Still it goes to Lodi the primacy of software “made in Italy” (but already running successfully in international competition). With its solutions, Zucchetti is getting closer to businesses and partners who want to invest in value-added.
In view of the Italian software house focused on applications for the management of the business and professional offices there brand as established and authoritative. However, the reporter also used to describe the evolution of this company through a long and regular attendance, should never take anything for granted when it comes to Zucchetti.
Zucchetti is not only the pioneer of the automation of accounting procedures, administrative, fiscal, having lived through the revolution from within the accounting practice that Dominic, the founder, was the owner. Over time, the company’s software Lodi has never stopped innovating, identifying new areas of intervention, giving an important contribution to the modernization of the industry professionals who help Italian companies in managing their tax obligations and resources human and information technology in toto. The professionals have become, not surprisingly, a key partner Zucchetti strategies that address a complex market, crowded with local and multinational software provider.
Never ending Story
Each time, the history of this group – which now has more than two thousand and 800 employees – is enhanced. Its presence in Italy and abroad is strengthened and the issues addressed – albeit within the confines of the technologies for the management of corporate resources – multiply. And the turnovers, which since 2009 see it on the top list of Italian companies of software, know no crisis. In 2014, the turnover was 358 million euro, an increase still close to double digits compared to 2013. One thousand and one hundred partner for more than 100 thousand customers, a now substantial presence outside Italy, where there are seven seats foreign companies, including those in the United States and Brazil. Every month in Italy, over four and a half million payslips are processed directly by using the products and services HR Zucchetti or labor consultants. To this was added the twenty operating locations that Zucchetti in Italy.
Antonio Grioli – President of the Steering Committee
Zucchetti access systems, including those running in dozens of large stadiums worldwide, regulate the passage of more than 70 million viewers per year. But growth, continuous innovation is the ability to read in detail. New auctions “cross application” (CRM, DMS, mobile applications, corporate portals, safety solution, ZTravel, ZScheduling, ZTimesheet): + 40% year on year; turnover business intelligence solutions: + 14.5%; new customers acquired: 5,065 (+ 33%); new customers for cloud solutions: more than 50% more than the previous year.
The IT to stand
Zucchetti will displace you, always surprises, is capable of inventing the future and see everything in a new light, to announce an acquisition, the opening of product lines unexpected, but always oriented mission to help businesses that buy or benefit of its solutions – through the network of partners – to address specific problems and focus on their business, easing the burden of the obligations managerial, administrative and always staying abreast of regulations. A mission that Zucchetti pursues with determination and with a capacity for long-term vision, that make the difference, especially when the market circumstances of the software are not particularly favorable. “Besides – recalls Antonio Grioli, Chairman of the Board, Professor of Strategy and Policy at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart and for years one of the instigators of the strategies of the Group – the information technology market is cyclical by definition. It invests in technology and automation software, when there is really a need to innovate, to change the paradigm. In my opinion, the improvement is not to be trivialized by the usual “formulaic”: effectiveness, efficiency, cost reduction … The company is better able to bring out its value, to be more visible and attractive to others. There is a measure given by “value for money”, that is not the value declared by the supplier of technology, often exuberant and made promises, but that found in the field by the customer who made the investment. ” According to the chairman of the steering committee Zucchetti, invest only to become more efficient, reduce costs, it expresses an opinion limited and limiting; the real objective of an investment in technology has become, act on the processes, leverage technology to create innovative products or do things in a radically different way. “Today, a company conscious of being able to count on true product excellence – declares Grioli – can pursue the globalization of the market and the software can not only give efficiency. It should help you identify new markets, new ways to reach new customers. ” To boost the efficiency, therefore, a real engine of innovation.
