Stefanini: Pioneering the Fourth Industrial Revolution with Innovation and Digital Transformation
Stefanini is helping to prepare businesses for the fourth industrial revolution.
By Kat Zeman
Another industrial revolution is coming. Some claim it’s already arrived. Known as the fourth industrial revolution, or 4IR, it is the fourth major industrial era since the industrial revolution of the 18th century.
Stefanini, a global IT outsourcing services company, is at the forefront of this digital revolution. A $1 billion provider of business solutions with locations in 40 countries across the Americas, Europe, Australia and Asia, Stefanini offers onshore, offshore and nearshore IT services. That includes application development services, IT infrastructure outsourcing, systems integration, consulting and strategic staffing.
But the company, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, sees itself in a much larger dimension. It is helping businesses transform as they enter the digital world. With the launch of its new artificial intelligence platform and the opening of its first innovation center in the United States, Stefanini is leading the way in autonomics-based managed services and cognitive platforms that can reduce the cost of IT services by automating repetitive tasks traditionally tackled by humans.
“Modern information and communication technologies are being combined with traditional processes, thus changing the various production areas,” says Spencer Gracias, Stefani’s CEO of North America and Asia-Pacific. “We are focusing on offering tools that allow a true transformation of our customers’ business. Therefore, business transformation starts acting as the protagonist of the 4th Industrial Revolution, whose technological base predicts the use of cybernetic systems, Internet of Things, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and analytics.”
Launching Sophie
Last year, Stefanini launched a new artificial intelligence platform in the United States. Known as Sophie, this cognitive computing agent has the ability to automate a broad range of business solutions and IT services.
Sophie can work without human intervention, understands natural language and generates and evaluates hypotheses with the option to turn them into solutions. Delivered in the cloud or on premise, Sophie also can interact with various channels including social networks, websites, mobile devices and Microsoft Lync. The platform can understand and process requests via voice commands as well as text messages.
Stefanini spent three years developing Sophie and plans to continue creating new capabilities and functions for the platform. Sophie reinforces the company’s commitment to connect people with new technology innovations. “Our artificial intelligence platform is an example of how we can improve the end-user experience and deliver smarter and more efficient services,” Gracias says.
Innovation is Key
Innovation is a key word in Stefanini’s culture. The company even designed its new North American headquarters in Southfield with that word in mind. The design of the new building promotes an open-space concept that was inspired by making innovation a priority.
Its furniture, lights and colors were specifically chosen to stimulate creativity, communication and the exchange of new ideas through design. “We believe that investing in a more creative and innovative atmosphere is crucial to the environment,” Gracias says.
The building, which opened this year, is also the home of the company’s first Global Innovation Center in the United States – although Stefanini has other centers throughout the world. The centers are a part of the company’s worldwide initiative to embrace emerging technologies and industry standards using “design thinking methodology.”
“Stefanini is positioned strongly as a company that views innovation as a priority, enjoying all the benefits of new trends and providing solutions aligned with the specific business needs of its clients,” Gracias says.
Planning For Growth
Founded in 1987, Stefanini has provided IT services and solutions to more than 500 clients that include a number of global Fortune 1000 enterprises.
Its corporate global headquarters is located in Sao Paulo, Brazil, with the European headquarters in Brussels and North American headquarters in metropolitan Detroit. The company has more than 24,000 employees worldwide. It has maintained its presence in the United States since 2001.
In North America, Stefani is known for helping midsize, large and global enterprises increase the efficiency of their IT operations while also leveraging information technology to power their businesses.
Its services include IT infrastructure outsourcing such as end-user computing outsourcing, application management services and mainframe modernization. In addition, Stefanini offers business-empowering services like mobility, analytics, big-data consulting, SAP consulting, SharePoint, portals and collaboration services.
Gracias became Stefanini’s CEO for North America and Asia-Pacific in March. Under his leadership, the company announced a number of investments in those regions with a goal to grow by 25 percent by 2020.
“To reach this goal, the company is focusing on an innovative offer and reinforcing Stefanini’s role in acting as a digital transformation agent for companies,” Gracias says. “The plan considers focusing on innovation and reinforcing Stefanini’s mission of acting as a digital transformation agent for its clients.”