“Any company can reach the ‘next data level’”
What is the importance of "next data level" for Comma Soft customers and what impact does this strategic approach have on recruiting? That is what Benjamin Schulte shares in this interview. He has been with Comma Soft for 14 years and has been a Member of the Board as Chief Operating Officer for six years.
Benjamin, what is it about Comma Soft as a consulting AI and IT company that makes it so appealing to customers and employees?
At Comma Soft, we place great value on our partnerships and collaborations with our customers. We work with them to develop the right digitization and AI strategy for their needs – as a balanced mix between standardised and individual solutions – and we also provide support in the technical implementation of this strategy. Guided from start to finish, our customers can be sure that our concepts can be implemented successfully. This is exactly what is interesting for our employees: no two customer projects are alike. New questions and complex challenges are constantly arising, for which they find creative and innovative solutions. The interdisciplinary composition of our team is a particular advantage: here, mathematics and physics meet psychology and philosophy, business studies meet cultural studies and much more.
How does the Comma Soft team support its customers in solving challenges relating to digitization? Which trends are currently of greatest importance in this regard?
Digitization, AI and data science are topics that have by no means fully exhausted their potential. In many discussions, however, it is often not yet clear how much tangible added value a company can create with them. In addition to developing a Big Picture for the future, this is why we recommend starting with small steps that create tangible quick wins, such as smart assistance systems, better usability, and support in decision-making. This is how companies achieve what we call the “next data level” one step at a time: a data-driven business in which, over time, more and more core processes can be supported by data and continuously optimized. This edge provided by data is a tremendous opportunity for competitiveness – and is the aim of our strategy at Comma Soft. Along the way, we help our customers by combining business, data, and IT strategy and aligning them with corporate goals. This is how sustainable digitization can be achieved. Furthermore the “next level” of data-driven digitalisation looks different for every company. This is why it must be approached individually.
What is Comma Soft’s strategy with regard to the current labor market when it comes to finding employees for customer projects?
We have very varied projects that require expertise in different industries, disciplines and technologies. This is why we are looking for people who are experts in their field of expertise, but who are also willing to learn and develop new areas on their own. At the same time, this also means that we strive for long-term cooperation, during which the employees can develop and assume greater responsibility. When customers say “You lift the whole team” after working with us, this praise spurs us on. Given that more and more customers are currently looking to leverage the potential of their data and drive digitization forward, we will actually be hiring twice as many employees this year and next year as we have done in the years before. We are looking to strengthen the Business-, Process- & IT-Consulting, the Cyber & IT Security, the Machine Learning and the Software Development departments. I am excited to see which new colleagues we will be welcoming this year!