Authentic.
Transparent.
100% XITASO.

In 2023 we launched the new claim ‘Enjoy Digital Excellence’ as a milestone. How do you feel about it?

Uli: From my perspective, the new slogan describes us and our work extremely well. Since its launch at the Retreat, I have heard many times that XITASOnians and customers share my opinion. With ‘Enjoy Digital Excellence’, we are making a very far-reaching and demanding promise. And the fact that we regularly manage to fulfill this promise makes me proud.

What does the new slogan mean for XITASO?

Martin: Let’s start with the word ‘Digital’. At first glance, it would appear to be an obvious choice as we are a software company. However, at second glance, digitization is far more than just the excellent programming of software solutions. The business models which result from our increasingly connected world are similarly linked, like organizational changes at customers which we accompany as partners at eye level. The digital advantage of our customers is our mission, as stated in XITASOPIA, our corporate principle. We have already determined in this statement that we see software holistically. All of this lies behind the word digital in our new claim.

Michi: Additionally, we have the word ‘Excellence’. The first time I heard this from you, Uli, was in 2015 at the Hannover trade fair. You said, ‘excellent people want to work with excellent people’. This creates a flywheel effect. The term excellence already exists in the company for long and provides the strategic positioning: we work with special quality and goodness in our projects. Therefore, it is THE quality promise to our customers.

Uli: The most special word is however ‘Enjoy’, which contains ‘joy’. Fun is definitely part of our DNA! This is what we discovered during one of our first leadership workshops with all XITASOnians on the day of the Christmas party in Augsburg many years ago. What is needed on the path to success, alongside ability, is a large portion of joy. Things that are fun to do get automatically good. This is what leads to success. If you take a look back at our history, from the foundation to today, ‘Enjoy Digital Excellence’ hits 100% of what XITASO stands for.

How does that look in operative business? What do our customers get from our new claim?

Michi: What is new is the explicitly formulated ambition which lies in ‘Enjoy Digital Excellence’. Every day, I hear statements from colleagues like ‘That is not excellent, that is going to be no fun for us or for our customers. Enjoyment? Not a chance. We cannot leave it this way. We have to speak with the customer again.’ That is when one notices that this claim is already being lived. At the same time, it is about honesty, openness, and a respectful interaction. For example, we recently heard this from a customer in Munich: ‘You guys were the first ones who ever had the courage to set the traffic lights in the project monitor to red. This gave us the arguments we needed to make readjustments with our top management.’ This level of personal trust which we build up with the customer is decisive in guiding things to excellence.

Martin: And that is fantastic! The claim gives us exactly the guidance which we need on the path towards really outstanding project successes: Are we getting joy from it? We as XITASO? Our project partners? And therefore, it is good that our customers are not merely satisfied but rather that it is a joy for them to work with us.

Uli: What should also be mentioned here is: we at XITASO are Agile Natives. We are experienced with regular retrospectives. Participants collect statements here by triggers like ‘I don’t understand…’ Lack of understanding can quickly lead to annoyance. This is something we want to avoid at all costs, this would be the opposite of ‘Enjoy’. We use the Retros to ensure that we take measures early to create mutual understanding! Our agile way of doing things thus also fits perfectly our claim.

What measures do we take to guarantee the high requirements of our XITASOnians?

Martin: That is of course very complex. On the one hand, we offer various trainings and courses. We have even set up our own community for this purpose in XTRAIN. The topic of further education is an absolutely central element in continuing to build up excellence and to guarantee it.

Uli: On the other hand, research and innovation is an important aspect. In the meanwhile, over 25 people are working in this area. As a driver of innovation, we deal with things scientifically using leading edge technologies. Thanks to the close communication with our Delivery, we can introduce the scientific advantages we have developed, directly into our customer’s projects, in an excellent manner.

Michi: A further milestone was internal: the introduction of Personio. This has enabled us to take a huge step forward in personnel management. According to the principles of Pflägings’ ‘Komplexithoden’, we thereby strengthen the blue aspects in our processes, which now require a lot less tedious hand work. In recruiting, for example, there is now much more time remaining for the red moments in our multi-subjective selection of the right XITASOnians.

Let’s turn back briefly to the ‘Enjoy’ factor: Is work always fun?

