At the end of 2020, the UK left the EU. Until shortly before the end, it was unclear how things would continue in 2021 and what contractual arrangements the EU and the UK would agree on. Thus, until December 24, 2020, the working basis for the conversion of the SAP systems was the hard Brexit. With the deal, however, other requirements then applied, which had to be implemented accordingly.

The changes to be implemented are diverse and affect a wide range of customer ERP systems, whether SAP ECC 6.0 or S/4HANA. To name just a few examples of necessary adjustments in SAP due to the Brexit:

• System configurations (e.g. remove the EU marking from the country setting for Great Britain or store a new tax number field for Northern Ireland in all relevant applications)
• Master data adjustments (e.g. tax data of customers/suppliers, correction of price and tax conditions, procedure of tax determination)
• Reporting (e.g. Intrastat reports, recapitulative statements and adaptation of customer-specific developments with regard to tax number selection)
• Forms (e.g. printing or hiding of EU-relevant information such as the tax number or the reference to intra-Community supply)

It was important to DATAGROUP to sensitize customers to the effects of the Brexit at an early stage and to inform them in advance about the upcoming changes they would have to make in their system. For this purpose, DATAGROUP developed a guideline that covers a range of different customer situations:

1. All customers with SAP Business Suite or SAP S/4HANA ERP systems
2. Customers without GB company code(s) and) with business partner(s) in GB
3. Customers with GB company code(s) and with business partner(s) in GB
4. Customers with GTS systems for which the above points 2 or 3 also apply.

With the Brexit guide, DATAGROUP was able to proactively approach customers, offer them appropriate support, and tailor the installation of the notes provided by SAP and necessary manual adjustments to the specific customer situation. The guide was continuously updated based on new developments.

DATAGROUP organized consulting and analysis meetings, assisted both in identifying the adaptation requirements relevant for the customer in each case and in the subsequent implementation in the SAP system. In addition, DATAGROUP was also the first point of contact for any queries during the complete test process and the subsequent live operation.

This approach enabled our customers to go live with the implemented SAP adjustments in time for the UK’s exit from the EU.

Pliezhausen, December 1, 2020. STARK Deutschland GmbH, a leading builders merchant, relies on IT service provider DATAGROUP. DATAGROUP had undertaken the carve-out of the IT infrastructure from the former parent company, Saint Gobain, and will provide the following IT services going forward: Service Desk, Data Center, Mobile Device Management, End User Services, and Network Services. The contract has a volume of EUR 15m.

The carve-out project started in October 2019. Not only the entire underlying infrastructure of the parent company in France had to be reorganized in DATAGROUP’s data centers in Germany, but all of the approximately 5,000 employees of STARK Deutschland had to be provided with new devices as well. IT carve-out and device replacement were executed successfully and without any restrictions for the users despite the challenges posed by the coronavirus such as the closing of borders and a short-term shortage of hardware.

Due to the guidelines of the former parent company, it was not possible to use the standard migration process via the Veeam security software. DATAGROUP therefore opted for an agile approach in close cooperation with the French IT division. “We manually copied the servers to hard disks and then uploaded the data to our data centers”, says Dino Huber, Manager Business Development DATAGROUP. “It was possible to implement this migration within ten weeks and prior to the corona-related closing of borders for the most part. Without any downtime for the customer.”

Likewise, the effects for the employees were limited to no more than thirty minutes when it came to the backup of user data. For this purpose, DATAGROUP has developed its own tool. The users can back up their data via a simple, intuitive surface and transfer them to the new PC with a stick. This means, the customer retains full data sovereignty.

“DATAGROUP has been a flexible and reliable partner in this project. Together we managed to deliver a successful project in the required period and in a good overall quality despite very challenging general conditions (keyword: corona). There have certainly been restrictions for our employees every now and then. Taken together, however, things were running surprisingly well and without any “real catastrophes”. DATAGROUP has reduced the large ticket volume at the end of the project to an acceptable level in a relatively short time and with a great deal of commitment”, says Dirk Scheffler, Director IT / CIO at STARK Deutschland.

Since the completion of the transition phase at the end of August, DATAGROUP is engaged with providing the following IT outsourcing services for STARK Deutschland: Service Desk, Data Center, Mobile Device Management, End User Services, and Network Services.

