"We face 2022 full of enthusiasm and energy, ready to meet the objectives that we have set as an organization"

Financial focus – 2021: consolidation; 2022: growth

I’d like to use this corporate space to complete the details about our Group’s financial focus, a conversation we had the chance to start a few days ago. 

We are now mid-way through the second quarter of 2022 and we can make a quantitative analysis of the results for FY 2021 and see what the major challenges are that we have in front of us during 2022.

2021 was a year of integration and consolidation of results. The incorporation of Noesis into the Altia Group has provided an important advancement in terms of quality and quantity. The incorporation of Noesis has brought the direct consequences that we have an improved presence in more international markets with high development potential; new clients with a clear vocation for innovation, many of whom are global; state of the art technologies and, of course, a lot of highly qualified and skilled new talent. Of course, the financial return has also been extremely positive.

We finished the FY 2021 with more than € 125 million in turnover. Despite this being lower than the forecast in our Business Plan, it reinforces our business model, which is highly focused on technological services with high added value and implements a very customer-oriented and also, as a listed company, results-oriented organizational strategy. The profit was € 8.7 million and our balance sheet continued to increase in strength and solvency.

Although not all objectives were met, the results for 2021 can be considered as satisfactory. These results were obtained thanks to our many clients who trust us and, of course, thanks to our people who, through their work, effort, knowledge and interest, made these results possible despite the backdrop of enormous uncertainty resulting from the pandemic, the successive lockdowns, the supply crisis and geopolitical tensions.

We face 2022 full of enthusiasm and energy, ready to meet the objectives that we have set as an organization, despite the levels of uncertainty in these first few months being even higher than last year. We are into the second year of our Business Plan which, like in previous versions of this document that sets out our short-term strategy, is characterised as a year of growth. We aspire to be more: more clients and more people, to grow turnover, to have better and greater results, and to consolidate a healthy financial model with continuous cash generation and maximum solvency on the balance sheet. We want our clients to continue to trust us, and that there are others who decide to do so; we want to strengthen positions in the markets in which we operate and, of course, we want to be more people, since they are the main component of our value proposition.

I would like to thank you all very much for everything you have done in 2021 so that we could respond to the challenges posed by our clients and to continue our journey as an organisation with a strong international presence. With the solid foundations on which we have started the year, we aspire for 2022 to be a year of growth, both qualitatively and, of course, quantitatively.

I wish you all good health!

Nacho Cabanas. Altia Group Economic-Financial Director

The Best Workplaces Ranking, released annually, distinguishes the organizations with the highest grades in the Organizational Culture & Climate Study carried out by Great Place to Work.

Before this recognition, Noesis has been certified as a Great Place to Work® (GPTW), recognizing the high trust culture and good working environment. The participation in the Organizational Culture & Climate Study, carried out by Great Place to Work Portugal, proved to be a success, with a Confidence Index of 82%.

This study was based on employee survey feedback about the experience at Noesis, which measures the quality of work, and on the audit that evaluates the quality of human resources practices carried out by Great Place to Work.

Plan to improve talent management policies in progress

“We live in challenging times, so we were particularly happy about the response rate and the Confidence Index. This certification and recognition happen within the scope of the people management plan that aims to make our organizational culture stronger. It is also the confirmation that we must continue to place people at the center of the organization”, Teresa Lopes Gândara said.

Currently, Noesis has more than 900 talents spread across its various locations in Portugal (Lisbon, Coimbra, Porto, Proença-a-Nova, Guarda, and Covilhã), Brazil, Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United States – committed to the goals of the organization and focused on providing an adequate and excellent response to the challenges of its national and international clients.

Teresa Lopes Gândara also adds that “the participation of our talents in the study was essential to achieve these results".

Luciana Povoa, Head of Content Production Solutions in the Corporate Journey Directorate, which is part of Globo’s Digital Hub, says that “Noesis was fundamental in creating a strong culture and became a leader in the area of Quality”. But more than working on quality, it was also necessary to work on changing mindsets: “Currently we work with a multidisciplinary team, all with the same direction and with the same objective and giving fluidity to the processes. We have a new, more agile work model, supported by DevOps and which, in terms of added value, goes far beyond quality.”

