Argentina. At the end of 2020, the company Convergencia DS achieved the ISO 9001 Quality Certification, which closes a year of great challenges due to the pandemic generated by Covid-19. AVI LATINOAMÉRICA spoke with Luis María González Lentijo, founder and CEO of Convergencia DS, who told details of this process and what this certification means for the company in the face of the processes and plans for this year.
AVI: Why did you decide to pursue 9001 Certification?
Luis Maria Gonzalez: Since our beginnings, for us quality was and is one of our maximum pillars. That is why we put great efforts into improving year after year. We have been in the industry for more than 12 years and there came a point in continuous improvement, in which we understood that it was necessary to raise the standard even more (not only under a quality standard) but also subject to external audits that would allow us to structure, measure and commit more precisely to the quality standard over time and evolution.
In this way we can analyze in detail the strengths and opportunities for improvement, counting on an external vision that ensures us to be up to the highest standards at a global level.
That is why we chose this ISO 9001:2015 certification, which is international and allows us to measure ourselves with global standards. This is how we offer our customers these high quality standards.
AVI: How does it benefit Convergencia DS customers that the company has this certification?
Luis Maria Gonzalez: We decided to certify all the processes of our company, with which all our processes are standardized and with clear quality objectives, metrics and KPIs specific to all areas of the company. For us it was not just a matter of achieving the seal of quality, but a real commitment to quality and continuous improvement.
Additionally, we decided to certify 3 special, unusual processes that represent a challenge for the future:
• Innovation process (incubator),
• Internal training process and
• Training process for our customers and the industry.
In this way we not only certify the customer service processes and the internal operation processes, but we also put the focus on quality in terms of innovation, transformation and development towards the future.
A point to highlight is that our innovation process (incubator) is a disruptive process that allows internal innovation or the option of innovation incorporating customers and partners.
We enter this new digital era with a smarter, more agile, faster and at the same time more orderly and more consistent process, thus bringing our clients concrete results in innovation projects, ensuring the fulfillment of objectives, deadlines, costs, learning curve and better solving the challenges of this process.
AVI: How did 2020 end for you and how much have you been affected by the pandemic?
Luis Maria Gonzalez: This is a hinge year as our industry consists of public, in stores and on public roads with people in front of screens, which was strongly affected during the pandemic with empty streets and restricted stores. Anyway, for us it is a year of growth because it is also a year of opportunities, since the brands of retail and dooh companies understood that it is time to enter the Digital Transformation, with which the demand for our products and services has been growing during the last semester throughout Latin America.
Somehow 2020 will have been the year that despite its difficulties and challenges inaugurated an era of Digital Transformation, smart retail, smart shopping, smart office, smart city, iOT, iA, etc; all technologies and products on which we are specialists and that we have been developing for +12 years.
This situation opens the possibility of a more massive sale to more technological customers and a new paradigm of digital consumers.
AVI: What changes have digital signage solutions had to help the pandemic?
Luis Maria Gonzalez: One of the key factors during the pandemic was the emergence of protocols in all areas (office, retail, public roads, transport, education, hospitality, etc.) and at the same time the volatility and constant change on current regulations and recommendations for health care.
Through Digital Signage we have contributed with our clients to achieve an efficient, fast communication, according to the changes and regulations in force in different cities and states, contributing with relevant and timely information with the protocols and health care.
Additionally, the new consumption habits from the pandemic are generating new retail models with a preponderance of more efficient stores, with less m2, with defined pickup points and other digital resources that customers today begin to expect as standards in service. All this makes our technologies take an even more prominent role in the spaces of communication and contact with the client.
