NRD Companies, a global IT and consulting group that provides IT solutions for public, financial, and retail sectors in all five continents, has expanded its operational scope to 23 countries during the first half of 2021. In comparison, the group was operating in 20 countries during the same period last year.
During the first half of 2021, the group’s revenue decreased by 13% compared to the same period in 2020—from €3.847M to almost €3.342M. EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) dropped from €420K to €204K.
“The pandemic has altered the plans of our clients. For instance, we saw a decrease in income from clients working in the retail and tax administration sectors. That said, there was a noticeable increase in revenue from other sectors,” explained Mindaugas Glodas, CEO of NRD Companies.
Changes in currency value also had a significant impact: a 9% decline in the USD rate reduced the group’s revenue abroad and project profitability. It is important to note that NRD Companies had increased their investments into human capital and overseas project management optimization.
Helping emerging countries
NRD Companies has been actively executing a range of state infrastructure digitization projects in the Caribbean region and African countries for a while now. In the first half of the year, the group also expanded its operations’ scope in Asia.
The company finalized an action plan for implementing the unique ID system in four Member States of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States—the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent, and the Grenadines. Once implemented, the unique ID system is set to facilitate cross-border mobility of people and goods and refine e-governance systems.
Throughout the first six months of the year, NRD Companies has also wrapped up the postal center digitalization project in Kyrgyzstan, initiated in 2018. Now, the KASU POST solution enables over 400 post offices to provide financial transactions and other operations alongside traditional postal services. For example, migrants from Kyrgyzstan may now transfer funds to their relatives living in remote regions of the country.
Furthermore, NRD Companies started delivering consultancy services to the Palestinian government regarding the digitization of the state’s Business Registry. The project, initiated by the Ministry of National Economy through its World Bank-funded Innovative Private Sector Development Project (IPSD), aims to improve the country’s investment climate by carrying out various regulatory reforms and digitizing the current business registry.
The company is also actively working on digitalizing governmental systems in Lithuania. During the first half of 2021, NRD Companies signed a contract to create and roll out an information system for the State’s Food and Veterinary Service (SFVS). The solution will allow more efficient control of all SFVS processes, present a modern registry of veterinary drugs and provide an interface for data exchange with the European medicines agency.
Refined strategy
Since the start of 2021, NRD Companies implemented strategic changes to ensure successful planning and rollout of state infrastructure digitization projects in emerging economies, especially Africa and the Caribbean region.
“During the first half of the year, our main focus was to improve our business development strategy and ensure more integral collaboration between the group’s companies. We completed the consolidation of sales, marketing, human resources, and financial operations. We also started a more in-depth integration of multiple functions throughout all companies of the group,” said Glodas. “These changes will contribute to better organizational interoperability and will allow us to fulfill the ambitious strategy of NRD Companies as well as create value for customers and other stakeholders.”
NRD Companies aims to refine its products and platforms further, ensuring swift and frictionless implementation of governmental and financial solutions, with particular attention for emerging economies.
