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Interview with Günter Pridt, CEO BRAIN FORCE HOLDING AG
The little company which first
appeared in the Munich Register of Companies back in 1983 has grown today into
an international corporation employing over 1,100 staff at 13 sites in seven
countries.
Over 25 years we have developed an
array of services ranging from the provision of IT experts and standard
software to the establishment of an integrated portfolio commensurate with an
international IT service provider offering an extensive choice of products and
services. As a result, we are in a superb position to respond fully to our
customers’ requirements.
25 years of expansion, change and the integration
of all kinds of companies and people have all left a positive mark on the way
we’ve evolved. Each individual has played their part in making BRAIN FORCE a
success. Experience shows that we have chosen the right path, so we feel
confident of further growth in the future.
Of the many important events which
have shaped our company I’ll start with our flotation on the stock exchange in
1999 and our corporate acquisitions over the past 8 to 10 years. But what has
really been most crucial is the fact that we have never lost sight of our
overriding aim – which was and still is to fulfil our customers’ requirements
even though these have undergone a radical transformation over the 
years.The key factors which have enabled
us to do this include our long-term, cooperative relationships with our
customers, our highly skilled and professional staff as well as genuine
partnerships with various manufacturers such as IBM and Microsoft. Consequently I think that each and
every project which we have successfully completed together with our customers
and partners represent important milestones and form the basis for the
internationally successful IT software and services company which we have
become today.
Let me single out a few examples of what I mean by long-term and intensive business relationships. For many years now, the UniCredit corporation has relied on BRAIN FORCE to provide it with comprehensive guidance and support in many different fields across Europe, starting from the management of intranet and internet applications through to support for credit lending processes right through to the supervision of critical core fields in IT. Another long-term customer, for example, is Lufthansa: For them we administer several thousands of desktops and over 500 server systems across the world. Moreover we offer extensive products, services and outsourcing solutions, 24/7.
As far as the future is concerned
we have identified three strategic business segments. In the business solutions
field we are concentrating our resources on business applications for financial
services providers (FINAS Suite), on CRM and ERP systems (Microsoft Dynamics)
and on service management solutions (SolveDirect). The field of technology
& infrastructure solutions consists of solutions for the installation and
management of operating systems and applications – we also refer to this as
workspace management.
This area continues to include integrated solutions for
ITK service accounting based on the causer-pays principle (ICT Suite), as well
as solutions for building up and operating complex IT networks. In the professional
services field, our original core business, we offer IT experts in accordance
with the requirements of our customers. This year we are chiefly focusing on our core
markets in Germany, Austria, Italy
and the Netherlands as well
as Switzerland and the CzechRepublic.
In the medium term regional growth in a region will obviously vary according to
local market developments.
It concerns the focus we have placed on BRAIN FORCE’s strategic business fields by implementing a cost-efficient competence centre structure across the corporation at supra-regional level. Basically what this means is that detailed corporate expertise will not be built up in each country. Instead, the competence centres in the corporation are responsible for managing particular projects in the sense of a ‘do-once’ approach. As a result we can ensure that the customer always receives support from the particular experts of the competence centre in cooperation with the local BRAIN FORCE team or external partners.
A success story like ours is based
on several important factors. I would of course like to take this opportunity
to express my special gratitude to our customers and staff who have accompanied
and helped to shape the development of BRAIN FORCE over such a long period. I
greatly appreciate the trust which our customers place in BRAIN FORCE and
outstanding dedication and loyalty which our staff bring to the company. 
Our aim and motivation has always
been to offer our customers genuine added value in IT matters and to provide
them with efficient, pro-active support in their corporate development. Our
long-term partnerships and customer relationships underscore the point that
service orientation, flexibility and product innovation are the right tools for
achieving success. We intend to continue down this path in future.
In recent years we have managed to
identify new trends at an early stage – such as Software-as-a-Service on our
SolveDirect service management platform, to take just one example – and to
exploit existing potentials in the interests of our customers.
Information technology is set to
become increasingly dynamic and ever more complex over the coming years.
Nonetheless, I am convinced that thanks to our experience and know-how we are
in an excellent position to overcome future challenges together with our
customers. At the same time we shall exploit the opportunities that will also
arise. So our motto for the next 25 years is simple: We stay in motion!
Sincerely
"BRAIN FORCE has been one of our preferred suppliers for many years. They provide us with the right
IT-consultants who combine excellent technical skills and relevant business
expertise. Congratulations to your company’s 25th anniversary. We
are looking forward to continuing our successful collaboration.“
Didier Vermeiren
HVB Markets Investment Banking Munich (Germany)
Director - Co-Head of Financial
Engineering Equities, Commodities and Hybrids
"Erasmus MC has nearly 13,000 employees. To meet their needs, we need to manage hundreds of applications. Since we have started working with BRAIN FORCE years ago, their systematic approach to professionalize and automate our workspaces and applications, has been really beneficial for us. The number of interruptions and time spent on systems management has been drastically reduced, and our service performance has increased. Thanks to BRAIN FORCE we can now offer our employees, aside existing high availability of systems & networks, also stable workstations, so they can offer our patient excellent care.”
Peter van
Vuuren
Project
SOM of the Information Board at Erasmus MC (Netherlands)
"Raiffeisen Informatik is utilizing the centrally hosted Service Management solutions SD.bridge, ServiceDesk SD² and SD.cube of the BRAIN FORCE Division SolveDirect for many years now. The advantages of the Software as a Service (SaaS) IT Service Management solutions are so strong, that Raiffeisen Informatik – as the second largest IT Service Provider in Austria – is taking the next step in beeing implementation partner of SolveDirect. In that way Raiffeisen Informatik can offer webbased best-practice solutions for efficient ITSM to their international customers by themselves.“
Sebastian
Fladischer
Raiffeisen
Informatik (Austria)
Product
Responsible Service Desk
...more information about customers and references
