Cloud bound

Data has never held more power and value than it does in the current business ecosystem. Harnessed effectively, data can provide a meaningful understanding of the playing field, anticipate future trends, optimize decision-making, mitigate risk and otherwise illuminate a company’s way forward.

The same can be said for a business’ internal processes and systems. Poorly handled, they’re a cumbersome mess. Done well, they’re powerful allies that can take a company to the next level. That’s not to say it’s up to the companies themselves to know how to make these elements work. Sometimes, it’s best to turn to the experts.

In the manufacturing industry, T.CON provides its customers with the means and expertise to align technology, people and processes.

“For 27 years, we’ve delivered SAP solutions that improve our customers’ operations,” Thomas Blöchl, CEO of T.CON, tells The CEO Magazine.

Lofty goals

A long-time member of the T.CON team, having joined the company in 2006, Blöchl kicked off his 20th anniversary with the firm in impressive style: a promotion to CEO in January this year.

“My vision is to take T.CON from being an SAP implementation partner to a transformation partner,” he says.

“Most companies in our target market – the industrial mid-market of the German, Austrian and Swiss regions – already have SAP software in place. What they need is to move into the cloud software environment.”

Cloud technology hasn’t just changed IT infrastructure; it has changed the way businesses are run, particularly with SAP.

“Therefore, we also need to transform ourselves and our delivery model to cover the needs of our customers,” he adds. “We have a big opportunity at the moment to do just that.”

According to Blöchl, turning T.CON’s incisive transformational skill on itself is a unique challenge and one he’s prepared for throughout his career.

“We’ve gone from big transformational projects to sharper consultancy and for that we need smaller, faster teams able to understand a customer’s requirements and translate them into business value,” he notes.

“Our customers don’t have the time to change entire business processes, so it’s on us to make the experience as smooth as possible.”

That’s a job handled by T.CON’s strong team, made up of nearly 500 consultants, developers and other industry experts.

Constant innovation

Blöchl says when team members are not on a project, they’re learning – constantly.

“In the past, innovation was a once-a-year effort. You’d discover what was new and learn it,” he explains. “Now, there are new technologies and new capabilities emerging daily.

“Learning has to run alongside the projects we’re already doing and our teams are designed to be able to do that.”

Working on the bleeding edge of what’s possible in the industry makes T.CON’s services a very attractive prospect for clients.

“We can show customers exactly what they can achieve with these new tech capabilities,” he says.

One of those is the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), which Blöchl describes as a very powerful toolbox.

“SAP doesn’t innovate technology on its own; it uses technology and makes it enterprise-ready,” he says.

“BTP is the entry point for that and, of course, it involves AI. We’ve been able to use BTP’s AI capabilities in real customer use cases, and we’ve won two consecutive SAP awards for our work.”

A full service

T.CON focuses on the world of production, from paper and packaging to process and discrete manufacturing. In this way, the company can deliver dedicated solutions for the businesses within.

“Wherever we’re working, we’re a full-service provider. We handle and cover all the requirements end-to-end,” Blöchl confirms.

Customers can get a clearer picture of what T.CON can do for them at the company’s flagship iT.CONnect event, held every two years.

“It’s a chance to get close to the market and present how to transform to cloud software, how to use AI and how to improve business processes,” he says.

“That’s one part of it, but the other is that we can show what transformation can mean for customers on an organizational level.”

Finding the time and space to grow in the ever-moving IT world is a challenge, but it’s one Blöchl and the T.CON team readily embrace.

“We have to keep growing. It’s my goal to set up T.CON in a way that allows us to grow as we’ve always done, but in this environment that changes every day. Then it’s up to us to imbue our customers with the same agility, because they need it.”