We Are the Champions – in Ice Cream Eating
How do you strengthen team spirit in times of remote company events? With a shared, ideally ambitious goal. We pursued that in September with a lot of fun, when the challenge was set: We want to become world champions in remote ice cream eating!
Our employees set up the specially ordered ice cream machines at home and mixed the most delicious variations, from A for Amarena to C for Cinnamon. Under the strict supervision of Germany's official Guinness World Record adjudicator Lena Kuhlmann, 288 colleagues enjoyed their creations for exactly 60 seconds – and in doing so set the world record in remote ice cream eating. The official certificate now designates us as "officially awesome"!
The presentation of the Guinness World Record certificate. L. to r.: Uli Kühn, event organizer Verena Holtappels, Rainer Vehns and Lars Rückemann
Partly Cloudy: New Partners and New Insights
We have long maintained partnerships with the three major hyperscalers AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. The goal is always to find the best solution for the specific customer problem. It therefore made sense to add the fourth star in the cloudy sky to our portfolio: codecentric and IONOS, Europe's largest cloud and hosting provider, have recently become strategic partners. We have big plans for 2022 – joint services are planned, with Managed GitLab already the first one in the starting blocks. We look forward to the close collaboration.
Speaking of cloud: the renowned market research company Lünendonk conducted a study on cloud transformation and cloud-native together with us this year. This provides us with valuable insights that also benefit our customers. Together with our cloud experts Marc Bialowons and Kai Herings, we took a closer look at some of the facts in an interview. The study is also available for download on our website.
Document Processing Is Cool Again!
A new development from our Digital Integration team has this year combined two topics that couldn't be more different: the cool and innovative artificial intelligence on one hand, and supposedly dull and tedious document processing on the other. With SHERLOQ (and without any Watson), incoming documents – e.g. from customers or suppliers – can be processed using artificial intelligence. The AI learns from sample documents drawn from our customers' data treasure to make the right decisions independently, thereby relieving employees of the burden.
codecentric Becomes an Eco-Sponsor
Environmental protection is close to all our hearts, but there is so much to do that one can sometimes not see the forest for the trees. But you have to start somewhere. That's why, in a pilot project, we placed 1.5 hectares of forest in the Westerwald region of Rhineland-Palatinate under temporary process protection here. This made us the first eco-sponsor to support this initiative. The idea: the deadwood, which is valuable to the forest ecosystem, is not removed and sold, but left in the forest so that the forest – heavily impacted by tree planting, logging and dry periods – can regenerate naturally. Process protection means that the forest is left untouched for a sufficient period of time, typically 15–20 years, allowing it to optimally develop its self-healing powers. The SWR reported on our visit to the forest area in the summer.
Absorbing Knowledge with All the Senses: Der Softwerker …
… to Read
Our in-house specialist magazine "Der Softwerker" has been published since 2013. Following our special issue on artificial intelligence , which was released around the turn of the year, two further issues were published this year: one centered on the topic of "Accelerate IT" – the lead article by Uwe Friedrichsen is also available separately as a position paper for free download – and one with the tried-and-tested colorful mix of topics, illustrated by an equally colorful design under the motto "Brain Candy":
Reader feedback on the issues was, as always, very positive. One reader wrote to us:
"I've been reading your Softwerker for quite some time now, in print, with growing enthusiasm. Even for me as an Agile Coach, it's always exciting and inspiring. Thank you. Keep it up!"
Vol. 19 is expected to be published around the turn of the year or in January 2022.
… to Watch
While the subscriber count is approaching the 5,000 mark, the Softwerker editorial team is exploring new avenues of content production. After all, alongside the classic specialist article, new formats have long been available for conveying IT knowledge. The Softwerker has been more than a magazine since June 2020, when the first SoftwerkerKonf took place. In spring 2021, we organized the second SoftwerkerKonf as an online conference. We recorded 700 registrations from 20 countries. In ten talks, employees of codecentric AG and partner companies (UX&I and steadybit) shared their knowledge on current software development topics on the afternoon of April 23rd. The range of topics spanned from programming languages such as Rust, through Industrial IoT and Data Science, to User Experience. All talks were recorded and are available on YouTube.
All good things come in threes: The feedback was so positive that we want to hold the third SoftwerkerKonf in 2022 – given the current situation, most likely again as a purely online conference.
… to Listen
From video, it was only a small step to the audio format: audio content is also becoming increasingly popular these days, thanks in part to the low-barrier options for producing your own podcasts. The refreshingly entertaining presentation style of Anna Backs and Maximilian Mayer at their joint talk at the SoftwerkerKonf inspired the Softwerker team to launch their own podcast. With the help of codecentric's Feelgood Manager Nick Prosch, who took on the audio post-production as an experienced podcast producer, the first episodes were produced within five months. The launch of the SoftwerkerCast, our new podcast format, took place in October. The first episodes cover the topics of jobs in IT, APM and cloud. Each episode is short and snappy at around 20 minutes and is perfect for listening to while driving, on the train, jogging or cooking, among other things.
