Software Company Archives - Page 8 of 15

Avid Technology – The Pioneers of Video Editing and Multimedia Software.

The day people discovered video and film making, that too with audio, was one of the most revolutionary days for humankind. The devices to develop those videos and platforms to run those videos have come a long way and today making videos and editing them according to one needs has become really easy. There are different people behind making those complex works easy, and few include the ones who make that user-friendly editing software for videographers and other multimedia companies. Avid Technology is one such company that has been in the software industry for the last 34 years and developing dedicated software products for the multimedia industry.

About Avid Technology

Bill Warner had founded Avid Technology in August 1987. It is an American software and multimedia company, with its headquarters based in Burlington, Massachusetts, United States. The company is best known for its software and editing products for the multimedia industry, and its key products include Pro Tools, Media Composer, Sibelius, Avid VENUE, Avid NEXIS, MediaCentral, FastServe, etc. Media Composer is the flagship product of Avid Technology. In the past 34 years, Avid Technology has gained the trust of clients from all over the world, and over 1500 people are working for it globally. Aspiring artists, creative professionals, production teams, and media enterprises cover the major part of the Avid client base. As per the 2020 records, the company made annual revenues worth US$360.5 million, and its estimated operating income for 2018 was US$13.684 million.

The Back Story

Bill Warner, the founder of Avid Technology, was working as a marketing manager at Apollo Computer before he founded the company in 1987. After establishing the company, he started to work on the first product of the company, a non-linear editing system named Avid/1 Media Composer. The company presented the very product in April 1988 at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). Avid Technology was the first to launch such a product for video editors. The innovative idea behind the product made it the most loved product of the 90s and replaced many conventional and existing but outdated products. The very product made it way easier for the editors to edit the videos in lesser time and more effectively.
Avid Technology, in almost ten years of its inception, bagged the technical Emmy award for Outstanding Engineering Development for its unique video editing system. In 1994, Avid launched another product named Open Media Framework, and in the next ten years, it launched products like Avid Interplay and Unity Isi, software different from a video editor. Avid Technology also won an Oscar for its revolutionary Avid Film Composer at the 71st Academy Awards in March 1999.
Avid Technology saw steady but rapid growth from the very beginning. Some of the credit of its growth also go to its strategic acquisitions. These acquisitions include names like DiVA Corporation (1993), Digidesign (1994), Basys (1994), Elastic Reality, Inc. (1995), Softimage (1998), NewStar (1998), Pluto Technology (2000), iKnowledge (2002), Rocket Networks (2003), Bomb Factory (@004), Sundance Digital (2006), Blue Order Solutions AG (2010), Rocket Networ (2012), Orad Systems (2015), etc.

The CEO at Avid Technology

With over thirty years of experience, Rosica has served many well-known companies at different prominent positions. He completed his graduation from Sierra College and then went to Sacramento State University for further studies.
In 1991, Rosica joined Philips Electronics and became the Vice President and General Manager of the company’s Digital Video Systems division. Later, in 2002, he became the Senior Vice President of the Strategic and Business Development wing of Thomson. Rosica also served Grass Valley as the Executive Vice president and Chief Sales & Marketing Officer for two years. In January 2013, Rosica joined Avid Technology, and for the past nine years, served the company in various positions, including Senior Vice President of Worldwide Field Operations and Chief Sales & Marketing Officer, etc. In December 2016, he was promoted to be the President of the company, and in February 2018, Rosica became the CEO of Avid Technology.

Yashica Vashishtha

Yashica is a Software Engineer turned Content Writer, who loves to write on social causes and expertise in writing technical stuff. She loves to watch movies and explore new places. She believes that you need to live once before you die. So experimenting with her life and career choices, she is trying to live her life to the fullest.

www.xornor.co

Linx S.A. – A 35-years old Brazilian software company recently merged with StoneCo.

Established in 1985, Linx S.A. is a Brazilian company that was recently merged with StoneCo over a transaction worth $1.1 billion. It is a publicly-traded company and the largest software house in Latin America in the retail management sector. The company retains approximately 40% of the retail management software in its home country. In the early 2000s, the company was consecutively featured in the Valor 1000 annual report as one of the biggest Brazilian companies. It has also made plenty of acquisitions both before and after the merger with StoneCo.

About Linx S.A.

