News

03/01/2010 ESPRiT Press Commentary: Working Here is Fun!

In this year’s poll of Germany’s Best Workplaces, five companies from Munich came out right at the top – and amongst them was ESPRiT Consulting. The employee survey carried out by the Great Place To Work Institute shows that employees identify more strongly than average with their company, and that the relationship between employees and their line managers is very highly rated.

Here you can read all about the reaction in the press.

02/19/2010 ESPRiT News: Optimization of FX Management at Alstom

Alstom is a global leader in power generation and transport infrastructure, setting new standards for innovative and environmentally friendly technologies. Alstom builds the fastest train as well as the automated metro with the highest passenger capacity worldwide. In addition, they deliver integrated turnkey solutions for power generation, equipment and services for a variety of energy sources such as water, nuclear power, gas, coal and wind. The group employs around 80,000 people in 70 countries, and in 2007/08 had orders worth € 23.5 billion.

The high volatility of FX markets and large fluctuations in interest rates have created massive challenges for FX management. To be in a position to meet these challenges proactively, Alstom initialized a project to optimize their FX hedging processes.

The goal of the optimization was, on the one hand, an increase in the transparency of FX management and, on the other hand, an optimization of the underlying processes. Specifically, a new reporting cockpit based on SAP NetWeaver BW was installed. This includes not only retrospective hedge effectiveness reporting, but also prospective reporting for planning and controlling purposes. In addition, operative processes were optimized through the targeted deployment of workflows. In doing so, it was, of course, essential to comply with international accounting regulations (IAS 39).

ESPRiT supported Alstom in this project from the analysis to the implementation. The first step was to analyze the value flows and processes. On the basis of this analysis, an optimization concept was drawn up and the IT adaptations were defined. To ensure greater reliability in a complex environment, the requirements were implemented and tested in a prototype. Once the solution had received approval, the IT adaptations were implemented, staff training was carried out, and support was provided for the go-live.

Today Alstom has at its disposal improved transparency and optimized processes in FX management. The reporting system facilitates better planning, hedging and reporting for FX effects. The workflow processes take the pressure off treasury staff and lead to better process quality, whilst at the same time saving time.

02/16/2010 ESPRiT News: lnteractive Forms for the Incident Management Process at Canton Zurich

Das CC SAP des Kantons Zürich nutzt das Incident Management des SAP Solution Managers, um Tickets zu erstellen und zu bearbeiten. Die Kommunikation mit dem SAP Mitarbeitenden erfolgt über den SAP Solution Manager mittels Adobe Interactive Forms.

Um die Bearbeitung der Tickets für die Endanwender zu vereinfachen, entschied sich das CC SAP für eine Lösung, die für den Endanwender den höchsten Komfort bietet: ein interaktives Adobe Formular (AIF). Mit Hilfe dieser neuen Lösung ist für den Ticketersteller keine Anmeldung und somit kein Account im SAP System mehr notwendig. Dies erhöht den Bedienungskomfort bei gleichzeitiger Reduktion der Komplexität. Der Anwender kann das Ticket offline in der gewohnten Umgebung des Adobe Readers bearbeiten, während die Support Mitarbeitenden weiterhin direkt im Solution Manager agieren.

ESPRiT unterstützte das CC SAP des Kantons Zürich bei der Einführung der neuen interaktiven Formulare. Die Lösung konnte innerhalb von zehn Arbeitstagen reibungslos in den bestehenden Incident Management Ticket Prozess integriert werden.

02/09/2010 ESPRiT Press Commentary: “The Human Side” of a Consultant’s Daily Work

In the February / March issue of the university magazine aud!max, Karsten Höppner, Founding Partner and CEO of ESPRiT Consulting, provides some human insights into the everyday lives of management consultants. In his interview, he describes how even experienced consultants can slip up occasionally, and that the best way to get out of such a situation is to demonstrate honesty and sensitivity.

Full German Version for Download

01/08/2010 ESPRiT News: ESPRiT Supports the Swiss Federal Office of Personnel (EPA) with the Implementation of a new Organization Structure

The Swiss Federal Office of Personnel (EPA) is the government office responsible for federal staffing issues. The EPA develops frameworks and instruments for the management, further development, and coordination of the federal administration’s workforce, which comprises of 36,000 employees.
Within the structure of the EPA, the organizational unit Competence Center Human Resources (CCHR) is responsible for managing the human resources and information system BV PLUS. This includes specialized operations, training and consulting for the users, and further development of the system. An organization analysis was carried out to determine the best possible set-up for the organizational unit CCHR. ESPRiT supported the EPA with the analysis and the evaluation of the possible organization forms.
ESPRiT was able to provide the EPA with optimal support thanks to its extensive experience working with the public sector, its wide-ranging expertise in the SAP environment, and the process and organization analysis.

01/04/2010 ESPRiT News: ESPRiT is now a Trusted Partner of e-Spirit

ESPRiT has been designated as a Trusted Partner by e-Spirit in recognition of the successful collaboration between the two companies. e-Spirit is a provider of enterprise content management systems, with a focus on the product FirstSpirit™. ESPRiT has already successfully supported a number of projects on the basis of FirstSpirit™. This entailed providing consultancy services for CMS strategy, conceptualization, implementation, and project and quality management.

Companies can become e-Spirit Trusted Partners if they have successfully implemented significant FirstSpirit™ projects and have experienced, trained consultants at their disposal.
Despite this designation, ESPRiT remains independent of any manufacturer, and does not have reseller status with any of its product partners.

For more information, please get in touch with oliver.wucher@esprit-consulting.com.