BALABIT

Zoltán Györkő, CEO

How would you describe your products and services? What does the software you are developing do?

BalaBit operates its R&D centers in Budapest and Veszprém in Hungary, developing innovative IT security software solutions for enterprises. The company is widely known for syslog-ng, its open source log management solution, used by more than a million companies worldwide. The syslog-ng Premium Edition enables organizations to improve operations, gain visibility of security threats, and meet compliance requirements.

This significant user base provides a solid ground for business expansion, which is fueled by Shell Control Box, a pioneering development for the rapidly growing niche market of privileged activity monitoring. Shell Control Box helps customers to answer the question of who did what in the IT system, which is a basic requirement in most of the compliance regulations.

Zorp Gateway, which has a strong and loyal customer base in Hungary, is a robust perimeter-defense tool, developed for companies with extensive networks, and other organizations with high security requirements. During Zorp’s design, we abandoned the traditional firewall architecture and designed a tool that can answer the security challenges of today and tomorrow.

Has your company made any innovations of which you are particularly proud?

BalaBit’s flagship product, the Shell Control Box activity monitoring tool, received the 2012 “Industrial Innovation Grand Prize” from the Hungarian Association for Innovation for achieving significant economic growth and resulting in social utility globally. Shell Control Box is a quickly deployable enterprise tool with the widest protocol coverage on the market. Compared to other, similar solutions, it is an agentless solution, completely independent from clients and servers – integrating seamlessly into existing infrastructures. Its session recording functionality makes it a perfect complement to password management tools, and it can be easily integrated with the most popular such tools.

Last, but not least, our syslog-ng log management tool became the de-facto log management solution in the UNIX and Linux era in the past decade, and has more than a million organizations who benefit from its advantages today.

Who are your major clients?

Our larger customers include 23% of the Fortune 100. Examples from our public references include Facebook, Air France, Swedish Handelsbanken, Orange, Telenor, MTS Ukraine, CEZ Group the nuclear powerplant in Czech and Leibniz Supercomputer Center, the biggest European datacenter.

In Hungary we can mention Credigen Bank Zrt., the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office, UPC, and the Central Administration of National Pension Insurance.

Are your customers spread around the world, or does your business depend on contacts with locals? How important is it that you meet with your clients face-to-face?

In 2006, which was the year of the international breakthrough for BalaBit, we already had customers in every inhabited continent. However, our business also depends on local contacts. We have sales offices in focus markets, such as in France, Germany, Hungary, Russia, the UK and the United States – and partners in 40+ countries.

We need to work very closely together with our clients, to understand their needs and real security issues and have a deep knowledge of the operation of their network, but this does not necessarily require a personal meeting. On the other hand, we are ready to serve customers face-to-face when there is a need for that.

Why is Hungary a good environment for software developers?

Since its foundation in 2000, BalaBit has been developing security software solutions in Hungary for the international market. The founders of BalaBit, including myself, graduated in computer engineering in Hungary, so we know what we can expect from our developers. Hungarian engineers are talented, good at math, creative and resourceful. Two months ago we received $8 million in capital from a London-based investor, and we still plan to keep the development centers in Hungary (Budapest and Veszprem) and double the number of employees within five years.

Why should customers choose you?

We are committed to continuous innovation. As an active member of the open-source community, we provide a uniquely wide range of solutions for both proprietary and open-source platforms. Our solutions are developed for rapidly growing, but niche, enterprise markets. Quite often we receive feedback from our customers, who say that, before implementing our solution, they would not even think that such a targeted solution exists on the market. Our products use cutting-edge technologies, and solve real problems, helping our customers to be more secure and more effective, to lower the cost of IT system maintenance and troubleshooting and to meet compliance regulations.

We are a right-size company to cooperate with, as we are big enough to be flexible in development, but the atmosphere is still familiar enough to have dedicated, direct contacts to our 7/24 support services, for instance.

Anything else to add?

