Cosmos Business Systems: Conditions of growth expectations from the State, businesses
Dimitris Dafnis, President of Cosmos Business Systems, speaks optimistically about the growth prospects of CBS, substantiating his point of view with a unique economic and technical description of the current and -not distant- future reality.
INTERVIEW WITH STATHIS ASPIOTIS
When an executive with the knowledge, experience and prestige of Dimitris Dafnis, appears optimistic about the future, both for the development of the State and the private sector, this can only be a good omen for developments, in Greece and internationally. To achieve this, the assistance of effective technological solutions is necessary, with full support and vertical integration in the offer of services. Cosmos Business Systems is already on the right track.
netweek: How would you describe the role of Cosmos Business Systems in modern business in Greece and internationally? What are the main areas of activity of the company and what are the characteristics that differentiate it from other companies operating in the same sectors?
Dimitris Dafnis: As our company enters its 4th decade of continuous operation, it is certain that the business environment is changing at an astonishingly fast and accelerating pace. What perhaps constitutes a stable point of reference is our deep commitment to customer-centric strategy and monitoring of modern trends in the field of technology. As a System Integrator par excellence, i.e. a provider of integrated IT and telecommunications solutions, Cosmos is positioned between global manufacturers (international vendors) and end customers, covering all 4 pillars of technology, namely IT Infrastructure, networks of all types and data and infrastructure security (Networking and Security), high-level Services (IT Services, Managed Services and Consulting) and finally the production of software for businesses and the Public Sector (Software Development), through our subsidiary Cosmos Consulting AEBE. In other words, we give our customers the opportunity to cover their needs in IT and Telecommunications technologies, at a 360° level, as a One-Stop-Integrator, an element that constitutes the main point of differentiation and competitiveness, within the market. This structure allows the 200 employees in the company to specialize in vertical sectors, providing a high level of expertise and efficiency. At the level of international presence, our company has a subsidiary in Cyprus, CBS IT Systems Cyprus LTD, with an extremely significant presence, while it operates throughout the European Union and beyond, depending on the projects. For example, Cosmos has implemented or is implementing projects, in addition to the EU, in the USA, South America, North Africa, Asia, etc. These projects mainly concern data center infrastructures, software applications, cloud services and IT hosting. In addition, we participate in NATO Defense projects, etc.), European, research, alone or as members of associations, consortia or in collaboration with Educational Institutions or Organizations. Our collaboration with all the major foreign companies (IBM, HPE, HPI, Dell, Lenovo, Cisco, Avaya, Huawei, Microsoft, Oracle, etc.), gives us the opportunity to closely monitor technological developments and provide solutions to our customers at the cutting edge of technology, something that the market is constantly looking for. Our company expects a significant boost in its figures for 2020, estimating that sales at the group level will reach €35 million, up from €31 million in 2019. Finally, commenting on the question regarding the business environment, I would say that the market is already at a significant stage of concentration in larger groups, which will be able to respond to market conditions and the challenges of the digital transformation of the Public Sector in the coming period.
It is clear that the COVID-19 pandemic has played a catalytic role as an accelerator of digital transformation, both in the private and public sectors. Based on your experience and knowledge, which are the areas of entrepreneurship that are showing the greatest activity and, within this context, which have the required characteristics to develop and be considered, potentially, as “opportunities” for investment?
It is 100% true that the pandemic created the conditions for “liberation” from decades-old stereotypes, from the simplest – such as, for example, the electronic verification of the original signature – to more complex ones, such as the possibility of a remote meeting of the Council of Ministers. Of course, not because the technology or infrastructure did not exist (and that is why everything worked within 2 days of the start of the lockdown on March 11), but because bad mindsets and rigidities had to be broken in no time. Today, the main strategic