United Planet

Hello Manfred, what brought you to United Planet and what do you do here?

At the end of the 1990s, I wanted to start something new with Axel Wessendorf who had taken a two-year paternity break after selling his Lexware shares.

Thankfully, I managed to convince him that we should put our heads together and focus on “dynamic intranets” while we went for a walk together.

At that time, I was managing director and Axel was an advisor for United Planet – we got started immediately at great speed and with a brilliant team. After a little more than a year, we had the first version of an “intranet out of the box” in our hands as a CD. Intrexx 1.0 was born – although it was still called “Intrazone” then.

Since then, things haven’t stopped moving, from the technologies to the requirements of our customers. It is a great feeling to always be working on the latest technologies together with a fantastic team. And it’s great to experience the diversity of solutions our customers and partners implement with Intrexx.

... and when you’re not fine-tuning the latest version of Intrexx?

Once a week, I get together with really good friends to play music. This also has an important social role in my life.

And then, I’m a passionate and keen motorcyclist. With this, I have the rare luck of being able to share this hobby with my wife. Otherwise, I would probably be in the doghouse a lot more often. Naturally, the Black Forest is a paradise for curves. When I get the chance to take a quick drive up the old racetrack to Schauinsland in the evening, that’s my definition of relaxation. The immediate concentration on the road is nothing but meditation.

Apart from that, I get odd looks from my family when I buy tools or some kind of machine – I’ve got my eyes on a welder at the moment… I’m a very curious person – I never get bored!

To close, can you give us a little look through the keyhole – where is the development of Intrexx heading?

We talked about the direction we’re heading in at the last Portal Visions – and we are planning on sticking to that. Currently, we are working hard in many exciting areas:

Intrexx will support all large cloud platforms in an economically optimal way through intelligent load balancing. The current performance tests are already very promising here. We will greatly simplify the creation of multi-tenancy capable portals. The application development and the business logic – the heart of Intrexx – are currently being adjusted to get them ready for the future.

In addition, there are other important areas such as push notifications for mobile devices, and we will put more emphasis on digital transformation processes and Industry 4.0.

Hello Katrin, what brought you to United Planet and what do you do here?

What brought me to United Planet? Love and chance. First, my partnership brought me to Freiburg, and then by chance, I stumbled across United Planet. And then, I soon fell in love with United Planet: Even after the first conversation – with Axel Wessendorf then – I felt that this company was different than the others. The team, the atmosphere, the product, the philosophy…it all just fitted from the start. That’s why I made a really quick decision to join United Planet and have been here since January 2012. In the meantime, I’m managing director and lead the company together with Manfred Stetz.

After experiencing for myself how important it is to have the right team and philosophy, I put a lot of emphasis on these. Even though a lot is changing and quickly in the fast-paced IT sector and we at United Planet have changed a lot in recent years, I am convinced that only motivated people can achieve something special. With Intrexx and United Planet, we have something special, whose core we cannot allow to change, even when a lot changes in processes, structures, customers, etc.

... and when you’re not busy taking care of the company’s economic success?

I may not be a “digital native” but I really enjoy working digitally. Nevertheless, I need a change of scenery now and again. That’s why my hobbies are more analog to complement my everyday work, so to speak. I play badminton and handball regularly to balance out the constant sitting and to clear my head.

On holiday, I’m often drawn to nature. We recently bought ourselves a camping bus for this reason. But it doesn’t always have to be in the South with a lot of sun and perfect beaches. I get much more excited by the raw landscapes of Scandinavia, Ireland, Scotland, etc. And it also doesn’t have to be the classic campsite with small plots separated by fences and garden gnomes. I prefer waking up and the first thing I see is a forest, fields, the sea, mountains, etc. For me, that’s relaxation at first sight.

The best part is that I can now take my holiday with a clear conscience. Just a few years ago, it wasn’t so easy to drive to the middle of nowhere and relax – I never knew what would be waiting for me after my holiday. Now I have my “digital workplace” with me and yes, I withdraw for an hour or so every day to work. That way, I can enjoy the remaining hours and really relax.

How do you assess the current market development – which areas are in the starting blocks and how will the IT world change in the midterm?

I’m starting to feel like a broken record but I have to say it again: Digitalization is not in the early stages of development but will significantly change the world of work for all of us. And I’m not just talking about the IT world but the whole business world. You can recognize this by looking at which companies – who originally had absolutely nothing to do with IT – were at CeBIT this year. And also by looking at which new, digital business models are developing. Nonetheless, it will still take years until the digital workplace has found its place across the board.

As well as this, Alexa, Cortana, etc. show us something that Star Trek led the way on centuries ago. And this will find its way into our everyday working: controlling the day-to-day office using speech recognition technology. It will probably not take too long until, for example, meetings are no longer recorded by hand but our digital assistants will take notes and automatically log the important decisions and to-dos. Naturally, with a reminder function ;)

Hello Tobias, to get started: How “digital” are you in your private life?

After working on a paperless office 20 – in words, twenty – years ago, it has now found its place in both my private and professional life. Flights, train journeys, banking transactions, photography or planning, measuring and analyzing my sports activities are all done digitally using my smartphone. Recently, I’ve started trying my hand as a live blogger at amateur football events – digitally, of course.

You’ll have to tell me more about your career as a live blogger the next time we get together for a kickabout! What about the rest of your career – what brought you to United Planet, and what exactly do you do?