Recently BalaBit raised an $8 mln Series A round of funding to speed up the development and expansion of its pioneering IT security platforms. The new investment will be used to fuel BalaBit’s international expansion in North America and additional European markets, including the UK and Scandinavia. Using the strong financial backing of C5 Capital, BalaBit aims to aggressively establish its revolutionary new security concept called Contextual Security Intelligence™ on an international scale. We believe that adopting new information technologies is the key to being competitive today, and IT security is often complex for any company or organization. Security control can hinder IT projects and other business processes. In the last decade, companies invested significant amounts of money into monitoring technologies – mainly for IT management and compliance reasons, but not for IT security. It seems that for companies today security means control, and this is what Contextual Security Intelligence aims to change, by providing solutions for more business-friendly IT security.

 

HOSTLOGIC

Dr. Attila Molnár, Business Unit Director

How would you describe your products and services? What does the software you are developing do?

HostLogic is a business IT company: We offer all kinds of business support for SAP technology. Our services range from classical enterprise resource planning (ERP) through business analytics activities (reporting, planning, business simulation) and customer relationship management (CRM) to IT systems customized for special business processes. We can deliver all these applications with the newest technologies. Lately it has been our key objective to increase the use of mobile solutions.

There are two fundamental features characterizing HostLogic that enable it to deliver these business services. Firstly, it can provide the business services listed above in many versions for all possible contexts, extending from a completely in-house model to a cloud-based service. Secondly, HostLogic can offer its applications within the framework of HANA, SAP’s unique and revolutionary development, a technological solution based on so-called “in-memory computing,” which makes business applications exceptionally effective. HANA combines improved hardware speed with radically new software data management. SAP has long been a market leader in business applications, and now these products also work at an extraordinary speed.

If you offer ERP services, do you attempt to provide all the software a company needs? Can you provide a customized solution for everything?

Since HostLogic works with SAP technology, we can cover the full range of enterprise resource planning, which now includes not only the classical tripartite structure of finance, logistics, and production, but, according to the latest concept of ERP, the SAP support of full business collaboration, as well. Our company can provide a unique service of scaled SAP software solutions for both small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as companies, regardless of whether they are local or multinational businesses.

In the past 15 years, HostLogic has made it a priority to provide tailor-made solutions that cater to the specific needs and productive processes of the industry in question. As a result, HostLogic now has more than 15 industry-specific solutions, and develops customized solutions as well.

Has your company made any innovations of which you are particularly proud?

In the past few months, we have developed several HANA-based applications for local and international companies that we are particularly proud of, since they are pioneering solutions on a global scale. One of these products is a business intelligence solution based on HANA (in-memory computing), developed for the biggest multinational producer of energy appliances. The solution is unique not only in its extraordinary speed but also in that it retrieves data from a large number of heterogeneous business systems that work with different code sets, and turns these data into unified logistics performance indexes for each EMEA company within the whole business group, while it also presents them with the help of a set of cutting-edge visualization tools.

Apart from that, we are also very proud of our solutions developed for the various industries, especially our solutions for cheese and dairy producers, which have even attracted the attention of a US cheese firm, much like our solution developed for mechanical engineering and processing companies. 

Who are your major clients?

HostLogic offers services in various segments. As such, the customers of our small business solutions are predominantly Hungarian SMEs looking for generic software.

Our medium-sized business solutions are commonly provided for companies that would like to control their increasingly complicated business processes, or plan to improve their business volume by involving new customers, new markets, or new products.

Most of our big company clients typically use a previously implemented SAP system, and they look for ways to utilize its potential more effectively. They also wish to develop their business performance by way of increasing the efficiency of their SAP.

At the same time, we have a number of larger clients who want customized software, since they struggle with problems related to processing capacity. For them, HANA is the perfect solution.

Are your customers spread around the world, or does your business depend on contacts with locals? How important is it that you meet with your clients face-to-face?

