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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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".

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.

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.

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.

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 "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".

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

„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...“ 

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.

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“.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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“.

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 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 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.

A new logo for noventum consulting

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.

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.

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 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.

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.-

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.

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.

Motivation and added value of outsourcing activities nowadays differ from those in the early years of this important business segment of the world of IT. Originally, the purpose often was to unburden the IT budget. Through standardisation of platform or implementation of ITIL processes throughout, providers were able to achieve considerable cost-savings, which initially even made one or the other bumpy start into the outsourcing business forgivable.

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.

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".

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.