banking applied the transformation with home-made products; then it went on to implement the model at the regional level. However, approximately 15 years ago this process of globalization began. From there all technological solutions give a face to the world, and of course Colombia was not going to be one of the actors that was left behind with this. The Sophos team visualize these scenarios and understands how it can focus effort and capacity to assist financial institutions in what is known as core transformation.

Subsequently, the market demand was pronounced against the difference between technological solutions and technology services that could leverage the development of the business. The historic boom in the financial sector occurred when companies had a robust core system, but did not yet know how to expose it to customers. In addition, in the ability to focus not on standardized services, but on clients, as a workplace.

Sophos evolves to begin providing technology solutions while accompanying customers, without neglecting the concept that supports the identity of this company: Provide personalized services and provide customer-focused microsegmentation. Sophos demonstrates a plus in the industry thanks to the support of the banking sector at the national level.

“The center is the end customer. For a company to have the ability to offer a personalized service, it needs a fairly high technological support. You cannot do that at the level of operational or manual processes,“ said Raúl Zárate, Global Commercial Vice President.

Addressing regional needs in Colombia and other Latin American countries, Sophos adopted what they call “software as a service”. With this model, they provide world-class services at a lower level on the client size scale. One of the most important characteristics in this implementation is that any Fintech can participate and give a renewal to its business model. From the smallest to the largest companies can count on this service and notice the results.

In addition, Sophos gave life to a product that became a very important value service for companies and is Bank4US. Its objective is focused on meeting the need for a SaaS (software as a service) model backed by the experience, professionalism and quality that Sophos Solutions represents. It is the ideal platform to enable any company to launch financial products to market in a short time, using the best practices of the financial industry.

Bank4US is a tool that combines modules and applications that are easy to use, innovative and close to the user. The platform allows companies to configure and customize credit products, having visibility of the product throughout its life cycle.

Among all the features of Bank4US stand out:

Low investment (UP-Front): as a platform in the cloud and ready to operate, which decreases the risks of a high injection initial capital.

Time-to-market: has financial products preconfigured that allow you to exit to the market in record time.

World-class supported solution: tools such as Oracle (Flexcube), AWS and Bizagi are part of the strategic partners in Bank4US, which allows us to offer a low cost, but with a high quality process. “Sophos is ready to face the realities financial and technological. But beyond that, we are getting ready for the future. We wantbecome that company that helps transform the business model of customers “, concluded RaúlZárate, Global Vice President Commercial.

For a company that constantly carries the words “digital transformation” in its message, it is important to demonstrate it within it to offer that service to customers. Led by Diana Lemus, Human Management Manager, Sophos has been working on culture as a more people-oriented company. In 2020, it received recognition from Great Place To Work, as one of the 15 best companies to work for. Making an announcement to the world of work of commitment to all workers.

The human talent within Sophos determines the starting point for providing quality service to customers. That is why we can define that this company starts from: Research, as a vital exercise to be able to tell clients about the panorama where it is currently, taking into account world trends in each of the branches that they point to. Innovation, generating co-creation workshops with clients. The prototyping, accompanying the understanding of the project to prototype and bring that digital product with good usability practices. And finally, development, which is the stage that Sophos shows most strength in making customer planning a reality.

Today, the company has an innovation laboratory, starring the human talent of Sophos. This area is intended for the creation of ideas for product design. The system has the necessary resources to consider doing minimum viable projects before showing them to clients. This is how Gabriel Alzate, Manager of Innovation and Digital Transformation at Sophos Solutions S.A.S defines it: “We work a lot with people. Our talent is the main asset and value we have ”.

Sophos is a customer-centric company, working together with and hand in hand with them. Its pillars are focused on supporting the strategic creation of new business models, based on technologies and digital platforms, generating a new experience, to achieve a value construction that makes a difference in the market, that is Sophos.