Peter Merz of GIA Informatik: "The IT business is and remains a people business".

The subsidiary of the Müller Martini Group, the world leader in the graphic arts industry, was seven years old when it became Switzerland's first Information technology company on the ERP software SAP set. A decision with foresight, as it turned out over the next decades. More and more companies were using standardized ERP software as a central control system for their business processes. Thanks to Cloud Computing SMEs are also opening up a wide range of opportunities in this area.

Peter Merz, GIA Informatik AG is celebrating. It is 30 years old. What has changed the most in these three decades?

Everything! Never before in the history of mankind have we experienced so many changes as in the last 20 to 30 years. And we are currently in the midst of the greatest process of change, the fourth industrial revolution. Business models are changing, in some cases radically. This creates new situations for us and our customers that open up completely different opportunities than before.

Which of these changes has most impacted your organization?

30 years ago, one of our main focuses was the development of ERP software. In good time, we gave up this activity and entered into a partnership with the global software provider SAP. We do not regret this decision until today.

What strategic decisions have proven correct over these 30 years?

On the one hand, the decision that we have been able to establish and expand very long-standing partnerships with globally successful providers such as SAP, Microsoft and PTC. On the other hand, a strong focus on expanding business outside our parent company. As the former internal IT organization of the machine and plant manufacturer Muller Martini AG, this was not a matter of course, but today we generate over 70 percent of our sales there.

It's not easy to survive in a business for 30 years. What qualities and strengths distinguish GIA from the competition?

Our unique selling point - and we are particularly proud of this - is our portfolio. We invested heavily in our state-of-the-art infrastructure, creating the solid, reliable foundation to process applications and store data securely. With our ERP offering, organizations run their business: from sales to production to financial accounting. In addition, we build solutions for our SME customers, which they use for product development to innovate.

How do you describe your corporate and value culture?

The IT business is and remains a people business, because a successful IT project is always carried out "from person to person". So the crucial point is how we deal with each other. We therefore attach great importance to being a fair, competent and always reliable partner - for our customers, employees, suppliers and our owner. In addition, we focus on a high level of data security.

Long-term employees are not uncommon in your organization. Why do these people remain loyal to you?

There are even employees who have been with us since the company was founded. I think that has to do with the way we treat each other. We also pay attention to a working atmosphere that is characterized by mutual appreciation. Employees feel comfortable with us, can perform well and develop their potential. And despite permanent change, we are able to offer them an attractive workplace so that they can develop professionally and personally.

How do you support learners?

We have been training apprentices for a good 20 years. Every year, three apprentices complete a four-year IT apprenticeship and one every three years completes a commercial apprenticeship - making a total of 13. We consider this to be a contribution to our society. In addition, this is how we counteract the shortage of skilled workers in the IT sector. Many apprentices stay with the company after the final apprenticeship examination or return to the organization after years of travel.

Keyword cyberattacks: What do you contribute to data security in organizations?

Cyberattacks are indeed an acute threat. We do everything possible in our industry and protect our customers with technology. One crucial factor is people. That's why we train our employees and make them aware of what an important asset they process for our customers. We want them to react correctly to all kinds of attacks. Together with our customers, we also train their employees, because they are also the focus of phishing or social engineering attacks.

In the spring, it was announced that Microsoft and Google will be opening data centers in Switzerland in 2019. How do you remain the first port of call for IT specialists vis-à-vis these major companies?

We welcome the fact that these two global players are coming to Switzerland. Our strength remains our flexibility as an organization. We also have processes that are certified according to ISO 20 000 and ISO 27 001. This gives our customers the guarantee that we always handle the processes in the same way. On the other hand, flexibility is required from them. This is part of our innovative strength and a differentiating characteristic that makes us successful.

GIA Informatik AG is an important system partner of SAP in Switzerland. To what extent is SAP also the right solution for SMEs?

We believe that SAP has long been the right solution for SMEs. For over 40 years, SAP has managed to offer an ERP solution that is always up-to-date in terms of technology and covers all business processes in a fully integrated manner. At first glance, SAP often seems a bit complex, but above all it is consistent. With our industry template "gia//fertigung", we have set up around 150 processes for industry "end-to-end" so that customers can use them "out-of-the-box".

Let's talk about cloud computing, IoT, Big Data: On the one hand, they offer immense opportunities. On the other hand, data protection guidelines are becoming stricter. Is this an opportunity for you or more of an obstacle?

We are building on the opportunities, I say as a positive-thinking person. We know our way around from megabytes to petabytes, but with exabytes and zettabytes, we are faced with data volumes that are still beyond our imagination today. Processing this data efficiently is a challenge that we will master. Cloud computing opens up new possibilities for consuming software. Integrating data from the various clouds will keep us busy in the future. And IoT brings, in addition to an enormous volume of data, above all the challenge of drawing the right conclusions from the volume of data. This creates many new opportunities. Politicians are struggling to keep up with the new technological developments. There is still a great deal of uncertainty as to how the EU Data Protection Regulation will be implemented, for example.

In the course of digitalization, cloud services are increasingly in demand, also from SMEs. What steps are important for them to find the right IT solution?

The cloud is definitely gaining a foothold here. Every SME asks itself the question at the latest when it comes to renewing its infrastructure: Do I want to invest in my own environment or do I obtain this performance as a service? More and more organizations are opting for the latter. In the evaluation or sales phase, the main thing is to build up mutual trust. Despite many hard facts, it is usually gut feeling and sympathy that decide whether this tender plant of trust is allowed to grow or not.

The digital transformation is omnipresent - or are we mistaken? How do you assess the "digital fitness" of Swiss SMEs?

That is a difficult question. In the meantime, digitization is soon on its way to becoming a non-word. But of course it occupies me intensively - and not only during my recent training as a Transformation Coach. Let's look back: the last few decades have been characterized by automation of machine processes. What we now call digital transformation is - in my view - nothing other than the automation of administrative processes. Therefore, this is not a revolution, but rather an evolution. What is revolutionary, however, are the tools we have at our disposal, such as massively higher computer performance or cloud services, and the resulting speed of change.

You yourself are at the forefront of the "dig:it now" collaboration. To what extent does it help organizations with the digital transformation?

This collaboration uses a methodology to support organizations that want to digitize further but don't know exactly how. The University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland developed an approach to find out where an organization's greatest potential lies. We call this a "heat map." Where the pressure is greatest, we go into depth. The model is suitable for SMEs, scientifically correct, but not quite as comprehensive as transformation models from international management consultancies.

What are your goals for the future?

We still have the intention to grow, stronger than the market. We firmly believe that we will remain an agile partner for our customers in the segment in which we have established ourselves - fair and competent.

30 years GIA Informatik AG

Peter Merz (59) has been managing director of GIA Informatik AG in Oftringen for almost 20 years. The ETH engineer began his professional career as a management consultant and industrial planner. In 1990, he joined OWL AG Logistik-Systeme (now Swisslog) as sales manager. Some time later, he became head of consulting there as well as deputy managing director and built up the Asian market. Fairness towards customers and employees, tolerance and a commitment to performance have always been defining values for Peter Merz.

GIA Informatik AG offers IT services with core competencies in developing and operating solutions from a single source in the areas of ERP (SAP partner), IT services with its own cloud infrastructure and product development (PTC partner). The company, with 150 employees, is a subsidiary of the globally active Müller Martini Group.