In working with businesses
“Gone are the days when they were the big multinationals to impose their management models to businesses, dictating the roadmap” – comments Grioli. “It could work, when the number one goal was for everyone, only the efficiency. It does not work, today, in the era of differentiation, personalization, in a context where each company has its own peculiarities, its success factors and, consequently, its need for a tailored approach. “Many multinationals are reviewing player, even eliminating, their proximity to the end user, their organizations to channel-oriented small and medium enterprises, which instead is the real point of reference for Zucchetti and the commercial strength of its Galaxy partner and dealers. ” “You want proof”? – Continues Grioli. “Today, the player who for years have spoken of” one size fits all “, which reminds me of those awful socks” monotaglia “that do not go well with anyone except to those who sell them, they speak of the cloud, however, based on a model that It proposes the cloud as a large shelf where companies and partners can find things that interest them. Even standard thus still “packages”, even approval, at a time when it is the “non-approval” to the success of an enterprise. ”
Giorgio Mini – Vice President
For this reason, Cristina Zucchetti intervenes in his role as President of Zucchetti Group, “there is still a distance, perhaps unbridgeable, between the big international providers and the basic and specific needs of customers who are Italian but still face market always globalized. ” It is this distance that separates reality formidable, complex but foreign to our culture, it constituted instead from much appreciated fabric of small and medium-sized, “that they have to find those who can not only assisting them in the search for efficiency, but also visibility, capacity to bring out an excellence. ” Though they may be accurate channel strategies, relations between software vendors and their small customers Italians are exposed to the dynamics typical of multinational corporations, where it happens that the products pass out of hand and that, accordingly, an implementation fails. In these cases, the customer feels abandoned and believes that its specificity and its own investments are not protected. How often we get from overseas learned lessons, exhortations to the resilience of the enterprise, ie the ability to grow and evolve to meet the needs and expectations of customers. “But it seems that such an ingredient missing for small Italian companies, able to imagine, to stand out even better, faster, the largest and most efficient organizations?” – Asks Cristina Zucchetti. “On the territory, including the trade of large organizations is made up of a system of much smaller companies, each of which deserves a technology provider capable of producing its solutions with an industrial mentality, making her feel as if the client software is developed specifically for him. ” Exactly, the sense of the philosophy of development platform that Infinity Zucchetti has pursued for years with its solutions.
Engine management
What that means for Zucchetti this platform and how does it fit in a bid ERP / management for its variety and ability to address the market – from micro to large organization – it does not seem to have any rivals in Italy?
“Infinity stems from a thorough analysis of the needs of the business market and the professionals, a strategy that permeates all the Group’s offer through a speech organic components that are under our control and also enable new ways of delivery as a Service and the network of our partner, turning them into practice in independent developers “- said the vice president, Giorgio Mini. With this choice Zucchetti Group has been able to go beyond the enforcement, creating a platform that gives long-term competitive advantages over competitors because of the offer includes the development environment, the basic framework and all application solutions that are grafted on it to obtain the highest level of integration with the widest possible range of functionality. “When we started developing Infinity, we were already market leader in the ERP – Mini continues – and so the challenge was not to make an application” technically “better, but to create a different model of process management, based on collaboration , on the sharing and communication between all those who access the corporate information system. For this reason Infinity is much more than a solution: it is a strategy that governs all business information. ”
Infinity is born and evolves as a kind of meta-management environment that enables Zucchetti to broaden their technological domains in areas such as business process management, BI (with Infinity Analytics and many analytical functions integrated into ERP modules), the document management with an internal search engine for information and extensions such as unified messaging and VoIP. All in an ERP platform (and not just ERP, whereas Infinity is also based on the software solutions for human resource management and those that Zucchetti extends to the world of tax consultants and labor) highly modular, customizable, independent device, fixed or mobile use, delivered to both companies through the traditional model of licensing both versions hosted or fully could, thanks to an infrastructure of data centers and a division of web services increasingly powerful and effective.
Domenico Uggeri – Vice President
But with this new delivery model there is the risk of limiting the role of retailers? “On the contrary” – responds Giorgio Mini. “The fact that the network of partners, thanks to the approach of Infinity, is now able to generate significant added value, is strategically important. True, in a world of disintermediation, software solutions and more powerful “knowingAnyThing“, the partner is afraid of being bypassed. Instead Zucchetti, enabling it on the technological as well as commercial, guarantees the continuity, ability to grow and make us grow. ”
After the stage, the work
The identity of Zucchetti, as the primary supplier of technology to the enterprise and the public administration, is confirmed by the words of Mr. Domenico Uggeri, vice president for the line of solutions for the management of staff, who in addition to matters of pay as well the control of access and presence and not only in work spaces and construction sites. With the order of 1.1 million euro, won for the construction of the access systems to the new stadium in Tbilisi (Georgia’s capital), a sports venue by 50,000 spectators, and recent similar projects in Mexico and Uruguay, the know -how Zucchetti ended in over a hundred stages around the world. “What we do in the stadiums – Uggeri jokes – it’s just the playful side of a business, personnel management according Zucchetti, under tremendous consolidation. By now, it came to cover almost 50% of turnover of the spa, but it continues to grow by more than 10% year over year. ” For Mr. Uggeri, growth is also linked to the coverage that technology Infinity is able to offer support to all kinds of activities of human resource management, the career personnel, safety in the workplace. A scope, the Americans would say, it no longer concerns only the Italian market, but embraces the Italian companies abroad and, to strive, foreign customers. “A change from the past is certainly the internationalization of our product division. We can be a global provider, which is not to resort to third-party solutions to complement its offering. ” In the past, some modules for payroll were adapted to foreign regulations, but now several other modules HR Zucchetti were internationalized.