This question has long preoccupied mankind. From early automata to HAL 9000 to Ava from the film Ex Machina, the idea of artificial, man-made intelligence permeates our culture and our stories. In reality, we are still far from this general artificial intelligence, but the field has made rapid progress in recent years. But how did we get to where we are today?

1950: TURING TEST

Intelligence is notoriously difficult to define. In 1950, the British mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing formulated the test named after him to determine when one can speak of machine intelligence. If in a (written) dialogue a person cannot tell whether they are talking to a machine or to another person, one could speak of machine intelligence.

1956: DARTMOUTH CONFERENCE

The birth of the academic discipline, this conference was the first to speak of artificial intelligence. The term caught on. The initiators John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Nathaniel Rochester and Claude Shannon requested 13,500 US $ from the Rockefeller Foundation to host the conference. They started with big plans: in two months, with ten participants, all aspects of learning and intelligence were to be described so that a machine could be built that simulates these processes.

1966: ELIZA THE FIRST CHATBOT

ELIZA was a computer program developed by Joseph Weizenbaum to show the possibilities of how computers can enter into a dialogue with people via so-called “natural language”. The best-known form of ELIZA simulated a psychotherapy in which the computer searched the statements people typed in for key words and played them back in a modified form. The program was surprisingly successful, although users were able to push ELIZA to the limits of its capacity quite quickly, because the program did not learn anything new, but was pre-programmed according to certain logics.

1972: MYCIN AND THE BEGINNING OF EXPERT SYSTEMS

Expert systems are computer programs that support people in solving complex problems. MYCIN was developed at Stanford University to support the diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases with antibiotics. MYCIN analyzed numerous variables to identify the pathogens and recommend the best antibiotics – tailored to the patient’s individual parameters. However, despite the high success rate, MYCIN was not used in practice, as scepticism was too great and the technical basis for successful scaling was not yet in place.

1997: DEEP BLUE WINS AGAINST WORLD CHESS CHAMPION

Deep Blue, developed by IBM, beat the reigning world chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. Unlike today’s systems, Deep Blue did not “learn” the game, but beat its human opponent through sheer computing power.

2011: WATSON WINS QUIZ SHOW

In the American quiz show Jeopardy, players not only have to answer questions, the questions sometimes include word games. Watson, developed by IBM, competed against the two best Jeopardy players in 2011 and won. The AI showed that they could understand and answer questions.

2016: ALPHAGO CRACKS GO

For a long time, Go was considered the game that would take artificial intelligence years to master. This is mainly due to the complexity of the game. If the first player in chess has 20 possible moves to choose from, Go has 361. Sheer computing power, as in Deep Blues chess game, would not crack Go. With Reinforcement Learning, Google’s AlphaGo learned the game and in 2011 it faced Lee Sedol, a South Korean who is considered one of the best players. AlphaGo beat Lee Sedol 4-1.

2018: DUPLEX MAKES AN APPOINTMENT

Google is demonstrated duplex, an artificial intelligence, and had it call a hairdresser to make an appointment. The voice and style of speaking are indistinguishable from a humans.

AI WINTER AND AI SUMMER

The history of artificial intelligence ran in waves. Great enthusiasm (summer) was followed by disappointed expectations and cuts in research funding (winter). Often challenges were underestimated and progress overestimated. For example, the AI researcher Marvin Minsky said in an interview in 1970: “In three to eight years we will have a machine with the general intelligence of an average human being”. Expectations were not fulfilled, among other things due to the amount of data available and the comparatively weak computing power at that time. Known as Moravec’s paradox, researchers repeatedly found that things that are very difficult for a human being, such as solving complex mathematical problems, are easy for a computer, while things that are easy and self-evident for humans, such as recognizing images, understanding speech or performing movements, are extremely complex and difficult for machines.

Mr. Gißmann, can you describe your background and expertise in the field of Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?

For decades I have always been on the lookout for new technologies to meet our customer-centric approach. We started working on the subject of RPA as early as 2001. At that time, however, no one was using the terms that are used today. We started with an approach that is now known as Robotic Desktop Automation or Attended RPA. Here, software robots – or simply bots – support the activities of the contact center agent. The bot searches for relevant data for the customer’s request, makes suggestions and, after a confirmation by the employee, completes the process – in real time during the customer call. I and my team developed one of the largest Robotic Desktop Automation projects with 1,400 customer service agents for the energy provider E.ON.

