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Brazil's biggest software firm sees a sluggish economy as an opportunity
巴西最大的軟件公司把經濟不景氣看做機會
IN THE late 1970s Bill Gates predicted a computer on every desk and in every home. Laercio Cosentino, an engineer at SIGA, a Brazilian maker of software for mainframes, concluded that therefore every small firm in his country, even the ubiquitous street-corner padari a, would eventually have one.
在20世紀70年代晚期比爾蓋茨曾經預測到每張桌子上和每個家里都將有一臺電腦。Laercio Cosentino，SIGA的一名工程師，一個巴西大型機軟件制造者，得出一個結論因此在他國家的每個小公司，甚至是隨處可見的街角面包房，最終也會擁有一個。
In 1983 Mr Cosentino, then just 22, convinced his boss to set up a separate business to concentrate on serving small and medium-sized enterprises.
1983年 Mr Cosentino，當時僅僅22歲，說服他的老板設立一個獨立的業務部門專門為中小型企業提供服務。
Thirty years on, the company, nowadays called Totvs, dominates Brazil's 1.9-billion-a-year market for enterprise software.
30年來，這家公司，今天被稱為Totvs，占據了巴西每年19億公司軟件市場份額。
Investors have piled in.
投資者們涌入。
On October 22nd Totvs disclosed that the world's biggest fund manager, BlackRock, had increased its stake to 5%.
10月22號，Totvs透露世界上最大的基金經理，黑石基金，將它持有的股份增加到5%。
Brazil has the world's seventh-largest economy and is ninth in terms of the number of PCs installed.
巴西擁有世界上第七大經濟體并且在個人電腦安裝量上世界排名第九。
Totvs supplies roughly half of all business software and services on its home turf, either directly or through franchises, reckons Gartner, a research firm.
Totvs大致上在國內提供了一半的商業軟件和服務，通過直銷的或者經銷代理的，Gartner，一家研究公司預計。
The share exceeds 60% among SMEs.
在中小型企業中該份額超過了60%。
This makes Totvs the world's sixth-biggest business-software firm.
這讓Totvs成為了世界上第六大的商業軟件公司。
However, outside Brazil it is all but irrelevant.
但是，在巴西之外它是幾乎是落后的。
Totvs's home market provides 98% of its annual revenues of 1.5 billion reais.
Totvs'的國內市場提供了它每年15億里奧98%的收入。
Some might regard it as folly to be so reliant on an economy where growth slowed to 0.9% in 2012, and may be little more than 2% this year and next.
有人可能認為這一點是挺諷刺的它是如此的依賴一個2012年緩慢增長了0.9%的經濟體，并且可能今年和接下來比去年多了一點增長到2%。
Mr Cosentino insists it is an opportunity.
Mr Cosentino堅持它是一個機會。
The days of growth fuelled by cheap labour are over, he says.
這段時間被廉價勞動力驅動的增長結束了，他說道。
With labour costs rising because of low unemployment, firms must invest in IT, to improve their workforces' productivity.
隨著勞動力成本的增加因為低雇傭率，公司必須投資到IT行業中，去提高他們的勞動力的生產效率。
This is especially true among the SMEs that Totvs serves.
這個在Totvs服務中的中小企業中特別的明顯。
Luis Azevedo of Bradesco, a bank, estimates that perhaps 15% of Brazil's SMEs use enterprise software of some sort.
巴西貼現銀行的Luis Azevedo估計大概15%的巴西中小企業使用某種企業軟件。
Plenty of padarias are still waiting to join the computer age.
許多街邊小店仍然在等待加入計算機時代。
However, many of them will be discouraged from doing so by patchy access to broadband internet outside the largest cities.
但是它們中的許多通過最大城市之外的寬帶網絡的不順暢渠道這樣做而沮喪。
This means that, in particular, cloud-based software-as-a-service, an area in which Totvs has invested heavily, may be slow to take off.
這意味著，特別是，基于云技術的軟件服務，這個Totvs重點投資的地方可能很難馬上成功。
In its early years Totvs benefited from Brazil's high import tariffs, which kept foreign competitors out.
在它的早些年間Totvs受益于巴西阻止外國競爭者的高進口關稅，
But even as these have fallen, competitors have found it hard to tropicalise their offering, as Brazilians say, whereas Totvs's franchise system has helped it spread into the country's fast-growing provincial towns.
但是甚至他們已經下跌，競爭者也發現它們很難熱銷他們的提供產品，如同巴西人說的那樣，因為Totvs的經銷商系統已經幫助它分銷到這個國家快速增長的省城中去了。
Good governance has endeared the company to investors, as did Mr Cosentino's willingness, rare among tech founder-CEOs, to surround himself with professional managers.
