Bernhard Braunmüller, Partner at ESPRiT and responsible for the area of customer management, answers the questions of the Competence Site. In his interview he analyzes the development of CRM in the past ten years.
Please find the entire interview on the Competence Site.

The German E-3 magazine reports on the substantial growth of ESPRiT Consulting which has been mentioned in the Lünendonk lists. “I am very pleased that a mid-sized company such as ESPRiT is developing positively and has positioned itself very well in this difficult market.” comments Thomas Lünendonk, author of the study.

ESPRiT at the top fair for customer relationship management: Presentations on the issues of CRM, optimization of sales processes, and customer value methodology are all extremely well-received.

Oliver Ruoff, senior consultant at ESPRiT Consulting, published an article in a German specialist insurance magazine. The expert for SAP FS CD presents ways how insurances can improve their business processes through working on concepts. He illustrates his article by giving practical examples.

ESPRiT publishes an article in the German specialist HR magazine PERSONAL. The author deals with quotas in corporations. ESPRiT thinks that quotas conserve discrimination rather than fight against it. This is why ESPRiT follows the motto: “No quotas – but a lot of encouragement.”

 Full German version for download

With friendly permission of the magazine PERSONAL (www.PERSONAL-im-Web.de )

The German SAP magazine E-3 publishes a special edition with the topic Governance, Risk & Compliance. Michael Gomolka, Partner at ESPRiT Consulting and Bernhard Davignon, Associate Partner are the authors of an article about the application of GRC tools. While many companies have already accomplished the first challenge with regards to Compliance they are now attempting to increase efficiency of their processes and minimize their administrative efforts.

Second SRM specialized customer event from ESPRiT was extremely well received. SAP presented the new SRM 7.0 Roadmap to more than 50 clients at the Sofitel Hotel in Munich.

ESPRiT also sponsors a kids soccer team in Switzerland. The IT and Management consultancy provided FC Herisau with new jerseys. The ten- to eleven year old boys have been practising together for a couple of years. They have been very successful: their team ranks among the top teams in the league and a few players have been discovered by a scouting team for eastern Switzerland. In 2008 the team was selected to participate in the Mini European Championship at Lake Constance.

They had a head start into the new season 2008/2009 and won 6:2 against FC Abtwil-Engelburg.
Congratulations and keep it up.

The Handelsblatt, German quality paper publishes special with the topic customer management. Dr. Berhard Braunmüller, Partner and responsible for customer management at ESPRiT commented on recent developments. The editor cites ESPRiT in two articles. They deal with the topics mobile CRM and the increasing demand for CRM due to the economic downturn.

 Full German version for download

ESPRiT Consulting has organized a roundtable with the topic IT Management. On October 23^rd 2008 at 5 pm ESPRiT invited interested clients to the Marriott hotel in Frankfurt/Main. After Thomas Rose, partner and responsible for the topic area banking at ESPRiT, welcomed the guests Christina Beyer, ESPRiT and Hartmut Gödecke, NORD/LB presented on “Outsourcing and IT Riskmanagement”. Then Norbert Meister, HR Consultancy Acclivitas, gave a presentation with the topic: “Detecting and Managing Competency Gaps in an IT Organisation”. A nice dinner offered the guests the opportunity to network in a relaxed atmosphere. Thomas Rose: “The customer feedback was entirely positive. Our event was received very well – a good mixture between professional and personal exchange.”

If you have any questions about the presentations and the event please contact: Melanie.Kreuzpaintner@esprit-consulting.com

ESPRiT Consulting Austria hosted an exclusive event for its five year anniversary. More than 150 guests followed the invitation on Thursday, October 16^th 2008 to the Keyclub k47 in Vienna. Facing the beautiful city the presenter Alex Kristan led through the diverse program. Under the motto “SPIRIT & ESPRiT” the CEOs Karsten Höppner and Ernst Antensteiner welcomed the guests and recollected the history of ESPRiT in Austria. Accompanied by a flying buffet the imitator Alex Kristan entertained the guests by imitating VIPs from the world of sports. The audience very much appreciated the comedian as well as the singer Jengis who performed afterwards. Dr. Antensteiner was very pleased: “We are going to remember our five-year anniversary for a long time. The night was very successful and all guests made use of their opportunities for networking.”