… to Join the Discussion
Last but not least, this year we launched a LinkedIn Community, where we share current posts from the software world and would like to discuss them with you. If you're on LinkedIn, feel free to stop by, share news, give us feedback on the articles in the Softwerker, or join the discussion!
What all Softwerker formats have in common – and will continue to have in common – is that they remain true to the original idea of the Softwerker magazine and always illuminate the full spectrum of topics from the colorful world of software development – from A for APM to Z for Zero Downtime – and always from the perspective of software developers and IT consultants. By techies, for techies.
ProductDock Docks Into Digital Product Development
The former codecentric locations in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia went their own way from May 2021: they have since become a separate codecentric subsidiary, operating under the name ProductDock and specializing in digital and sustainable product development. codecentric founder and CEO Rainer Vehns comments on the transition to an independent brand as follows:
"The move to ProductDock is not the end of a journey, but a new chapter, and I look forward to continuing the path with our colleagues from Novi Sad, Doboj and Banja Luka."
More information about the new company can be found at https://productdock.com/.
New Location, New Premises
codecentric Bielefeld
codecentric continues to grow – and opened a location in Bielefeld in the summer of 2021. We are now also represented in Ostwestfalen-Lippe (OWL for short), one of Germany's strongest economic regions. OWL remains a highly attractive location, particularly for medium-sized companies, mechanical engineering and industrial electronics. With the opening of the new office in Bielefeld, codecentric is pursuing the goal of establishing digital business models and Industrial IoT (IIoT) in the medium-sized manufacturing sector of the economically strong OWL region.
codecentric Nuremberg
Despite the ongoing remote work, some codecentric offices are set to become too small for the ever-growing teams in the long run. After all, once the pandemic is over, every employee should again have the opportunity to work in the office regularly, if desired and required. That's why the Nuremberg codecentric team will be moving to new premises in 2022. What's special about the new office location: it is situated in the former main freight railway station in the south of the city. In the spirit of a railway station, the new location is set to become a new hub and junction for the Franconian IT community.
The entire Nuremberg team is involved in accompanying and overseeing the extensive renovation and conversion work. For location manager Jens Deters, it goes without saying that all decisions are agreed upon as a team and that everyone has a say. After all, everyone should feel comfortable in the new premises and equally identify with the "codecentric station". Jens Deters is also in close contact with the Frankfurt team, which is likewise currently setting up a new office in the vicinity of its current premises.
This is what the "Kohlektiv" will look like once completed.
Various Awards
We were delighted to receive the following awards this year:
- Our colleague Daniel Marks received the Solingen Citizens' Award for the non-profit project "Hey, Alter!", whose goal is to provide decommissioned computers from private individuals and companies to students in need.
- In autumn, Thomas Darimont was appointed as the first official maintainer of the Keycloak open-source project outside of RedHat. Keycloak is an Identity and Access Management solution that has been developed under the aegis of Red Hat since 2018.
- cc Cloud GmbH was named a 'GitLab Select Channel Partner'. This makes the codecentric AG subsidiary one of only six companies in Germany to have received this designation so far.
- We were able to defend our gold IT Award in the "Agile Coaching & Consulting" category. Back in 2020, we were already awarded second place for "Agile Coaching and Consulting" in the reader survey by Vogel IT-Medien GmbH.
- In spring, we were delighted to announce that codecentric was named Instana EMEA Partner of the Year 2020. At the end of 2020, the codecentric spin-off Instana announced a sensational deal with IBM. The software giant had decided to acquire the German-American startup with its impressive track record.
- The codecentric project tactics.AI won the innovation award "Rheinland genial" at the beginning of 2021. tactics.AI offers automated and individualized player/event-specific video analysis for the preparation and follow-up of Bundesliga matches.
For the second year running, we are rounding off the year with our internal online talent show "codecentric has talent" on December 17th. Everyone in the codecentric family is invited to submit a three-minute video showcasing skills that usually remain hidden during daily work: playing piano, singing, dancing, and much more. The videos are presented to the entire company in a one-hour live show. The winners, determined by audience vote, can then donate a total of 3,000 euros to a good cause. This is how we strengthen team spirit, provide entertainment in the pre-Christmas period, and do something good at the same time. And the best part: the online show is guaranteed to be "lockdown-proof".
We wish everyone a peaceful end to the year and a great start to 2022!