Nércio Fernandes is a Brazilian entrepreneur who has founded Linx S.A. in 1985. Linx S.A. has established itself in the management software industry and it offers cloud-based solutions that are easy to use and affordable. It has a SaaS business model that it offers to retailers in Latin America. Like every other software company, Linx also witnessed high growth in revenue during the pandemic as only the subscription revenue accounted for R$866.6 million. Linx S.A. has also received many awards for its rapid growth and technology. In 2009, Linx became the fifth-largest company in the country in terms of sales. In 2017, the company was acknowledged by BR Week for Best Software Provider of Receipt Emission.

History

When the company was founded by Nércio Fernandes and his other partners, it was named Microserv Comércio & Consultoria Ltda. Nércio Fernandes wanted to invest in the microcomputing field and so he established this company even though he was from a civil engineering background. Initially, the company started serving small businesses in the regions of Brás and Bom Retiro in São Paulo. A few years later, Microserv created software for fashion retail management and it was called MicroMalhas. In 1990, the company’s name was changed to Linx followed by Linx ERP. During this time, the flagship product of the company focussed on several industries ‘ retail management.

In 2000, the company opened a new unit, Linx Logistica for internal logistics. The company eventually opened other divisions of Linx as the business expanded and the structure evolved. Some of the other divisions are Linx Sistemas and Linx Telecom. These segments focused on telecommunication and connectivity for retail. Linx thought a holding company will be necessary to unify the business units and hence LMI S.A. emerged in 2004 and was later renamed Linx S.A. As Linx S.A. was expanding, it moved its main office in 2011 to a commercial building in São Paulo. It also landed an investment from an American private equity firm, General Atlantic.

Merger and Acquisition

Linx acquired Quadrant Informatica Ltda in 2008. The deal was closed for R$39.9 million. In the next year, it acquired Formata Data Business for R$41.1 million followed by Intercommerce Retail Software for R$13.6 million. In 2010, Linx acquired two new companies, namely, CNP Engenharia de Sistemas S.A. and Dia System Informática Ltda for R$16 miilion and R$13.8 respectively. It also acquired Custom Business Solutions Ltda, Spress Informatica, and Microvix Software in 2011. In 2012, Linx S.A. made a deal with itix Consultoria em Tecnologia da Informação Ltda. for the transfer of its technology. The size of acquisitions got bigger as in 2014, Linx acquired a series of companies and the total transaction amount exceeded R$100 million. In 2020, Linx celebrated its 35th anniversary and acquired PinPag, Neemo, Humanas, and a few other companies.

Nércio Fernandes – Founder of Linx S.A.

Nércio Fernandes started his studies in civil engineering. But, his greater interest in the computer field led to entrepreneurship. At the age of 22, he decided to drop out of college and start his venture. His first company was Linx S.A. after which he founded a few other companies. These companies include Okean Yachts, TAQE, and Predicta. Currently, he is a Board Member of all these companies including Linx S.A.

Annasha

Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more

Zensar Technologies started as a manufacturing unit of a British original equipment firm in 1922.

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By Yashica Vashishtha

IT industry is the leading one among all, and we need to admit that it has become quite impossible to work without using computer software, independent of the nature of the work. The raised demand for software and other IT services has also increased the number of companies that are available 24*7 for providing those software development services to those companies. Zensar Technologies is one of the leading IT service providers of India, which is not only offering various software products and digital engineering to Indian companies but also different enterprises across the globe. In the past thirty years, the company has expanded to over twenty countries on all the continents.
The software services from Zensar Technologies include experience design and engineering, digital engineering, application transformation, data engineering, Oracle services, SalesForce services, digital infrastructure, digital security, etc. The major service areas for the company are Hi-tech and manufacturing, Banking and financial services, Insurance Retail, and consumer services.

About the Company

Zensar Technologies is a 30 years old Indian software company. It is a publically held company and trades on the Bombay Stock Exchange as well as the National Stock Exchange of India. The company headquarters is based in Pune, India, and it is a subsidiary company of the RPG Group. It handles the software development wing for the latter. The company services include digital supply chain, artificial intelligence, cloud infrastructure, data management, enterprise applications, etc. Before becoming Zensar Technologies, it was known as International Computers Limited India, with a history as old as 1922. Today, over 10,000 people are working for Zensar, and as per 2021 records, the company made annual revenues worth US$494.0 million.