For additional questions please contact Dr. Ernst Antensteiner under: ernst.antensteiner@esprit-consulting.com

ESPRiT Consulting in Austria has been further strengthened by the arrival of Kurt Unterhuber, an internationally-experienced SAP specialist. This move provides a significant boost to ESPRiT’s BI competence.

Six sporty female ESPRiT Consultants took part in Munich woman's charity race on October 5th. They ran five kilometres through the English Garden – but the purpose was not the best times but rather getting involved and raising awareness to the topic of breast cancer. Part of the registartion fee was donated to the Bavarian Cancer Foundation. The race is the eighth largest women's race worldwide. ESPRiT participants enjoyed it a lot and are already looking forward to the next race next year.

Additional information about this year’s Avon Race: http://www.frauenlauf-muenchen.de

The Austrian Federal Railways in cooperation with ESPRiT Consulting built up a comprehensive planning system with SAP SEM-BPS. The project team was concerned with the areas sales planning, planning of personnel, segmential reporting and income and loss planning as well as balance sheet planning for individual organizations and subgroups. The different planning systems are integrated closely and used to work according to the accounting principle UGB. The project aimed at changing the planning landscape to IFRS. ESPRiT and the customer drew up the necessary adaptations in workshops and made sure that additional benefits such as the optimization of existing planning processes were realized. Now the planning can be done according to IFRS principles as well as, if needed, according to UGB. The result was outstanding due to the structured approach and the application of SAP standard functionalities.

For additional optimization about the project please contact Katharina Heindl: katharina.heindl@esprit-consulting.at

The current edition of IO New Management features an article on selective sourcing by Michael Gomolka, partner and responsible for Strategic IT Management at ESPRiT and Aurelio Cortesi, Senior Vice President SBB IT Business Applications. The authors show in their case study how they introduced and strategically positioned a coherent supplier and sourcing management at SBB IT.

 Full German version for download

 Full German version for download.

The German E-3 Magazine is reporting about the high growth rate of the ESPRiT group in the previous years. The IT and Management consultancy has grown more than 42 percent in comparison to last year. This achievement has been acknowledged by the award “Bayern’s Best 50” that has selected ESPRiT to be among the fastest growing companies in Bavaria.

As an official SAP partner ESPRiT Consulting attended the SAP world tour from August 27^th to 28^th in Regensdorf, Switzerland. At the event IT teams, project leaders as well as process managers were given the opportunity to inform themselves about the newest trends and ideas. ESPRiT was the contact in the area of SAP supply chain management (SCM). Mario Wissel, manager at ESPRiT Consulting gave a presentation on the topic “customer and supplier integration with SAP SCM and Supplier Network Collaboration (SNC)”.

If you have questions about the event please contact: thomas.muenger@esprit-consulting.com 

Computerworld mentions ESPRiT Consulting in its special edition on the top 500 ICT firms as one of the fastest growing companies in Switzerland. The IT and management consultancy has increased its revenues from 2006 to 2007 by 73.2 percent.

The Talents careers fair took place from 26^th to 28^th of August in Munich and was a very successful event for ESPRiT Consulting. ESPRiT is looking for motivated young consultants, had some relevant conversations and found very interesting candidates.

The Talents fair is a professional recruiting event that gives selected candidates the chance to get in touch with their favourite company. The pre selection of the candidates simplifies getting to know the applicants and often they are already well-informed about ESPRiT. Julia von Rosen, manager recruiting ESPRiT Consulting: “This year’s fair has been very successful. We talked to very good graduates and young professionals who would make a good match with ESPRiT and we are confident that they will decide in favour of ESPRiT. Moreover we also met interesting candidates for internships and master theses.” Thomas Rose, partner at ESPRiT Consulting presented the IT and management consultancy to interested applicants. He also answered questions about consulting areas, career opportunities as well as the every day life as a consultant.

Additional information about this year’s fair can be found on the Talents Website

The Süddeutsche Zeitung has published a special about the Talents recruiting fair 2008 that is taking place from august 26^th to 28^th in Munich. Heiko Hotz, junior consultant at ESPRiT Consulting tells readers about the exciting offers of the recruiting fair. Heiko has found his way to ESPRiT with the help of the Talents fair last year.

ESPRiT Consulting is represented on the Talents fair 2008 and is looking forward to a lot of interesting conversations with applicants.

Please turn to recruiting@esprit-consulting.com for additional information about the fair and starting at ESPRiT. Please find the most recent job postings on the ESPRiT careers site.