好的管理使這家公司受到投資者的喜愛，如Mr Cosentino希望的那樣，在技術創始人首席執行官中很稀有，讓他自己被專業的經理們所包圍。
This has made it easier for him to borrow money for a string of investments and acquisitions, culminating with the takeover of Datasul, a big rival, in 2008.
這讓他更容易從一系列投資并購，最終在2008年被它的較大的競爭對手Datasul接手。
Totvs's revenues have quadrupled since its initial public offering in 2006, and its share price has quintupled.
Totvs的收入已經與它2006年首次公開發行相比翻了四倍并且它的股票價格已經翻了五倍。
Last year sales rose by 10%, even as Brazil sputtered.
去年銷售上升了10%，甚至如同巴西快速增長。
Profits surged by 23%, to 207m reais.
利潤激增了23%到2億7百萬里奧。
Add a healthy balance-sheet and it is little wonder that foreign fund managers are keen.
附帶補充了一個健康的資產負債表毫無疑問，外國基金經理對此很熱情。
In September Totvs secured a 659m reais credit line from BNDES, the national development bank.
在9月份Totvs從BNDES，國家發展銀行，獲得了6億5千9百萬里奧的最高承包額。
So it has the money to make more purchases.
所以它有錢去進行更多收購。
But it may be well advised to tread cautiously.
但是它可能被很好的建議小心行事。
Luis Claudio Mangi of Gartner notes that it took Totvs years to integrate its software with that of Datasul and Logocenter, another rival snapped up in 2005, into a seamless product for manufacturers.
Gartner的Luis Claudio Mangi強調Totvs花費了很多年來合并它和Datasul及Logocenter的軟件成為為制造商設計的無漏洞產品。
As withits customers, the company's greatest challenge is productivity.
如同它的客戶一樣，這個公司最大的挑戰是生產效率。
Mr Cosentino joins a chorus of Brazilian bosses lamenting a shortage of skilled workers.
Mr Cosentino加入了巴西為技術工人短缺而煩惱的老板們的陣營。
It used to take less than 90 days to train a new recruit, he says; now it can take up to six months.
把一個新手培養成熟需要花費至少90天，他說道：現在可能花費到6個月。
A tight labour market means he has to pay more for less.
一個緊縮的勞動力市場意味著支付更多獲得更少。
To counter the problem Totvs pours the equivalent of 90m a year into R&D, more than Embraer, Brazil's much-admired aircraft-maker.
為了克服這個問題Totvs每年投入相當于9千萬美元到研發部門，比巴西很受贊賞的飛機制造商Embraer還要多。
It is also doing more development work outside the country: last year it opened a new centre in Silicon Valley to add to the one it has in Mexico.
它也在國家之外做了更多的研發工作：去年它在硅谷開張了一家新的中心來加強它在墨西哥已經有的那家。
Though they have struggled to adapt to the Brazilian business climate, Totvs's foreign rivals are not giving up.
盡管它們已經掙扎著適應了巴西商業環境，Totvs的外國競爭對手不會放棄。
SAP of Germany, the global leader in enterprise software, has been courting Totvs's SME customers; its turnover in Brazil doubled, year-on-year, in the second quarter.
德國的SAP，企業軟件的全球領導者，已經在設法獲得Totvs的中小企業客戶；它的營業額在巴西已經翻倍了，與上年同期數字相比，已經進入第二地區。
As companies expand abroad they tend to take their legacy IT systems with them. Switching providers is a costly mess.
隨著公司們在國外的擴張它們傾向于帶著它們的存留的IT系統。
Forrester, a research firm, estimates that only 7% ever risk it.
改換供應商是一個費錢的事。Forrester，一個研發公司，預計僅僅他們中的7%曾經冒險這么做過。
For multinationals entering Brazil that means sticking with SAP or Oracle, the industry's other big beast.
對于進入巴西的跨國公司來說這個意味著與SAP或者甲骨文公司綁定。
But it also means that Mr Cosentino can take comfort from a survey by Oxford Economics.
但是它也意味著Mr Cosentino能夠從牛津經濟學人的一個調查中得到安慰。
The consultancy found that 73% of midsized Brazilian firms expect to have foreign operations in three years, up from 53% today.
這個咨詢發現73%中等規模的巴西公司期待在近三年擁有外國運營機構，從目前的53%上升。
He hopes that as his customers seek growth beyond the country's borders, they too will take Totvs with them.
他希望隨著他的客戶尋求超越這個國家邊境的增長，他們也會把Totvs隨他們帶出去。
