Cross-Company Collaboration Promises Success for New Energy Billing Platform

/in , /by

When the Thüga Group embarked on a major project to provide a new billing platform for the German energy industry, they chose to go with a collaboration of consulting and technology partners including Accenture, powercloud, BTC and Klafka & Hinz. This collaboration provided the basis for the successful delivery of Thüga’s TAP energy billing platform. With around 15.5 million metering points, TAP is considered one of the largest IT projects in the market. The platform is positioned to set a new standard for the energy sector with a total of 38 municipal and energy utilities choosing to use TAP. The solution offers customers competitive services at economical prices based on a pay-per-use model.

Just like powercloud, the TAP system is a modular software-as-a-service platform built on a cloud architecture and sets new standards in terms of technology. This means users will be able to select the elements they need from the modular system. And the potential is not limited to Thüga’s TAP solution, as powercloud sees a major opportunity to replicate the functionality to similar platforms in the United States and other European countries.

In a recent interview with ZfK, a German magazine for communal business, Managing Directors of powercloud, Marco Beicht and Zoran Petrovic, explain the collaboration and the various roles provided by the individual service providers:

 

How would you describe the collaboration in developing and supplying TAP for Thüga and what role does each provider play?

Zoran, Managing Director & CGO at powercloud:
Through this collaboration, we will successfully deliver a flexible, open platform, designed for the future, and built by a team of talented partners. This collaboration was a natural fit with the philosophy behind the powercloud platform – broad openness. This makes it very easy, for example, to integrate a wide range of software solutions from other companies into our ecosystem. Everything is oriented towards cooperative ideas such as these. That is what sets us apart from other suppliers and is ultimately what also convinced Thüga. Our motto is, “Always move away from the monolithic solutions of the past towards a flexible platform of the future.” This allows everyone to play to their strengths.

Marco, Founder and CEO at powercloud:
As general contractor, Accenture provides overall management and is the central point of contact for the individual projects and migration tasks. Experts from Accenture will establish the new TAP platform based on powercloud and set it up. We will concentrate on what we do best, developing the powercloud platform, not only for the market role of supplier, but also for the network operator. Of course, we will also be on hand to assist with onboarding and support for subsequent operations.
As the local partner for system integration & support, BTC strengthens the team with its expertise in energy industry processes. The company commands wide-ranging technological know-how and has years of experience in supporting German utilities. Klafka & Hinz supplies regulated EDM processes for energy/gas to facilitate sales, network operation, meter reading management and time series management. All processes will be seamlessly integrated into the platform.

Which functions are taken on by powercloud in the subsequent business process?

Marco:
powercloud acts as the core system for the platform and handles financial processes for all market roles in the energy sector, including invoicing, receiving payments, managing payment reminders, and contract management. All regulatory processes such as market communication, consumption point management and network utilization management are also performed on the powercloud platform. We always ensure that all the regulatory demands on market communication are adhered to.

Zoran:
We ultimately manage all master data and are responsible for all financial processes. Everything is aggregated for the general ledger. And the solution is available for all market roles – supplier, metering station operator and network operator – and for both B2C and B2B clients for energy, gas, water, and heating/cooling. This means powercloud is predominantly responsible for the back-office and mid-office areas. However, Accenture adds a standardized digital layer to our solution, including its own interface for first-level service processes.

Securing this contract for the collaboration was a major win. Can you describe the significance to powercloud?

Marco:
The decision concerning TAP is an important milestone in the history of our company. It brings us one giant step closer to our goal of operating a centralized, highly efficient cloud solution for the energy industry. Incidentally, it is also possible to gauge the significance of this milestone by the market reactions – we have been congratulated by over 100 energy utilities, as well as numerous partners and software manufacturers.

Zoran:
We have come a long way, a journey which started back with our collaboration on the cross-association initiative, “IT platform of the future”. We are delighted that this project has given rise to TAP, and we have now secured the contract for the new solution – a sensational result.

What is the most challenging aspect of TAP and how exactly does your system make for efficient corporate processes?

Zoran:
powercloud will act as the energy industry engine room for all utilities, regardless of size. We see this as a challenge that is never complete. Quite the opposite, we want to always continue improving. An example of this will include the use of artificial intelligence in the powercloud platform. We promise that all TAP stakeholders as well as other customers will benefit from this and further innovations and will be perfectly equipped for whatever future challenges evolve.

Marco:
At this point, it is important to reiterate that TAP already encompasses 38 utilities of all different sizes. It was not easy to group all their requirements under one solution. At the same time, this provides a great opportunity for the stakeholders with synergistic benefits evolving because of the standardization. This aligns perfectly with the powercloud strategy that we have been pursuing for almost ten years – to provide a standardized engine room for the energy industry featuring companies of all sizes – from small startups to energy giants.

 

More about Thüga’s TAP energy billing platform

 

Source: ZfK (https://www.zfk.de/digitalisierung/it/alles-ist-auf-den-kooperationsgedanken-ausgerichtet, 2021-11-30)

 

 

New COO Carsten Dirks strengthens management

/in , /by

powercloud has just overtaken SAP to become the German market leader among IT partners for the energy industry. Now the company is expanding its management team in order to continue driving international growth.