 Full German version for download

iwis is the leading European producer in the development and delivery of high quality chains - drive systems. The IT and management consultancy ESPRiT Consulting supports iwis with the redesign of their SAP system landscape. Within the framework of the project “consolidation” iwis and ESPRiT are drawing up the group closure including the consolidation of all subsidiaries based on the SAP consolidation solution BPC (Business planning and consolidation). The goals are to automize the closure of accounts while at the same time reducing the number of mistakes and making the process more transparent for the auditor.

After having cooperated successfully with eSpirit in a couple of projects the IT and management consultancy ESPRiT and eSpirit have formalized their partnership with an official contract. eSpirit offers enterprise content management system solutions and focuses on the product FirstSpirit. In the framework of projects that are based on FirstSpirit ESPRiT offers services such as CMS strategy and concepts, drawing up pilots, showcases, portal integration, feasibility studies, project- and quality management. Oliver Wucher, associate partner at ESPRiT Consulting and responsible for the consulting area portal solutions and user interfaces “Many of our customers have decided to work with eSpirit which is why it makes sense for us to intensify our partnership with eSpirit. FirstSpirit excels with its open system architecture and the ready-made possibilities for integration to the portals SAP NetWeaver, Microsoft office sharepoint and IBM websphere.”

For further information about the partnership of ESPRiT and eSpirit please contact: oliver.wucher@esprit-consulting.com  

Julia von Rosen, Recruiting Manager at ESPRiT Consulting was inteviewed by Master magazine. The first edition of the German magazine with the title:” Studying for the market?” accompanied the first Master conference in which companies and universities were brought together in order to foster the exchange of opinions. During her interview von Rosen speaks about her experiences with bachelor and master graduates and comes to the result that quite a few programmes in Germany are still focusing too much on theory.

Following this year’s day of care the IT and Management consultancy ESPRiT Consulting has given its partner buntkicktgut a cheque for its internet projects. Within the framework of giving out the prices for the different leagues ESPRiT made their donation. The organization buntkicktgut took care of a diverse programme including for instance break dance and rap performances where the kids showed that they are good at many other things than just playing soccer. After the ceremony ESPRiT gave buntkicktgut the cheque. “We are very happy to receive this money and are going to buy something useful for the internet project.” says Matthias Groeneveld from buntkicktgut “For instance a new camera would be great for our young journalists. We really appreciate the support we are getting from ESPRiT and are looking forward to working together long term. In September we are planning on visiting the press office of ESPRiT with a few kids in order to conduct some interviews. At the end of the year we would like to host a workshop with which ESPRiT is going to assist us as well. For our kids it is great to get some professional insights. This can serve as an incentive for them to get a better professional orientation.”

ESPRiT Consulting had hosted a soccer tournament on July 5^th together with kids from all sorts of national backgrounds. The event was received very well by both the consultants as well as the kids from buntkicktgut.

For questions regarding the cooperation between buntkicktgut and ESPRiT please turn to: Pressestelle@esprit-consulting.com

The central corporate information technology center of Siemens prolongs the existing framework agreement with ESPRiT Consulting for the year 2009. Thus Siemens is going to continue the successful collaboration with ESPRiT for another year and acknowledges the long-standing cooperation with the IT and management consultancy. As part of their supplier assessment Siemens awarded ESPRiT with very good grades. Dirk Sokollis, responsible partner at ESPRiT Consulting:”This new framework agreement confirms our good collaboration with Siemens. We are especially happy about the outstanding evaluation of our project quality and look forward to many successful projects with Siemens.”

In spite of the rainy weather the ESPRiT team consisting of five sporty consultants rode on the track that was 17 kilometres long. From July 19^th at 2 pm to July 20^th at the same time they were cycling like crazy in their ESPRiT jerseys. The rules of the race said that each team needed to have one cyclist on the track around Kelheim at the Danube river for 24 hours. This meant: commitment, sweat and little to no sleep but at the same time a lot of fun and a bit of adventure spirit, for instance when the light went off in the middle of the night. In contrast to other teams that showed professional enthusiasm the ESPRiT team aimed at having fun and reaching the finish line without any major injuries. With this attitude the team achieved an excellent result. The entry fee of the race went to charity just like every year. After the race all participants were completely exhausted but also extremely proud. Next year ESPRiT is going to participate in the race again.

