KCS iT's office located on Terceira Island, in the Azores, marks its first year of existence in October. During this period, it was promoted to the consultancy's R&D unit and given the name KCS Terceira Tech.

KCS iT's location in the Azores has a team of seven, focused on developing technically innovative projects supported by local resources, with an emphasis on Health and Sustainability, and a positive impact on the community and biodiversity.

As Luís Dias, Business Unit Manager and head of the KCS Terceira Tech center, explains, "among the work being developed locally are several projects that involve not only new technological solutions but also innovation applied to the social and environmental context. These are projects that contribute to the future of the planet and to the coming years of humanity. Our goal is to equip KCS iT with an innovation team, but also with product delivery and development capabilities."

KCS Terceira Tech is currently developing two solutions: CEPAD and the "Cetáceos App" (name not yet final).

Since the cost of issuing paper invoices is more than double that of issuing documents digitally, governments and companies are looking for ways to digitize their invoices, and legislative measures to speed up the transition to digital are becoming increasingly common. This process, which is slow and costly, represents an opportunity for improvement.

CEPAD is a project developed mostly using open-source technologies, leveraging the consultancy's partnership with Microsoft. KCS iT's team has researched possible solutions to improve character recognition success rates and is currently developing machine learning models adapted to this type of documentation, allowing users to generate templates so the model can become increasingly accurate in its recognition. The product is under development and has already been submitted to SIFIDE, a state program that supports R&D initiatives to boost company competitiveness.

Many whale-watching companies collect data during their trips, ending their season with a huge amount of paper-based information full of incomplete data that ends up being forgotten.

The "Cetáceos APP" stems from the experience of a team member in the field of Marine Biology. After studying the processes and practices for recording and identifying individuals, clear opportunities for improvement and problems to solve were identified.

KCS iT is currently researching new solutions for identifying individuals based on certain characteristics (e.g., the shape and markings on the tail fin) to create a model that simplifies the entire sighting cataloging process. New technologies such as ML.NET are being explored, along with proven machine learning tools, to speed up this development process.

Projects of this kind allow the consultancy to expand into unexplored areas and help create products that can be used by universities, NGOs, and companies in the environmental protection and marine biodiversity sectors.

The "Cetáceos APP" is currently in the research phase, with KCS iT considering collaboration with universities and local partners.