Companies with a complex IT infrastructure in particular have built up a diverse landscape of IT service providers over the past few decades. The spectrum ranges from SaaS and IaaS providers to highly specialised service partners. In the course of this development, diverse service relationships and dependencies have often emerged, some of which are difficult to penetrate. Overview, transparency and consistent service quality often fall by the wayside.
In an increasingly digitalised business world, efficiency and cost reduction are decisive factors for a company's success. Robotic process automation (RPA) offers the opportunity to automate time-consuming and repetitive administrative processes. This not only significantly reduces the workload of employees, but also enables processes to be controlled error-free and in real time. This raises the question of which processes are best suited to automation and quickly generate measurable added value for the company and its employees
Automation has long been more than just RPA. While robotic process automation was originally seen as a solution for repetitive processes, the field has evolved: Process mining, business process management (BPM) and artificial intelligence are expanding the possibilities and pushing the boundaries of what is considered automatable. However, the euphoria surrounding these advances is often in stark contrast to the reality of many companies. Even today, numerous RPA projects fail or do not deliver the hoped-for added value. The causes are complex - from strategic omissions to unrealistic expectations.
The chancellors of 20 (technical) universities from North Rhine-Westphalia meet annually as part of a closed conference to take up innovative ideas and discuss how these can be incorporated into their everyday lives. On 24 October 2024, Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences hosted this meeting in the person of Chancellor Sandra Schlösser. The focus was on the potential of artificial intelligence and modern and agile forms of collaboration. The topics were to be communicated and framed in an interactive and entertaining way - exactly our thing!
Modern companies often face similar challenges: Structural changes, a generational change in the management team or changing market conditions make it necessary to scrutinise existing management principles and develop a clear vision for the future. In the service sector in particular, where direct interaction with customers plays a central role, standardised management principles are essential. Volksbank Gronau-Ahaus has risen to these challenges and initiated a comprehensive management development programme together with noventum consulting.
Finanz Informatik, the digitalization partner and central IT service provider of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, has fundamentally reorganized its infrastructure consulting division. In a comprehensive change management project, the service provision process was completely revised and aligned with the increased requirements and needs of customers. FI Infrastructure Consulting is thus taking an important step towards digital transformation and is following the IT service provider's long-term strategy. The Change@IB project was carried out over the course of more than a year in close collaboration with the consultants from noventum consulting.
IT service provider and managed service provider Ratiodata is taking the next step in its digital transformation. The specialist & service partner for IT & self-service infrastructure in bank branches, for example, has carried out a large-scale project to automate the interaction between people and software in the order-to-cash process. With the support of noventum consulting GmbH, the IT service provider re-implemented this important process on the basis of the Microsoft Power Platform, created important framework conditions for a broader use of the software in future and is thus driving forward its digitalisation 2.0 strategy.
Generational changes in management and constant growth often put companies in the situation of having to put their management methods to the test. Openness to new management methods and the desire to be up to date in an agile working environment also act as a driver for change in management. Following a detailed cultural analysis, Borgel Elementbau GmbH decided to place more decision-making freedom and responsibility in the hands of its project managers. Supported by noventum consultants, a change process was initiated that included new management structures and agile methods. A kick-start workshop and the creation of a project manager handbook were key measures.
The New Work Pioneer Lab took place for the second time in April 2024. The 1.5-day workshop format with the theme "Between Purpose and Performance" attracted around 20 representatives from well-known companies in the Münsterland region. Uwe Rotermund and Laura Wenningmann from noventum consulting guided the participants through a varied programme in which the poles of purpose and performance orientation were examined from different angles, while the focus was on encounters and inspiring and encouraging exchanges within the group.
More than 6,000 employees worldwide belong to the family-owned company Schmitz Cargobull. In addition to technical innovation, important topics for the future include the transformation of work and the quality of leadership. Demographics and the company's global market position make the ongoing qualification of the next generation of managers and specialists a strategic issue for the future. With the support of noventum consulting, the company's HR department is restructuring its operational work using the OKR (Objectives & Key Results) method, thereby strengthening the strategic focus of its HR work.
There are several options for automation: deep code automation, off-the-shelf automation with robot process automation (RPA) and, of course, automation with the help of generative AI. Each of these options has its own advantages and disadvantages that need to be considered when planning a solution.
In a management training course for current and future managers, the Münsterland-based service companies Cathalog and Cathamed made a statement for participation and active further development in their organisation. Together with the consultants from noventum consulting, the participants, who also included friendly business partners, worked intensively and very personally on their role and expectations as managers in a workshop lasting several days. Managing Director Kai Eickelpasch talks about the "Cathalog and Friends" workshop in an nc360° interview.
Almost every company in Germany already has enormous potential to automate processes with robotic process automation (RPA). This potential is being significantly increased by the ongoing development of generative AI. The combination of RPA and AI, also known as Intelligent Process Automation (IPA), opens up new possibilities. By using the rule-based RPA bot to access generative AI, it is possible to automate complex process (steps).
In April 2024, the Leadership Lab Sylt entered its 13th round. Oliver Pauli and Uwe Rotermund have been organising this extraordinary training format with around 20 managers from all industries and company sizes since 2010. What always unites the group is their curiosity about innovative leadership approaches and the joy of learning and honest exchange with managers from other companies. The Leadership Lab Sylt delivers four days full of impulses, discussions and insights with a special mix of business, exercise, encounters, nature and enjoyment, so that what has been learnt can be emotionally anchored and thus become more effective.
The Ostbevern municipal administration is to develop significantly in terms of corporate culture, leadership quality and organisational structure in order to improve its attractiveness as an employer and at the same time increase trust, motivation, commitment, cooperation, identification, customer focus, efficiency, speed and citizen service. These were the objectives of the newly elected mayor Karl Piochowiak, with which he approached the noventum team in 2022.
HR controlling's ability to prepare well-founded decisions and develop strategies is crucial to establishing it as a central function that supports the company's objectives. A well-structured reporting system is essential for such effective controlling. The focus of personnel controlling on the evaluation of reports is crucial. HR management is about collecting and preparing data and information on the one hand, and analysing and interpreting it on the other. In the midst of data, reports and metrics, however, the view of the essentials is often clouded. And this is where the question "Why?" comes into play.
In the fast-paced world of information technology, time is often a precious commodity. Companies are under great pressure to manage their IT services efficiently. At the same time, they must keep pace with the rapidly changing demands of the environment and the pressures of the competitive landscape. Under such conditions, outsourcing becomes a crucial tool to meet the need for flexibility, expertise and cost efficiency. For outsourcing to be successful, forward planning is a general must.
The MyWay programme of the Münsterland-based vehicle manufacturer Schmitz Cargobull is all about promoting networking, exchanging knowledge and, overall, sharing expertise and driving innovation faster and more efficiently. noventum consultants have been active as trainers in the MyWay programme for more than a year with great success and have already familiarised more than 50 employees with the basics of agile methods, change management and design thinking in the training series.
HR software provider Persis has been on the market for 35 years and digitises its customers' HR processes. Niedersächsische Landesforsten, a company established as an institution of the state of Lower Saxony with over 1,300 employees, has been relying on Persis for several years and will introduce the digital personnel file, a software solution from the Persis overall solution, in 2024. noventum consulting has been with Niedersachsen from the very beginning and will also support them in this next digitisation step.
Integrating ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) principles into HR management is not only an obvious consequence of European legislation on sustainability. It also strengthens the corporate culture and increases employee satisfaction. Digitalization plays a key role in this by simplifying the collection and management of sustainability data. Digitalization in HR is a crucial building block on the road to ESG integration.
In the digitalised business world, the automation of processes has become an indispensable tool for increasing efficiency and maintaining competitiveness. Bots, i.e. digital assistants, are playing an increasingly important role in this. The integration of bots into business processes enables companies not only to reduce costs, but also to improve the quality of their services and increase customer satisfaction. But how exactly do bots affect process automation and what role do they play?
The IT division of RWE Supply and Trading is spread across several locations in Europe with main sites in Essen and Swindon/UK. In an entertaining 3-day meeting, the IT strategy for the group company was to be discussed and continued. The planning team, consisting of 2 English and 3 German RWEST employees as well as Uwe Rotermund from noventum, gladly accepted this "challenge". RWE quickly decided that it should go to Barcelona, which offered a good cultural balance and complement to the demanding professional framework.
Targeted personnel planning is of crucial importance for the sustainable success of a company. It creates an efficient basis through alignment with corporate and personnel objectives, upstream top-down planning, automated data preparation, transparency and the consideration of key factors. The integration of gap analysis and key factor analysis into the decision-making process enables the comparison of different planning scenarios in which personnel measures such as personnel expansion and/or personnel development are taken into account. The personnel cost calculation based on these scenarios forms the basis for well-founded decisions. This holistic approach not only promotes the optimal use of resources, but also the long-term adaptability of the organisation to changing requirements. The use of automated tools based on a centralised data source is the technological key to strategic personnel planning.
Merging companies is a complex process in which many factors need to be taken into account. One of the most important aspects is human resource management. However, HR issues are often not given sufficient consideration during purchase negotiations.
The experienced people & culture consultant Michaela Gottwald provides valuable insights into why human resources should be focussed on at an early stage and what challenges HR management faces in post-merger integration.
Companies are under great pressure to change. Work is being redefined, employees are striving for meaningfulness and want to actively participate in the work process. Digitalisation, agility and staff shortages are driving the demand for "New Work". These changes are a challenge for managers. They have to adapt the way they work and find new roles for themselves and their teams. Leadership training is therefore becoming increasingly important. Successful leadership training can help managers to further develop their skills and potential.
To ensure the success of a management seminar, there are a few steps that the client and participants should take into account.
The IT strategy is an important building block in the planning and further development of IT, regardless of whether it is organised as a department, business unit or even a group company. The IT strategy defines the objectives and ensures that IT understands the company's business objectives and aligns itself with them. In this respect, the annual review of the IT strategy is a good opportunity to check whether IT is still prioritising the right things and aligning its skills and resources with the needs of the specialist departments and internal customers.
The proALPHA group of companies, a renowned provider of ERP+ software solutions for the medium-sized manufacturing industry, has acquired Persis GmbH. With this takeover, proALPHA is expanding its portfolio in the area of human capital management (HCM) and focussing on the development of a group-wide HR strategy. As an integral part of this development, the HRM team at noventum consulting GmbH will continue to support customers as a reliable and competent partner in the introduction, customisation and expansion of their Persis solution in the area of HR management.
For Stadtsparkasse Lengerich, the time was ripe for a new mission statement in spring 2023. One reason for this was the generational change on the Management Board, but it was also important to align the bank for the challenging years ahead and to create a strong, easy-to-understand and attractive orientation for employees and applicants. Customers and business partners also needed to understand what Stadtsparkasse Lengerich stands for and why it is so important that this organisation exists and plays a very useful and important role in the business ecosystem. noventum organisational consultants moderated the process.