GMusic sets the example

Nickson Chagas, responsible for the technical leadership in the quality area at Noesis Brazil, explains that one of the first projects developed was GMusic. “Two and a half years ago, Globo was changing and adopting an agile culture, so they felt the need to work not only on quality in general but also to have someone responsible for that role in the team, and Noesis was chosen.” The challenge at the time was to understand the context in which a mature quality process did not exist “and to identify the needs, draw up a strategic plan to develop the entire quality culture process, with the validation of unit tests, manual tests, automated tests, integration tests, etc”. GMusic was one of the first projects that responded to a strong need within Globo in terms of music management. “The production of a soap opera or a video is not designed without music and this platform allows you to manage Globo’s whole musical collection”. Nickson Chagas explains that Globo started “to produce its quality music, making it available to internal editors and sound engineers, through a library full of searchable songs”. 

More digital soap operas and actors

Also, the famous soap operas by Estúdios Globo (formerly Projac) benefited from this quality work. Hence the example of GMusic “evolved into other products within Globo in the areas of journalism and sports”.

Luciana Povoa explains that there is another major project that will allow “the modernization of a solution that is the Production Management System (SGP). In Globo’s new megastudio, MG4 (Recording Module 4), the new solution also made it possible to move from managing the processes of recording scripts on paper “to something completely digital, through TVs throughout the studios, fully focused on quality and efficiency gains for everyone”. Also here, “Noesis played a decisive role in leading and automating the testing of this product,” says Luciana Povoa.

An even more agile role

Regarding Noesis’ role in all these processes, Luciana Povoa explains that, in the case of projects developed by the IT Solutions for Entertainment team at Globo, “the Quality part is 100% Noesis, and the company brought important knowledge” that was disseminated in other areas. “Instilling the concept of Quality for any project or realizing what kind of tests to do has always been the responsibility of Noesis”. In the case of the PAS@Nuvem project (Planning, Allocation and Simulation of Resources in the Cloud), which is a structuring and transformational project, “every part of integrated and functional testing is also the responsibility of Noesis”.

Luciana Povoa stresses that “in the day-to-day work, we do not have company names on the table, since we are all one team working for the same thing.” This is also an idea shared by José Miguel Ferreira, responsible for Noesis in Brazil, who states: “our work was helped a lot by having great support from all of the Globo directors who were very active and participative at all times.” 

In recent times, the Covid-19 pandemic has caused disruptions on a global scale. Several contingency measures have been implemented to address this adversity and have created congestion and logistics problems, directly affecting the supply chain. Factors such as the lack of operational workers, ruptured ports, and growing political tensions aggravated this situation and created complex challenges for the industry. 

Nelson Pereira, CTO of Noesis, was one of the speakers at the event, where he presented the main technological trends in the Logistics and Transportation sector and how organizations can take advantage of their full potential. The CTO shared with the audience emerging processes and technologies that he considers essential to enhance the success of organizations.

Technology as an innovation driver

From Artificial Intelligence to the rapid development of Low-Code solutions, including Automation and Software Quality Management, several topics were addressed, with the demonstration of practical examples of how these technologies are contributing to mitigating the obstacles that the sector faces. One of the solutions presented was a real case of using Artificial Intelligence and Computer Vision to automate the inventory process, detect supply failures and evaluate stock levels in real-time.

Wim Gerhort, Director of Software Development at Vopak, was another guest speaker and presented the Digital Transformation journey the company has been going through, in partnership with Noesis and using OutSystems technology. Bas Koopmanschap, the Managing Partner at Nextpage, led a session where he demonstrated how Lean Management and KPI orientation improve organizations' performance and overall performance. There was also time for a roundtable, moderated by Frank Lenders (Noesis), with the presence of Wim Gerholt (Vopak), Jelle de Rooij (Nederland Distributieland), Arjan Waardenburg (OutSystems), Bas Koopmanschap (Nextpage) and Nelson Pereira (Noesis).