We transform for the better" - or in other words: "Everything stays better"

Europe is going through difficult economic times. How do you see the current development?

Dietmar Wiesinger. The crisis is indeed persistent. The hope that there would be an upturn in the second half of 2024 has not been fulfilled. Rather the opposite was the case. Forecasts have been revised downwards. Of course, this has implications for the market; the burden on the industrial sector is huge. Take energy costs, for example, which are higher in Europe than in other economic areas and are likely to remain higher in the medium and long term. The shortage of skilled workers in core areas such as IT is also problematic.

What is bad for the economy as a whole could, however, be an advantage for CANCOM as an IT service provider and digitalization partner for industry.

Bernd Eder. In my view, that's a little too short-sighted. Of course, as a digitalization company, we receive orders because our services and portfolio can help us to become more efficient and thus more crisis-proof, especially in difficult times. However, we must not ignore the macro level. If companies withhold investments or leave Europe or the regional markets in which we operate due to the industrial crisis and gradual deindustrialization, we will also lose customers in the long term.

According to experts, the increasing risk of companies leaving the European economic area is also due to the EU's "regulatory frenzy". One of the fears is that increasing bureaucratization will make business models less profitable.

Bernd Eder. This also needs to be viewed in a differentiated way. On the one hand, standards created with DORA, NIS-2 or the AI Act are helpful for developing secure business processes and models. On the other hand, too much regulation is a critical obstacle if productivity and unit labor costs are used as a benchmark.

Dietmar Wiesinger. I agree with that. Of course, an excess of regulation and bureaucracy is not conducive to the global competitiveness of Austrian and European companies. Nevertheless, regulations that set minimum standards to ensure greater overall security and trustworthiness are generally to be welcomed. And it stimulates our business when companies with complex IT tasks work on them with us. This applies to many smaller organizations for which we, as CANCOM, can ensure state-of-the-art technology and guarantee regulatory compliance.

Let's take a look at the dominant digitalization and IT topics, such as cybercrime. The Cybersecurity Ventures Institute published dramatic figures in its latest Cybercrime Report and summed them up with the sentence: "Considered as a country, cybercrime would be the third largest economy in the world after the USA and China."

Dietmar Wiesinger. Cybercrime is a lucrative, low-risk "business" with low barriers to entry and relatively few consequences for the perpetrators. The consequences for companies, on the other hand, can be massive. When cyber criminals exploit vulnerabilities in IT systems and networks to steal sensitive data and sabotage business processes, the result is not only financial losses but also serious damage to a company's image. Cyber security is undoubtedly one of the biggest current threat scenarios in the economy and is one of our core topics at CANCOM for good reason. We have around 300 certified cyber security specialists working in highly qualified teams on security projects to analyze security incidents, develop innovative solutions and protect companies from the growing challenges in the digital world. And as the CANCOM Group, we operate several Cyber Defense Centers in the DACH region that can support our customers with security services around the clock.

The challenges and opportunities are becoming ever greater as a result of new technological developments - which leads on to another key topic: artificial intelligence.

Dietmar Wiesinger. AI is also a strategic focus topic for CANCOM, which we have been working on intensively for almost a decade - and not just since ChatGPT created a real hype around generative AI at the end of 2022. After the hype, which is accompanied by exaggerated expectations, there is usually a period of disillusionment. Many people are unclear about what AI can currently do in a company and where development time is still needed.

That's why advice is important. We see clarification as part of our service. And we focus on the implementation of functioning use cases that actually provide concrete benefits. Our success proves this strategy right. Here is just one example: We recently received the 2024 Innovation Award from Microsoft for the development of a private and data-secure CompanyGPT solution for Raiffeisenlandesbank Oberösterreich.

Bernd Eder. Artificial intelligence really is a big topic for the market and for us. However, in order to set up AI applications, data needs to be available. The publicly available information on the internet is already integrated into the large models, but the greatest treasure trove of data that needs to be unearthed lies in the companies themselves. For example, in knowledge databases and collected by machines. In the hyped discussion, it is sometimes forgotten that the availability of data and the generation of platforms is a basic prerequisite for the application of AI.

And I would like to broaden the range of topics that CANCOM deals with in this context. Basically, it is about the beneficial digitalization of business models and processes and, in this context, the transformation of IT from a cost center to a solution center. The focus is therefore on solving problems with the help of digital tools. Artificial intelligence applications also play a role here - but not only.

Keyword transformation. This is also in full swing within your company. In June of last year, K-Businesscom became part of the CANCOM Group and thus CANCOM Austria. What was the idea behind the regrouping and change of name?

Dietmar Wiesinger. The transaction was intended as a growth case. On the one hand, it was about a geographical addition and, on the other, a portfolio addition. Previously, as K-Businesscom, we looked after Austria, Switzerland, Romania, the Czech Republic and occasionally Germany, while CANCOM's geographical focus was on Germany. In Austria, CANCOM a+d was already very active in the workplace environment, which we were not able to offer quite as competitively in K-Businesscom. CANCOM Marketplace and Webshop were also added as digital customer channels for us from Germany and were successfully launched in Austria in 2024. All in all, there are many synergies. So it's not just the logo and the company name that have changed, but the portfolio and performance have actually broadened, making the planned growth case a reality.