In today's data-driven business world, data-driven decision making is crucial for global organisations. Sonepar Deutschland GmbH recognises the relevance of this approach and relies on Microsoft Power BI as an effective reporting and analysis tool. As a long-standing partner of Sonepar, noventum consulting already successfully helped to redesign and consolidate the company's central data warehouse in 2018. We have now taken the next step in our collaboration: the implementation of Power BI to improve reporting and analyses.
In autumn 2022, Backstube MALZERS set up a project lasting several months to further develop its attractiveness as an employer. Motivated by participation in the Great Place to Work® employee survey, a project group made up of employees and managers from all areas of the company drew up suggestions for improvement, which were implemented in individual projects. Organisational developers from noventum consulting supported the agile process. Following the great success of the first round, the second "Future Kneaders" group has been working at MALZERS since June 2023.
Organisations must be able to react to complex market requirements in order to remain sustainable through innovation. Self-organisation, assumption of responsibility and participation are necessary for successful agile change. With this premise in mind, the management of Industriebau Hoff und Partner from Gronau started an intensive process together with the change consultants from noventum consulting, which provides a strong impulse for the future management and leadership culture of the industrial construction and engineering company.
In the digital change project "Future Image", genua GmbH relies on a modern way of working: Hybrid project management, a high degree of self-organisation, participative decision-making and the accompaniment of change in the company from the very beginning characterise the complex project. Due to the strong further development of the company in the past years, the requirements have changed - among others for the IT core system. In order to meet the ambitious objectives, a large-scale project is being set up that will trigger a transformation in the company at various levels, which will be accompanied by strong change management in the project from the very beginning. In addition, the project is characterised by a high level of employee engagement, an agile to hybrid methodology, a participative approach as well as flexibility to manage the high level of complexity. The common thread besides the strong performance in the project - noventum.
"Are you tired of digging through hundreds of applications and losing valuable time? Would you like to make the recruiting process more efficient and transparent? Would you like to improve the candidate experience and fill vacancies more quickly with the right candidates?
The Württemberg-based HR software producer Persis has been consistently on the trail of solving these and other HR management issues since 1987 and is now one of the market leaders in German-speaking countries with its integrated overall solution. Phillip Krieger, noventum Business Development Manager in the area of HR digitisation, presents the Persis module "Applicant Management" in this article.
In the digital world of work, some topics have become big in recent years that are now indispensable. RPA - Robotic Process Automation - is one of these topics and the management of even medium-sized companies can no longer avoid the question: "Why and for what RPA?" This article aims to shed light on the key reasons why companies around the world are increasingly turning to RPA, using RPA to optimise their business processes, reduce their costs and increase the efficiency of their business operations. From automating repetitive tasks to improving the customer experience, there is much to discover about how RPA will shape the future of the modern enterprise.
Addressing the meaning of an organisation is more important than ever. In his work "Re-Inventing Organizations", Frederic Laloux identified the sense orientation of companies as one of the three key drivers of motivation of people and groups. Companies whose success depends on the intrinsic motivation of their employees should therefore have a good answer to the question of meaning and make sure that a management process is established for this purpose that prevents meaning orientation from being lost in day-to-day business and money-making.
The old Microsoft Partner Network has been replaced by the Microsoft Cloud Partner Program (MCPP) and noventum has qualified for two so-called designations. In the future IT companies will be able to demonstrate their expertise in six areas of competence. Three different "Partner Capability Scores" are available for this, in which companies must prove themselves: Performance, Qualification and Customer Success.
Companies are increasingly recognising the inevitability of Self Service BI (SSBI), but not infrequently they fail to implement it and therefore cannot fully exploit its potential. With this contribution we want to answer the following question: Which factors must be fulfilled so that the cooperation between the central BI organisation and users in the specialist areas - the so-called "power users" - works and both sides benefit from each other?
Robotic Process Automation, or RPA for short, is a technology that enables companies to automate business processes. It uses software robots that can perform human tasks in digital systems. RPA robots are able to perform repetitive, rule-based and time-consuming tasks by interacting with existing applications, processing data, retrieving information and making decisions.
Trust is more than a concept or an attitude, it needs to be actively built and nurtured. Most institutions emphasise the importance of trust between staff and with clients in their mission or vision statements. Few, however, have defined the cultivation of a culture of trust as a process and a leadership task. In his contribution, Uwe Rotermund advocates treating trust consistently as a management task and pursuing it systematically and sustainably.
The demands on a "modern" IT organisation have changed fundamentally; in addition to the classic characteristics such as operational stability and provision of current technologies with high cost efficiency, there are additional wishes and expectations driven by the specialist departments and business partners - the immediate implementation of new business ideas in digital products before competitors are faster and secure market shares.
Digitalisation thus places new demands on corporate IT. In addition to its traditional function, it must now play a central role as an enabler of innovative business models.
SAERTEX GmbH & Co KG and its subsidiary SAERTEX multiCom GmbH produce technical textiles in Saerbeck, Westphalia, and in a number of locations worldwide. In order to improve cooperation within the group, SAERTEX multiCom initiated the creation of an intranet based on the latest Microsoft SharePoint technology. In the future, all locations and departments of the parent company and subsidiaries will gradually work together on the intranet. In 2022, the Saerbeck-based company successfully implemented the pilot project and opened up new ways of communication and data sharing for its employees. Some departments of the parent company SAERTEX were already involved in the SharePoint set-up from the beginning. noventum consultants and SAERTEX employees met in person for the first time after the completion of the fully online project.
Data protection in people analytics projects - most project managers ask themselves a lot of questions. The complexity lies in the interaction of very different disciplines. Technical infrastructure, processing procedures, the German Data Protection Act (DSGVO), the Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG) and company agreements must be communicated with the stakeholders of the disciplines involved in order to create a common, decision-making picture and thus enable the technical implementation of people analytics systems. The experts at noventum explain the interrelationships and provide guidelines and procedural models with the solution "Data protection in HR analytics projects", which support project managers during implementation and operation.
The Sparkassenverbund Olpe-Drolshagen-Wenden invited local entrepreneurs to the 11th "Sparkasse Entrepreneur Forum". The topic of the event was effective strategies and instruments for employee retention. noventum managing director Uwe Rotermund explained to the lively audience how important active participation and opportunities for employees to get involved can be as an instrument in combating the shortage of skilled workers.
Employee participation is part of the guiding principle of many companies. In order to be able to live this principle, it helps to have a well thought-out concept and often the support of appropriate software that provides a framework for everyday work. OKRs (Objectives & Key Results) and "ZielNavigator®" are a successful combination for planning and controlling and are increasingly used in everyday business.
The provision of personnel - in the required quantity and quality as well as at the right time and in the right place - is a central task of HR management and personnel planning. In times of labor shortages, this task takes on special significance. The optimal use of existing human resources becomes increasingly important when external recruitment reaches its limits. For these reasons, personnel development and personnel retention are becoming increasingly important. As a result, personnel requirements and personnel structure planning are increasingly becoming the central task of HR departments.
With Composite Models, Microsoft significantly expands the application spectrum of Power BI for business departments in companies. At the same time, a very powerful tool for self-service BI is created for the central business intelligence and IT departments in order to give the departments new freedoms and possibilities while taking their governance guidelines into account. The article is therefore aimed at both responsible and advanced users of Power BI Desktop in Controlling as well as those responsible in central IT or Business Intelligence. Used correctly, composite models open up a new world for self-service BI.
Large cloud providers such as Amazon or Microsoft leave the consulting business to partners whose expertise they can vouch for. Amazon has high requirements for certified partner status and has systematically laid these down in its AWS partner model. noventum consulting is an AWS cloud partner and has proven its expertise in various projects, for example for Deutsche Bahn (DB Regio Bus).
Every year, the magazine brand eins presents a detailed survey on the performance and acceptance of management consultancies in Germany. Since 2016, noventum has been one of the approximately 10% of consultancies that are praised by colleagues and customers in a survey. IT strategy and IT implementation are the successful consulting fields in which noventum scores again and again.
At noventum, we very often deal with the connection of SAP systems to Microsoft-based data platforms. Both on Azure with ADF and Azure SSIS or locally with SSIS and often with XtractIS from Theobald.
The supreme discipline of data extraction from SAP is the connection of data via SAP BI Content Datasources.
On the third of October 2022, the "Microsoft Partner Network" was replaced and switched to the new "Microsoft Cloud Partner Program" (MCPP). In future, IT companies will be able to demonstrate their expertise in six areas of competence. Three different "Partner Capability Scores" are available for this, in which companies must prove themselves: Performance, qualification and customer success.
Even though IT outsourcing regularly becomes a topic (mergers, acquisitions, next generation sourcing ...), it needs a lot of expertise and experience. Without good project management, IT outsourcing will not be a success. Holger Bredenkötter has been working as an IT consultant on this topic for more than 20 years. In his article, he explores the question of why IT outsourcing projects always represent a state of emergency for companies, what IT managers need to pay attention to when the time comes and why you actually need four project managers.
The project team of the analysis platform "CLAIR" of our long-standing customer Zentrale Stelle Verpackungsregister (ZSVR) has been awarded 2nd place in the category "SME" for the "Best Data Project Award" at the VOICE ENTSCHEIDERFORUM 2022 in Berlin.
With more than 400 members, VOICE - Bundesverband der IT-Anwender e. V. is considered the largest community of digital decision-makers in the German-speaking world, serves as a network for CIOs of leading companies from a wide range of industries and promotes professional exchange and the strengthening of IT user interests.
IT outsourcing is standard. If a company decides to have its IT operated by a service provider, this is not an unusual process. And yet the path to the sourcing partner is often not easy and burst sourcing contracts are not uncommon. But what has gone wrong if the partnership is not a real pleasure? IT tenders are the supreme discipline on the way to finding the right service provider and this is where things often go wrong.
In future, the Wuppertal public utility company will use the noventum HR-Analytics analysis software for its HR controlling. The benefit of the software for the HR controllers is that they can analyse complex interrelationships with minimal effort and make targeted recommendations for action.
With a fundamental renewal of its organizational and leadership culture, the Ibbenbüren-based mechanical engineering company MBH is meeting the challenge of being positioned for the future with technical and organizational excellence, even in its anniversary year of 2027. Under the programmatic title "Fit for Fifty", they have set out with the organization and culture experts from noventum to further develop the organizational and leadership culture of MBH using agile methods.
Thorsten Schmidt, Director for Business Intelligence at noventum consulting, and Thomas Schauer, Managing Director of CoPlanner, have worked together side by side for several years at noventum on the topics of Business Intelligence and Corporate Performance Management. These days, the two met in the port of Münster for a strategy meeting to discuss further cooperation between noventum and CoPlanner.
Persis GmbH has been developing powerful software solutions for human resources management since 1987 and, with over one million users, is today one of the technology leaders in the HR sector. The unique selling proposition and the basis of success has always been to optimally support your individual business processes with Persis software and to design your workflows in HR management in a process-oriented way.
