Comarch is a stable, experienced provider of innovative IT products for multiple industries, including telecommunications, banking, airlines, petrol stations, utilities. Today,
Website Planet‘s Marko Velimirovic had the opportunity to speak with Marek Wisniewski, PR Director of Comarch.
Please present Comarch to our audience.
A few years ago, one of our foreign clients said that Comarch is the largest unknown IT Company. Perhaps this is true. It’s because we do not sell mass goods, but precisely crafted enterprise business software.
On the other hand, our IT systems are implemented in many international corporations and affect the everyday life of millions of people. For example, being a member of the BP loyalty program, customers use the system developed by Comarch. Comarch is a producer and provider of IT solutions for Companies.
Please describe the story behind the company: What sparked the idea?
Comarch was founded in 1993 by Professor Janusz Filipiak together with his wife Elżbieta as a University spin-off. Today we would say it was a start-up in the University’s growth hub Comarch from the beginning of its operations was a family business and it remained so; Professor performs the functions of the President of the Management Board, and Mrs. Elzbieta Filipiak is the Chairperson of the Supervisory Board.
Their children are also professionally associated with the company. For the first years, the company operated at the AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków (Poland), the place where Professor Filipiak worked for many years. Being at the peak of their scientific career, he decided to resign from his post at the university and fully engage in the development of the company.
The company grew out of the academic community and from when it was founded almost 30 years ago, it is now evolving into a transnational network of subsidiaries and partners all over the world, employing almost 7000 specialists in Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Comarch was created during the transformation of an economic and political system in Poland.
These changes generated a huge demand for IT systems. Additionally, there were a lot of talented young people in the labor market who were hungry for success, knowledge, and achievements.
And how has it evolved so far?
Comarch started its business in Poland and the first international subsidiaries were opened in 2000, mainly in Europe, with the highest emphasis put on Germany. Since 2010 the company has gone truly global. In the last couple of years, the expansion of global business centers has intensified by opening subsidiaries in Dubai, Japan, and Australia, among others. Investments in opening new branches outside Europe have
resulted in significant growth in sales in international markets. Geographical diversification along with an extensive product portfolio and high outlays on R&D (over 15 percent of revenues) is the basis of the company’s strategy. It helps to keep Comarch’s offer attractive, resulting in a permanent, steady increase in sales over the past 29 years.
The history of Comarch’s operations shows that the company is resistant to global economic crises, and it comes out stronger from each other. This was the case after the Internet bubble burst in 2001, after the collapse of the capital market in 2008-2009, and after the coronavirus pandemic.
What services do you offer?
After 30 years in business, Comarch is established as a leader in IT solutions. The company provides innovative IT systems for telecommunications, finance, banking, industry, trade, and services, and also for public administration and healthcare.
Comarch’s services have been used by tens of thousands of global brands in more than 100 countries on six continents: BP, Heathrow Airport, Costa Coffee, and Telefónica, among others. In 2021, the dominant model of delivering IT solutions was the service model – Comarch is invariably one of the market leaders in this respect.
What is the mission of Comarch?
With its rich product portfolio, Comarch could be run as a software house. Each corporate client requires software customization and, during exploitation phases, expects the development of specific additional functions and modules. To comply with these requirements, instead of preparing standard, out-of-the-box application software products for large corporations, Comarch develops its products as frameworks and sets of interacting modules.
This enables fast and efficient customization, but at the same time requires strong interaction between developers and implementation personnel during the delivery phase. To ensure efficient delivery, Comarch develops its implementation resources and project management procedures.
What separates you from other similar websites/companies?
We are distinguished by our approach to business. We were and still are, flexible, we do not operate according to rigid models, we have an open approach to doing business and very fast decision-making paths at the management level. We can adapt to the client’s requirements and expectations. We are not as ossified as large corporations.
How do you envision the future of your industry?
Currently, with the multitude of variables, it is very difficult to understand macroeconomic phenomena and predict the future. There is a growing demand for large, complex IT systems dedicated to individual users. It puts it in a better situation for larger IT companies, such as Comarch, which offer many different technologies and products and can provide technologically advanced solutions.
That’s why we continue large-scale R&D activities, intensively developing, among others, a new generation of loyalty systems, ERP systems, systems for telecommunication operators, e-commerce solutions, the medical sector, and related financial services. Also, we invest heavily in cloud models. We are rebuilding our main platforms to cloud-native and microservice architecture, and we are starting to offer them in a SaaS model that is easier to implement and maintain. This is also a big trend.