Our small business clients are typically Hungarian; a number of our medium-sized clients are based in Hungary but carry out business in the CEE region, and some of them are subsidiaries of multinational companies. Several of our larger clients hire us for international projects involving a number of countries.

HostLogic’s hosting and cloud services are provided in 13 countries.

As a rule, HostLogic makes long-term contracts with its clients, both for services of SAP implementation based on HostLogic’s project methodology, and for various outsourcing solutions. These processes must entail daily contact with the client, since they involve not only IT support but the support of business processes. We build a relationship of trust with our clients, so face-to-face meetings are vital for both parties.

Why is Hungary a good environment for software developers?

In Hungary there are a lot of good developers, education is good, and, as the example of HostLogic shows, a company founded in Hungary can also be awarded with worldwide SAP-qualification, because it can meet international standards. We have very motivated IT professionals in Hungary who have the same qualifications as their Western colleagues, but at the same time, Hungarian prices are cheaper than in Western Europe, so our services are more competitive.

The Hungarian market also remains competitive in comparison with services with offshore prices, since Hungarian developers are much more productive.

Why should customers choose you?

Because we can provide a solution for each and every business process, and instead of an IT approach we follow a business approach. This also contributes to making our clients not only satisfied but successful and able to achieve their goals. We have seen our clients fulfill their business objectives – and very often exceed them. Of course, it is always the companies that should be credited for such achievements, but we would like to think that our services have played a part in their success. We provide SAP guarantees with our solutions, and we also offer a number of various operation models. Our prices are competitive, we can relate to the needs of the different industries, we have very good references, and we possess HANA, the technology of the future. HostLogic is the perfect size – a company that has stabilized its position both in terms of experience and capital, but remains small enough to avoid inducing a sense of loss and insignificance in its customers. Our clients and their satisfaction are our priority, so we give them all the attention they need and deserve.

 

ITWARE

Sándor Dankó, Managing Director

How would you describe your products and services? What does the software you are developing do?

Our core business is mainly customized software development, so it would be very difficult to describe our so-called “products”, as they are always very unique and customized to distinct customer needs.

In general, we can say that our company is motivated to lead long-term business relationships with partners, so quality and reliability are the main aspects in our work, and we can also say that software made by ITware usually does what the customer wants.

As mobile application demand has been developing aggressively since 2008, a big portion of our assignments come from this field, so we have managed to build deep and sophisticated experience in developing various mobile solutions and applications.

If you offer ERP services, do you attempt to provide all the software a company needs? Can you provide a customized solution for everything?

Though we do not have a complete ERP system developed as an end-product, we solve such a need with customized solutions based on actual customer demand. So at the end of the day, we can say that ITware is able to provide customized solutions for everything.

Has your company made any innovations of which you are particularly proud?

Yes, of course we have. Here are some examples:

APPaware (www.CreateSmartApp.com ): We know well, from our own experience, the many difficulties a mobile app developer has to face day-by-day in order to write software for the numerous types of smartphones. This challenge motivated us to create a perfect and easy-to-use solution in order to support mobile developers all over the world. APPaware is a web-based SmartPhone app editor that lets you create your own mobile App by Yourself. You do not need any coding knowledge, you just need to drag and drop the elements. It’s as easy as making a presentation.

Kojimori: Kojimori is an innovative, cloud-based automated data acquisition (DAQ) system. Its main service is to store and display the data collected by different types of measurement instruments and sensors, regardless of their location. The system provides a reliable solution to various areas – including agriculture, the food industry and tourism – where environmental factors, like temperature, humidity, oxygen content, etc., affect the activities. The system collects and systematizes the measured values collected by the various sensors and makes the data available in the formats desired by each customer and user. It provides all these in a very cost-effective and highly reliable way, as Kojimori meets the highest standards and requirements of these industries.

Moromikun: The M2M smart application monitors sake brewing, simulating and controlling the temperature levels of each cycle. The application is made for Android tablets, and users can set different thresholds, as well as alarm levels in case a parameter differs from a specified value.

