DG NEXOLUTION

TO BEGIN WITH, A FEW WORDS ABOUT DG NEXOLUTION: WHAT RANGE OF SERVICES DO YOU OFFER YOUR CUSTOMERS, THE VOLKSBANKEN AND RAIFFEISENBANKEN?

SIEGFRIED SCHLOZ: DG Nexolution is the competence center for solutions, services, and products for the companies in the cooperative network. The local cooperative banks you mentioned play an important role in this network. Under the DG Nexolution umbrella brand, our members and customers will find a very comprehensive range of services from various specialist disciplines.

MICHAEL BOTTE: For example, as the Cooperative Financial Network’s card competence center, our Cards business unit equips cooperative banks with products from the cooperative card family. We have also been successful for years as a solution partner in the implementation of innovative card projects based on the credit chip platform. For example, we have implemented employee ID card projects or ticketing solutions. Our “Media” business unit brings together classic publishing products such as forms, specialist publications and customer information – in both printed and electronic form, of course. The “MarktService” business area offers all of our company’s services and programs that support the sales activities of the cooperative banks. These include marketing programs for private and corporate customers, as well as more advanced services such as the TV solution for bank branches “Geno-InfoMonitor” or the media library, to name just a few. The “Office” business unit, for which I am responsible, bundles in particular the range of products from the office supplies, office/banking technology, IT accessories, payment transaction forms, equipment, promotional items and calendars sectors. We are also the specialist for solution offerings such as logistics services, shipping services, book-media services, page management® and concepts for future-proof bank branches, for “GenoMax® – Branch of the Future” and for various web-to-print offerings.

M. B.: Of course, we have been offering web-based solutions for several years now. At the beginning, the product range consisted mainly of print products, such as articles from the “General Business” environment. Then we wanted to offer our customers further added value in the familiar system environment of our “GenoBuy” portal. Die Vorteile, schlanke Prozesse, höhere Flexibilität und optimierte Kosten-Nutzen-Aspekte für den Kunden, liegen auf der Hand. So we have continuously expanded the WebPrint product family. In addition to letterhead, business cards and envelopes, stamps, ballpoint pens and other advertising materials can also be customized quickly and easily.

S. SCH.: Above all, we were looking for a solution that would allow quick and easy integration of our online solutions and other applications such as company archives or image databases. The solution offered by apollon fit very well into our current technical “map”: Due to the smooth integration no additional interfaces had to be built. This has saved us quite a bit of time and money. For our customer, the current solution offers the advantage that he is always in his familiar “online world”. This means that he does not have to get used to a new application – a very important acceptance criterion.

WHAT WERE YOUR REASONS FOR OFFERING YOUR MEMBERS AND CUSTOMERS A WEB-BASED SOLUTION FOR THE CREATION OF ADVERTISING MATERIALS AND OTHER PRINT PRODUCTS?

FROM YOUR POINT OF VIEW, WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT EXPERIENCES YOU HAVE MADE IN THE ONLINE SECTOR?

S. SCH.: The focus of our developments is always on how good the “last mile to the customer” is. By that I mean how good or great is the bandwidth of the customer’s connection all the way to the desk. This is, in my opinion, the decisive criterion for the acceptance of a complete application nowadays. Because you can program the application to be as performant as you like: If, at the end of the day, the line to the desktop is too short, the performance of the entire application will fall by the wayside and the customer will be dissatisfied. From a technical point of view, the first thing that counts in the online sector today is speed, and the second is usability. If these two factors are correct, the application “fits”. In my opinion, the functionalities only come in third place, because they are not discussed until the first two points have been satisfactorily fulfilled.

M. B.: Clearly, for our members and customers, the focus is on cost savings through simple processes, fast and uncomplicated order processing, and a simplified billing process. Here it is important to set standards that work reliably. With the chosen solution, however, we are also able to implement “custom solutions”. Due to our very heterogeneous customer structure, this is of great importance to us – and thus a requirement that must be met. To ensure that all this can be smoothly implemented in daily practice, an important success factor is comprehensive support for our customers. We are well positioned here with our hotline for all web-based solutions.

M. B.: In our company, “WebPrint” has been a success story right from the start. We intend to continue and steadily expand our customer- and market-oriented range of customizable product families in the future. In this way, we are increasing our range of added values and taking account of the digitalization megatrend. In this context, topics for continuous further development such as the implementation of QR code generators or digital solutions in the SEPA environment are now on the agenda. This in turn places special demands on the technical platform we use for our WebPrint.

S. SCH.: From an IT perspective, it is important for us to have relied on a “standard software” where we benefit from the general further development. The modularity and maintainability of the software are crucial. Only if these factors are right can we respond quickly to new requirements. Technically, we want to put further modules of apollon’s software into operation in order to further optimize our internal processes and reduce the maintenance effort.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT WITH YOUR “WEBPRINT” SOLUTION? WHAT FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS ARE YOU PLANNING?