www.enabler.pt

Enabler's global expansion has just begun, but it has already won a battle against the largest companies in the world.

This is a young company in the field of IT geared towards the distribution sector and is investing heavily in the European market. For 2002, the strategy is to focus on this sector, according to Gastão Taveira, Enabler's managing director: "We intend to be a European player in Information Technologies for wider distribution, a sector where we possess distinctive competences, both at technological level and in business know-how. Our greatest competitive advantage is our focus on closely related sectors in a wider geographical scope".

The company's targets are the large and medium European retailers and distributors, so there are only a few target clients.

The kind of work Enabler provides its clients covers all the necessary areas in a retailer's system architecture: Retail ERP, Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence, e-Business and Enterprise Application Integration. In each of these areas Enabler has partnerships with some of the best system providers worldwide, notably Retek, Blue Martini Software and Oracle.

Enabler's activity consists essentially of the construction and implementation of systems made up of a set of best-of-breed solutions which it customizes and integrates, using the most modern system integration and project management technologies available. The solutions Enabler offers use state-of-the-art technologies and lead to projects of great complexity, which rise um to over half a million Euros each.

The international positioning of the company and the potential of the British market (the largest and most sophisticated in Europe in IT) led Enabler to create a subsidiary company in the United Kingdom, Enabler UK Limited, which reached a business volume of 3.4 million Euros, breaking even and making a profit after just one year of activity. 

Beyond the United Kingdom, Enabler has been working in other European countries such as Italy and Spain, and has launched a project for its first client in France. They are also negotiating in Germany for the development of a joint venture with a local partner in order to exploit the German market. So as to expand its productive capacity, Enabler recently opened a subsidiary in Brazil, which will act as Software development "factory".

Enabler sprang up from Sonae Group, having started off as the computer department of Sonae Distribuição. In 1998 the company became autonomous and in the following year began its expansion into the foreign market. 

Still in 2000, the holding Sonae.com bought Enabler's total capital from Sonae SGPS as a first step in a process for the partial acquisition of the company by top managers.

Today, its team numbers approximately 240 people and its activity has grown considerably. In 2001, turnover came to about 21 million Euros, a growth of 40% in relation to the previous year, mainly due to the expansion in the foreign market. Net results reached about 2.5 million Euros, with a cash flow of over 3 million Euros. These high levels of profitability have enabled Enabler to sustain its international expansion with its own resources. This year, subsequently to its ongoing activities, Enabler will consolidate its position in the main target markets, always highly focused on the retail and distribution sectors, while maintaining its European status.


ENABLER - Sistemas de Informação, S.A.
Avenida da Boavista, 1245
4100-130 Porto
Tel: (+351) 22 6077500
Fax: (+351) 22 6077501
www.enabler.pt