Cloud computing is becoming an increasingly important topic in banking. Despite guidance from the EBA and BAFIN, uncertainty remains about the regulatory requirements. The question therefore arises as to which regulatory and relevant requirements must be observed in cloud computing.
A EINS Digital Innovation GmbH, based in Wittlich, is a project service provider and product supplier for innovative digital solutions. Founder and CEO Andy Altmeyer sees the future of the company in the expansion of the standardised solutions business, especially in comprehensive SMART CITY solutions. A EINS' flagship product is PORTAZON - the Smart City Super App. At the beginning of the project with noventum, A EINS had the challenge of finding a healthy balance between requested project services at its customers and the investment in the further development of the Smart City App PORTAZON.
The term stands for itself: IT turnaround management aims to turn around a situation, often a crisis situation, into one that is manageable and controlled. A proven toolbox helps to overcome crises. But even in times when there is no acute crisis, it is worth taking a look at this toolbox. Because where a complex application landscape meets high costs, optimisation potential is often not far away. Timely action with an analysis of IT costs and a check of the application landscape and infrastructure can not only prevent a potential IT crisis.
At the end of October 2021, Compleo Charging Solutions AG concluded an agreement with the energy group E.ON on the acquisition of innogy eMobility Solutions GmbH. This includes the takeover of the entire workforce and all customer relationships of ieMS as well as the subsidiary of ieMS in the United Kingdom. The consolidation as a wholly-owned subsidiary has been ongoing since 01.01.2022. Compleo is thus implementing the integration of ieMS and its software services for electromobility into the Compleo Group. Consultants from noventum consulting GmbH in Münster are supporting the process by managing and coordinating the IT & HR post-merger integration and developing a target operating model.
DB Regio Bus has largely moved its IT to the cloud over the last four years. In doing so, it implemented a technological target set by the DB Group, which has been pursuing an active cloud policy since 2015. Supporting the IT managers from the regional bus organisations and convincing them to support the cloud project was a major challenge for the noventum consultants, who have been supporting the project since 2017.
As "Director Senior Azure Analytics Architect", Felix Möller has worked for the technology group Avanade for the past five years and has now returned to noventum consulting to contribute his experience to the consultancy. In his last role, Felix Möller worked as an architect and project manager in large Azure Data Platform projects for German corporations. In the future, he will increasingly lead noventum BI customers into the cloud and bring the experience from the corporate world to SMEs.
SAP systems offer advanced interfaces, which on the one hand provide delta mechanisms. On the other hand, these bring together a wide variety of base tables in order to simplify processing. This functionality can be accessed with the help of Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services and the 3rd party component XtractIS from Theobald. We have used this technology successfully many times in the last 10 years (e.g. BRITA).
Anyone researching the topic of cloud computing is inundated with technical terms such as "hybrid", "DevOps" and "Kubernetes". The terms "cloud native" or "cloud readiness" are usually defined as critical success factors of a cloud strategy. But what do these terms actually mean? And what mentality goes hand in hand with them?
In 2020, the Corona epidemic radically hit the travel industry. Almost all trips were cancelled, new contracts were no longer concluded and only with the help of emergency government aid were the travel agencies able to prevent the immediate end. The three Lufthansa City Center travel agencies ReiseArt, Lückertz and Schlagheck from Münsterland had already been negotiating a stronger cooperation before Corona, but now the catastrophic market situation accelerated their plans and since April 2022 they have been united under the brand "reiseart". The change consultants from noventum consulting accompanied the merger process since August 2021.
Alliance Automotive Germany GmbH (AAGG) is part of the Alliance Automotive Group, the second largest car parts dealer and full-service workshop provider in Europe. It is working on the introduction of a uniform ERP system for the entire company. After the technical start of the project in 2019, those responsible prepared themselves in intensive change management workshops in the summer and autumn of 2021 to take the project into the company. noventum change management consultants Jan Helmchen and Rabea Wolters moderated the workshops.
Like many other partner companies, noventum consulting has signed the Microsoft "Act to accelerate". With this paper, Microsoft is making a statement about the future of the digital world, in which the IT economy can and wants to make a significant contribution. The terms innovation, trust, culture, sustainability and empowerment mark the framework for the Microsoft Partner Pledge. In a detailed concept, noventum sets its own impulses on the topic of sustainability.
IT infrastructures are mostly also cloud infrastructures. Cloud providers and customers share the responsibility for cyber security and compliance. In 2021, nearly 9 out of 10 companies were already victims of cyberattacks. AWS customers can choose between Amazon services and a few other firewall providers for the security of their applications and data. Whatever the choice, implementation is not trivial and needs to be well prepared.
2022, the IT market analysis company techconsult asked more than 3,000 user companies for the 4th time to evaluate the HR software they use. The HR software company Persis was awarded as one of the best providers for its modules E-Recruiting and Digital Personnel File. noventum consulting is a Persis partner, adapts the application to the needs of the customers and supports the implementation and operation of the HR software solution with its team of consultants.
Traditional methods of hierarchical leadership are increasingly less suitable in companies and institutions to deal with the complexity and confusion that have to be managed on a daily basis in the digital age. Self-organisation and agility are replacing the "top-down principle" and unfolding an inspiring dynamic in organisation and operation. The management of the Allwetterzoos Münster is also agile today after Advanced Training in "agile project management". The change management consultants from noventum consulting opened up the goal and methodology of agile management in an intensive workshop.
Recruiting new employees is one of the most important pillars for sustainable success for every company - and at the same time one of the biggest challenges. noventum HR-Analytics creates the prerequisite for the comprehensive analysis of the recruiting process with a cloud hybrid architecture consisting of Microsoft Azure and SQL Server components.
Every year, the magazine brand eins presents a detailed study on the performance and acceptance of management consultancies in Germany. Since 2016, noventum has been one of the approximately 10% of consultancies that are praised by colleagues and clients in a survey. IT strategy and IT implementation are the successful consulting fields in which noventum scores again and again.
Mastering the technology and methodology of the digital professional world is part of the armor of future managers in all industries. For some, this is a real challenge that also requires personal courage to embrace change. With Zert-Ex, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research is promoting a corresponding continuing education program for future specialists and managers, which was conducted by the North Westphalia Chamber of Industry and Commerce. Uwe Rotermund, change expert and "missionary" for a new leadership culture, opened up perspectives for an agile future to the training participants.
Some companies operate their Exchange on premises and want to take advantage of a team environment at the same time without losing functionality. Problems arise, for example, with the synchronization of calendars or the coordination of appointments. Dreve, an internationally active manufacturer of medical devices, was faced with this challenge and found a perfect solution with the Microsoft experts at noventum consulting.
For some years now, terms from the world of agility have increasingly been shaping change management in large organizations. Teams develop their tasks in rapid, intensive and agile intervals in the ongoing process, and the customer himself has the chance for concrete participation. Public administrations are also facing major challenges such as the Corona crisis, digitalization, the shortage of skilled workers or the climate crisis and need to review their way of working. Does agile working also fit the mission, thinking and actions of public administrations? nc360° interview with Münster's Lord Mayor Markus Lewe.
Objectives and Key Results (OKR) are among the much discussed leadership and management methods worldwide. The idea behind them is to steer companies through ambitious goals and measurable measures and to strengthen results, motivation and togetherness through maximum transparency. At Hellmann Worldwide Logistics, the "IT & Digital" department began structuring its work with OKRs a year ago. With the support of the management consultancy noventum consulting, representatives from different IT teams have now reviewed their previous approach in several workshops and set new standards for future work.
In order to better serve the diverse requirements for internal communication in the future, Ahlen-based LR Health & Beauty Systems GmbH developed the basics for an intranet with the support of management consultants noventum consulting from Münster. The technical basis of the installation is Microsoft SharePoint technology. Future expansion stages will be further developed by LR Health & Beauty Systems using its own resources. Following the positive experience with the agile approach in this project, agile project management will also be used as a possible method in the future.
The management of the wholesale and production company WULFF used the development of a Microsoft-based intranet to promote their internal communication and at the same time gain experience in agility. Employees from various departments of the company worked with developers and agile moderation from noventum consulting to develop the first stages of a SharePoint, as it is increasingly being used by medium-sized and smaller companies.
Data overload and increasing requirements are forcing many companies to improve their internal processes and communication channels. Cathalog GmbH from Steinfurt is meeting this challenge with its digitalization roadmap to gradually create more transparency for information that is used across departments. The introduction of a Microsoft SharePoint-based intranet and a quality management manual were the first steps on this path. A special novelty for the Steinfurter was the agile approach.
A precise view of its own human resources today and in the future is part of Drees & Sommer's success. The leading European planning and consulting company has now expanded and improved its system landscape with noventum HR Planning powered by CoPlanner. The system allows a daily forecast of FTE development based on employee master data and planned assumptions. This information is available to stakeholders in the company. In addition, the system can be used to create a well-founded personnel cost plan at any time.
For 35 years, the North Westphalia Chamber of Industry and Commerce has been the organiser of the regional preliminary round of the nationwide "Jugend forscht" competition. Even in the analogue event of earlier years, the organisation of participants and jurors was demanding. This year, the organisers were faced with the challenge of providing 137 young researchers from 23 schools in the Münsterland region, divided into 7 subject groups, with a digital opportunity to take part in the competition.
The topic of data protection is gaining importance for many companies in the lockdown due to the accelerated digital transformation. The use of adequate collaboration tools is increasingly becoming a decisive success factor in times of social distancing. At the same time, the legal framework conditions are tightening due to the so-called "Schrems II" ruling and its effects on international data transfer. In this situation, how can we remain capable of action and data protection compliant at the same time?
In a large-scale change project, , the IT oft he WBS GRUPPE developed new principles for its own work. Communication, performance and employee satisfaction were to be promoted in equal measure. In order to motivate as many people as possible to participate, the change initiative was launched openly and as an agile process. The noventum corporate culture experts provided the agile tools and managed the multi-layered project.
For 22 different tools, the aim was to determine the most popular HR software manufacturers in the categories of customer satisfaction, usability and price-performance ratio. Over a period of three months, votes were diligently cast in the social media and in newsletters of the independent comparison portal, resulting in over 3,000 individual evaluations for almost 100 HR software providers in the course of the HR Software Comparison Award 2021. Based on this data, an overall winner was then determined for each tool.
Around 2,500 employees and approx. 100,000 patients p.a. ensure a very high volume of data at Osnabrück Hospital. Data integrity and availability are particularly important in everyday hospital life. In particular, SharePoint's high adaptability and good connection to other Microsoft components tipped the scales in favor of the software. SharePoint experts from the Münster-based IT management consultancy noventum implemented the important project together with the KosIT specialists.
With OSPlus_neo, Kreissparkasse Düsseldorf is increasingly focusing on digital customer communication. In a workshop on the implementation of agile working methods and the further development of the digitalisation strategy, the board and management worked on the future direction of the bank in the open air in a Corona-like manner. But that was not the only special feature of this unusual conference, which was moderated by culture change consultant Uwe Rotermund.
