Local IT firms raise their game at Mobile World Congress

Newsroom 11/03/2013 | 10:40

Romania put on an improved display at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona by eleven local telecom and software companies which showcased their technologies and services at the event. Some of these players shared their experience at the congress with BR and outlined their vision of future mobile technologies.

By Otilia Haraga

“Everything will be mobile connected. Mobility will go into people’s lives more and more, from smartphones, which are becoming stronger and feature advanced technological specifications, to intelligent houses or cars controlled from tablets or smartphones,” Voicu Oprean, general manager of Arobs Transilvania Software, tells BR.

Other participants flying the flag for Romania at the congress agree. Ionut Pop, marketing specialist at iQuest adds that more and more focus is being placed on security and cloud technologies.

“Big names in the industry such as Samsung, HTC, Sony and Huawei made a good impression, although they left us with the feeling they were keeping the product launches for their own events,” says Pop. He believes that the Mobile World Congress (MWC) is turning into an event for showcasing products and services rather than closing business partnerships.

“As Sony, Samsung and Huawei have proven, smartphones will become increasingly slim and will have a larger display. So-called ‘phablets’, which combine the features of a smartphone with those of a tablet, will become more popular,” Pop adds.  Another “star” of the Congress was the mobile wallet, Andrei Brad, marketing director at SimPlus Invest, tells BR. “The number of companies that offered such solutions increased threefold compared to last year,” he says.

Arobs Transilvania Software, Allview, SimPlus Invest, Transilvania Software, Appscend, IT Six Global Services, Creative Staff, Qualteh, iQuest Technologies, Evoline and DataTEK Group were the local companies that participated.

The products and services displayed by the Romanian companies covered the development of mobile, web and embedded applications, couponing and ticketing services based on SMS, offshore and near-shore software development, mobile payment products, GPS navigation systems, IT support, electronic products such as dual SIM mobile phones and tablets.

The eighth MWC was hosted at a new venue, Fira Gran Via, and was attended by more than 72,000 participants from 200 countries. The Romanian pavilion had a surface area of 100 sqm, according to the Ministry of Economy.

“Unlike last year, Romania’s stand was much more attractive from the point of view of the design, organization and display space, which also contributed to a significant growth in the number of visitors,” Oprean tells BR.

Arobs Transilvania Software, the IT company he leads, is based in Cluj-Napoca and has over 300 specialists. This was the third time Arobs had participated in the Barcelona congress. The company’s delegation comprised four members who were involved in the projects developed by the Arobs center for mobile development. The center was started in 2008 with a couple of people and has expanded to over 30 specialists.

At the congress, Arobs established contact with representatives from companies from Spain, Germany, France, England, Finland, Norway, Dubai and Russia. It promoted tailor-made software development services, based on its experience in applications dedicated to mobile devices in domains such as healthcare, banks, hotel reservations, and locating cars and people via GPS.

This was the second year in which iQuest had attended the event as part of the Romanian stand. “Participation at the MWC was a good opportunity to identify potential clients in the banking and telecom sectors from countries such as Great Britain, Germany and the United States,” said Pop.

In February, iQuest announced the opening of its new software development center in Craiova.

In October 2012 iQuest had a total headcount of 450 employees and announced it would hire 40 more people in 2013. Most of the company’s revenues (90 percent) come from projects for firms in Western Europe, especially Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain and the Scandinavian countries.

While in previous years, SimPlus, a premium rate services operator (SMS and Voice) in Romania, had visited the event, this was the first time the company had sent a large team to participate in the fair, and displayed its wares in Barcelona in the Romanian stand.

SimPlus showcased its services for the aggregation of payments via SMS, as the company is connected with the major telecom operators such as Vodafone Romania, Orange Romania, Cosmote Romania, Romtelecom and Digi Mobil.

In 2010, the company launched its first method of payment for public transportation which allows passengers to buy bus tickets in Romanian cities. In 2012, it also launched a payment solution for a one-day travelcard for use on public transportation in Bucharest. “We presented our complete and integrated mobile phone-enabled ticketing system which allows the order, payment and issue of tickets using various technologies such as SMS, mobile applications for smartphones or rugged phones, USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) etc, as well as monitoring the ticket and the activity of the ticket inspectors,” says Brad.

otilia.haraga@business-review.ro

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