Happy Wedding: You can be a high-style movie maker with “Happy Wedding“, which is simple to use. All you need to do is select the effect and shoot the movie. Happy Wedding will create a composite movie. There are a wide variety of effects you can select. You can make a gorgeous wedding movie, an “oriental” wedding movie, or even make a wedding movie with black humor.

Who are your major clients?

Fifteen years ago, our colleagues developed the CRM and billing systems of Magyar Telekom, and thanks to the fast and continuous development of telecommunication needs and services, ITware still continues to support and develop these systems and to cover the regular needs and requirements of Magyar Telekom, as one of their top five software suppliers. For this reason, Magyar Telekom is our major client, with whom we have been cooperating on a daily basis from the beginning. Because much of our experience and knowledge is in the telecommunication business, we have other main accounts from the sector, like Antenna Hungária and Invitel, But we also have big clients from other industries, like logistics (Waberer, Magyar Posta), the financial sector (Erste, Generali, Raiffeisen, K&H) and even production and agriculture (Antal, Bio-Fungi).

Are your customers spread around the world, or does your business depend on contacts with locals? How important is it that you meet with your clients face-to-face?

As ITware is situated in Hungary, our main business activities naturally focus on domestic customers. On the other hand, we lead a smaller business unit in Japan, run by a dedicated colleague who lives there, and we also have clients in Germany. Though we find face-to-face communication very important, if a direct meeting is not possible, there are several available solutions to bridge such a problem. Furthermore, in order to develop our international trade activities, we usually visit foreign expositions as an exhibitor (MWC – Barcelona, IT Week – Japan, GITEX – Dubai, CommunicAsia – Singapore).

Why is Hungary a good environment for software developers?

Hungary is full of well-prepared, creative and experienced, English speaking developers. If we provide them an appropriate environment, infrastructure and support, they can make an extremely effective, high-quality and competitive development team.

Why should customers choose you?

We always aim to build strong partnerships with our customers and we believe that the best way to achieve long-term, successful cooperation is through quality, reliability and the provision of cost-effective solutions.

Our resource pool contains world-class software engineers and certified project managers, who are well-versed in Agile development and have participated in several successful development and integration projects. Through such projects, ITware has managed to collect outstanding know-how on enterprise Java development (for Magyar Posta), including understanding and covering CRM and billing demands for telecommunication companies.

Thanks to regular training and development of our workforce, ITware has become one of the pioneers and experts of the Hungarian IT market.

Last but not least, ITware is also very active in innovation and R&D activities. As a result, we have managed to collect prominent knowledge and experience in several areas, and have developed a unique technology for mobile application design (APPaware) with which we are able to simultaneously create native mobile applications for all three platforms (Android, iOS, Windows).

 

MULTISOFT

Gábor Kelemen, CEO

How would you describe your products and services? What does the software you are developing do?

We sell solutions, not just software. Every project is different; every solution is unique and personalized. Our software helps the company to save time, do their work more efficiently, and also earn more profit.

 

If you offer ERP services, do you attempt to provide all the software a company needs? Can you provide a customised solution for everything?

Every time we start a new project, the goal is to satisfy all needs. We offer solutions mainly for SMEs. Our product-line includes solutions for car manufacturers and their dealers; food-industrial enterprises; asset registering and renting; accounting; tax, customs and excise duty handling; financial controlling; petty cash; CRM connection; billing; and so on. While we can’t say that we have solution for everything, I think we cover almost every field of business.

Has your company made any innovations of which you are particularly proud?

Our main innovative success is the MobileNAV application for Microsoft Dynamics NAV. It is the first native add-on on the market that is not using web-browser platforms. This year, the MobileNAV earned the Certified for Microsoft Dynamics award, and one of the Microsoft Dynamics Executives said at the Worldwide Partner Conference, that “Your NAV mobile solution rocks!” I think it’s a great compliment.

