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About Kestraa
Kestraa founded in 2017 focused on developing technological solutions for foreign trade – known as Global Trade – such as import and export. It primarily focuses on the complex and broad management aspects of a highly sophisticated operation.
Founded by Isabel Nasser and Marcelo Matos, who have over 20 years of experience in foreign trade and have worked together in various companies with large-scale operations in the sector, gaining extensive experience in the field. Through their experience, they realized that a sector with so many facets and intricacies needed more technology to better manage operations. After years of developing in-house for the companies they worked for, they began to consider how to bring the innovations they felt were necessary to the external market.
After research, they understood that the demand for innovation and technology in the sector did indeed exist, and thus Kestraa was born, with the perception that companies really wanted tools to work more fluidly and couldn't find them. Currently, the company has launched its new product, Kestraa Export, to offer an even more complete view of processes in real time for exporters.
Their business model is SaaS, and within the platform, the client has a complete overview of the management of everything related to foreign trade operations. The company currently has more than 50 people on its team and continues to seek ways to help companies with their technological processes.
Today the company serves clients of various sizes and sectors, from enterprises to small businesses seeking technological solutions to support their work. Among its clients are Ambev, which was the company's first client, Whirlpool, Evino – one of the largest wine importers in Latin America – Roche – a large pharmaceutical company, among others.
Integration for better operations
When discussing foreign trade, ERP systems don't always have specific modules for the sector, or when they do, they often have few functions and don't cover the complexity of the segment. However, at a certain point, it's common for companies to manage their operations through a management system, whether they are the largest and most well-known or not.
For companies, it's essential that their information is interconnected, and when it's not, there's rework, with team members having to re-enter data, as well as the possibility of confusion and management problems. All of this ultimately results in wasted team time, lack of organization, and workflow issues.
ERPs don't process information; they generate it and then finalize it. That's why companies need to buy a specialized solution, which is a growing trend for complex matters. However, there's a crucial data exchange between the ERP and the foreign trade module. If this doesn't happen, if you don't have it integrated, you'll have duplication of activities and will have to do things in two different systems. Integration is necessary. Isabel Nasser – CEO & Founder
Integration is necessary for Kestraa in several ways; two of the main ones mentioned by Isabel are:
- To make the product viable. Without integration, the product is not 100% delivered in the way the customer needs it;
- As a barrier to entry, once you are integrated with the client module, you are discussing various topics, sending information from Kestraa to areas beyond just foreign trade, thus helping the overall strategic aspect.
For these reasons, Kestraa understood that it would be more efficient in its work to partner with a company that has a platform specialized in integrations, and that is how they came to Skyone, developed by Skyone.
Specifics of ERP systems and the need for integration
Another crucial point is that, in order to adapt to ERPs internally, the team needs to dedicate time to them to build their structures; however, this requires time, and it's not possible for everyone to dedicate that time. Therefore, they decided to focus on their expertise in foreign trade and establish a solid partnership that generates scale and speed to respond quickly to client situations involving their various ERPs.
Initially, the company sought to handle customer integrations internally, but they realized the learning curve was long and they needed more time for the project itself and less time spent on the necessary integrations.
The main difficulty we faced was understanding the business flow of each ERP system, because the same transactions, such as payments, are always the same for all clients as it's part of the routine. However, the way each ERP system performs this process is completely different, and it's not possible to transfer it from one to another. When we encounter business problems during implementation, we need to take steps back – Isabel Nasser – CEO & Founder
Integration is a complex process with various ways to achieve it. It needs to be done in a scalable, efficient, and precise manner by someone who understands the process, and the more specialized the team, the smoother the process becomes.
Kestraa and Skyone: combining expertise for the future
One of the main focuses of the partnership is the need for integration to make business viable. The union of expertise, with each party focusing on their specific area, allows the work to flow more dynamically and scalably. Furthermore, combining the technical knowledge of each party leads to much better results.
Kestraa's clients use ERPs such as Datasul, TOTVS Protheus, SAP, Oracle, among others, and integration is always a complex topic with many technical variables that are difficult to balance. Knowing that the Skyone team has expertise in this type of integration and that the technology developed by Skyone is 100% compatible, the synergy between the two companies became very evident. With this partnership, Kestraa can leverage experience in ERP migration to the cloud, cloud or hybrid system integration, and cybersecurity, all in one place.