Uli: We all know that this is not the case. Sometimes work is just simply challenging. This makes it more important to celebrate together mutually, like at the barbecue we have together with our customers or internally at our big parties and smaller team events. However, our aim is that the work itself can and should also be enjoyable and that is exactly what our claim reflects.

Michi: And it is in the multitude of voluntary afterwork activities like the trip to Slovenia where you notice how much XITASOnians enjoy spending time together. Also, in the numerous remote and presential formats: the XITASO Stories, the Tech Talks and the Community regulars’ tables. These are super platforms for overarching team spirit. And that is fun!

Alongside the claim, have there been other milestones at XITASO in 2023?

Uli: Definitely. The past year was unbelievably dynamic. A huge topic was our locations. We set up new offices in Karlsruhe and Munich. 2023 was the first year after the Corona pandemic, in which everything returned to normal and the XITASOnians were desiring to meet up in person again. Despite this, remote working will also be a thing of the future. As a consequence, many questions arose, like for example: how will this affect our office concept? What should a typical XITASO Office look like? We have laid important corner stones with our Future-Fit-Office project and clearly defined a target image for our premises. This will continue in 2024.

Michi: Another topic was the amount of our employees which rose over-proportionally in locations outside of Augsburg and also internationally. What has worked out well here is, amongst others, that the new XITASOnians have been easy to integrate with a more consequent use of English as the company language.

Martin: At the same time, it became apparent that our growth in customer acquisition was successful. In the MedTech sector and the Public sector we acquired interesting new projects. And one thing is clear: this is how we strengthen ourselves with additional pillars with different business cycles alongside our historical main branch, mechanical engineering. This sets us up more securely for the future and will enable us to better master crises. That is an important result of our strategy work.

What were your highlights in 2023?

Michi: The Retreat. Twice, means it has been repeated, but the third time makes it a tradition! When all the XITASOnians gather to personally meet, it always creates a special atmosphere. As a multi-dimensional network organization, we live from all of us meeting in presence regularly. This is how we create the social seals which we require to quickly put together the right people for the ever-new challenges in the VUCA world. What is unforgettable for me from 2023 is the video from Klara and Jessica with the customer’s comments. Songs of praise for XITASO! It filled me with pride to see what the XITASOnians are delivering for our customers.

Martin: That’s right. What I want to add here is the XITASO Summer Festival. Over 400 guests – XITASOnians with ‘Family & Friends‘ – were there in the best of weather. It was an unbelievably nice party with many personal moments.

Uli: From a market perspective, the ‘automatica’ was an absolute highlight. We were able to top even last year when it came to our trade fair booth, regarding design and exhibits. And of course, it was wonderful that we were subsequently subject of a large article in the newspaper ‘Augsburger Allgemeine‘. Alongside the ‘automatica’ I also really enjoyed the exchanges at the German mechanical engineering summit – the ‘Maschinenbaugipfel‘ in Berlin – once again.

Would you like to cast a brief glance forward to 2024? What are you looking forward to most?

Uli: The difficult economic rumblings at the start of the year in our domestic German market strengthen my convictions of thinking perspectively out of the box. What is happening on the Spanish market? Our new locations in Malaga and Barcelona means we are becoming established there. And I am looking forward to discovering which opportunities await us in the USA. A lot of our mechanical engineering customers are already present in this very dynamic market.

Martin: What is important for me in 2024 is to keep our Shared Service area in focus. What do we need to set up and strengthen here? The requirements and demands of our massively growing organization are not only increasing constantly, but are also becoming more multifaceted. And we do not merely want to meet these requirements, we want to also upgrade the excellence. For this, I am looking forward to integrating new experienced people into our great team.

Michi: My conviction remains: Digitization is people business. Just that I have exchanged ‘Software Engineering’ by the broader meaning of ‘Digitalization’ in the light of our new XITASO claim. But still, for everything that we wish to achieve it will require people who want to take the lead and guide to success. Our extraordinary, own developed leadership culture makes up the perfect launching pad here. ‘Leading from Roots to Fruits’ is therefore our strategic motto for the year 2024 and will be the main focus of the Retreat, which will once again take place in Allgäu. I am really looking forward to this! Stay tuned!