The results of the race will be displayed on the following Website: www.race-24.de

The Süddeutsche Zeitung mentions ESPRiT in an article about the social activities in the consulting and banking industry. ESPRiT has hosted a soccer tournament together with buntkicktgut instead of going on a works outing. Apparently this concept is so popular that other consultancies such as Roland Berger have also started similar projects. But generally is not that easy to find the right partner for a Day of Care. ESPRiT Consulting found buntkicktgut through the event marketplace for good business in Munich.

  Full German version for download.

Every year the IT magazine Computerworld lists the 500 most successful companies from the IT and telecommunications sector in Switzerland. After having been ranked 261^st in 2007 ESPRiT achieved the 189^th rank this year. The IT and management consultancy has earned 22 CHF in revenues with 30 employees in the previous year. Thomas Münger, responsible partner for ESPRiT Consulting Switzerland: “Switzerland is leading the growth of ESPRiT Consulting and we are happy that the Computerworld is acknowledging this fact. In 2007 we could increase our revenues in Switzerland by more than 70 percent. In the years to come we are planning on growing in Berne and Zurich and we are looking forward to an even higher ranking in 2009.”

Additional information about the Computerworld top 500 can be found on the Computerworld Website

The E-3 Magazine comments in its summer edition on the ESPRiT CRM customer event as well as the outstanding development of revenues of the IT and management consultancy in the first quarter of 2008. The article titles: “Where the journey is going: SAP CRM and NetWeaver” and presents the contents of the customer event with the topic “customer oriented solutions for customer oriented companies”. Moreover it gives an impression of the different presentations given at the very successful event. In addition the SAP community magazine mentions the positive first quarter that ESPRiT has achieved in 2008.

 Full German version for download.

The Munich based daily paper Münchener Merkur comments on the most successful companies in Bavaria and mentions ESPRiT as on of the 17 distinguished companies from upper Bavaria. The award chose the 50 fastest growing companies in terms of employees and revenues in Bavaria. 265 firms had applied for the distinction. The Süddeutsche Zeitung also mentions ESPRiT as one of the four companies from Munich that have been awarded the price. "Bayerns Best 50 is a symbol for the strength of the middle sized economies in Bavaria and its employees." says Emilia Müller, minister of economy in Bavaria.

 Full German version for download 

The Sueddeutsche Zeitung announces this year’s day of care that is organized by ESPRiT and buntkicktgut on July 4^th 2008. Stephan Marchner, founding partner tells the press about ESPRiT´s social activities. The employees are looking forward to a soccer tournament in which about 100 consultants are playing in mixed teams with the foreign kids. Moreover ESPRiT is hosting an application training for the teenagers in order to offer them an added value for their professional future. There is also a group of migrants and consultants that will be cooking international dishes for all participants.

 Full German version for download

The Austrian hospital operating company, KABEG of the county Kärnten consists of Kapeg Management and five state hospitals. With more than 7000 employees the KABEG is the largest service provider of the state and ensures a sufficient healthcare provision. Managers, head physicians and decision makers always need the most recent information in order to manage a hospital successfully. They have to be able to analyze these regarding specific criteria. In addition users such as medical controllers, physicians and nurses need evaluations in order to make sure the daily business runs smoothly. All this information has to be summarized at different levels in order to check the strategic goals of the hospital.

At the well-reputed fair for dialogue and direct marketing, the mailing days on June 18^th/ 19^th in Nuremberg ESPRiT gave a talk with the topic; “Searching for the realistic customer value in business-to-business”. Bernhard Braunmüller, partner and responsible for the consulting area customer management represented ESPRiT at the event. In his presentation he explained to the interested audience how the customer value can be determined in business to business and how it can function as a reliable base for customer strategies.

For additional information about the talk please contact: Bernhard.Braunmueller@esprit-consulting.com

Ensuring flexibility in dynamic markets – under this theme this year’s international SAP convention for insurance took place in Leipzig on June 10^th and 11^th . The congress constituted an opportunity for networking and the exchange of experiences as well as interesting talks, fascinating first hand reports and live demos and is quite well-known in the industry. Just like in previous years ESPRiT Consulting was represented with a presentation and an informational booth at the partner exhibition. Peter Zeuzem, Manager for Integration and Methodology at ESPRiT Consulting, presented on the topic of “realizing international template roll-outs successfully” and gave practical answers to relevant questions and challenges in international project management. The first hand report was well-received and offered various points of reference for conversations with customers and SAP experts from the insurance industry.

