The Recipe for Success!
Interviewing our CEO Engeneer Gerardo Fabrizio conducted by Business24.
Open Data srl is a company from Argelato, in the province of Bologna, which develops high-performance MES software. Manufacturing Execution System (MES) is the result of the passion for Information Technology of its founder, Gerardo Fabrizio.
After graduating in Electronic Engineering at the University of Bologna, with some of his university colleagues, he decided to create a real team of software developers.
The Origins and the First Project.
At the beginning of the 90s, the company created the first system for controlling the factory; the initial project was carried out within a large Bolognese company that still produces locks and safes. At that time it was very innovative because it was the first time that a real-time production control monitoring was installed in a factory. In a short time Open Data has evolved and today it is well-known in the international market as a software house that creates OPERA, a platform that develops MES systems that are used to allow partners to design a factory with high technological performance, 4.0. In fact, MES systems, acronym for Manufacturing Execution System, are created for the management of the industry, transforming it from traditional to digital with an average performance improvement of 30%: with the same resources, much more is produced and the results are of a much higher quality.
The Metalworking Industry: the Lion's Share
Customers are the most technologically advanced companies and in this the metalworking sector takes the lion's share. Immediately after comes that of plastic, rubber, wood and even pharmaceuticals. In short, Open Data operates on a wide-ranging basis. Italy and Germany are undoubtedly the forefront when it comes to Industry 4.0.
How to cope with the Crisis
The 2008 crisis did not weaken Open Data, in fact strengthened it because if the economy in Italy was falling apart, Open Data had the readiness and the courage to step forward in the foreign market, becoming from an information program consulting company to a real and its own software house, leader in the international market of MES systems. The most popular countries were Central Europe, the United States, China, Mexico, all those areas with the highest industrial density.
Structure of the company Open Data srl
The company boasts two teams: there are those who create the product and those who take care of the distribution network and provide training for those who will then use it. There is a development team that creates the product and a delivery team that deals with the development of the distribution network and its technical training to carry out MES projects around the world. The real secret of Open Data is to have focused on a single product, OPERA, to have brought it to its highest levels and to have internationalized it.
To read the original article click on Business 24
