www.microfil.pt

1,000,000,000,000 sheets of paper have already passed through the hands of Microfil's employees, a company that, in 15 years, became a success story in the development of software solutions for optical filing as well as gathering, storage, organization and microfilming of "historical records" from several companies.

Most of these documents stay in the safe the company set up at its birthplace, Cortegaça, 60 km from Oporto, which is also Microfil headquarters. The company has also offices in Lisbon and keeps an eye on Silicon Valley and Spain.

The Valley, landmark of the New Economy, is one of the pillars for the company's philosophy, in the words of Manuel Antunes, managing partner of Microfil: "It was there that we found development solutions for our sector and for all the others. It is necessary to be there to see things first hand and, therefore, to be always a step ahead". As well as the acquisition of equipment, the training also came from Santa Clara, which "still the top school", and why "a delegation is being prepared".

Another pillar that sustains the company is the relationship among administration and collaborators. Isabel and Manuel Antunes are married and this relationship seems to have drawn closes the fraternal links between people who share the "safe" of Cortegaça - no office is better than another, everybody gets air-conditioning and ambient music, one can breath healthiness and smokers have a beautiful garden around the house at their disposal.

The financial base that allowed the growth and technological update was nothing more than the popular wisdom or the school of "our ancestors". "When we earn ten, we just spent two and invest the remaining eight" - Manuel Antunes remembers the saying - and slowly the company kept growing.

They have gradually invested in training and, nowadays, in addition to specific courses, most collaborators take retraining courses and specific training. Another solution was the creation of two specific training chairs in Minho University. This training allows employees to perform archiving at such a speed that the secrecy of documents is guaranteed, a secrecy that is reinforced by a safe watched by dozens of cameras and security guards.

In this field, safety is a factor for quality because only with such safety measures could documents for clients like Sonae, Amorim, Unicer and also the Heritage Department be trusted. The most recent bet is being made on the Portuguese Postal Service and City Halls.

The priority for internationalization is the Spanish market, but Northern Europe (United Kingdom, Netherlands and Germany) are seen as key elements in terms of marketing. Microfil began with the Brazilian market, which is seen as a stepping-stone to the rest of Latin America, and intends to reach Asia, a plan that is currently being "brought to maturity".

MICROFIL - Tecnologias de Informação, S.A.
Av. João Crisóstomo, 29-29A
1050-125 Lisboa
Tel: (+351) 21 3301880
Fax: (+351) 21 3193255
Largo das Praças, 46 - Apartado 77
3886-908 Cortegaça
Tel: (+351) 256 759100
Fax: (+351) 256 757200
www.microfil.pt