About 10 days ago, Guillermo Talento, founder of Software Testing Bureau (STB) was in Chile, as part of a trade mission Uruguay XXI. Shortly before, he was at the Financial Congress of Technology and Innovation, in Cartagena (Colombia). STB, specialized in software testing development, automation and information technology (IT) consulting, is growing and has plans to expand beyond its borders. What the company does is to help others to validate that the software they buy from third parties is indeed what they need.
"In Cartagena, more than a hundred people came to our stand. We are doing very well with Stela, our flagship product. We have aroused the interest of banks and technology companies in the region. Now we have to turn those contacts into business," said Talento. Stela is an artificial intelligence tool for testing software, through which patterns in big data that are not easy to detect are discovered and better results are achieved.
He studied computer science at Udelar and specialized in IT, inspired by his father, who is an engineer, and his brother, who also has a strong orientation towards computers. He worked in the systems area of several companies, especially in Lanas Trinidad (Otegui Group), until 1999, when he went from being an employee to a service provider. He founded Insight Latin America, a software and consulting company, which evolved to specialize in software testing. It was then, in 2008, when he decided to change the commercial name of his company to Software Testing Bureau (STB).
With offices in Ciudad Vieja, STB employs more than 20 people, mostly engineers, technicians and students. Many of them work at the facilities of their clients, such as Banco República (BROU). Some of their other clients are Scotiabank, BSP, Telefónica, Apraful, Toc Toc Viajes, Go Do Works, etc.
In the last ten years, STB has had a moderate and sustained growth. Its turnover is in the order of US$ 600,000 and US$ 700,000 per year. STB has commercial offices in Mexico (through a representative) and Colombia (where it has a local partner).
Talento was a director of the Uruguayan Chamber of Information Technology (Cuti), between 2012 and 2016. He is currently a collaborator in the Uruguayan chapter of Owasp, a non-profit organization that promotes the security of internet applications.
What are the most frequent testing demands in Uruguay?
Most of them come from companies that cannot take risks, such as banking and the financial sector in general. Lately other industries are becoming more relevant, due to the sensitivity of the issues they manage, such as health and tourism. The Agency of Electronic Government and Information and Knowledge Society (Agesic) is developing the program Salud.uy, which promotes the intensive use of technologies in mutual insurance companies, such as the national electronic health record and other user-centered medical information.
What are the problems you detect the most?
In e-commerce, software usually works fine on normal days, but they fail or crash when there is a sudden high demand, for example, on Mother's Day, special offer days, Cyber Monday, or Christmas. It also happens that they work perfectly at the beginning, but you have to keep them updated. Every new version that a customer receives, requires validation, a testing effort,
How much are companies investing in technology security?
The sector that invests the most is the financial sector. Although many other industries are increasingly interested in this front, the perception of risk in Uruguay is still low. There are SMEs and many people who do not have a paid antivirus on their computers. When they are victims of cyber attacks, they do not always manage to recover their data. It is believed that Uruguay is far from everything that happens in the world in terms of hackers, but it is not.
How much should be invested in this area?
An average range for security and software testing should be between $15,000 and $25,000 for a company with 30 to 75 employees.
What market trend would you highlight for the coming years?
Artificial intelligence. It is a relevant topic in any area of technology today.
What are your company's next plans?
We are strongly focused on internationalization, that is why we are committed to participate in events abroad. We rely heavily on the activities of Uruguay XXI, when it organizes missions to other Latin American countries.
Source: The Observer
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