Aliant, integrator of IT solutions and supplier of hyper automation solutions and managed print services, has acquired 67% of the company SoftPepper, a player on the business software development market in Romania. Bogdan Ciubotaru, Aliant: The discussions started in the spring of 2023
♦ Aliant completed the acquisition of 67% of SoftPepper after a year of negotiations. ♦ "The process and negotiations can be quite complicated and sensitive when we talk about M&A, but it helped us a lot that there was a relationship of trust between me and the founder of SoftPepper".
Negotiations between the representatives of Aliant, an IT integrator and provider of digital transformation services, and SoftPepper, a business software developer, for the acquisition of 67% of SoftPepper began in the spring of 2023, Bogdan Ciubotaru, managing partner, said in an interview for ZF, Aliant.
"The discussions started in the spring of 2023 and it was an interesting coincidence because Laurenţiu Giurescu, the founder of Soft Pepper and I had already met a few years ago, in a mentoring program, where I had helped him better structure his strategy the IT company. But since then we had spoken sporadically. By chance I came across an older message from him, I thought it was a good idea to call him and that's where it all started - 12 months later I signed the contract", said Bogdan Ciubotaru.
He added that the process and negotiations can be quite complicated and sensitive when it comes to M&A (mergers and acquisitions). "It helped us a lot that there was this relationship of trust. Together with Laurenţiu and Daniel Chiper, the other partner in Aliant, we managed not to lose sight of the common objective - that of creating a significant added value, competitive edge and growth from the synergy of the key competencies of Aliant and Soft Pepper."
Bogdan Ciubotaru explained that he and Daniel Chiper chose SoftPepper because they wanted their own software solution and over the years they had several attempts, which did not materialize.
"In 2023 we had discussions and there were options we were looking at, but both Daniel and I felt that Soft Pepper was the best fit and aligned well with Aliant's strategy. There is a mix of factors that weigh in the decision to invest or not, including the information that emerges from due diligence. We took these factors into account, but three elements mattered a lot:
1) the value of the product, if it solves a real problem in the market, and Soft Pepper customers have confirmed this, 2) the commitment and competence of the founder and the Soft Pepper team, and 3) the fit with the Aliant solution suite."
Aliant representatives did not disclose the value of the transaction. "We cannot specify the value of the acquisition, but I can tell you that it reflects Aliant's commitment to expand on the SaaS IT solutions market and the desire to meet customers with robust, flexible and scalable business solutions, capable of bringing added value and to create elements of increased competitiveness, necessary in the context of the current market."
Next, Aliant representatives focus on the integration of the SoftPepper team within the company. Currently, 55 people work within Aliant, including the SoftPepper team, which numbers 11 people.
"We are focusing on the integration of the new team, the creation of a common vision and culture, and the development of a strategy that includes the diversification of the portfolio of solutions, the capitalization of new skills and the alignment of business processes for an efficient integration. In 2023 we recruited six new team members, and in the current year 2024 we already have 10 new colleagues. We will continue to bring in valuable people, with initiative and leadership, to help us grow at the pace we want."
Aliant does not plan another acquisition, but the company's representatives are open, and if an opportunity arises they will not "overlook it".
"We have become accustomed to being open to such opportunities and although we do not actively have such a plan at the moment, we are looking with interest at possible possibilities. If the right opportunity presents itself, we are ready to explore it and make it happen."
Bogdan Ciubotaru said about 2024 that it is a year of growth in all business lines, especially IT projects, which has put increased pressure on delivery and the need to streamline processes in all departments within Aliant.
"We have started internal projects to implement some solutions that will help us to have significantly improved transparency, traceability and speed of operation - we already see the results for some of them."
"Also, the use of generative AI helps us to streamline our activities and we are trying to increase adoption gradually. I believe that the last quarter of 2024 will be loaded from the perspective of projects, whether we are talking about IT implementations and integrations, hyper automation and AI solutions or business applications such as CRM, EPR or Ticketing, which we can now offer with the help of Soft Pepper. "
Currently, the Aliant portfolio counts over 300 clients, from various verticals such as production, education, agriculture, utilities, health or professional services, to which are added industries such as financial services, HoReCa or real estate, among those where Soft Pepper has clients.
"The new solutions based on Soft Pepper's modular BPM platform allow us to offer clients easy methods of increasing business efficiency. ERP, CRM or Ticketing applications come in an accessible and easily scalable formula and we expect to increase this type of revenue by 30%. Our innovative solutions include using genAI and training LLM models on relevant customer data, which we securely incorporate into business applications such as Chatbot, Knowledge Base, CRM, Ticketing or ERP. For example, the Ticketing system can retrieve and analyze requests, including documents, classify and prioritize tickets, quickly propose the best answers to questions or automatically redirect requests, while making predictions on the volume of requests, the level of user satisfaction and recommendations resource optimization, in addition to other capabilities."
The company Aliant had business of 57 million lei (over 11.4 million euros) in 2023, and for the current year the representatives estimate a 25% increase in turnover.
"Taking into account the dynamics we have now, I would say that there are chances to reach a turnover of 15 million euros (74.6 million lei), i.e. an increase of approximately 25% compared to 2023", said Bogdan Ciubotaru
SoftPepper has over 12 years of experience in the field of SaaS (Software as a Service) applications, which allow users to connect and use a wide range of cloud-based applications, and in 2023 recorded revenues of approximately 2 million lei.
Source: Article published in the printed edition of the Financial Newspaper dated 16.10.2024
https://www.zf.ro/business-hi-tech/aliant-integrator-solutii-it-furnizor-solutii-hyper-automation-22516069
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