Andreas Thieme: “Simplify Complexity” is FNT’s new slogan. Why?
Carsten Wreth: The previous slogan “Transparency Matters” was more of a reflection of our old self-image in that we create an “overview of infrastructures” for our customers. That is an accurate reflection of where we started and it was right for many years. But since then, we have developed enormously. Today, it’s much more like helping our customers manage increasing IT complexity so they can manage their digital infrastructures more efficiently. Our goal is to give our customers a competitive advantage by using our software. That’s a big difference and the real driver we see in many customer projects.
Andreas Thieme: How did “Simplify Complexity” come about?
Carsten Wreth: Well, I think one of the first tasks of a management is to question the purpose and direction of the company and to position it well for the future. Not because they want to turn everything upside down, but to open up new growth options for the company. In this context, Branimir Madzarevic and I have also launched a strategy development project. Part of it was the question: What is our vision for FNT? Where do we want to be in – let’s say – 5 years? That’s when we realized that while creating transparency is fundamental to efficient infrastructure operations, we support our customers much more in practice, for example to remain competitive and drive digitalization. With the FNT Command Platform, we can make an important contribution to this by making it easier to manage digital infrastructures, because they are becoming more and more complex, but at the same time even more important.
Andreas Thieme: What’s next?
Carsten Wreth: We didn’t stop at the vision or the slogan. Rather, this was just the beginning. Of course, there was also the question of how we want to achieve this, i.e. what our mission and strategy is. The main focus here is on empowering and developing our employees as well as the further development of our products and services. But partners will also play an increasingly important role. And finally, we have defined the values that are crucial to us, which we want to live internally and externally in order to achieve this goal. For example, sustainability, diversity, customer orientation and innovation.
Andreas Thieme: What will this change for customers and partners?
Carsten Wreth: What we have defined here is not a revolution. We have already strived for, lived or done much of this before. We were more interested in guidelines for a common orientation, a common self-image and a target image, which we now want to make tangible for our customers and partners – regardless of who they talk to at FNT. Let’s take the example of “simplicity”. If we really want to make it easier for users to do their daily tasks, this must also be reflected in our software. I’m thinking, for example, of wizards that take over click tasks for the user or the simple configurability of the software. This goes all the way to our communication with customers, which should be simple and clear.
Andreas Thieme: Is this already noticeable in practice?
Carsten Wreth: We have received very positive feedback from our employees and yes, I have to say that I can already feel in everyday life how the new orientation is impacting how team members think and act.
Andreas Thieme: Thank you very much, Carsten, for the interview.