Who are your major clients?

Herlitz, Alois Dallmayr, Studio Moderna, BMW Hungary (every dealer in Hungary), Profirent, Gfk Hungary, Adecco, Fujifilm.

Are your customers spread around the world, or does your business depend on contacts with locals? How important is it that you meet with your clients face-to-face?

In the case of NAV, it is necessary to meet every time with our customers, and we sell directly to them. However, in the case of MobileNAV, we have partners all around the world, and we sell our products through them, so we don’t meet the end-users.

Why should customers choose you?

• We assign a personal consultant to every customer from the start of the project.

• We have an outstanding support system, which ensures a smooth workflow.

• If it is needed, we can help our clients to apply for subsidies.

• At our firm, every project is unique and the solutions are customized.

• We have a wide range of experienced specialists and a well-qualified implementation team. They are available for overseas projects, too.


NEXON

Szilárd Ocskay, CEO

 

How would you describe your products and services? What does the software you are developing do?

NEXON is Hungary’s leading payroll and human resources software developer and service provider. Nearly one-third of the top 200 companies in the Hungarian economy use NEXON’s services – and payroll-related tasks for more than one million employees are performed using NEXON applications. NEXONhrm® provides integrated IT solutions for all areas of human resource management, from recruitment to the end of the employee life cycle. In functionality and performance, it is comparable to major international HRM systems, with the clear advantage that it is always fully compliant with the Hungarian legal environment. NEXON offers customized solutions for both commercial and public sector organizations.

If you offer ERP services, do you attempt to provide all the software a company needs? Can you provide a customized solution for everything?

Human resources management is a unique part of ERP services, with very special and frequently changing legal regulations. NEXONhrm® is a complex HR system that has modules covering the entire area of HR management and supporting every process, from management tasks through daily administration to employee self service (payroll, benefit, workforce management recruitment-selection, training-development and performance management). NEXONhrm® has a modular structure, so it can be purchased element by element. It can flexibly meet the variable needs of companies: Administration will be supported by involving further modules in the system, should HR-functions be extended in the organization. The web-based user interfaces are easy to use and understand.

Has your company made any innovations of which you are particularly proud?

NEXON has just announced a new generation of business HR solutions, the NEXON PORT employee self services system. Involving employees in HR administration can result in cost and work reduction as well as in administration and data quality improvement. The NEXON PORT self-service system enables HR to improve the efficiency of administration and to strengthen the appreciation of HR in the company.

Who are your major clients?

NEXON has 3,000 companies as clients and that in turn serve 1,000,000 employees in Hungary. Nearly one-third of the top 200 companies in Hungary use NEXON’s solutions in all sectors of the economy, including accounting and the public sector.

Are your customers spread around the world, or does your business depend on contacts with locals? How important is it that you meet with your clients face-to-face?

NEXON today has become an attractive alternative in its area for both smaller Hungarian companies and large multinational businesses. Face-to-face consultancy is, however, indispensable to finding out our clients’ requirements and processes, so that we can offer the best solution to implement.

Why should customers choose you?

Because of our

• 25 years’ experience in payroll and HR management;

• own team of software developers with special legal and HR knowledge;

• state-of-the-art IT infrastructure audited by ISO 27001;

• 3,000 clients in all sizes and all industry segments;

• comprehensive solution in the entire area of payroll and HR management including software, consultancy and outsourcing solutions.


ORACLE

Attila Biber, Regional HCM Sales at Oracle

 

How would you describe your products and services? What does the software you are developing do?

Oracle provides business application products covering all business processes for finance, supply chain and manufacturing processes. Our solution portfolio has multiple product lines to support medium- to large-sized organizations. Oracle can provide solutions on-premise or in the cloud, using a Software as a Service delivery method.

If you offer ERP services, do you attempt to provide all the software a company needs? Can you provide a customised solution for everything?

Our portfolio includes many specialized best-of-class elements supporting special ar