What led you to bring RPA to Germany?

After our initial success with Robotic Desktop Automation, we have seen that there are also many applications for the full automation of processes. As a result, we then came across the topic of RPA in the USA. It was already clear to us at that time that it was not a question of whether to use RPA, but only when. So, step by step, we put together a strategic portfolio with the market-leading RPA software platforms, including Automation Anywhere, Nice and UiPath.

We can certainly be called RPA pioneers in Germany. Today, we operate a platform for our customer Deutsche Telekom on which more than 1,000 bots continuously run processes. This is probably one of the largest RPA installations worldwide. We are able to initiate and implement RPA projects for our customers in a short time, including the establishment of a Center of Excellence for robotics. A classic “enabler” in other words.

How will technology evolve? What are you and your teams working on?

In addition to the classic form of using RPA, as an on-premise installation, we also offer RPA “as-a-Service”. This makes us a platform provider and complements RPA solutions with innovative apps, innovative frontends and AI. The RPA-as-a-Service platform goes far beyond classic RPA and thus meets the requirements of “Intelligent Automation”.

Our approach is to make it as easy as possible for our customers to use RPA. To this end, we offer a constantly expanding number of pre-packaged bots that our customers can use immediately. In addition, we offer various machine learning services for advanced skills such as intelligent document analysis or image recognition.

What if your customers are not yet ready for the cloud?

No problem. Of course you can still use our entire range of products on premise.

How much does RPA cost?

There is a very simple calculation. Assuming that an FTE in Germany has a value of 100, then this value improves to 66 for nearshoring, 33 for offshoring and 10 for RPA, i.e. the bots. This naturally means that very short ROI periods are possible – under half a year.

Where will we be in 10 years?

AI will fundamentally change the relationship between people and technology. AI will herald a new age of productivity. We are already prepared for these challenges and will continue to develop our solutions in this direction to make intelligent automation as easy as possible for our customers.

Mr. Gißmann, thank you for this interview!

Peter Gißmann

• Founder of the pioneer for RPA in Germany: Almato
• With DATAGROUP since 2018
• Supplies and operates one of the world’s largest RPA platforms for Deutsche Telekom
• Expert for Attended RPA

Pliezhausen, April 22, 2020: The Java Academy in Mainz has been certified as an IHK training course since the end of 2019. In March, the first graduates took the exam in front of the IHK’s head of further education – completely digital due to the current corona situation. The Java Akademie also focuses on individual support and curricula adapted to the skills of the participants, whether digitally or in person.

The Java Academy is a joint offer with partner Triona in Mainz, where IT-savvy career changers and computer scientists are trained as Java specialists within a few months. The training has a strong focus on practical experience, is paid and after graduation, the participants are guaranteed a permanent position with IT service provider DATAGROUP or Triona.

The quality of the training is now additionally underlined by the IHK certification. Since the end of 2019, the Java Academy is one of the IHK’s training courses and is one of the most comprehensive and longest courses in this category. Graduates of the academy will receive a final certificate as “Java Enterprise Developer IHK”.

“From the very beginning, the focus of our academy was on practice-oriented training that emphasizes the strengths and abilities of the individual,” says Holger Klatt, Managing Director Triona.

The first graduates with IHK degrees were also the first to complete their final presentation digitally. Even though this was initially due to the Corona Pandemic, the Academy plans to further expand its digital aspects in the future. “We train digital experts digitally”, explains Helge Viehof, Managing Director of DATAGROUP in Mainz. “There is an enormous demand for IT experts and by expanding our digital training program we can reach and train more people, even beyond the Mainz area”.

Bereits vor dem Ausbruch bestanden Pläne, eine digitale Version der Java Akademie aufzubauen, mit dem gleichen Fokus auf individuelle Betreuung. Durch die Krise wurden diese Pläne beschleunigt. „Es ist nicht damit getan, Vorträge abzufilmen und online zur Verfügung zu stellen. Eine gute Ausbildung umfasst viel mehr und diesen Qualitätsanspruch halten wir aufrecht.“, so Helge Viehof. Die Teilnehmer tauschen sich regelmäßig digital untereinander und auch individuell mit den Coaches aus. Ebenfalls neu ist die Möglichkeit für Drittunternehmen, eigene Mitarbeiter über die Java Akademie ausbilden zu lassen und so digitale Nachwuchskräfte in den eigenen Reihen zu gewinnen. Gerade in anbetracht der aktuellen Lage spielt dies in vielen Unternehmen eine besondere Rolle.