Towards the end of my studies, I experienced the birth of browser technologies. It soon became clear to me that this was the technology of the coming years. In 2000, when I then heard about United Planet, a start-up at that time, there was no hesitation and I joined the Intrexx development team. When I changed positions to become head of consulting, I experienced how more and more companies wanted to live the digital workplace and with how much growing consistency the implementation was being approached. While digital systems were the helpers and supporters for everyday work earlier, the Intrexx solutions of today are responsible for company processes. Today’s users of digital processes expect that the solution knows the individual procedures and validates the respective guidelines.

As head of consulting, you know all kinds of customer projects. Which of those were (or are) particularly interesting and what can you tell us about them?

Personally, I’m really interested in different cultures. Be it the corporate culture at the company on the other side of the street or regional and ethnic influences such as in projects overseas or in Moscow. Of course, new challenges are always interesting regardless of whether they’re technical or organizational. The first portal where the number of users is in six figures, the first portal with many terabytes of data, the first customer whose portal is used in all time zones from Japan to the West Coast, or the creation of a 24/7 support system have all brought me a lot of interesting days and weeks.

Hello Gerhard, you’re an enthusiastic charcoal barbecuer. Can you imagine this area becoming digitalized?

Is there anything better than barbecuing steak and veg over real glowing coals and enjoying a cold and tasty beer at the same time? Digital assistants have found their way even into things as relaxed as barbecuing: for example, thermometers connected to apps that tell you exactly how hot the grill is or when the meat over needs to be flipped over. Things even go a step further: there are even high-tech barbecues that I can connect to my wireless network and transfer parameters such as temperature, optimal cooking time, etc. directly to my smartphone.

... and how else is digitalization on your mind in all of its facets?

Digitalizing processes were on my mind from an early stage. Even as an apprentice, I wanted to optimize workflows with software. A few years later, my boss at that time came to me and said I should take a look at Intrazone – that’s what Intrexx was called at the very beginning. Said, done. And I discovered a great passion that led me to switch directly to United Planet to be even closer to digital transformation and play a role in it. Digitalization is also present in our private lives: Many things can be controlled via app and this simplifies everyday life.

As a customer success manager at United Planet, you travel quite a lot. What have been the most exciting experiences on your travels?

It is always exciting to see how many different industries and companies Intrexx is being used in. After many years, we are now represented across the entire value chain: starting with acquisition via planning and production to distribution within one company. Accompanying these are the processes that arise in the administration of a company like interviews and appraisal interviews, leave requests and dashboards for the management. And of course, there are some funny stories along the way but a connoisseur savors and is silent; maybe someday by the grill.

Hello Martin, Simone mentioned you‘ve probably got a good story of where you really enjoy cycling. I’m really curious now, tell me more!

I ride my bike a lot. I enjoy longer distances across open spaces where there is plenty to see. A particular highlight of this year was a tour across Namibia. The natural world there is spectacular. When it’s winter here, it’s nice and warm there. And the next tour is already being planned – but I won’t reveal any more just yet ;-)

And things are on the move, not only on your bike but also in your area of responsibility at United Planet – you are head of software development. In your opinion, which technical innovations are currently playing a decisive role in development?

The trend of recent and presumably of coming years is cloud computing. We are working on this in different areas. IoT is also something that is currently keeping us busy and will continue to do so for some time. Mobile devices are obviously always a trending topic, especially mobile applications at the moment. So there is more than enough to do and we certainly won’t get bored!

You are all currently working at full speed on the next version of Intrexx – can you give us a quick insight into what users can look forward to?

Oh, there’s plenty! One new aspect is horizontal scaling, for example. In addition, we will offer cloud support for Microsoft Azure, OTC, and AWS as well as support for Docker as of Intrexx 9. Beyond this, we will provide a function to version with Git and simplify the creation of multi-tenant capable portals. The portlet framework will become more flexible and last but not least, we are working on a native mobile app.

Hello Julien: How many countries do you travel to in an average month? And as a Frenchman, does German bread now taste better than baguette from your homeland?

Normally, I’m in two to three countries per month. There are obviously phases where things are quieter and I can work more from Freiburg; in summer, for example. The second question is very difficult. I still really enjoy baguette but the bread in Germany is very good, especially grain bread and wholemeal bread which are really difficult to find in France. But baguette with ham and cheese is still the best for me.  
 
As the head of partner sales & operations, you are often on the road. Tell us a little about it. Do you have any good anecdotes from your travels?

I travel all over Europe by car, train and plane. And every time, it’s a new adventure for me. The journeys are always different and I’m lucky to be able to discover different cultures and people every time. From Freiburg, you can normally get anywhere you need to and back these days. But there were also moments where I thought, “I’m not going to make it back to Freiburg!” For example, once, I was in a rickety taxi in Turkey. There weren’t any seatbelts and we sped along the highway at 160 km/h…

My most difficult experience to date was at the beginning of October (2017) in Berlin. I was there when Cyclone Xavier raged over Berlin. Thankfully, I was able to stay in my hotel and fly home the next day but seeing the fallen trees and crushed cars was both frightening and striking.

Together with your team, you are responsible for the United Planet Partner Network. How many partners are in this and how many countries are represented?

We have 100 Intrexx Partners in more than 25 different countries. About 70% of these are from the German-speaking world. Since 2012 and the start of our internationalization strategy, we have partners in France, Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the USA, Australia and Mexico.