For additional information about the event as well as the ESPRiT presentation please contact: peter.zeuzem@esprit-consulting.com

ESPRiT Consulting was represented at the 2. Swiss SAP purchasing and logistics Day on June 5^th 2008 in Regensdorf. Speeches, practical reports and live demos presented the SAP solutions supplier relationship management (SRM) and supply chain management (SCM) to the customers. Mario Wissel, manager at ESPRiT Consulting presented the possibilities and limitations of supplier integration with SAP solutions SCM SCN and SRM SUS. With more than 60 registrations his speech turned out to be one of the highlights of the entire event. In addition the Purchasing and Logistics Day offered an opportunity for networking in a relaxed atmosphere with SAP experts and customers from the field of purchasing and logistics.

For additional information about the event and the speech please contact: thomas.muenger@esprit-consulting.com

Management and IT consulting firm and intercultural youth project  organize soccer tournament. More than 100 young people from different cultural backgrounds and nearly 100 IT consultants will be competing together and trying to come out on top. Event to be accompanied by job application training for youngsters.

ESPRiT is hosting its fourth Day of Care on Saturday, July 5^th 2008. The IT and Management Consultancy is organizing a soccer tournament with buntkicktgut. This is a project for intercultural understanding and in its current shape a unique example of organized street soccer. The initiative is aiming at giving teenagers from different cultural and national backgrounds a useful leisure activity and showing them new possibilities of social and cultural interaction. Stephan Marchner, founding partner at ESPRIT and active soccer player: “The day is supposed to overcome borders and abolish prejudices on both sides. By playing soccer we create a common sense of achievement and this also helps to raise more awareness for each other. Moreover we are planning on creating a real value-add for the youths by offering them an application training.” Additional information about the organization buntkicktgut: http://www.buntkicktgut.de/info.htm

The Day of Care was founded in 2002 by ESPRiT Consulting. Since then ESPRiT takes on social challenges every two years. The purpose is to support social projects within the local area not only financially but also through the personal commitment of ESPRiT employees. The consultants organize this event instead of a works outing.

Additional information about the Day of Care:
http://www.esprit-consulting.com/en/company/Seiten/initiatives.aspx

The accounting department is noticing the strong growth of the IT and management consultancy ESPRiT Consulting. Starting from May 15^th the accounting team is located in Nuremberg instead of Gräfenberg. The new office in Forchheimerstrasse 2 provides them with much more space.

The contact person for the ESPRiT accounting department is now: Kim Herrmanns: kim.herrmanns@esprit-consulting.com

The graduate magazine High Tech Campus publishes an article about the possibilities for natural and computer scientists in consulting. ESPRiT Consulting is mentioned as an interesting employer. The IT and management consultancy offers exciting projects and tasks for graduates. The magazine shortly introduces an ESPRiT project at an international industrial company.

 Full German version for download

ESPRiT Consulting organizes a customer event with Markus Merk at the Allianz Arena in Munich. With his slogan “Reliable decision-making”, the two-time winner of the award for the World’s Best Soccer Referee highlighted parallels between sport and business.

In the framework of the exhibition “all you need is music” in the Olympiapark in Munich ESPRiT Consulting sponsors a unique collection of guitars. As an official partner of the 850 year celebrations of the city of Munich the exhibition is going to offer interesting insights in the history of rock- and pop music. ESPRiT sponsors among others Gene Summons (Kiss) e-guitar, Marylin Manson´s wooden guitar with gothic motives, Keith Richard´s travel guitar that used to accompany the Rolling Stones on their tours and Ozzy Osbourne´s skull guitar. Visitors have the opportunity to view these exponents from May 9^th to July 26^th in the ice skating rink at Olympiapark in Munich.

Additional information about the event “all you need is music”

The local newspaper Berne reports on April 16^th  on the strong growth ESPRiT Consulting has undergone in Switzerland. The IT and management consultancy had reached a total revenue of 22 million Swiss franks in 2007. The company thus grew more than 70 percent as compared to 2006.

 German full version for download

The edition 16 of Computerwoche publishes an article by Bernhard Davignon, associate partner at ESPRiT Consulting with the topic of SOA and identity management. From practical experience he reports on the effect of service oriented architectures on identity management, which solutions are applicable and what kind of problems can come up.

Please find the full German version on the Computerwoche website