Planning and controlling with personnel data is complex even in large companies, if this data has to be merged from different systems and this means recurring large expenditures without automation. Thanks to noventum HR-Planning and noventum HR-Analytics, LBS Westdeutsche Landesbausparkasse is now able to manage resource and personnel planning with little effort.
Pandemic and lockdown have presented many PMI projects with unexpected challenges. Communication structures had to be reorganized, the cooperation with some suppliers was put to the test and last but not least the collective exodus into the home offices turned out to be a paradigm shift for the project organization. The PMI consultants of noventum consulting have accompanied such a project in the early Corona period and have gained some surprising insights.
With the SharePoint online communication platform, the company TECE uses Microsoft technology for its project management, sales and quality management. TECE is taking this path step by step and is focusing on inspiring its employees and carefully replacing old systems. The next step will be to introduce further Microsoft tools such as teams. noventum supports the internationally active manufacturer of sanitary products.
Digital transformation - i.e. the realignment of a company in terms of strategy, business model and the resources and processes used through the use of digital technologies - is relevant for all companies. The transformation process should be carefully prepared in order to identify unnecessary sources of error and convert them into success factors. Experienced consultants can help.
In traditional software development, final tests are planned in advance. During the test period, test and troubleshooting phases alternate until the finished product is finally ready for installation and use. Agile software projects run differently and challenge this step-by-step approach. Combining classical (software) test management with the requirements of an agile organisation is a methodical challenge, but also holds many opportunities.
Since 2019, manufacturers and distributors of packaging have had to register in the LUCID packaging register of the Stiftung Zentrale Verpackungsregister Stelle (ZSVR) and indicate which packaging has been placed on the market and to what extent. With the mass of messages and parameters that arise, the data evaluation is particularly complex. In order to create and commission this, the ZSVR Foundation commissioned the IT management consultancy noventum consulting.
Organising a congress for a few hundred visitors with twenty speakers and opportunities for networking and meeting is a great challenge online. This year's IT Strategy Congress of IT-Forum Nordwestfalen and IHK-Nordwestfalen has been held online for the first time. The consultants of noventum consulting were responsible for the technical implementation with Microsoft TEAMS. In the end, organizers and participants were enthusiastic about a perfectly staged congress.
When two companies merge, two technical worlds usually become one. Higher efficiency, scaling effects and the basic idea of "one company - one system" are the guiding principles of any integration. Since a large-scale IT integration cannot wait for every side event, smaller special applications are often dragged along and end up in isolation. This pragmatism helps at first, but subsequently causes problems and leads to a dead end.
There are many collaboration platforms, and depending on the company's technical history, these may be from one of the large manufacturers or they may be small special applications, often with very individual options, suitable for the respective company's everyday life. What they have in common is that they are intended to ensure collaboration within the company or are also used with a corresponding interface in customer communication.
The past months have forced many institutions to review their processes. Home offices have become the norm and traditional meetings or events have been held online with appropriate software. The Microsoft 365 tools are quickly available and in their extended use almost cost neutral. However, some companies are still unsure of the benefits they can derive from the O365 applications.
The merging of companies, the outsourcing of parts of a company or the transfer of individual core processes to a service provider - corporate IT is directly or indirectly involved in all these complex processes. Sometimes it is even the direct and exclusive scene of the action. As different as companies are, as varied are the necessary steps they have to take on their way to each other or away from each other.
Personnel controlling is repeatedly faced with the task of producing valid analyses from heterogeneous data. Data acquisition and preparation make up a significant part of the effort that they have to invest. HR reporting and analysis often fall short of their capabilities because of technical and time restrictions. Many companies lack a connecting solution.
For the seventh time in a row, the magazine brand eins and the statistics company Statista have presented a detailed study on the performance of management consultancies. noventum consulting is among the best in this study. In a detailed special issue entitled "Consulting", brand eins presents the study.
Major technical innovations can really upset a company. If "everything has worked well so far", the employees of companies used to success often experience the introduction of Office 365 as a collaboration platform as a general attack on "their" working environment. The rollout of such an innovation requires more than the usual project management, as the concrete work of all employees is affected.
The change from classic office work to completely decentralized teams is accelerating massively in times of "social distance". The measures against the spread of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) show the old system its limits. Employers must go digital with immediate effect and must not lose sight of the social aspects.
Even if the new IT provider and the customer have already worked together successfully in previous years, the renewed service takeover after a provider intermezzo is still not a piece of cake and can become a lesson. noventum consulting has accompanied such a case in an advisory capacity and the realization on all sides after successful project completion is: the combination of a provider change with extensive system changes must not be overstretched if time pressure is high at the same time.
Microsoft SharePoint has been a synonym for contemporary collaboration for several years. A super-functional application that promises to restructure the entire corporate communication. Many companies are trying to implement these diverse offerings in a "big bang" and replace their existing applications. However, success often fails to materialize and the introduction of SharePoint fails due to resistance within the organization.
Experts from the human resources sector were invited to pursue the question of what digitalization does to work, how it questions values, orientations and solutions and turns them upside down. Until late in the evening the participants of the conference discussed New Pay, AI in the handling of personnel data, modern personnel requirements planning and agile methods. In three parallel series of topics CULTURE CHANGE, HR MANAGEMENT and HR CONTROLLING, experts presented their approaches and projects and faced interested professionals for discussion.
The ECB's zero interest rate policy has had a dramatic and direct impact on the business model of almost all traditional banks. Above all, the clear signals from the new ECB President Christine Lagarde that the low interest rate policy will not change for many years to come underline the urgency of seriously addressing this issue.
NetCologne GmbH has repeatedly participated in the GREAT PLACE to WORK® competition and had its own staff rate their employer in comprehensive interviews in the context of a survey. Based on the numerous responses received, the human resources staff of the Cologne-based company have gained projects for the further development of both business culture and employer attractiveness.
Microsoft Power BI has been on everyone's lips for several years now under the keyword "Self-Service BI" and contributes significantly to the perception of the Microsoft Data Platform as a leading analytics and business intelligence platform. In order to maintain and expand its leading position, Microsoft is making significant investments in the further development of the platform and is constantly increasing the range of functions via short, sometimes monthly release cycles.
IT teams are currently under pressure from two sides: the business demands new and complex solutions that drive the digital transformation process, while at the same time the existing infrastructure must be kept up-to-date and operated smoothly. The lack of IT specialists is blocking staff growth, and outsourcing alone is not always the way out. In addition, the pressure in IT departments is increasing and employees are as dissatisfied as the longer queues of customers at the door.
A lot of companies have to rely on data of the most diverse origin and quality for their HR concerns when said data is needed for controlling and planning purposes. A lack of data quality and laborious processes are the result. The internationally successful eCommerce company shopware, a large manufacturer of online shopping systems in Germany, has implemented the noventum HR-Analytics software solution for its human resources activities.
According to the World Economic Forum up to 10 percent of the global gross domestic product will be generated via blockchains by 2027. Reason enough to take a good look at this technology already today. The upcoming opportunities of blockchain technology have, in fact, found their way into discussions on the executive level. Especially in terms of the alignment of the long-term IT strategy, the topic of blockchain should be taken into consideration in order to be able to identify early on opportunities for your own company. However, decision-makers should have a clear understanding of the potential impacts of the technologies on processes and industries.
The requirements for reports and analyses in the HR segment are growing with the technical possibilities. Until now, People Analytics has been the innovation topic du jour, whereas Predictive Analytics is the current promise. Today, the objective of a lot of Human Resources departments is to proactively and strategically support and advise the different areas of their company. The inquiries range from quick collection of relevant HR indicators to requests for intuitive analyses of possible correlations and conspicuous trends. Such requirements cannot be fulfilled with HR data that are stored in various, non-interconnected sources and which can only be combined with a lot of manual effort. The dm-drogerie markt retail group has addressed this situation with the “noventum HR-Analytics” standard solution which is based on an HR data warehouse and a BI solution based on Microsoft SQL Server and MicroStrategy. With its HR-Analytics application, noventum consulting has been able to consolidate the technical situation as well as the data basis of dm, and to significantly improve the situation of reporting within HR.
noventum consulting is among Germany’s 100 best employers! At the festive gala in the Titanic Chaussee Hotel in Berlin, noventum’s managing director, Uwe Rotermund, his deputy and head of human resources, Frank Petersen, and several employees accepted the award. With this outstanding rating in the group of companies with 101 to 205 employees, noventum once again obtained a place in the first row of attractive employers. In an anonymous questionnaire, the employees assessed their employer in detail and provided their employer with an excellent report. Ever since 2006, noventum consulting has participated in the nationwide competition repeatedly with great success. In 2012, noventum’s employees catapulted their employer into first place in its category for the third time in a row. The IT management consulting firm has now been able to continue these successes.
Growth, mergers, and other large changes quite often present challenging tasks to HR departments. Frequently, the requirements posed to modern personnel management processes as well as to analysis and planning functionalities can no longer be accomplished by simple means. The nobilia company was faced with such as challenge as well. Traditionally, working with Excel, various databases, and e-mail, HR management established a technologically state-of-the-art foundation for its work with the PERSIS personnel management software. With their extensive PERSIS know-how, the HR management consultants of noventum consulting were able to decisively contribute to the project’s design.
It sounds simple, yet, it is of central importance: Software that functions without any error is good, as software errors cost time and money. That applies to standard software, but of course also to custom applications such as those used at many companies in day to day business. Through automated tests, it is possible to continuously measure and assure software quality. Undesired side effects of software changes can be directly identified and avoided through automated tests.
The EU has developed a new privacy / data protection law, the “EU General Data Protection Regulation”. It has been in full force since May 2018 and there is still uncertainty among a lot of companies and their data protection officers as to what is actually required by the new regulations and what kind of impact they will specifically have on their data processing processes. Especially in the big data and business intelligence environment, fundamental conflicts of interest arise and widely spread paradigms regarding data retention and analysis will potentially have to be put into question.
The following article provides an overview regarding the fundamental requirements of the GDPR and the obligations arising for companies and for the data protection officers, and outlines a possible approach to comply with these requirements. In addition, the impacts of the regulation are discussed in the business intelligence context and it is shown, based on the example of the Microsoft SQL Server platform, how the requirements of the new EU Directive can be covered by features of modern database management systems.
The outsourcing market already reached ever new record levels in the past, both domestically and internationally. The number and complexity of provider agreements keeps increasing, so do the challenges for the IT procurement department. Not only does the latter have to master shorter sourcing cycles, but ever more frequently said department is also taking on the role of provider management. In the future, the IT procurement department – as central bearer of know-how – will decisively co-determine what’s going on in sourcing in the company. Whether or not the department assumes the leading role will, to a certain extent, depend on who within the company is one step ahead in terms of specialist knowledge.
Quite often, SharePoint projects are conceptualised and set up to mirror their technical capabilities. In many companies, the initiative for such projects originates from the technical department which considers SharePoint no different from any other software product and rolls it out. In this, questions regarding the “why” and “what for” are often asked too late. As such, failure over the short or long term is pre-programmed, given that the SharePoint technology is considerably meshing with the internal communication and collaboration processes. That, however, requires the support of all parties involved, from the responsible manager all the way to the user side.
Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) is a query and modelling language for SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) Tabular, Power-BI, and Excel Power Pivot. Calculated columns, tables, and user-defined Measures can be created at a very sophisticated level.
How useful DAX is in business practice is impressively illustrated by a development in the area of the Development in Pay Act. This relatively new law provides employees with the right to demand valid proof from their employer for the commensurability of their own remuneration in comparison to employees with similar activities. With the help of the HR-Analytics solution of noventum, which also relies on the DAX formula language, companies can comply with this obligation.
Due to the oftentimes extensive available data space, the areas of application of HR-Analytics are varied and range from reports and analyses to human resources master data, staffing structure and movement, as well as human resources measures all the way to analyses of time management and salaries. As reporting and analysis tool, HR-A traditionally conduces to human resources management. However, report recipients are also increasingly located at all levels of management and in other areas of the company: from production, via logistics and commerce, all the way to internal marketing and PR departments. As such, the increasing technical possibilities are turning noventum HR-Analytics (HR-A) into a future-oriented analysis and planning instrument.
The family-owned company BRITA, based in Taunusstein, Germany, is a leader in the field of drinking water optimization and is represented on all five continents. It operates a complex data warehouse to meet its diverse commercial requirements. By upgrading its SQL Server software to the latest version of 2016 SP1, the company is now able to use the various new functions of the Standard Edition and to remain technically up to date with justifiable effort.
An intelligent analysis of customer and online user data enables targeted and customer-oriented marketing. The prerequisite for this is that the implemented data structures and selected analysis methods and BI tools are coordinated with each other and fit together well. A medium-sized publishing company used the DWH and BI architecture introduced in 2013 to expand its data-based marketing activities. As in the previous BI projects, noventum's consultants were also responsible for developing a data model for marketing, which will also serve as a central basis for future analytics requirements.
For most companies the use of cloud services is initially often a step-by-step experiment. Based on individual accounts with one of the major cloud providers, various employees explore the possibilities and get an idea of what might be of interest to their company or department. Even these first explorations are usually subject to a fee. In order to keep an eye on where the journey is going financially, this initial option testing has to be tackled systematically. Such a plan is mandatory for a later widespread use of the cloud. Large providers such as AWS or Azure have usually planned the first steps for new customers diligently. With a Trusted Advisor, such as that found at AWS, the first steps are quickly and safely taken.
Over the past few years, more and more IT service providers have relocated services to countries with lower wage levels, especially India. The aim of this offshoring is to meet the increased competitive and cost pressure of the markets. However, many companies had to realize after outsourcing that the expected savings potentials can only be partially realized. As great as the business incentives are, as high are the demands on the provider management of these offshore projects. Due to intercultural differences, serious inefficiencies can occur in such projects. In addition to purely organisational challenges, it is especially the large cultural differences that have a decisive influence on the success of an offshore project.
Today, most companies have already had experience with the cloud: applications, IT capacities or individual processes are sourced from a wide range of cloud providers. Agility, innovation, cost reduction, flexibility and scalability are the most common reasons for moving to the cloud. The practical questions are: which provider has the right services? Which parts of the corporate IT are suitable for outsourcing? How does a migration into the cloud actually work? How does it pay off and are the costs the only trigger for moving to the cloud? The question is usually no longer, "are we going into the cloud?" Rather, it is about questions such as "when and how?" or "which services are possible?". Not only beginners in the cloud topic ask themselves the question of the correct procedure.
Using the concrete example of the relocation of an HR analytics application to a cloud environment, some special features of cloud computing in the BI environment are presented here.
Digital transformation is everywhere! As if the IT-technological development of the last decades had only been an insignificant foreplay, digitization is on everyone's lips. No socially relevant field remains unaffected by this and it seems to be all about the question of speed. The demand for agility and flexibility sets the pace, and this has already clarified what the dynamics of digitization are aimed at. The different players are quite differently positioned and IT departments in companies are often unable to keep up with the pace on their own. Sourcing to IT service providers can relieve the burden on them, whether they are external service providers or internal service providers in larger groups. However, the ever-increasing expectations from business about the speed and scope of digital transformation are also changing the relationship between IT departments and their service providers. In the future, they will have to move much closer to the specialist departments in the companies in order to be able to deliver precisely and quickly.
Cloud computing is currently the technological answer to the many calls for agile IT environments in times of digitalization. However, the market is constantly changing and not a few cloud projects fail due to lack of preparation. The call for a sophisticated cloud strategy and secure procedural models is growing. Together with Microsoft and CAST, the market leader for software analysis and measurement, noventum consulting GmbH has developed a solution for these requirements. The professional partnership between the three companies culminates in a workshop offering for companies that want to test their way into the cloud.
Even in centrally managed international corporations, national or local developments have repeatedly occurred over the years, which run counter to a uniform approach. Such developments are often pragmatic and good, often they are simply expensive. Especially in areas driven by technical developments, such a "wildness" is not uncommon. In this sense, IT sourcing in corporate groups is sometimes confusing.
A business culture that is characterised by trust and performance provides a broad foundation for successful business activities to the benefit of customers, the company's employees, and all other parties participating in the business eco system. In addition to its IT subject matter topics, the IT management consulting firm noventum consulting wants to support its customers with organisational consulting in order to establish a business culture on the pillars of credibility, respect, fairness, deep connection, and team spirit. In an interview, the managing director of noventum, Uwe Rotermund, is explaining the interconnections.
From the construction of the first prototype in their own garage to becoming one of the world market leaders for combined heat and power plants (CHPs) – that's the interim balance of the 2G Group from the Münsterland region. The rapid growth and increasing internationalisation bring along new challenges for control and operation, as well as, in particular, for the Controlling specialist department. In order to also satisfy all future requirements in this dynamic environment efficiently, the company started the enterprise data warehouse project "2G-Facts" in late 2014 with the support of the IT management consulting firm noventum consulting GmbH. Today, 2G is already using the new business intelligence platform in select application cases in various commercial and technical specialist areas and is therewith excellently positioned also for future requirements and for increasing demand for information.
The "brand eins" magazine and the "Statista" statistics company once more have presented a detailed analysis of the performance of business consulting companies. noventum consulting is among the best of this analysis. brand eins is presenting the analysis in a comprehensive special edition "Consulting".
MicroStrategy® Incorporated, leading provider of enterprise software platforms worldwide, invited to Cologne (Germany) on April 6th 2017 for a one-day symposium. In addition to the new functions of MicroStrategy 10.7, which has been available since March, as well as industry-specific and discipline-specific solutions, best practices application of customers and partner companies were also presented at the symposium. noventum consulting, partner and sponsor of the event, introduced its analysis and presentation platform "HR-Analytics" for management, designed for executive management and HR department.
The annually updated strategic planning process is a well exercised practice of the management team of Volksbank Ruhr Mitte eG. In recent years, the company also had to take into consideration massive challenges in this, just like any other bank – from the lasting low-interest rate situation via the always further increasing regulatory requirements all the way to significantly changing customer requirements and completely new agile competitors. These challenges can be mastered only with significant efficiency increases, cost reductions, and reorganisations, whereupon solutions were found in the strategic planning dialogue of Volksbank Ruhr-Mitte that will be consistently implemented in the months and years ahead. In this, the term planning dialogue emphasises that these are not "lone" decisions but rather a strategy developed in dialogue.
Companies, public institutions, and state institutions are feverishly dealing with strategies for the digital age and are exploring how this technological megatrend is carrying changes over into all areas of life. The insight is taking a hold that any and all structures and processes will have to endure the digitalisation check-up. In this, sourcing strategies are also prominently encountering the pressure to change. However, a lot of companies do not yet have such strategies to date, and run the risk of losing control in the maelstrom of changes.
noventum consulting has been a partner of the Swabian software producer Persis since 01.01.2017. The modular HR software from Persis supports the personnel management of more than 500 medium-sized companies and groups from the DACH region. The HRM team of noventum, as a reliable and competent HR management consultant, supports clients in the implementation, adaptation and expansion of their Persis solution. Noventum Persis is a sales partner for Hessen, Rheinland-Pfalz and Saarland.
Since Indian companies have, for a long time already, been successfully acting internationally as software producers, outsourcing deals have, in recent years, increasingly be awarded to India. In the day-to-day work of provider control, cultural differences become apparent that can make a successful cooperation considerably more difficult. German managers and administrators must be aware of these differences in order to do a good job with the Asian partners. Outsourcing expert Tamara Wagner of the IT management consulting firm noventum consulting has made remarkable observations in the cooperation with large Indian providers.
The change from one IT provider to another is always a demanding project. The more complex an IT landscape is, the higher the requirements posed to project management and communication between the companies involved are. In mid-2015, a new contract was signed with a new service provider the hosting of the IT of ista International. The change was to be completed by the end of May 2016. noventum consulting assumed responsibility for the superordinate management of the transition project. In the end, the committed and professional cooperation of all parties involved allowed for a successful transition already 4 weeks ahead of the planned schedule. Very satisfied with the perfect timing and with the financial impacts associated therewith, the new provider and ista now have tackled the first steps for the pending transformation.
In the selection of their IT provider, customers must pay particular attention to quality and costs. Especially the question of cost is quite often the triggering factor to start tackling a sourcing project. Especially in the assigning of commodity services, a lot of companies then do not see significant differences between the numerous providers and consider additional decision criteria other than price and quality to be insignificant. What is forgotten in this quite often is that a well functioning cooperation also includes a good communication. In day-to-day business subsequent to the signing of the contract, a lot of different employees of the customer and of the provider also have to clarify controversial questions with each other. If this does not work, the strong focusing especially on the cost factor can quickly turn out to be a "bottomless pit". What initially appeared to be economically lucrative becomes very expensive mid-term. What is to be concluded? In the process for selecting a provider, one additional factor is gaining increasing importance as a decision criterion, the so-called "Cultural Fit".
Matthias Horx, renowned futurologist and intellectual contemporary, is an avowed optimist. On Friday, September 30, 2016, the managers and company owners at the Business Unusual Forum 2016 at the Factory Hotel in Münster were able to experience how Horx and other speakers with a critical and at the same time optimistic outlook put the current state of the capitalistic economy and the roles of its actors under scrutiny Uwe Rotermund, managing director of Münster-based business consultancy noventum consulting, had extended an invitation and visitors from all over Germany came to discuss new management approaches and management methods. ...
The "FinSAP16" project team was able to proclaim the successful merger of two different SAP systems in early 2016, on-time, and flawlessly. Fiducia & GAD IT AG, the service provider for information technology within the cooperative finance group FinanzGruppe, is going to be working with an ERP system that – as "Best of Breed" – had already before the merger successfully replaced the SAP systems of Fiducia and GAD.
The "brand eins" magazine and the "Statista" statistics company once more have presented a detailed analysis of the performance of business consulting companies. noventum consulting is among the best of this analysis. brand eins is presenting the analysis in a comprehensive special edition titled "Consulting 4.0".
