Doing business in the Americas.

Objective:

        Re-draft a storyline for the business case selected in Part 1 in the terms reviewed thus far

Procedure:

For the realization of this activity:

• Review the topics within the Module 2 related to this activity
• I checked the recommended resources within the activity
• I used the business case selected in P1.
• I responded to each point as requested in simple text.

Results:

Part 2. Drafting the story.

Follow the advice presented in this article or this other one, in order to re-draft a storyline for the business case you selected in Part 1. Once you have a good grasp of it, try to rewrite the business case in the terms we have reviewed thus far:

• Business environments. ✓

• Free-trade agreements in full effect. ✓
• Clusters and local economies. ✓
• Elements of the primary, secondary and tertiary sector. ✓
• Culture and diversity. ✓
• Demographics. ✓
• Financial frameworks. ✓
• Politics and policies. ✓

In short, what do you see there and what you do not? Your write-up must be presented in simple text and should be at least three pages long.

You will be evaluated based on the thoughtfulness of your story, the relevance of the main points you can make, the chosen characters, the setting, and the business strategy, taking into account what we have seen in the course so far about business environments, cultures, and attractive economic poles and industries in the region. ✓

Compsis at a Crossroads

Compsis, a technology company, is characterized by its high quality and high cost products. Founded in 1989, it has offered its products and services throughout Brazil and industries in the country, developing strong relations with the Brazilian government. In its largest service line, systems integration for electronic toll collection (ETC), the company had gained the dominant share of the Brazilian market and had even managed projects in Australia and India. By the year 2003 came to be worth 4.2 million dollars, with 165 employees.

Compsis offers a range of market of toll collection that have unique technological advance product. They offer Intelligence Transport Systems (ITS). Their products are the Advanced Traffic Management (ATMS) that manages the highways or public transport corridors in cities.

Besides that, the Vehicle Monitoring System (SMV) uses GPS positioning integrated with a data center. The SMV would enable officials to efficiently manage and deploy the public fleets: buses, garbage transport, police vehicles, fire engines, and ambulances. As well as the Magnetic Guidance System (SGM) that uses a computer-controlled system to automatically guide a city bus on exclusive lanes or corridors.

The most important product of Compsis is the Electronic Toll Audit (SICAT). The product would provide integrated real-time management of all the processes of automation, accounting, and auditing of revenues at highway toll plazas.

        During these years until 2003, the company strove to maintain the concessions on roads in brazil for tolling, but in 2004 the Brazilian government delayed the awarding new toll road construction rights to concessionaires. With the business stopped in Brazil, Compsis had the need to expand their products to other markets, besides those already had, as Ailton and the other founders strongly believed that any technology company in Brazil would be vulnerable if I had to rely solely on one product line. Therefore, during the last four years Compsis had invested significantly in new product lines, largely using the SICAT profits. The strategy was to expand the product and geographical distribution of Compsis, even as it developed new offerings for the Brazilian market (particularly ATMS), Compsis strove to expand into new markets throughout the world. In each new country Compsis would lead with its most mature product, SICAT, then, once its brand was established, Compsis could introduce its other products as well.

        As Ailton and his fellow Compsis leaders considered possible markets for expansion, they knew that Brazil would continue to be fertile ground for their services. Outside Brazil, the Latin American market was projected to be small but growing rapidly. The six countries Compsis considered targeting all had relatively little experience with toll roads, so they would probably want simple, inexpensive solutions that would be easy for the systems integrator to implement. Compsis executives had visited Bolivia, Peru, and other key countries and had returned advising that Compsis identify a local commercial partner, someone who knew the right people, could maneuver around the complex and corrupt procurement systems, and would obtain information about upcoming projects before they were openly announced. Similar partnerships were also being considered, although in different political and commercial climates, in such countries as Great Britain, India, and Pakistan.

        Meanwhile, Compsis was also turning its eyes north to the United States, an ETC market larger than all of Spanish-speaking Latin America put together. In light of the size and complexity of the market, the Compsis directors knew that it would be no trivial matter to find and obtain ETC projects in the United States. Despite its strong quality reputation among industry competitors, as a market entrant Compsis would be virtually unknown among the transportation agency and authority buyers in the U.S. Sales resources too could pose an issue; at the close of 2004, the Compsis sales team consisted of five people, all with engineering backgrounds.

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