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In 2009, we continued expanding our software solutions for the financial sector and public administrations. During this period, we advanced new product lines, added new clients, strengthened technology partnerships, and continued our expansion across Latin America.
This article highlights the key corporate milestones of Latinia in 2009, including product launches, agreements with financial institutions, industry recognitions, and international expansion activities.
Latinia announced a new range of products focused on email, thus expanding our traditional mobile messaging offering into another key channel in the communications of financial institutions and public administrations. This evolution responded both to our experience in asynchronous technologies and infrastructure software, and to the demand from our own clients.
“It has been a natural evolution of our knowledge and know-how, but above all, it stems from demand from our clients; we are experts in asynchronous technologies and infrastructure software,” explained Marc Alcón, Latinia’s CTO.
At the same time, email posed major challenges in terms of trust and management.
“It is a more mature channel than SMS messaging… elements such as spam or phishing have distorted it as a trusted channel,” said Marc Alcón.
Our new product line addressed common issues in large organizations, such as sending emails from different environments, decentralized management, lack of traceability, and security and regulatory compliance requirements. In a context in which online banking and eGovernment were becoming more established, email remained an essential channel within the multichannel strategies of financial institutions and public sector organizations.
Latinia announced the addition of Caixa Penedès and the Ministry of Territorial Policy (formerly MAP) to our client portfolio, both of which began using the mobile SMS channel in their communications, information flows, and business processes. These additions were especially relevant as they allowed us to strengthen our presence in areas where we previously had less penetration.
“Beyond being two new and important references, they are especially significant because they open up and identify two niches where we previously had less presence, compared to other areas where we were already more established,” explained Francesc Pérez, Head of Business Development at Latinia.
The adoption of the mobile channel showed different dynamics depending on the sector.
“In the Public Sector, the main driver of the SMS channel is local governments and the central government, in a bottom-up trend. In financial institutions, the level and pace of adoption have been the opposite (top down),” said Francesc Pérez.
We also highlighted the importance of having a strong reference both within the central government and in the financial sector.
At the same time, we continued working on two strategic lines: the launch of our new middleware product range for email management and the development of our expansion in Latin America, where we already had early references such as Banco Santander in Puerto Rico and Telefónica Internacional.
Latinia received the Award for Best Mobile Innovation Solution for customers, granted by Telefónica at the Movilforum España event, a gathering aimed at professionals, technology providers, and large enterprises where the latest developments in mobile applications are showcased.
The award recognized the project developed together with Grupo Banco Popular, evaluating aspects such as the level of innovation, the functionality of the solution, the complexity of the development, the execution time, and the ease of implementation.
As explained by Oriol Ros, Marketing Director at Latinia, the solution enabled the bank to drive its mobile banking strategy using its own resources, while our middleware platform handled the technological complexity of the operator’s network. The goal was to adapt the mobile channel to the bank, not the bank to the mobile channel. Thanks to this approach, the bank was able to significantly accelerate the rollout of its mobile services.
This recognition highlighted the work carried out by our team in developing messaging and mobility solutions for the financial sector, as well as our collaboration with institutions that chose to innovate in their relationship with customers through the mobile channel.
Working alongside Grupo Banco Popular, with whom we had been collaborating since 2006 on its SMS banking strategy, we highlighted the growing role of mobility as one of the main channels of interaction between financial institutions and their customers.
“Mobility, and more specifically SMS banking, will stand out as one of the main channels through which our customers demand financial services,” explained Enrique Martínez Martín, Head of Mobile Banking at the bank.
In this context, the bank strengthened its mobility area with the launch of a mobile portal adapted to next-generation devices such as the iPhone, as well as a proximity marketing pilot based on Bluetooth technology in high-traffic branches.
“Mobility services in banking, and SMS messaging in particular, continue to grow month by month, while vendors and operators work on new functionalities related to traceability, regulatory compliance, and intelligence applied to communications,” said Oriol Ros, Marketing Manager at Latinia.
Ros also highlighted that the future of mobile banking points toward a greater role of the phone as a payment tool.
Grupo Banco Popular also emphasized the value of these channels in an economic context that demands greater efficiency in customer relationships. In this regard, mobile messaging enables immediate availability, personalized information, and new self-service capabilities, reinforcing the multichannel strategies of financial institutions.
Latinia gathered CIOs and technology executives from the country’s leading financial institutions at the Riedel Wine Bar in Mexico City, as part of its presentation to the Mexican banking industry.
The event brought together representatives from institutions at the forefront of mobile banking and financial services delivered through mobile devices. During the session, Francesc Pérez, Head of Latinia in the region, welcomed attendees and shared the company’s vision on the development of mobile financial services in the Latin American market.
This meeting was part of the roadshow Latinia was conducting across Latin America, where the Mexican market was identified as a key target due to its size and potential. In a context of low banking penetration and mobile phone usage close to 80%, the mobile channel was positioned as a key tool to expand access to financial services.
A study conducted by Latinia among the 125 largest financial institutions in Latin America also highlighted the growing interest in this channel: 60% of Mexican banks had already adopted mobile banking, representing a 33% increase compared to 2007. During the presentation, we also highlighted Latinia’s ten years of experience in the sector and the role mobile banking platforms can play in the future of financial institutions in the country.
Latinia formalized its incorporation at the Partner Network level of the Oracle® partner program, strengthening our technological relationship with Oracle and with solutions originating from BEA.
As explained by Marc Alcón, CTO of Latinia, this decision responded to the close collaboration that already existed between both companies and to the opportunity to manage available resources more efficiently following Oracle’s acquisition of BEA.
“Although our relationship with Oracle on one hand and with BEA on the other was already strong, due to the presence of some of their products in the deployment of our middleware solutions, after Oracle acquired BEA, it made even more sense to unify both programs,” said Alcón.
Participation in the Oracle PartnerNetwork provides access to strategic information on the evolution of key technologies, such as Oracle databases or the WebLogic application server, which is essential to keep our solutions up to date and aligned with our clients’ technological environments.
“The ongoing maintenance and adaptation of our products requires us to stay ahead of new releases launched by the vendors we work with,” explained Alcón.
One example of this collaboration was the adaptation of our solutions to version 10.3 of WebLogic, the first release of the application server published after Oracle acquired BEA.
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