Already before the outbreak there were plans to build a digital version of the Java Academy, with the same focus on individual support. These plans were accelerated by the crisis. “It is not enough to just film lectures and make them available online. A good education comprises much more than that, and we maintain this quality standard,” says Helge Viehof. The participants regularly exchange information digitally with each other and also individually with the coaches. Another new feature is the possibility for third-party companies to train their own employees via the Java Academy, thus enabling them to train digital junior staff within their own ranks. This is increasingly crucial for many companies, especially in view of the current situation.

Seit dem Start der Akademie absolvierten bereits 50 Teilnehmer die Java Akademie, drei von ihnen nun als IHK Java Enterprise Entwickler.

Since the start of the Academy, 50 participants have already graduated from the Java Academy, three of them now as IHK Java Enterprise developers.

About DATAGROUP

DATAGROUP is one of the leading German IT service companies. Over 2,700 employees at locations across Germany design, implement, and operate IT infrastructures and business applications such as SAP. With its CORBOX product, DATAGROUP is a full-service provider, supporting over 600k global IT workplaces for medium and large enterprises as well as public authorities. The company is growing organically and through acquisitions. The acquisitions strategy is particularly noted for its optimal integration of new companies. DATAGROUP is actively participating in the IT service market’s consolidation process with its “buy and turn around” and its “buy and build” strategy.

About Triona

Since its foundation in 2001, Triona inspires its customers with innovative solutions in software consulting. Triona stands for constructive communication, individual and personal service and successful cooperation at eye level.
Triona GmbH is divided into the following three business areas:

• Classic IT-Consulting
  Whether Java, JEE, PHP or Android, the consulting team has many years of project experience in a wide range of technical fields.
• Inhouse Development (Software-/Web Development)
  With software engineering – the engineering production of software products, Triona focuses on individual software for its customers.
• Java Academy
  Within the scope of the training, the participants will gain knowledge and practical skills in the subject areas “Java Development” and “Java Enterprise Development”.

Pliezhausen, 10. December 2019. In a joint survey by Statista and the German business magazine brand eins, IT experts and customers voted DATAGROUP among Germany’s best IT service providers. DATAGROUP was placed among the top 25 percent of the recommended companies in the areas of IT security, training & education, managed services & outsourcing, cloud services, software implementation & maintenance as well as IT consulting and is thus among the best of the best.

Few areas are changing as rapidly as IT: new technologies, applications or disruptions mean that companies need a reliable, competent IT partner at their side to be successful in the market. But the market for IT service providers is large and often confusing. Business magazine brand eins and Statista asked more than 5,000 IT experts and customers about their experiences with IT service providers and which providers they would recommend. The result is a list of the best IT service providers in Germany 2020, divided into nine segments.

DATAGROUP performed excellently in six segments (Managed Services & Outsourcing, Cloud Services, IT Security, Training & Education, Software Implementation & Maintenance and IT Consulting) and, with a maximum score of four points out of four, is among the top 25 percent of recommended companies. In the two categories of Network & Storage and Communication & Collaboration, the IT service provider also scored very well with three out of four possible points.

“We are particularly pleased that the recommendation of both IT experts and customers was decisive for the ranking. Our very good performance across the various segments shows that we are living up to our claim of being a reliable, competent IT service provider at eye level for our customers”, says Max H.-H. Schaber, CEO of the listed DATAGROUP.

With its core product CORBOX, a modular and flexibly combinable suite of IT services, DATAGROUP covers the entore spectrum of IT services as a full IT outsourcer. All services processes are certified, standardized and quality assured according to ISO 20000 criteria. DATAGROUP sees itself as the machine room of digitalization, making IT easy and reliable for its customers so that they can fully concentrate on their core business and successfully compete in the market.

Pliezhausen, January 30, 2020. With effect of January 29, 2020, the two DATAGROUP companies, Almato and DATAGROUP Mobile Solutions, have merged into Almato AG. The new entity will focus on automation and Artificial Intelligence and will increasingly dedicate itself to the further enhancement of its Robots-as-a-Service offer.

