The company that focuses on data management ensures that Colombia has a good regulatory framework
Data management is today one of the issues that concerns both consumers and companies. One of the big players in this complex industry is the company Servinformacion. Its president, Mónica Patiño, assured that the company's goal is to expand its international presence to five markets in 2025.
What is Servinformación?
Servinformacion is a company dedicated to what we have called "intelligent localization". We are a data company, our phrase or DNA is "we believe that by ordering and enriching information we transform, generate value and give power". What it translates is that we are a data company, which we have transformed for companies and have given them the attribute of georeferencing.
For us, georeferencing is a word that is coined with copyright because at that time, 20 years ago, when we started working with the data, we noticed that the maps were misplaced and referential. For this reason, we created a word that we coined and that has managed to position Servinformacion.
The world distinguishes what is data from information and analytics. Tell us a little about this
Today we have databases with more than 400 million data and we have understood that we must implement a quality issue for this information and thus be able to bring it to more knowledge around the data. For example, we manage localized data through property, that is, at the house or dwelling level.
By being able to take the data with the attribute we can understand much more the behavior of that person, where they live, where they work, and now with the new tools and all the new services that technology is giving us, it allows us to talk about what can already be done understanding prediction on that data.
In other words, giving more value to information and that is what we have been working on and I think that is what has made us different. Always thinking ahead with innovative products, in this case, the subject of artificial intelligence has allowed us to have more opportunities.
For example, we did an analysis of some dataphones and analyzed three years of information of what had happened to him. We made a model where we were able to make the prediction of which dataphone was going to be damaged next week, when it was going to be damaged and why it was going to be damaged, but most importantly: where it was going to be damaged.
This, for companies that sell dataphones or any technology service issue, will be very productive, as they seek a corrective before they are damaged. So, look at such a simple fact of studying three years of information about what has happened to dataphones and being able to predict what will happen.
What do you offer customers in information security? That they are not victims of hacks, especially since there is a lot of information.
I think that the most important thing that all these new technologies bring is the use of security, because if we are going to see in Gmail or YouTube, they do not have hacking because that is their core and they spend billions of pesos in having the best security and that is what we are transferring today when we use data in public Cloud infrastructures. So when we see a data that is transferred to a cloud it is encrypted seven times, so that what is stored is hieroglyphics and it is segmented. There are several things that guarantee the user that their data is safe on seven padlocks and, other than that, they are separated.
What are the opportunities for Software as a service?
The opportunities are gigantic and I can explain this with an example:
We were selling a digital map and it could cost $30 million. When I sell it and make all my property maps available to users, who pay for them per service, its cost is $6 million, but behind it there is a data of billions.
The fact that we can not sell licenses that are very expensive and then have to be maintained, but rather sell software as a service in which one is responsible for maintenance and updating, and at a cost that is going to be represented in many years, it gives many companies the opportunity to use these services that previously only large companies could buy.
Twenty years ago they were the exclusive preserve of systems engineers, but this issue became transversal to all organizations. In your case, how is it observed in the industry?
Yes, and even use it as a service because when I give a company access to a service, it can be used by the entire organization. For example, in our case we give them a Geomarketing license and this tool serves sales people, marketing people, portfolio people and being the same tool, the software as a service makes the uses of the services transversal and also the topic of the data.
We have a solution that today guarantees the quality of address information from anywhere in the country to the company. When an address arrives I am able to tell if that address exists or not. That address that will now be clean, organized and that exists in a database will serve the man who charges, the one who makes the sale, the one who does the maintenance. So these are data that, when organized and centralized, serve the entire organization.
There is a new regulatory framework that has been implemented through the SIC and the Superfinanciera, and the Habeas Data Law and its compliance are becoming more and more relevant. How is Colombia compared to other countries?
Colombia is doing quite well in this regard and I think that from a regulatory point of view all our services and all our contracts, when we talk about data, are anonymized. Just as security is encrypted, all data is anonymized. In the end, when I am giving characteristics or services that I am giving to someone, if that person wants a personalized service, they have accepted the use of their data, as is the case with advertising. For example, when an advertisement is sent to a telephone, it has already accepted because it is receiving a news item. This can be sent to the person located and that service will serve them because it is near a shopping center and they have already authorized me. But in general, the data that is analyzed is always anonymized.
How do you see the industry in the next 20 years?
In the last four years we have already taken an important turn. We have already created seven new ventures, because we believe there are many opportunities to develop new businesses around topics such as analytics.
In addition, as a company we are already in the process of expansion. We are present in Ecuador, Mexico and Peru. This globalized issue has also given us the opportunity to grow.
Finally, we represent partners that are recognized worldwide and this helps us a lot so that when developing solutions we can take them to other countries.
I believe that in 20 years we will be a company that is going to have many children and in five years we must be in five countries fully positioned and being the leader or the second according to the goals.