Bernd Eder. We are currently undergoing the transformation from a family business to a capital market-oriented, international company. I have already led such a process when we built Kontron Transportation Austria out of Kapsch CarrierCom, and I therefore know that it feels and should feel completely different when the orientation becomes more international and capital market-oriented. New opportunities and perspectives arise for the entire company and for each individual, and these need to be developed together to make transformation a motivating journey. Employees are often unsettled in the course of a change process. Our management task is to make the advantages of the new company format visible and set an example. Perspectives arise, for example, from the size and diversity of the integrated organization or from modern, objective standards of employee leadership and management in general. Every team member is given the opportunity to make an outstanding contribution. Young leadership is authentic, employee-oriented and objective.

Is transformation easier when there are new management and leadership structures?

Bernd Eder. I am convinced of that. It is helpful to combine a change with a new leadership approach. At our company, everything is now less hierarchically structured. We promote team spirit, invite our employees to participate more actively in joint projects and encourage them to take liberties and courageously drive forward their own ideas for solutions. The message behind this: Be part of the success. I would like to emphasize that not everything has to be redesigned here. The secret of a successful transformation is to keep what has worked well in the past and enrich it with new approaches. This is also reflected in our Executive Board team, which Jochen Borenich, former CEO of K-Businesscom, will rejoin from January 1, 2025.

Dietmar Wiesinger. And there are many good things from the past that we can take with us into the future. The customer focus and problem-solving expertise that have characterized Kapsch for more than 130 years will continue to be fundamental pillars of our activities. The fact that we have excellent contacts with companies at all levels throughout Austria is also a legacy of history on which we can build. It is also characteristic that the employees enjoy working here. We are now conveying to them that the change that comes with the structure of a larger group is not a threat, but an additional, new opportunity. From the outset, our aim was to combine the best qualities of K-Businesscom with the strength of CANCOM. We have achieved this.

How is the market responding to the change? And what is your interim conclusion on the change process?

Dietmar Wiesinger. The change has come about on the market side and the original idea that one plus one should be more than two has already become reality in the short time since June 2023. We can see that in the figures. We are doing well. We haven't lost any customers or employees as a result of the merger. Our commitment to the Austrian market, our responsibility and decision-making authority have all remained as they were. But the portfolio has become larger. The change is therefore viewed positively by the market. Our customers benefit from the strength of the Group without having to give up their local roots.

Bernd Eder. In order to grow in today's economic environment, additional capital resources are needed. As a new group, we now have more access to these. This means we can scale well and bring the expansion of the portfolio to our customer base in a targeted manner. All of this is paying off. Our slogan "We transform for the better", to which we like to add "Everything stays better" internally, has proven true so far. We are in good spirits.

Growth as a future opportunity with a broad portfolio for Austria

The CANCOM Group has grown sustainably in recent years - to more than 5,600 employees at around 80 locations in the DACH region and beyond. The acquisition of the Austrian ICT solution and service provider K-Businesscom in June 2023 - the largest takeover in the company's history to date - was a key factor in this growth. CANCOM had previously been successfully active on the Austrian market for over 30 years with Modern Workplace solutions from CANCOM a+d IT solutions GmbH.

Together with international partners such as Apple, Lenovo and HP Inc., CANCOM a+d implements customized workplace solutions for all company sizes and industries. In addition to developing the workplace architecture, the solution portfolio also includes all hardware and equipment such as PCs, tablets, smartphones and displays, printing systems, headsets, input devices and industry-specific accessories.

Workplace-as-a-Service

In addition to traditional purchasing and leasing models, CANCOM also focuses on Workplace-as-a-Service offerings. These flexible and sustainable usage models cover the entire lifecycle of a device. "This makes budget planning easier for finance managers, as the workplace costs are distributed and fixed over the term. This eliminates high investment costs that would otherwise burden cash flow," says Anton Birics, Managing Director of CANCOM a+d, explaining the model and its benefits. "Purchasing teams save time, as the purchasing conditions are negotiated once for the term and the device line-up is determined in advance. And it significantly reduces the workload of the IT team, as routine tasks such as device configuration, device management, user help desk, logistics and replacement of defective devices are simply outsourced to us as a partner. Thanks to our zero-touch deployment and self-service architecture, users can unpack the devices, log in and start working immediately - without the intervention of IT teams."

Such workplace-as-a-service concepts also enable employee choice programs. Employees can simply choose between a Mac or PC as their work device. This generally makes companies more attractive on the job market and, in combination with the uncomplicated handling process, increases employee satisfaction and productivity.

As the Workplace-as-a-Service model covers the entire device lifecycle, individual end-of-term scenarios are also agreed for the end of the cycle: The devices can be offered to employees for purchase or returned to CANCOM. In either case, the devices are given a "second life". Such a usage model also contributes to the achievement of sustainability goals.

About CANCOM

As a leading digital business provider, CANCOM accompanies companies, organizations and the public sector into the digital future. The range of services and solutions includes classic system house IT solutions as well as data-based digital solutions, managed services and cloud services. With a broad portfolio of solutions and leading technology partners, CANCOM helps shape the digital evolution of its customers and supports them in reducing the complexity of IT and developing new business models. The CANCOM Group's offering comprises innovative solutions in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, Security & Network, Datacenter & Cloud, IoT Solutions and Modern Workplace and includes services for the entire IT lifecycle - from the provision of IT infrastructures, consulting, planning and integration to support, managed services and XaaS. Customers benefit from the extensive expertise with which their diverse requirements are translated into concrete industry-specific IT solutions to significantly promote their business success. CANCOM Austria also develops its own software solutions and platforms for innovative business models. As digital makers, the employees of CANCOM Austria always think end-to-end. Thanks to its Kapsch roots, CANCOM Austria combines 130 years of innovative strength with many years of experience as a market leader for network, data center, security, collaboration and managed services. The CANCOM Cyber Defense Centers guarantee 24/7 protection against cyber attacks.