QCOSTARICA – Costa Rica’s state telecom, the Radiografica Costarricense S.A. (RACSA) plans to get in the black as a company competing with the private sector, finding new allies, but also defining new enemies.
The state company, which once was the mother of the Internet in Costa Rica, will focus in logistics services, data centers, and in the area of Digital Government, a diversified action that will allow to overcome the financial crisis in which it has been steeped in for the last six years.
RACSA general manager, Francisco Calvo, said that for the second half of 2015 it will ready with a portfolio of specialized services for the public sector, that includes data centers and cloud platform services, but it also will be entering into the field of logistics services. Supposedly the government will direct state institutions and companies in order to make RACSA their supplier.
“… RACSA is striving to follow the route of other telecommunications operators which have a varied portfolio of services and products in order to get into a market that has been energized after privatization. However, telecommunications specialists insist that what is needed is a disruptive plan offering services that are different from other companies,” Calvo told Elfinancierocr.com.
Diversification also means keeping some projects that already have customers and evaluating the closure of others that leave losses.
This applies to the phone book, a flagship product of the ICE subsidiary.
“We are a little below balance because printing and distribution is expensive,” said Calvo, adding that sales of advertising space has increased recently.
According to Calvo revenues from the public sector has increased 250% over last year, the majority related to the phone book.
Another RACSA business that is holding its own is FullMovil (cellular telephony and mobile Internet), but will be refocus on services for state institutions from the second half of this year. ICE purchased FullMovil last year.
The state company is also awaiting two contracts from the Ministry of Finance: one related to process electronic invoices and the final contract of the Integrated Public Procurement System (Sistema Integrado de Compras Públicas – SICOP).
Source: Elfinancierocr.com