Founding Zensar Technologies

Zensar Technologies started its software development journey in 1991, as International Computers Limited (ICIL). The company history dates back to 1922 when it was just a manufacturing unit of a British original equipment manufacturing firm. In later years, the unit became ICIM (International Computers Indian Manufacture), and in 1963, it went public on the Bombay Stock Exchange. ICIM started to focus more on software starting from 1991 and closed its hardware manufacturing unit by 1999.
In 2001, ICIM received its new name, Zensar Technologies, with most of its shares being held by the RPG Group. As Zensar, the company began to provide application management services to its clients. In the following years, the company started its growth through multiple acquisitions. It acquired companies including OBT global (2005), ThoughtDigital (2007), Akibia Inc (2010), EZA (2013), Professional Access Inc (2014), Foolproof, Inc. (2016), Keystone Logic (2017), Indigo Slate(2018), Cynosure INC (2018), M3bi (2021), etc.
In 2012, about 11000 people were working for Zensar, and it started to serve globally. In fact, by 2018, Zensar had opened offices in 20 different countries in North America, the UK, various parts of Europe and South Africa. The innovative work of Zensar Technologies has won many recognitions for it, including Niche Player 2019 for managed mobility services by Gartner Magic Quadrant and BIG Innovation Award for Technology in 2021.

The CEO/Founder at Zensar Technologies

Ajay S. Bhutoria is the current CEO and the Managing Director at Zensar Technologies. Bhutoria has more than 30 years of work experience and has worked at various well-established companies on all the continents.
Bhutoria happens to be a Charted Accountant by qualification but started his career as a Solution Architect at Software Research Centre Ltd., ICAI. Later he joined TCS (Netherlands) and worked for ten years in various positions at the company. In 2002, Bhutoria switched to Cognizant and became the Global Head of Retail, Consumer Goods, Travel & Hospitality at the company. He also became the Chief Executive at L&T in 2019 and remained so for ten months. In January 2021, Bhutoria became the CEO and MD of Zensar Technologies and held the Princeton, New Jersey, United States office of the company.

Yashica Vashishtha

www.xornor.co

Kaltura, One of the leading tech innovators famous for its video platform.

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By Annasha

Kaltura is a global publicly-traded company established in the internet video industry. The founders of the company are Ron Yekutiel, Shay David, Michal Tsur, and Eran Etam. Kaltura was founded in 2006 and it is currently based in New York City, US. It is mainly a software company that offers products in four major markets. They are Cloud TV (over-the-top media service), online video platform (OVP), Education Video Platform, and Enterprise Video Platform. When Kaltura was founded, it was established with an idea that video content is a way to revolutionize communication and collaboration in our lives.

About Kaltura

Kaltura works as a team of approximately 750 members. The company has offices in foreign countries like Brazil, Singapore, Israel, the UK, and the US. From all the co-founders of the company, Eran Etam is not holding any current position at Kaltura. In 2018, Kaltura was on the list of “20 Tech Innovators to Watch” and two years later it became one of the companies to exceed $100 million in annual recurring revenue.

The company offers video product solutions across every enterprise in various industries. For educational purposes, it has three products, Virtual Classroom, LMS Video, and Lecture Capture. Recently, Malaysia’s leading entertainment company, Astro has chosen Kaltura for its new streaming service. In December 2021, the company has also collaborated with Vodafone Germany.

Early Days of the Company

Founded in 2006, Company was officially launched in the market in 2007 at the TechCrunch40 industry event. Thus the launch of the company took place in San Francisco and those who were attending the conference voted Kaltura for the People’s Choice award. When the company was launched, Kaltura operated with only twenty members and received funding of $2.1 million from Avalon Ventures and other investors. In 2007, the company became a hit as it became the winner of the Mashable Open Web Awards. It was a People’s Choice Award where more than 250,000 people voted in the Video Sharing category. In the same year, Company also established a partnership with New York Public Library.

Kaltura became one of the companies in 2008 that received “Global 250 Winners” by AlwaysOn. The company established a partnership with Wikimedia Foundation in the same year with a common goal to bring quality media content to Wikipedia and other similar websites. The main idea behind this project was to develop software (a video-wiki type software) and that it would be integrated into the MediaWiki platform. This software would be an extension allowing users to add video players that would enable adding and editing any kind of media (pictures, audio, video, etc). This was a very progressive idea as media content like images and videos always tend to have a more impactful impression on our minds.

