spo-comm: An eventful year is coming to an end. How are you feeling about that?
Michael Sporrer: (laughs) Is it over already? Again?
Bernd Moosmüller: Anyway, we are proud of our team. We were able to implement a lot of internal and external projects this year. We put a lot of sweat and blood in it. There are also some further projects in our pipeline for the upcoming year.
Sporrer: Our team also increased!
spo-comm: That’s right, we welcomed back our Sales colleague Hülya Ergin and our Marketing colleague Julia Reinhard from their parental leave. Has this already had a positive effect on the processes of spo-comm this year?
Michael Sporrer: Indeed there were some noticeable changes. Above all, we were able to further expand our customer support and customer appointments on site. Our two account managers Martin Wiesneth and Mustafa Ergin did therefore a great job this year. They can be proud of themselves. Meanwhile there should be no place left around region of Germany that the two of us have not visited yet. This was mainly possible due to our internal reinforcement. This is what will be most memorable for me this year.
spo-comm: Then there was a less beautiful event this year, too. Keyword "Intel’s CPU issue". What went through your mind as that made the rounds?
Bernd Moosmüller: Honestly? At first we thought that this was a joke. We would have never thought that Intel would have delivery problems at any time. Of course we instantly thought of our customers. Especially the big projects that have been running for years and rely on specific CPUs. We had to get clarification immediately.
spo-comm: Both of you flew straight to Taiwan shortly after this news in order to meet with some of our partners. Did that get you any further?
Bernd Moosmüller: (laughs) Somehow, yeah. 10,000 kilometers further east. No, but seriously. The meetings with our partners in Taiwan indeed brought us further because we once again realized that we have the right partners at our side. It was also very exciting to see that something is moving. For instance, where usually everything was traditionally tuned to Intel, people are now trying to create adequate AMD Ryzen based alternatives.
Michael Sporrer: Above all, we have already submitted generous system forecasts to our partners for the coming year a few months ago. Our goal is that our customers do not get touched by the current circumstances caused by Intel, or at least as little as possible.
spo-comm: What can we look forward to in 2019?
Michael Sporrer: On the one hand we should mention the ISE in Amsterdam in February, where we will once again have our own booth. The focus this time is on high-end graphics and digital signage. Not only will we showcase our classics such as the WINDBOX III EVO, but also new additions such as the Nvidia based TEGRA 2 or our QUADRO P1000. When it comes to software we also have something special our customers can look forward to. Even though I might already betray too much when I say it has something to do with “monitoring”.
Bernd Moosmüller: Regionally there is also happening a lot! As big fans and regular visitors of the Nuremberg Digital Festival, we plan to become an active part in the upcoming year. If everything goes as planned, we will decide in January 2019 if we participate in it or not. In any case we will, however, introduce our new website within the first months of the new year! There is already a lot of programming happening in the background. This is something not only our customers can look forward to, but also our whole team!
spo-comm: Thank you for these insights!