DATAGROUP Mobile Solutions, an expert for the mobilization of business processes and the development of apps since 2014, and Almato, a specialist in robotic process automation within the DATAGROUP Group since 2018, have joined forces and merged into Almato AG. The merger of the two companies combines the expertise in software development and automation and will further accelerate the seminal topics of business process automation and mobilization of applications with the help of technologies based on Artificial Intelligence. The center piece is an AI-enabled Robots-as-a-Service platform for the automation of business processes. Already today, a great number of companies, including BBBank, Deutsche Telekom, H&M, Innogy or Tchibo, are using Almato’s solutions. Employees are relieved of simple, recurring tasks and can dedicate their time to value-adding issues in their respective specialist fields.

IT Digitalización 4.0 Industrial, a software forge with fifteen employees based in Barcelona, which was acquired by IT-Informatik in 2019, will also become part of the team comprising 120 employees.

“I am thrilled to further align the new company around Artificial Intelligence and automation together with Peter Gißmann”, says Christian Sauter, CEO of Almato AG. Peter Schneck, Management Board member of DATAGROUP, explains the decision: “Through this merger, DATAGROUP combines expertise and creates a new center of knowledge for the extremely important topic of Artificial Intelligence. Almato’s AI and automation portfolio is a perfect addition to our proven IT services.”

About DATAGROUP

DATAGROUP is one of the leading German IT service companies. Over 2,500 employees at locations across Germany design, implement, and operate IT infrastructures and business applications such as SAP. With its CORBOX product, DATAGROUP is a full-service provider, supporting over 600k global IT workplaces for medium and large enterprises as well as public authorities. The company is growing organically and through acquisitions. The acquisitions strategy is particularly noted for its optimal integration of new companies. DATAGROUP is actively participating in the IT service market’s consolidation process with its “buy and turn around” and its “buy and build” strategy.

Pioneer in automating standard business processes, Expanded range for DATAGROUP customers in the growth market of robotic process automation

Pliezhausen, January 25, 2018. DATAGROUP SE (WKN A0JC8S) today announces the acquisition of all shares in Almato GmbH. A rapidly growing company, Almato adds to DATAGROUP’s range in the CORBOX portfolio, offering the application of robotic process automation within companies.

Almato GmbH has 40 employees and generated annual revenue of some EUR 4m in 2016 at a double-digit EBITDA margin.

Founded in 2002, the software and IT service company headquartered in Reutlingen, is specialised in optimising standard business processes as a value-added reseller. Almato is one of the pioneers in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Real-Time Interaction Management (RTIM) in the field of full and partial automation in Germany. The company’s customers are national and international companies from the fields of telecommunications, utilities, finances, retail, industry and tourism. Service quality and customers satisfaction are very important strategic factors for these customers. Almato focuses on standard software products that are introduced in line with customer needs and adjusted to accommodate individual preferences.

“Automation and digitisation of processes has long ceased to be restricted to the producing sectors. This is decisive for service companies to secure future competitiveness”, says DATAGROUP CEO Max H.-H. Schaber. “We have known Almato as a reliable partner for some time and are really happy having gained the Almato team’s expertise. It is a perfect fit to our existing CORBOX services, helping us to support our customers in automating their digital business processes going forward. We have identified many application areas in our own house as well, where fully automated processes for administrative activities would reduce an employee’s workload, improve the quality and reduce costs.” RPA is a software application managing user programmes required for a process in the same way as an employee, and which communicates with all the necessary systems, gathers information and changes the relevant data. Corporate and administrative processes are fully automated and thus can be worked through quickly and error-free and can be documented. Like an employee, RPA uses the frontend the way an employee does. There is no need for a backend integration with the associated expenses.

“Our solutions and services address an enormous growth market”, says Peter Gißmann, Managing Partner of Almato GmbH. “The merger with DATAGROUP will improve our starting position that has already been good. As a pioneer in RPA applications, we will be able to fully exploit the great potential at hand. We look forward to continuing our dynamic development under the roof of DATAGROUP.”

The company will presumably be consolidated in the DATAGROUP group from March 2018. It has been agreed not to disclose the purchase price.

At the balance sheet conference call scheduled for January 29, 2017, 3:00 pm, the Management Board of DATAGROUP SE will also provide details on this transaction.

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