“Another specificity refers to the ability of addressing all levels of the market. For example, we know that in Italy the density of small businesses is unusual compared to the rest of Europe, but in general the players in this sector have a single platform depending on the type of customer. We we have two, HR Web-facing large companies, SMEs, professionals and associations, and HR Project, aimed at vertical markets, such as the world of temporary employment. None of our competitors offer such a large and structurally diverse, yet integrated. ” For the customer, it emphasizes Uggeri, to have this level of modularity can significantly reduce the costs and problems of integration, typical of a personnel management based on multiple solutions from different vendors.
Mario Pedrazzini – responsible BU accountants and associations
World geography
On foreign markets, the business unit in charge of personnel management Zucchetti is following in the footsteps traced in the access control market by the division Zucchetti Axess, now accredited in fifty countries. “Among the latest geographic expansion of our route there are locations in Brazil, where we have located a product Mago.net Enterprise as well as in Germany, where already some commercializzavamo hardware solutions with the acquisition of TCPOS two years ago. In Germany, we also sell solutions for human resource management and security, in particular, we find some success with modules comeZScheduling, a workforce management solution, like that in contexts dominated by a culture of planning and attendance l ‘ job evaluation cost “- concludes Uggeri.
The garrison of solutions targeted more specifically at customers of professional firms and industry associations is given to Mario Pedrazzini. Its business unit is in fact the story of the entire Group, born from pioneering technology experience for Domenico Zucchetti in its accounting practice. “The IT applied to the needs of this discipline – explains Pedrazzini – lived a twilight first phase focused on the performance tax, moving from a manual to a computerized management at the service of the automation and the search for greater productivity and accounting services tax. Then there was the intermediate period in which software solutions were going to touch the internal organizational management of the professional meeting the need for business planning, control of billing performance and their profitability. ” And now? “Today, the search for efficiency is no longer just the” world “inside the studio, but the relationship, all external, more and more strategic in the study, the service center and the universe of companies, very often made up of the 98 % of entrepreneurship made of companies with fewer than 20 workers, that thanks to the web can establish a much more collaborative with the professional. ” As Mini, Pedrazzini also notes that the strategy Infinity, with its native orientation to the cloud, was designed in this spirit. “There are already some specific factors of change that outline a clear trend and that we recognize under the name of” digital convergence “: the new scenario configures increased activity increasingly automated, at the expense of manual data entry. We are also witnessing a shift in the level of competence: the operators of the studies tend to focus on more value-like balance sheets and consulting and less on routine tasks such as accounting. Just think only aspect of the dematerialization of documents, to new developments such as the electronic invoice to the PA, but soon also in private companies or the same electronic filing fees. A problem that can be easily resolved by a deeper integration process between the study and the enterprise and the full sharing in the network management tools. ”
A new world
The new solutions Zucchetti for vocational studies technology-based Infinity, emphasizes Pedrazzini, bridging the gap between the professional and his customers, who can access their documents securely by publishing systems via their dedicated web. It is an additional level of service made of “micro instruments” B2B application, which gives the company – for example – the opportunity to run it on the web billing cycle active, the first note, receipts / payments, a kind dematerialisation of the relationship between the company on the one hand and its market on the other, together with the professional office and financial administration. “Obviously, there are repercussions on the work of the study, which is increasingly becoming a” hub “that can intercept the flow of files already structured and normalized. The bulk of the work input and recording is already done and the study focuses on the fiscal, enhancing its role as a business consultant. ” Zucchetti is essential to oversee the technological phenomenon, which will lead to the renewal of the platform software and information service centers, using solutions based entirely on the web and on the cloud, making it possible also new models of aggregation of specialized studies in various consulting activities. “Zucchetti sees the web a new world, a true platform for interaction between the professional and his clients, the tool to enhance and organize the operation of the professional, but also the supporting infrastructure on which to offer new services to businesses and the build up a strong relationship. Yesterday, on the computer side, the study was the boundary of the professional world, today is a point in an ever-expanding universe because of the speed and pervasiveness of the network. With Infinity August we are anticipating this reality and we accompany professionals in this process of evolution of their organizations. ”
