More than three decades transforming business
Better Consultants was created in 1989, as an initiative focused on the best professional values for the practice of consultancy and IT services, at a time of transition between the management models of the 80s, strongly centralized, and the emergence of network architectures of the 90s.
1989 ¿Why Better Consultants?
The creation of Better Consultants coincided with a favorable economic and sector context for the initiative we proposed. In a demand market scenario, quality consulting services were exclusively provided by multination firms, which, unlike what happened in neighboring European countries, relegated local companies to a purely testimonial role.
Our best practices in consulting and IT technology services, together with the local component of proximity and contribution to understanding client needs, covered an empty space offering great future expectations for companies like us.
A trajectory in full harmony
From the very beginning, the recruiting of the best human and intellectual capital has always been our main guideline. There are many questions that arise when starting a new business initiative. The new starting point required to break with previous schemes that were becoming obsolete and forced to build foundations that would accompany us in the new trajectory.
● Professional best practices
● Recruitment of professionals
● Consolidation of human capital
● Clients in key strategic sectors
● Professional recognition
Our beginning
The indispensable aspects for the management of the company overlapped with the strategic vision and the construction of a new model of collaboration with clients. This model must necessarily be 100% effective both to begin projects that started from scratch, and to maintain high levels of long-term service.
The level of acceptance of our initiative by the first customers became a great incentive and thrusted the basis of the collaboration model. In three years we started transformation projects in banking, insurance and public sector, both in our main offices in Barcelona and Madrid. We rapidly switched from an initial project to a consolidated reality!
First decade
Throughout the first decade we saw the emergence of new networked architectures, which evolved from being an embryonic idea in the 80s to boost a lot of business transformation projects in the 90s. The consolidation of networked architectures It also stimulated the creation of new models of collaborative work. Workflow or GroupWare became part of the usual lexicon in business reengineering processes.
The transformation at the end of the first decade had truly spectacular moments. We recall, for example, how the first initiatives of “Home Banking” required the installation of specific software, via floppy disk or CD, in the client’s personal computer, plus a telephone connection over the voice line. This model was completely swept by the emergence of the internet, which universalized access to any server from anywhere.
The so-called “cooperative process”, a model where the data was handled from remote personal computers sharing centralized databases, blocked the road to earlier attempts of distributed departamental processing (DDP) initiatives, always very limited by the lack of effective administraton tools.
Second decade
The transition to the second decade coincided with the expansion of Internet technology companies, called “.COM”. The generalization of network architectures and the new paradigm of the internet world pointed towards what should be the “absolute digitalization” of the business world. New companies operating exclusively through the internet were continuously created. Frequently, these startups required large capital investments, but shared a dangerous common denominator: they were almost always in red figures. It was a commonly accepted idea that “if a .COM is now earning money, it is probably because the lack of correct investments.”
However, this trend was reversed in a few months, and investors began to demand, not only forward-looking projects, but also tangible realities delivering short-term positive exploitation accounts. . . and the “.COM” bubble burst. Networked architectures opened up a myriad of opportunities to transform the economy. Despite the crisis “.COM”, the result ended up discerning among good projects providing added value from initiatives with poor realistic basis.
This “.COM” crisis helped to begin new transformation initiatives in classic sectors that were already consolidated. Businesses understood, how they could renew their business models and face important improvements in its competitiveness, while the threat of being swept away by the .COMs dissipated.
Our Firm took advantage of these years to work on diversification in sectors and clients, and was consolidated as a specialist in the contribution of efficient solutions. Also during the second decade we consolidated the professional practice and resources in our Madrid office.
Third decade
The staging of the third decade had an exceptional condition: the greatest global economic crisis of the modern age. The scenario is fresh in the memory of all. We remember how the aggressive and unconscionable debt levels, both public and private, took the global financial system to the edge of bankruptcy.
The effect of the crisis was felt in all sectors, and IT services and consulting and services were no exception. However, once the initial blocking of economic activity has been overcome, the recovery period has also led to one of the largest business transformation exercises.
In the long comeback from the crisis, the optimization of the competitiveness and the search for maximum efficiency have been the main boosters of the transformation process. We have witnessed how complex processes of banking concentration have been carried out in few years, how the historic network of savings banks has been extinguished, and how what had previously been large networks of customer service offices have disappeared, shrunk to unthinkable limits a few years ago.
The generalization of the “mobility” has been a great impulse in the business transformation. Today we can perform operations from the mobile phone or tablet that were unthinkable just few years ago. Nowadays it is usual to open a bank account without visiting a branch office, to hire a full vacation trip sitting in the couch at home, to check our tax situation from the waiting room of the doctor, or to change the train tickets while we are in the taxi cab towards the station. The list is almost infinite.
The availability of mobility solutions has boosted a lot of transformation processes in the companies. The consumer has played a key role in this new modality of “self-service”, since it has simple tools in its pocket to solve the same problems that used to request face-to-face attention before.
Who could have imagined at that time the crucial changes that were about to happen? Who could have foreseen the impact of the new revolution in communication networks, office systems, open architecture, open source? Or who could have foreseen the strong remodelling of the sector or changes in management models.
Better Consultants was born with the goal to promote the values of objectivity, quality, proximity to customers, and realistic and pragmatic approaches in technology application. These values have been with us permanently all this time.
30 years later our approach, combining realistic visions and objectivity with innovative initiatives, has been strengthened overcoming multiple changes in technology trends and management models.
Now we can see that these critical values, which served as a guide in the first steps of our firm, not only remain intact, but have been reinforced by new generations of professionals who have embraced and consolidated the values in all types of projects and clients.
1989-2019
Comitted to the the service of business transformation
If something has been clear throughout these years, is that the transformation of the company is a continuous and permanent need. Certainly, there are times when certain circumstances of the economic environment, market trends, new paradigms, etc., force us to address transformation processes more intensely than others, but it has always been in a context of permanent change.