At the end of 2013, the Herne-based publishing house NWB Verlag, too, reached the point of completely rethinking its current BI solution approaches. Jointly with the BI team of noventum consulting GmbH, a fundamental renewal of the BI architecture was achieved in the process. Subsequent to the implementation of an enterprise DWH as basis for reporting and analysis, the quality improvement of the planning processes was scheduled for 2015. Due to the successfully completed project, the comptrollers of NWB Verlag are now able to present more detailed and more flexible planning results that are of higher quality, and can do so at considerably reduced effort.
With the experience of many successful sourcing projects in more than 15 years of IT consulting, noventum consulting has developed a process model with which companies can develop IT sourcing strategies.
The outsourcing of the complete IT of a medium-sized company as well as the offshoring of the data center operation of a DAX group will be presented by the responsible IT managers of the companies Nowega and Merck at the 1st Noventum Sourcing Day, which will take place on March 25, 2015 from 3 pm at the Mercure Hotel in Düsseldorf. The IT management consultancy noventum consulting, specialist in the field of IT outsourcing, invites CIOs, IT managers, IT purchasers and provider managers to this free information event.
In the presence of Madame Francine Closener, State Secretary for the Economy, Luxembourgian companies were awarded for their social commitment in a festive event on September 29, 2014. Harald Hau, managing partner of noventum Unternehmensberatung in Luxembourg, accepted the ESR label "Corporate Social Responsibility" and was very happy about this award.
Marcus Pothmann, noventum consulting, gave a presentation on "Versioning and Configuration Management" at the 27th meeting of the German-speaking DataStage UserGroup (DDSUG).
In recent weeks and months, publications on the subject of security and data protection in the cloud have sprung up like mushrooms in late summer. Almost all well-known institutions and companies have thrown their opinions into the ring and outlined the necessary steps for secure operation or secure use of cloud services.
Für eine erfolgreiche strategische Unternehmenssteuerung ist die präzise Kenntnis der Fakten in den eigenen Unternehmensabläufen ebenso wichtig wie die statistisch aufbereitete Kenntnis des konkreten Realisierungsgrades qualitativer Unternehmensziele. noventum consulting untersucht, wie Kennzahlensysteme die Steuerung von Rechenzentren und IT-Dienstleistungen unterstützen können.
The measurement of performance and service quality is becoming increasingly important in the IT services business in view of growing competitive, price and cost pressures. At the same time, quality management systems such as ISO 9001 and EFQM demand the implementation of suitable key performance indicator systems.
For seven years, noventum consulting has participated with great success in the nationwide "Great Place to Work" competition organized by the Cologne-based institute of the same name. In 2012, noventum employees promoted their employer to first place in the group of companies with up to 500 employees for the third time in the anonymous survey that accompanies every competition participation.
Improvisation and intuition skills are two important skills for personalizing communication. Improvisation is closely related to the concept of intuition and can be derived from it. Improvisation training is now part of management training.
As part of the innovation process, noventum consulting's management regularly asks itself whether, against the backdrop of changing technical or business requirements of its clients, noventum consulting's offerings are still 'on point'.
noventum registered with five relay teams. In addition to our employees, we were also able to win over customers, acquaintances and friends to run with us for a good cause. This year noventum ran for Titus Dittmann's foundation skate-aid, which gives children worldwide a piece of joy and confidence through skateboarding.
Steady growth and mergers present human resource departments with enormous challenges. On the path from "administrating" to proactive consulting in terms of human resource management, the requirements posed to modern human resource management processes as well as analysis and planning functionalities are growing. As such, AGRAVIS - with the help of noventum consulting - initially started to look for an HRM standard solution with the objective of being able to take care of a large share of current and expected future requirements. Once the fitting solution was found with PERSIS, additional requirements were implemented, for instance with the "digital personnel file", the "employee life-cycle" process, and the integration of processes that are usually foreign to HR. Today, the AGRAVIS human resource department works with a modern solution for the quite often automated mapping of the human resource management processes.
With its collaboration software SharePoint, Microsoft has been working since 2001 on combining under one roof a lot of functions that - to date - are operated separate from one another at companies: Intranet, extranet, content management, document management, personal cloud, business social networking, business intelligence, workflow management, web content management, and a lot more. The collaboration software - which has to potential to shape business communications as a whole - has arrived in day-to-day business at a lot of companies. Yet, the implementation of SharePoint technology is still a big challenge and a lot of implementation projects fail.
Since the introduction of SAP ERP 6.0 in 2006, the ERP application has – as part of its current release strategy – only been functionally enhanced through so-called Enhancement Packages (EHP). In addition to the usual maintenance via Support Packages, SAP has - with the SAP Enhancement Packages – created an enhancement concept that, on the one hand, ensures stability for existing functions and, on the other hand, allows for simplified and selective access to new functions. In this, it is ensured through the use of the switch framework technology that no functional changes are occurring during installation.
„Never change a running system.“ This motto is known to every IT employee. But, what to do when the system does not function perfectly anymore? Customers complain about the lack of quality. The management complains about ever-rising IT costs. An IT landscape that often has developed over years in small steps is no longer meeting the requirements and is up for discussion. Now, the management of IT has to think about changes. But what should be changed? Are small corrective actions sufficient or does it have to be more
To those who deal with IT quality management, the questions „what is IT quality, actually, where and how is it measured, and where is it created?" very quickly arise.
According to the IEC 2371 standard, quality is the correspondence between the observed properties and the previously defined requirements of an observation unit. In the case of IT quality, the observation unit typically either is an IT component (server, switch, router, etc.) or an IT service.
Even still today, IT is merely a means to an end at a lot of companies. The history of in-house IT is long and twisted, the basic technical facts are confusing, and only comprehensible to „old hands“ at the company. IT serves merely as a tool for the core business and does therefore not receive the attention of a strategic factor in the planning that is decisive for success. At the same time, IT costs a lot of money and has to prove that it has an up-to-date cost/benefit ratio. This is the moment for a paradigm shift: the end of reaction and the beginning of strategy and planning. Hartmut Ossowitzki, management consultant at noventum consulting, has been working as an IT specialist for more than 20 years and advises heads of IT regarding the setup of a strategic EAM (Enterprise Architecture Management).
Nowadays, virtualisation is considered one of the key technologies in business IT. Server virtualisation and storage virtualisation allow for a better utilisation of the hardware, allowing for cost savings and a more flexible delivery of IT resources. Similarly statements apply to the virtualisation of networks, desktops, and applications. The topic of virtualisation has been a concern for the IT world for more than 45 years. In AIX and/or UNIX systems it was possible already as early as in 1972 to partition the hardware resources of a system for the parallel operation of multiple operation system (LPAR mode).
Communication in large hospitals takes place through innumerable channels. In addition to the already highly complex issue of data communications, this does also and still affect the classic area of telephony. The use of mobile end devices is a matter of course in day-to-day hospital business, but here is where problems and challenges occur that are owed to the special hospital situation and that require special solutions. Extraordinarily heterogeneous systems as well as radiation-sensitive areas on the hospital grounds are just two of the numerous topics that an integrated solution must take into consideration.
When all IT systems must be relocated to another data centre, this often is a particular challenge for the affected IT departments due to today‘s complex IT structures. The effort in relocating a complete data centre while maintaining the agreed upon service levels is enormous. Most often, no or only little experience with such a relocation exists. The amount of work often exceeds the available personnel resources. Typically, to conquer this task, external know-how is purchased or the whole data centre relocation may even be handed over to a competent service provider.
Cloud-based services provide some advantage over standard IT services such as scalability, cost reduction, and lower investment costs (operating costs instead of investment costs). The large cloud providers do by now offer a very diverse portfolio from Infrastructure-as-a-Service, via Platform-as-a-Service, all the way to Software-as-a-Service. With the AWS Marketplace, Amazon does, for example, offer the opportunity to provision more than 1,500 software products in 25 categories at the push of a button. In recent years, the cloud market has grown significantly and is playing a more and more important role.
The IT infrastructures of companies of different industries - in particular of those in the financial sector - must adhere to an increasing number of internal and external requirements. Among them are requirements from statutory rules and regulations (Sarbanes-Oxley Act), standards (PCI DSS, COBIT), norms (ISO/IEC 27001), and internal requirements. These must be taken into consideration on the strategic level as part of IT governance and have to be implemented via corresponding processes, resources, and guidelines on the operational level.
Uwe Rotermund, managing director of Münster-based business consultancy noventum consulting, had extended an invitation to the 2015 Business Unusual Forum, and 90 company owners and managers from all over Germany came to discuss new management approaches and management methods. On Friday, September 25th, at the Factory Hotel in Münster, they experienced a day filled with provocative presentations, thoughtful conversations, satirical exaggerations, and a lot of self-activation. The moderation of the day was handled by Oliver Pauli, improv theatre maker from Münster.
Even in organisations of medium size, the IT infrastructure is often based on different, historically grown structures. With the help of noventum, a German private bank with subsidiaries in Luxembourg has consolidated its IT landscape and centralised it in a single location. The consolidation of the Active Directories and of the Exchange infrastructures was the core element of this measure.
As it is known, in a Microsoft infrastructure, access to resources, data as well as applications is controlled via Active Directory (AD). Depending on how complex the business structures mapped are, AD not only controls access at 1:1, but also describes the different levels of the trust relationship between individual domains. A mostly complex system that reflects the inner dynamics of a company like a mirror image.
To simplify the reading of this article mainly the term transition is used for both transition and transformation. Transition projects where IT Outsourcing (ITO) providers are switched are highly complex, resource intensive, challenging and risky. Typically, the ITO customer has outsourced the required knowledge to the incumbent provider. The new provider has not yet the required knowledge to provide IT services as needed at the beginning of the transition. Therefore, both parties, the ITO customer and the new provider rely on the support from the incumbent provider.
The BRITA family company, headquartered in Taunusstein (Germany), is represented on all five continents as globally active provider in the area of drinking water optimisation, with subsidiaries, shareholdings, and partner companies. Corresponding to the structure of its group of companies, the company needed a central reporting, analysis and - in the future also - planning solution for the quick, automated mapping of the monthly financial statements of the whole group of companies.
Employees who ride a bicycle to work all year long take – on average – 36 % fewer sick days than colleagues who take this ride with the car. That is the result of a new study by EcoLibro GmbH in which approx. 2,200 employees from all over Germany were interviewed. At the same time, these employees were 10 % more satisfied, as determined by a WHO catalogue of questions.
„Preliminary and right from the start temporally restricted regulation (in delineation from organisation). These are ad-hoc regulations that are created intuitively (controlled by feelings) or heuristically (driven by experience). They do often only have a preliminary character since the thorough analysis of their underlying decision situation is omitted. Improvisation is a sign of insufficient organisation (sub-organisation). In organisational science, improvisation is juxtaposed to organisation. While organisation is striving for a permanently and comprehensively structuring of division of labour systems, improvisation deals with the structuring of a limited number of cases...“
The creation of data warehouses allows for relying on standardised elements at different spots. Depending on the project, there is a high degree of standardisation in some layers while others contain customer-specific business logic throughout. To implement the standardised layers as quickly as possible and in high quality means – for each project – a stable basis and motivation for the often difficult individual aspects that have to be worked on subsequently.