To bring more advancement into the process of making this software, Michael Dale, an open-source video developer to develop this video editing solution for the Wikipedia pages. This was announced in the Wikimania 2008 event which was also sponsored by Kaltura. The company has also established Open Video Alliance, a community where people work towards improving the video standards for the websites.

Recent Events

To develop an integrated media solution for Blackboard Learn (™), Kaltura and Kaltura Blackboard Inc collaborated in 2011. In 2014, Kaltura acquired a company called Tvinci for its OTT TV service, In the following years it partnered with several companies and also raised $50 million from Goldman Sachs in 2016. For showcasing the new OTT experience, Kaltura partnered with companies like 24i Media, Encompass, Harmonic, and Inception. The company was planning to file an IPO since 2015 and it has also turned down an offer of a $500 million acquisition to do so. But, one of the founders of the company, Shay David mentioned in 2017 that the company will go public only when the valuation of Kaltura comes close to $1 billion.

Ron Yekutiel – Co-Founder and CEO of Kaltura

Ron Yekutiel, one of the founders of Kaltura is in the position of CEO from the very beginning. In 2003, he also co-founded another company called VisualGate Systems Inc (a video surveillance company). Ron Yekutiel went to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He has also co-founded and lead GPSoft Ltd before Kaltura happened.

Annasha

Sapiens International Corporation, the company making software for the insurance industry since 1982.

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By Yashica Vashishtha

The rising popularity of the internet and the emergence of the cloud has made it necessary for every sort of industry to have dedicated software that would ease out the daily work for them. Industries from healthcare, aviation to hospitality to education, etc., each are using information technology in one or the other way. Some are merging AI to their daily operations, whereas, others are paying for special software products for performing special tasks in the company. This is the same case with the insurance industry too. The industry is also is operating through some major software and online platforms made by some leading software companies like Sapiens International Corporation.

About the Company

Sapiens International Corporation is a forty years old company. It is a computer software company, with its headquarters based in Holon, Israel. Insurers and brokers are the company’s major clients, who cover insurance on property, Casualty, pension as well as worker compensation.
Tsvi Misinai, Tuvi Orbach, and Shai Sole founded Sapiens in 1982, and since then, the company has gone through a lot of positive changes adding to its growth. With over 4000 people working for the company, it has operating income worth US$ 45.03 million (as per 2020 records) and had generated revenues worth US$ 382 million in FY20. Sapiens International Corporation has its clients based in all corners of the world, and it operates through its subsidiaries, i.e., Sapiens America, Sapiens North America, Sapiens Technologies, Sapiens (UK) Limited, Sapiens Japan Co, and Sapiens Israel Software, etc. The company trades as a public company on Nasdaq as SPNS and on Tel Aviv Stock Exchange as SPNS.

The Founding of Sapiens International

Sapiens International Corporation was founded by three members of a team working on a project to build a novel object-oriented application generator in partnership with Advanced Automated Applications (AAA). These founders included Tsvi Misinai, Tuvi Orbach, and Shai Sole, Tuvi Orbach being the founder of AAA. AAA also got merged into the newly built company during its founding. Though the company was founded in 1982, the founders adopted the name Sapiens in 1984.
In the next ten years, Sapiens had grown to 900 workers and 33 different branches established all over the globe. The company also started to trade publically on NASDAQ in 1992. With the rising popularity of the internet, Sapiens also started to merge technology with its services. It developed the business rules technology (eMerge) in the late 90s. By this time, Sapiens’ revenues had reached $91 million.
The year 2001 was the year of new beginnings for Sapiens, as it started to develop new software products for the insurance industry. The company also made some major acquisitions to have speedy growth. These acquisitions included Harcase (2010), IBEXI Solutions (2015), Insseco (2015), Maximum Processing (2016), StoneRiver, Inc. (2017), Calculo (2019), sum.cumo GmbH (2019), Tia Technologies (2020), etc.
Life Insurance, P&C, Decision Management, Workers’ Compensation, Financial & Compliance, Reinsurance, Medical Professional Liability, Digital Insurance Modules, etc., are the major software products from Sapiens.

