Being Quinielas Agents (concessionaires), the partners founded BQN to develop a POS for the registration and processing of bets, and today they are the creators of the best-selling cattle caravan reader in the country, among other long-term projects.
Local innovation
Transforming crisis into opportunity was the starting point of BQN. "When the 2002 crisis broke out, my brothers and I were very affected as Quinielas agents," says Eduardo Palacios, founding partner. "One of our suppliers was a large printing company that made the coupons for the handwriting of the bets and the subsequent data processing". At that time, they kept all contracts with suppliers in dollars. The crisis had a direct and immediate impact: it was imperative to find creative ways to save the business and reduce costs.
In this context, the Palacios made the decision to become independent from the supplier printing company and bet on the young engineer of the family, the Doctor in Electrical Engineering Alfredo Arnaud, "who was asked if he dared to make a POS (Point Of Sale), and he answered yes", adds Palacios. Hand in hand with the POS, Banquinet was born, a system that allows the management of the game in the Agencies. "We were pioneers in providing 100% electronic gaming", he highlights. It was the first electronic gaming terminal designed and manufactured in Uruguay.
Today the Banquinet system has more than 800 POS in several departments of the country.
From the game to the field
With the know-how acquired, the company was nurtured by a group of experts in hardware and software that led them to explore new areas. When cattle traceability became mandatory in our country, BQN envisioned a new business opportunity: to develop a caravan reader that would be integrated into the National Livestock Information System (SNIG) and ensure the efficiency of all production processes. With the Baqueano reader, in 2014 they won the National Innovation Award, Nova, in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) category, for the solution for agriculture, and recently developed TERO, a software that interacts with the Baqueano reader and allows the user to make a more complete use of the information, beyond what is mandatory, in a very practical way.
The Baqueano reader and the Tero system is a very competitive solution that is currently being exported to several countries in the region: Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Colombia and Mexico, and aims to reach all countries with livestock production in the world.
The system already has more than 3,000 users.
Tailor-made technology
This is how the company presents itself. With a solid and highly qualified team, they are able to provide embedded electronics and software solutions to customers with specific needs. Regarding their own products, they focus their efforts on providing improvements and updating their versions, and offer an outstanding after-sales service.
Hardware development is something difficult to find in the Uruguayan market. Having the possibility of importing generic devices, which is the most usual, BQN bets on building the hardware from scratch, with a design tailored to the needs. This has advantages in terms of usability, maintenance, updating and, what is very important, support.
In the last year they received more than 20 projects for the development of custom solutions for sectors as diverse as agriculture, home electronics, sports and transport.
BQN aims to be a nationally recognized company in the development of state-of-the-art technologies, adapting its products to the changing market conditions and to the demands and needs of its customers.
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