Not only. Pedrazzini announces an important innovation specifically aimed at trade associations, defined as the front, right now, the most sensitive of the need for transformation, even in key technology, methods of delivery of services to corporate clients. “It is actually even more complex than studies, which often embody more vocations, ranging from advice on the environment and safety, until the assistance on the issue of credit to the company, the training activity , to union representation and category, to which is added the course of the data processing accounting, tax and personnel administration. I am in effect companies needing analytical accounting, with advanced management control, budget management and cash flow, as well as business intelligence to understand which areas of service or operating units are profitable or have additional growth margins. To them, we have designed an integrated solution that provides functions ERP and CRM, billing management of dues, maintaining a strong connection with the area of accounting and personnel administration. In practice, we have integrated August Infinity, the product for professional offices, and with Ad Hoc HR Infinity Infinity, our ERP environment, paving the way for management models, organization and control several reflected both within the major centers services and outside, in their relationship with customers. ”
Gregorio Piccoli – responsible for technology development
None of these models of integration and sharing would be possible without the technology strategies governed by the CTO of Zucchetti, Gregorio Piccoli. “The comparison with our users, emerges this tremendous shift towards the cloud” – notes Small. “It was not a trend so obvious when Zucchetti has accepted the challenge of change, but our choice and loyalty to the new paradigms open gave us quite right. After the wave of tablet and diversification of device, be it sided with the web standards has rewarded us. ” The challenge of Infinity will continue, according to Small, along two main axes. “One-oriented government of the Big Data phenomenon, the other side, the increasing mobility of devices and the need for simplification of interfaces, which must become increasingly smart, able to adapt automatically to features and content.”
A mobile future and simple
“In terms of business intelligence, we always thought that the growth potential would be enormous, just key in Big Data” – says Gregory Small. But Big Data is a phenomenon that requires a tremendous ability to analyze, because the data are not those generated by the applications themselves, but the information coming from the outside, from the logs, from the activities of CRM, from social interactions, the Internet of Things (IoT). And data are difficult to be structured, for which matters greatly the quality and veracity. ” Zucchetti will focus more and more on this capacity for analysis and correlation, even in space management more familiar to the Group. “We will never be specialists of BI solutions – admits in the end the CTO of Zucchetti – but we will be more and more oriented to integrate into our products analytics simplified, automated, advanced reporting tools that can give value to the myriad of important data that go through our products. ”
While the heads of the divisions and the CTO talk about Zucchetti known to many thousands of clients, the dynamics of group Zucchetti put the foundation for the future, that of diversification, the opening of new frontiers. “One of our missions – says Alessandro Zucchetti – is to identify technological innovations, filter and bring our customers only the most useful things, to create value.” And here’s the Zucchetti, that after exploring the domains of automation and industrial robotics and home, enters again as a pioneer in the world of the Internet of Things. Dating back to last December, the acquisition of Macnil, a Puglia (70 employees) that fifteen years produces extraordinary messaging applications, logistics, remote control TV, telemedicine, mobile office. We also remember that in 2014, joined the group Zucchetti an innovative system integrator as Longwave, Emilian company with highly specialized infrastructure and applications in areas such as unified communications and collaboration, optimization of networks, information security – as in 2013 – c ‘it was the entrance of specialist CRM, Pat. ‘For the suppliers of technology can also forgive some promise too much “- said Alessandro Zucchetti. “As we expected, however, much more. Not a simple spending in technology, but the realization in a targeted and personalized the future: today, at home, with the assistance of a quality partner. A Zucchetti, customers and partners rely on its success. In the IT software, the alphabet begins with Z, for over thirty-seven years. ”
Photo by Gabriele Sandrini
Source: Datamanager
