Why Greece ?

The maintenance function on the Greek peninsula

Beyond the crisis that has affected the whole economy Greece must re-establish its industry. Nevertheless Siveco Hellas, the subsidiary established since 2002, bears up … waiting for better days. An appraisal of the maintenance function by Antonis PAPPAS, Director of Siveco Hellas.

The title of the book “Why Greece?”, by Jacqueline de Romilly the eminent Hellenist seems well-timed, more than ever before. In this work Greek thought is cited as one of the major sources of the European identity … nevertheless Greece today serves as the poor student. With 2.5% of the GDP of the EU Greece has certainly never been noted for its heavy industry and major enterprises, yet seems to have been neglected by Europe. Last May the heavily indebted country received the financial support of the EU and the IMF with the grant of a 110 billion euros loan over three years in exchange for austerity measures to avoid bankruptcy.

Industrial Maintenance

Profiting from vigorous growth during the early 2000s Greece began a decade of growth between 3% and 4% per annum. Encouraged by this wave of euphoria industrial concerns took increasing sales as their primary objective. Support functions such as maintenance were considered a necessary evil. In that context to acquire and use a CMMS looked somewhat exotic! It was precisely in this environment that Siveco Hellas entered the Greek marketplace in 2002. Its principal activity was to deploy the Coswin solution in Greece and the Balkans. At the time the industrial sector seemed the most buoyant in terms of needing CMMS, which is why the first CMMS projects managed by Siveco Hellas were primarily in this area. During this period the integrated software vendors (ERP) and international CMMS market players were offering complex maintenance management solutions, where the market had minimal needs due to the small scale of maintenance services (80% of the large enterprises had less than 15 employees engaged in maintenance) and due to the absence of maintenance processes. As the market gradually increased in maturity more and more industrial companies expressed the need to put a CMMS solution in place which offered the possibility to be adapted to their requirements and not the reverse. Thanks to its enormous functional richness and strong integration capabilities, this is precisely what the full web Coswin 7i fulfils.

Towards new markets

The emergence of the Facilties Management sector in Greece during 2006 has lead to a permanent change in the dynamics of CMMS solutions. Numerous enterprises were already using Coswin around the world, but despite the tendency for the group the main customers of Siveco Hellas remained international companies, which erroneously contributed to the message that Coswin was only suitable for large enterprises.

It was in 2009 that the simpler version Coswin Light penetrated the Greek market. Siveco Group’s commercial approach to introduce an entry-level product with all the key functionality has been a real success. In effect the flexibility of Coswin 7i allied to the simplicity of a turnkey solution adapted to the needs of each company has made Coswin Light an acclaimed product in Greece. Thanks to this pre-configured solution Siveco Hellas has won new contracts over the last 18 months in sectors as different as Facilities Maintenance (service providers, water companies), Services (hotels), Renewable Energy (manufacturer of solar panels) and Industry (machine construction, building materials) sending a clear message to all of us: “One-size does not fit all anymore”.

Siveco Group

Hélène Fernandez