In terms of outsourcing, the opinions were split for a long time: the big ones among the companies obtained room to manoeuvre for their core business by outsourcing functions. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), however, shied away from this step. Insufficient outsourcing experience, worrying about their business-critical data, fear of intransparency and dependency were hindering a good many in terms of handing tasks over to third parties. Now also available in German, the first international standard for this subject area – DIN ISO 37500 „Guidance on outsourcing“ – standardises the process of outsourcing.
WGZ BANK, Geno Bank Consult and GAD did, with the support of noventum, jointly develop a new solution for credit risk reporting. In this, it was possible to show that an automated data management system and a standardised report template do not necessarily have to represent a contradiction to bank-specific requirements.
Is competition „driving progress“? Ever since Adam Smith, we have come to believe that the answer to this question is „yes“. According to Smith, the „selfish rational striving of the individual competitor for maximum profit does at the same time also lead to increasing common good“. The ideas of Smith were picked up and fine-tuned by numerous economic theorists. Worth mentioning at this point is the „dynamic competition“ model of John M. Clark, which was developed further by Wolfgang Kerber into the „evolutionary competition theory“.
Since 2012, noventum has had a presence in Luxembourg. Harald Hau is the owner and managing director of the consulting company noventum S.á.r.l., Luxemburg; in a novum interview, he is reporting on the latest developments and consulting topics of his company.
The integration phase subsequent to mergers is a huge challenge. Often, its success decides about the failure or success of a merger. For many years already, noventum consulting has been supporting the manifold planning and operational aspects of this critical project phase in the IT, financial, insurance, energy, and other sectors. Carsten Fröning, Director, consultant at noventum since 1997, and responsible for the topic „Post merger integration“, provides information about this important milestone in the PMI lifecycle of a company.
„Standardisation in the actual meaning of the word means a unification of metric, types, methods or other things. The objective is the creation of joint standards respectively parameters (for instance in case of tools, production components or software components)." That‘s what Wikipedia has to say. What significance does standardisation have in a highly customer-specific consulting environment such as the setup of business intelligence solutions?
With which recipes can companies be controlled in a forward-looking and employee-oriented manner, so that the task of management and leadership is not just working but actually fun, making the person in charge of the company happy in the same way as the employees and customers, and ensuring commensurate successes? Uwe Rotermund, managing partner of noventum consulting GmbH, which in the past three years in a row was awarded as „Germany‘s Best Employer" by the Great Place to Work® Institute, is drawing up an interim balance after 20 years of business activity.
Be it floods, technical accidents, or complete power outages: nobody is immune to catastrophes and ever so often companies are affected as well, whose production stagnates as a result or even comes to a grinding halt. In this, the survivability of a lot of business operations is dependent on continuously available IT services and their underlying IT infrastructure.
Just like the call for order, safety, and planning, the call for quality in IT is always topical. This applies when large changes are ahead as well as when realignments and problems occur in normal operations. Each and every major change is followed by a consolidation, be it after a merger, a spin-off, an insourcing or outsourcing, or after periods of severe cost reduction. The next step is the call for an increase or reestablishment of quality.
Bring Your Own Device is still among the most discussed trends in the IT industry. What‘s making BYOD interesting for companies? Or is BYOD just an acronym for „Bring Your Own Disaster“?
As part of a larger IT outsourcing project in Singapore, Tamara Wagner, IT Outsourcing Consultant at noventum, visited the Asian computer centre of its German client. From an IT point of view, this client represents the German company in Asia on the Germany-Singapore-USA axis.
In companies, the HR indicators gain more and more importance as a strategic instrument. As such, meaningful strategic indicators are presented to executive management in an appealing fashion. In this, indicator reports are not to be considered compliance documents but rather an organisational communication tool. Only when the recipient received an informative and coherent document can strategic measures be derived therefrom and/or objectives pursued.
The integration phase subsequent to mergers or outsourcing deals is a huge challenge. Its success often decides about the failure or success of a merger. For many years already, noventum consulting has been supporting the manifold planning and operational aspects of this critical project phase from the IT perspective.
In the financial industry, digital customer communications were the domain of the direct banks for a long time. With the Electronic Mailbox, the IT service provider of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe savings and loan bank finance group is contributing to making the digital customer relations dialogue an essential customer care component of the regionally active savings and loan banks (Sparkassen).
Originally interconnected via the proximity to the MicroStrategy BI tool, the tool provider Thinking Networks and noventum consulting are growing closer and closer together as a homogeneous solution provider. After first joint project successes and a joint presence at MicroStrategy World in Barcelona (Spain) in July of this year, noventum has considerably driven forward the integration of the two best-of-breed tool providers for business intelligence and planning. The result of this activity: the „CPM Excellence Suite“.
A growing number of companies have been integrated into domestic as well as international company group structures. These days, the increased complexity of the business landscape can only be managed properly with automated IT architectures, because the quarterly and/or annual reports of the parent company and those of the subsidiaries as well as the consolidated financial statement of the company group are closely intertwined with one another and must comply with complicated domestic and international regulations.
Aside of the day-to-day and line business, projects are what is intended to effect any major change in the business processes. Heterogeneous working groups gather around the new task, at times staffed only internally, and at times also jointly with suppliers or consultants. The managers bearing these responsibilities must ask themselves who should be working on the project, which expertise and experience should the prospective team members bring to the table. Project management as skill, as best practice, as framework – which approach is the right one? Wolfgang Plemper who, as Director at noventum consulting is responsible for the project management training portfolio, is on the road with this topic at universities and companies knows different means: Prince2®, IPMA and other approaches.
The CHAOS Report of the Standish Group has been telling us for 20 years already that IT projects in a clear majority of cases do not achieve their objectives. Be it 16 % achievement of objectives in 1994 or 39 % in 2012, IT projects are not a safe bet and whether the increase by 23 percentage points of the last 20 years is actually the result of a stronger focus on objectives can definitely be doubted.
The German game of chance market is changing at a fast pace. More and more providers, legal and especially numerous illegal companies are meanwhile crowding the lottery and sports betting market. For the German consumers it is becoming more and more difficult to filter out trustworthy offerings from the multitude of game offerings. WestLotto, as a state provider of lotteries such as LOTTO 6aus49, the GlücksSpirale or Eurojackpot wants to tackle these changed framework conditions.
In certain specialised areas, classic corporate performance management tools successfully perform their duties. For this reason, the current solutions in the marketplace include numerous specialised CPM tools that have been designed to fulfil the requirements of a certain area of specialisation or a specific BI Task.
In newer innovation research, a fundamental paradigm shift can be observed, from pure basic research to a resource recombination. In the future, so the thesis of the newer innovation research, the innovation process will no longer be controlled by radical break-throughs but rather mostly by the synthetisation, linking and intersection of already existing insights and experiences.
The competitiveness of companies will, in the future, depend even much more on the ability to attract, keep and promote high-performing employees. Employer attractiveness therefore gains decisive importance. The HR manager who wants to coordinate all measures for controlling employer attractiveness therefore becomes one of the most important “strategists” in the 21st century company. Additionally, what is expected from HR managers in the near future is that they, with the help of integrated HR processes and IT systems, will be technologically and organisationally able to provide optimal support to demanding executives.
After more than 10 years, noventum consulting has changed its company logo. This way, we want to express something that belongs to the topic at hand. Today, noventum consulting GmbH is a recognised IT management consulting firm. Our services reach the top management of our customers, our consultants are interim managers and bring large works into motion. Our subsidiaries and partners abroad are similarly prominently positioned in their markets. As such, it was a concern of ours for quite some time to reflect this development in our company logo.
Anadolu Sigorta, Turkish Insurance Sector Pioneer, is also demonstrating its difference with its investments into Information Technology and into employee’s development and wellbeing. While conducting quite a few projects last year, Anadolu Sigorta has eased the knowledge sharing, increased the trust in data and succeed in increasing the effectiveness of timely information usage.
novum: For 10 years now, noventum consulting has worked very intensively and successfully with a culture of trust and the goal of being a „Great Place to Work®“. Now you went even a step further.
Uwe Rotermund: As head of the company it has been my wish for many years to provide a structure to performance orientation, not just trust in the fact that everyone will define for himself what constitutes performance.
Due to fluctuations in the economy or changes in the financial results of the companies, the expenditures for IT are subject to cyclical changes. Measures kept in abeyance in the short term and the cost savings resulting therefrom are offset in the next quarters. Increased investments are done again, only to ring in the next round of cost-cutting.
An estimated 4.4 billion people will be smartphone owners by 2017, and a large share of these people will be using apps regularly to quickly and easily access information and functionalities that otherwise could only be reached cumbersomely via the web browser. That this trend cannot move past the business environment is apparent, but there are numerous hurdles in the way, such as the existence of different operating systems, ensuring appropriate data security, or connectivity to the current system landscape.
The European division of a worldwide operating energy group of companies has been using the SAP Solution Manager successfully for more than four years for the processing of incidents. In addition, the tool is used in change re-quest management in order to be able to manage and control IT projects. noventum consulting provides adjustments in customizing.
The partners have already completed the first successful joint projects, and another prominent IT outsourcing project, in which both companies are involved with their consulting expertise, is currently heading towards completion. Now, Diapharm and noventum consulting have sealed their cooperation with a cooperation agreement.
At the end of May, two intense days of joint business development and planning of future activities brought together Thorsten Schmidt and Thorsten Nimbs of noventum consulting with their partners of MicroStrategy and Thinking Networks in Warsaw. The place of the meeting was the Global Delivery Center of MicroStrategy Poland (GDC). Motivated by numerous successful projects, both parties intend to expand and intensify the partnership of many years already.
How often do you hear the familiar saying "Only that which can be measured can also be managed"? Managing includes three central tasks: setting objectives, determining paths, and achieving objectives.
The dibera consulting company, a subsidiary of the LVM insurance company, and noventum consulting have made plans for a consulting partnership for the insurance industry. dibera, which is established in the insurance sector, as well as noventum consulting with its technical and strategic BI consulting approach, want to jointly put their expertise to use in future projects. Uwe Rotermund, managing director of noventum, and Thomas Koschlig, managing director of dibera, emphasised at a meeting the good fit of both companies. Thorsten Schmidt, who has technical responsibility for BI consulting at noventum, is happy about how well the companies complement each other. „At noventum, to date, we have successfully completed very sophisticated and large BI projects. With the intimate insurance know-how of dibera, we are jointly the ideal consultants for the insurance industry.-
The asset management unit of a power utility bears responsibility for guaranteeing the security of the supply as well as for the long-term development and maintenance of the grid. In this, the focus is, on the one hand, on the development of maintenance and investment strategies that require an assessment of the grid components and a determination of their condition. On the other hand, budgeting and the planning of measures in coordination with the overall business planning comprise the second focal point.
