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APRESENTAÇÃO > CASE STUDIES
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 Intelligent Machines SISCOG develops artificial intelligence to its highest level
www.siscog.pt
What do you think about a software application finding the most profitable way of placing employees in the various echelons of a business? A Portuguese team has developed this software. Welcome to the future. Imagine you are the administrator of a big company, an airport for instance, or a national railway company. Have you ever considered the difficulties that you would find in the daily management of your employees? What if there is a strike? What if there is an epidemic and most of your staff are off sick? What would be the best way to maximize resources? Obviously, it is always possible to pick up a notepad and a pen and methodically organize the timetables and different shifts of approximately two thousand employees. What is impossible to find, however, among the billions of options, is the most profitable way of doing this. With this rationale as their starting point, two portuguese partners developed a software application based on artificial intelligence that suited management needs of big european enterprises. Ernesto Morgado and Pavão Martins created SISCOG - Cognitive Systems in 1986, one of the most dynamic companies in the world in this field today.
Investment: five million euro
Basically, after 15 years of performance, SISCOG has only developed one application. "We identified our niche in the market and decided to create generic software that could be applied to various companies. That is why our market had to be international", recalls Pavão Martins. The software enables the planning of resources, from employees to trains, trucks, airplanes, industrial machinery, attempting to use them to their full potential. According to Ernesto Morgado, "artificial intelligence can find the best way to place employees in the company ranks, tackling the complexities of the problem and easily adapting itself to new situations".
In addition to software sales, SISCOG also has technical support contracts. Although it is not mandatory for the client to keep in touch with the company, "they will always come to us", states Pavão Martins. With regard to clients and in addition to CP (Portuguese National Railway), which was the first company to use the application, SISCOG has an interesting portfolio today. The Dutch, English, Danish and Norwegian Railways, and more recently the Lisbon Underground, are but a few of the companies there included. A prototype was conceived for TAP after it showed interest in the project, but it never came to purchase the software application. According to Pavão Martins and Ernesto Morgado, they have invested approximately five million Euros in this product over the past 15 years. It is only now that the generic tool seems to be definitely ready. "We are ready to expand", they comment. It takes approximately between one and two years from the moment a client contacts SISCOG until the time the product is delivered. Since each company has its own specific needs, the client will follow the entire development process of the application. On average, each product can cost between 2,5 and 7,5 thousand Euros, not including the technical support contract. SISCOG has no direct competition in Portugal. There are only three companies in the world that work in this area: one English, one Swedish and one Canadian. From these, only the English company is also beginning to develop artificial intelligence related projects. The fact that SISCOG is Portuguese brought some problems with it at the start. Ernesto Morgado remembers his first years. "It was difficult to convince foreign investors that Portuguese products were good". It is easier to sell the product today. It is now possible for potential clients to see the application in operation and this helps negotiations. Maybe this is why SISCOG closed last year with a turnover of 1,5 million Euros and expects to reach 4 million Euros this year. This goal follows the obtention of ISO 9000 certificate, already in its new 2000 version. A project made to measure
It was 1986. Ernesto Morgado and Pavão Martins had just returned from the United States, where they had completed their Doctorates in Artificial Intelligence. SISCOG still did not exist. First it was necessary to evaluate the market and test the creation of the company.
At the invitation of Unisys, the two experts began giving a series of seminars to companies in Lisbon about artificial intelligence. This was the birth of SISCOG, which initially dedicated itself to the development of a prototype for TAP. This prototype would be the base of the final product. Along with TAP's interest, which in the end did not in fact buy the tool, it was CP that finally became this company's first major client. At that time, CP and Unisys provided SISCOG with two computers worth 2,5 hundred Euros to enable the company to develop its first application. At that time Ernesto Morgado and Pavão Martins took the responsibility for the creation of SISCOG with only one other person in the administrative area. Today, 15 years later, the company has 30 employees and is preparing to expand even further, not only in different geographical areas, but also in new market sectors. SISCOG - Sistemas Cognitivos, Lda. |
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