TV3 Magazine: A visit to s-peers AG in Tägerwilen

A visit to s-peers AG in Tägerwilen!

s-peers AG, based on the shores of Lake Constance in Switzerland near Konstanz, is a young, innovative management consulting company specialising in the implementation of SAP's analytics products. We talked to the managing director Michael May.

s-peers AG was founded in 2015. Since then, your company has grown steadily. What strategy are you pursuing?

We are focused on SAP Analytics and here on the cloud - i.e. on SAP's web-based products. Here we benefit from the wave of digitalisation and the associated transformation projects that are taking place in many medium-sized companies as well as in large corporate groups.

Describe the business field and the main focus of your company. Your slogan is: We are the SAP Analytics Manufacture. What can we understand by that?

I like to describe our analytics factory using the wood processing industry as an example. The data is our raw material, wood, and this is processed and refined in the individual workshops right through to the end product. We chose the term manufactory firstly because we want to create transparency in the jungle of anglicisms and try to use the German language as much as possible. Secondly, the idea behind Manufaktur was that we are not a series manufacturer, but a contract manufacturer. On behalf of the customer, we work with the tools of the trade, in our case SAP technology. The employees bring in the expertise according to their wealth of experience. You can really compare this with
the craft, from apprentice to master craftsman. In our case, the foreman would be the workshop manager. The apprentices are the students that we introduce to our company here via final theses.

What sets s-peers AG apart from your competitors?

First of all, the people who act are decisive. We thrive on the knowledge of our employees and the knowledge we pass on to our young
colleagues. In the end, it is the corporate culture that we shape that sets us apart from the competition. If we succeed in attracting colleagues who enjoy working here through the working environment and our culture, then at the end of the day this should also be reflected in the quality of the project results for the end customer. Promoting young talent also plays an important role in innovative products. We currently have six students writing their theses with us. That's a lot for a company of our size. We also plan to take them all on as permanent employees at the end of the year. In the Swiss IT industry, the quota of women is 15%. In a domain that was originally very male-heavy, we have managed to increase the quota of women through targeted recruitment. The quota of women among our master's students is currently 50%. That's a great success!

The pandemic is currently slowing down entire industries. What challenges do you have to master in this special situation?

The special situation is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, many companies realise through the changed working conditions that they are using IT infrastructures that are getting on in years and that investments are needed to modernise the working environment. On the other hand, a certain reluctance to invest can be felt in one sector or another. Accordingly, as a consulting firm we also notice that orders are being delayed or that there is less scope for investment. At s-peers, we have come through the pandemic quite well because we are not focused on a specific industry, which may also have been hit hard, but work across all industries. Our focus on SAP analytics technology does not impose any restrictions. Accordingly, we are broadly positioned, whether it is trade, mechanical and plant engineering, the pharmaceutical industry or medical technology. We are also active in the entertainment, insurance and banking sectors. In this respect, we have been able to cushion the impact of the pandemic quite well through this broad orientation.

What goals have you set for the future of your company?

We want to offer the young colleagues who start with us prospects in the medium term, and that is only possible through growth. By changing the organisation accordingly, by creating new positions with more responsibility and by investing more in training. I am convinced that the whole topic of "digitalisation" has a future.

You are also involved in Smarter Thurgau. What is the motivation behind this?

As an association here in the Lake Constance region, Smarter Thurgau has set itself the goal of working with the companies and universities located in eastern Switzerland and
Konstanz to provide a response to a wide variety of digitization initiatives, from small businesses to large enterprises. We want to share this ambition and also show that the Lake Constance region has more to offer than just the lake.