On Tuesday, March 11, 2014, Uwe Rotermund, managing partner of noventum consulting, participated in the panel discussion „Dream job IT consultant?“ at the CeBIT Career Centre of Computerwoche (the German edition of Computerworld). The requirements posed to future IT consultants were just as much a matter of discussion as the later perspectives and opportunities of this interesting job. In addition to Uwe Rotermund, managers from DV-Ratio, Accenture, Computacenter as well as Harvey Nash participated in the discussion.
The work environment is changing permanently and will, in the years ahead, become completely different from what we have known in the past. These are not trends that come and go but rather a true change of the rules of the game. Even though today traditional work is still common at a lot of companies, this model is approaching its expiration date. The young generation of „digital natives“ and an unstoppable change of values in society are reaching the work environment more and more.
In 2015, the internationally standardised ISO standard ISO 37500 will regulate all essential details in outsourcing. Experts from 42 nations are participating in the development of this standard that is recognised worldwide, among them Frank Wübken, IT outsourcing expert and management consultant at noventum consulting. Frank Wübken is participating in the development of the standard as "Head of Delegation" of the German participants. In this function, he participated in an international conference in Delhi, India, at the end of February.
Licences are a topic for any company that utilises non-in-house software for the support of its business. At medium-sized and large companies, the overview over the software used and the licences bought is lost quickly. The task of a licence management is to maintain an overview, be able to state the licence situation at any time, and to support an audit or the purchase of new licences.
The change in role from technical expert to executive is a common phenomenon, yet all too often it is encountered by participants who are ill-prepared. Nobody would get the idea to have a Windows 8 implementation performed by a specialist without any Windows 8 expertise and experience.
noventum S.A.R.L. in Luxembourg is looking back at its first complete fiscal year. For the novum editorial team, this was an impetus to talk with its managing partner, Harald Hau.
Everybody is talking about outsourcing, scenarios for sourcing models are state-of-the-art.
If the internal IT service provider decides to outsource parts or whole areas of its provision of services to one or more external providers, i.e., to initiate an outsourcing project, then a lot of framework conditions are changing for it.
On Monday, November 4th, 2013 , managers and business owners from Belarus visited noventum consulting GmbH in Münster as part of a 4-week study trip to Germany. Managing director Uwe Rotermund welcomed the guests and gave presentations on the topics of "Employee-oriented Business Management" and establishing a "GREAT PLACE to WORK".
Independent of the management system used, the requirements posed to a tool for business management are the same. The purpose always is to support a corporate performance management cycle (PDCA cycle = Plan -- Do -- Check -- Act). The challenge is to ensure an overall picture for executive management.
Despite the international financial crisis, the economy was not brought to its knees. The lack of qualified personnel that had already been looming on the horizon in 2009 has continued and is becoming tangible once more with the improving economy. Has the time arrived now to bring foreign professionals to Germany with attractive conditions in order to not lose out on the business opportunities presenting themselves?
An interview with Carsten Fröning, Thorsten Schmidt and Otto-Jörg Schröder
novum: Mr. Schröder, you have been a part of the management of noventum consulting in the area of SAP consulting since November 2012. What is your specific focus and how does this change the noventum consulting Portfolio?
IT is the backbone of the modern enterprise, not just another function within it. For businesses to continue to succeed in an increasingly technology-dependent world, CIOs must assume a strategic leadership role and drive change throughout the enterprise. Driving business strategy is not an entirely new role, but it is an added responsibility to the traditional CIO job function. While many CIOs possess the skills and ambition to impact business strategy, existing IT operational models and an aging infrastructure are holding them back. CIOs who have been successful in bridging the divide between IT and the business did it by first accelerating IT transformation.
The IT of the clinics of the future is faced with substantial challenges. Not only are huge amounts of data generated by new imaging processes, but these also need to be processed, presented, stored and archived. Now, at first glance this might not appear to be anything unusual. Of course, this is true for the data of a patient staying at the University Clinic. However, when the data of this patient is to be stored for the duration of said patient‘s life and if in addition also all the data that was not generated at the clinic is - in our example - to be stored in the patient‘s file, then the whole is becoming a challenge that can only be mastered with great difficulty.
Since 2008, the European Research Center for Information Systems (ERCIS) organises the ERCIS Launch Pad in cooperation with the technology sponsorship company Technologieförderung Münster GmbH. This is an annual competition for founders, potential founders and those interested in becoming a founder with interesting ideas for IT products or Services.
The customer care card of the Münster municipal works is becoming electronic and features new opportunities for the future. The change is powered by a conceptionally and technically sophisticated IT system.
It has been on the market since 1998 and counts roughly 60,000 customers at this point – the PlusCard, the Münster municipal works’ customer care card. Since spring 2013, the company has been equpping its PlusCard with a chip, rendering the card electronic. The new, intelligent PlusCard supplies its customers with new offers and services with genuine additional benefits. As a first electronic service, the Münster municipal works have introduced the electronic bus ticket (eTicket). It constitutes the basis for several transportation products which allow for a flexible use. The first eTicket product made available by the Münster municipal works is the 90 minute ticket, which has been on offer since March 2013. Its use is especially flexible, since it automatically determines the best price depending on the number of rides already used spontaneously and there is no basic fee attached. A further flexible ticket is in the works for release come autumn 2013. This ticket is aimed at subscribers and automatically calculates the fees according to time of use.
In November 2012, SAP released the first version of Design Studio as the successor to the Web Application Designer (WAD) for customers. With the Design Studio, report applications for web browsers and mobile end devices can be created using an Eclipse-based graphical user interface. After the merger of SAP and BusinessObjects in 2008, the utmost efforts were made to integrate the worlds of SAP BW / Business Explorer (BEx) and BusinessObjects. With the introduction of the BI Platform 4.0 (BIP) and the BI Consumer Services (BICS) interface, a significant breakthrough was achieved. Still, when it comes to tools such as Web Intelligence using the BICS interface the integration with SAP BW leaves a lot to be desired in some areas.
In the implementation and consolidation of data warehouse (DWH) solutions, the decisions regarding a specific architecture, the software to be utilised, and BI governance are of strategic significance. Nevertheless, this issue is often considered very subjectively and the decision is influenced only by a few people – e.g., is software manufacturer ABC market leader in this industry.
In addition to our activities in the Münsterland region regarding a trust-based company culture, we are also taking advantage of opportunities to discuss 21st century management style concepts in an international arena. As such, Uwe Rotermund recently spoke in Stockholm (Sweden) at the international meeting of HR organisations, to which the German Association for Personnel Management (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Personalmanagement e.V.) had extended an invitation, about the effect of the global mega trends on the work environment.
Not all IT providers are alike. The customer structure and hence the portfolio make up part of the distinction, as well as the actual position in the technical upgrading cycle which all IT providers are more or less subject to. The consultants at noventum consulting have been working in the IT banking environment since the mid-1990s. In an editorial interview, noventum Management Consultant Markus Ristau and Stefan Wolters put together key data for a situation analysis dedicated to this special kind of IT Provider.
In-Memory Technology currently is one of the most interesting technical topics in information technology that will surely bring about several changes in the near future. At present, its main area of application is analytical systems that achieve an enormous performance gain from using In-Memory Technology. Additional areas of application are presently being tested and piloted at large manufacturers. Here, SAP is taking a very systematic, innovative path with its In-Memory solution HANA.
In 2007, SAP acquired the then market-leading (based on market shares) BI provider „BusinessObjects“, aiming with this at providing its own, high-performance BI solution. But the devil is in the details and the adaptation to the SAP world turned out to be more difficult than expected. It was only in September 2011 that the Walldorf company brought „SAP BI 4.0“ to the marketplace which is considered an important step for the integration of the SAP BusinessObjects BI solutions into the SAP BW world.
For several years now, COBIT has been received and accepted as the framework for IT governance, both in an international context and in Germany. And like every framework, COBIT, too, is regularly being revised and adjusted to changing needs. In April 2012, now, COBIT 5 was published and is replacing version 4.1. Here, this article introduces you to the innovations in COBIT 5.
What does a performance measurement system have to do with quality? Anyone who intensely deals with this topic will soon find out: a great deal. Performance measurement system that is the new term for an indicator system. For a long time already, indicators and/or statistical measured values have been the undisputable proof for the quality of a product or process that is specified in advance.
The Controlling Profitability Analysis provides indicators that traditionally have been utilised for business management. Since companies are in this area also exposed to huge dynamics and an onslaught of information that has to be faced flexibly, traditional methods are increasingly reaching their limits. The question is, what could alternatives look like.
noventum consulting is conducting Business Intelligence Maturity Assessments based on a methodology that is utilising the Information Evolution Model to identify and measure an organisation’s current level of BI maturity. With this information, you can increase the value driven by Business Intelligence Investments and also achieve a competitive advantage.
Imagine being the technical manager of a huge skyscraper. Every day you have to fulfil the demands that require technical modifications of the building that you are managing. Changes such as adding a new girder section to the building or sometimes even collapsing some of them, moving the pipes of the plumbing system, modifying the capacity of the heating and air conditioning systems, etc.. While handling these modifications, you have to make sure that your building is still stable and the people living in your building are as comfortable and safe as possible.
Companies have to establish a clear vision of the future if they want to know how to assure long-term success. With the help of an IT roadmap, business strategy, IT strategy and current IT trends are systematically put in relation to the IT services offered. Furthermore, very specific parameters such as hardware and software cycles, as well as pending expansions, are introduced to the IT roadmap.
Companies have to establish a clear vision of the future if they want to know how to assure long-term success. With the help of an IT roadmap, business strategy, IT strategy and current IT trends are systematically put in relation with the IT services offered. In an interview, Wieland Schäfer, head of the LWL.IT department, explains his motives for creating an IT roadmap for the Landschaftsverband regional council.
There is no question: the cloud is here to stay. What it is, what use it has and whether it should be welcomed or feared is being discussed everywhere. Cloud computing will be a fundamental component of the future of IT.
Increasing internationalisation, constantly growing IT requirements and increased cost pressure force companies to review their IT strategy with respect to integrating cloud computing. In addition, cloud computing promises high agility, flexibility, reliability, security, availability and efficiency.
In the pertinent media, be they digital or print, the topic of EAM (Enterprise Architecture Management) is en vogue. The CIO online portal addresses „Painful EAM project experiences“ and urges those responsible to not approach the topic too technically.
Business decisions are based on data. It is quite a challenge to manage data cross-departmentally, to protect it, to use it profitably, and while doing so, to adhere to statutory requirements such as Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), Basel II or HIPAA. According to a 2008 Gartner study, only 10 % of all businesses succeed in their first attempt to implement efficient processes that master this challenge.
novum: Mr. Schmidt, let‘s start with one of the biggest challenges, data management in a Business Intelligence context. How are you positioned for this?