The Founders

Tsvi Misinai is one of the three founders and the main brains behind Sapiens International Corporation. He is a well-known Israeli computer scientist and entrepreneur. Misinai was born on 15 April 1946 in Jerusalem, the British Mandate of Palestine. He is a Physics graduate and the first Israeli Rothschild Award for industrial development in the field of software recipient (1992).
During the 70s, he was working for Weizmann Institute of Science, a public research university in Rehovot. Misinai was the project head for the novel object-oriented application generator development program at the institution. He left the institute in the late 80s to founding Sapiens in 1982. The founders included one of the team members at the institute, Shai Sole, and the AAA owner, Tuvi Orbach. With the founding of Sapiens, he became the President of the newly founded company and remained so till 1994.

Yashica Vashishtha

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Lectra, a leading fashion technology provider in both CAD and CAM.

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By Annasha

Lectra is a French technology company founded in 1973 by two engineers Jean and Bernard Etcheparre. The company’s headquarters is based in Paris, France and it is a publicly-traded company. Lectra is known for bringing digitalized transformation into the world of fashion and apparel and more than that. And, what place could have been better than starting the business in Paris and entering the fashion market. Lectra mainly specializes in CAD software and CAM cutting-room systems. It offers software, hardware, as well as consulting services.

About Lectra

Lectra, with its technology, empowers the companies in the fashion and apparel industry, companies that design car interiors, furniture, etc. The products and services of the company assist in a digital transformation of multiple steps from designing to production. Recently, Company has acquired USA-based Gerber Technology, a competitor in the market.

Currently, Company has 34 subsidiaries and operates across 34 countries with 1,650 employees. It also has three international advanced technology and conference centers. Initially, Lectra used the CAD software to assist the fashion manufacturing industry because their technology was compatible with those using soft materials like leather but it has evolved in the last three decades.

History of Lectra

The history of Lectra started in 1973 when the two engineers founded the company. Their initial target was to enter the fashion and apparel industry and boost their designing process with the help of technology. In 1976, the company was successfully able to develop the first CAD software for apparel making. Soon the two founders met the venture capitalist, André Harari, and he helped in raising the capital Lectra needed to implement a proper business development plan.

In the next decade, i.e., the 1980s, Company expanded to international markets. Lectra’s first foreign subsidiary was established in Germany followed by the UK, Italy, Spain, and finally in the US. Till now the company only used CAD for its software products but in 1985 it expanded into computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) in the fashion industry. In the same year, Company was recognized as the topmost company across the globe in fashion CAD.

After becoming a leading fashion technology provider in both CAD and CAM, the company decided to go public and filed its first IPO in 1987. Unfortunately, the company faced some financial troubles during the early 1990s, and it was recapitalized by Daniel and André Harari. After its recapitalization, Lectra extensively invested in R&D for its every product range and in 1995 rolled out its first product data management (PDM). Between 1996-1998, Lectra made a breakthrough in pattern making and grading, and also pattern fabric matching cut management (Mosaic).

Lectra in 21st century

Lectra entered into the 21st century as the famous global leader in fashion CAD and CAM. It launched many new products and services in the next ten years like Lectra Fashion PLM, 3D prototyping, and IoT-based preventive maintenance services. Eventually, Company entered the automotive industry and topped the list in automotive CAM. It also made several changes in its core software and 2012 added predictive maintenance in its software.

In 2014, Lectra established a partnership with ESCP Europe to establish a chair in Fashion and Technology for its luxury innovation research. And, after a few years, Lectra joined hands with a few other companies to launch the Biarritz Active Lifestyle Integral (BALI) Chair. With Lectra being a company with a unique perspective in the 1970s, it is still a global provider in its sector. The company has been the recipient of several awards and recognitions that include winning the Showcase for the Industry of Future Alliance from the Industry of Future Alliance. The company has recently acquired Kubix Lab, an Italian company in 2018, and Gerber Technology, an American company in 2021.

Daniel Harari – CEO of Lectra

Daniel Harari became the CEO and Chairman of Lectra in 1991. Before that, he has served in various companies in executive positions and also as the CEO. He started his career by joining an asset management company as its Vice President. Daniel also served as the CEO of Compagnie Financière du Scribe, a venture capital firm based in Paris.

Annasha

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