(powercloud, Offenburg, Germany, January 14, 2022) – The software-as-a-service company powercloud, founded in 2012, strengthens its management team. From January 17, 2022, 53-year-old Carsten Dirks will be supporting the CEO and founder Marco Beicht in the position of Chief Operating Officer. Dirks previously held the same position for ten years at Open-Xchange, the market leader in open email platforms, where he was responsible for engineering, services, support and administration over time. Dirks was formerly also Chairman and Global Managing Director at Interactive Data Managed Solutions AG. Before that, Dirks occupied a number of other leading positions at different IT companies. On top of that comes his experience as Vice President and Program Director at SAP.

At powercloud, Dirks will be taking responsibility for Product, Development and Operations, and is in charge of stabilizing and expanding existing markets, as well as scaling in new markets. In this regard, he will be able to deploy his expertise on large customers and critical infrastructures. On the other hand, CEO Beicht will be more focused on the development of the company and the product, corporate culture, as well as further internationalization.

Marco Beicht has this to say: “Carsten Dirks’ extensive knowledge will enable us to operationalize and strategically organize our processes and procedures, and further optimize them following the rapid growth of recent years. With him, we have found the perfect man for the position of COO. I am very excited about working with Carsten to drive the energy industry in new directions, away from old legacy systems towards an open and innovative cloud platform. In light of the digital requirements posed by the energy transition, this is the standard that we must aim for.”

Carsten Dirks:

powercloud can no longer be underestimated as the German market leader among IT partners for the energy industry. I am looking forward to tackling a range of exciting tasks with respect to powercloud’s customers, who are currently facing major upheaval processes and digital challenges as an extremely relevant industry.

 

 

 

 

Enabler of the digital energy transition

/in , , /by

Enabler of the digital energy transition – and not only that – powercloud takes a holistic approach to sustainability

Sustainability is a central issue for powercloud in three ways: As a provider of enabling technology for a sustainable energy industry, as a pioneer in sustainable corporate governance, and as an ambassador for numerous sustainability initiatives.

 

download our whitepaper now

 

Leaving fossil fuels behind, moving towards renewable energies

Decarbonization, decentralization and digitalization – the energy industry is in a state of upheaval. In the very midst of it, powercloud enables utilities to drive their digitalization forward at full speed and so respond to market changes. As a SaaS billing solution, powercloud provides the basis for efficient and customer-oriented processing and billing of new, green products and services. An intelligent cloud solution driven by the desire to enable the digital energy transition. Added to this are the advantages of extensions via the so-called powerApp store, which can be used to integrate additional functions and business models that have a sustainable orientation. In short: with the help of powercloud, more and more sustainable processes and products are finding their way into the energy industry.

IT campus as best practice for a sustainable living and working environment

That the green energy revolution started a long time ago for powercloud is shown by the IT Campus the company is building in Germany. Already regarded as a forward-looking model of the energy transition for the housing industry and for the energy companies of tomorrow, by its completion in 2024 all the buildings of the campus are to be fully CO2-neutral. The site will have its own photovoltaic power supply and electricity storage solutions. Heating and cooling are supplied via heating networks, which include biomass and large-scale heat pumps. In addition, there is a special mobility concept that includes, among other things, sharing offers of e-cars and e-bikes as well as a further developed public transportation service. But the IT campus embodies far more than merely environmental aspects of sustainability. It is also considered to be breaking new ground in lifestyle and work. Social aspects therefore play just as big a role as ecological ones. For powercloud, sustainability means not only energy transition and climate neutrality, but also a fair coexistence under conditions that allow future generations to lead a “good” life.

Ambassador for a sustainable future

Apart from the sustainable orientation of its own product and the future working environment, powercloud is also taking part in numerous sustainability initiatives on both local and global levels. For example, powercloud CEO Marco Beicht is a member of Fairantwortung AG, a non-profit entrepreneurial initiative. Their goal is to support society’s shift toward a sustainable and climate-compatible economic system.
Internationally, powercloud is a member of the “Tech for Net Zero Allianz“, which was launched by the German Energy Agency (dena) together with Bill Gates’ “Breakthrough Energy” initiative. The aim is to identify scalable innovations for Germany’s energy transition and climate-neutrality target based on technological developments and to make recommendations for the further development of corresponding framework conditions in Germany.
Marco Beicht’s participation in the “SET Tech Festival“, which was also organized by dena together with the World Energy Council on October 20, had a similar goal. The event not only gave participants access to the most innovative energy-solution startups, but also brought them together with innovation-oriented companies, investors and public organizations that want to push the energy transition forward.

Climate neutrality starts today

While the model IT campus will not be fully completed until 2024, powercloud is already ensuring, where possible, that its business activities are as climate-neutral as possible. To this end, the company uses Planetly, among other tools, for intelligent CO2 management. With Planetly, emissions can be calculated, the biggest emission hotspots identified and, on this basis, the right adjusting screws can be dialed towards a negative CO2 balance.
The delegated staff at powercloud are also looking at new work-life concepts. Specifically, this means, for example: Workers can do some of their work at home at any time, allowing them to reach the workplace quickly when needed. To enable necessary business trips by car to remain sustainable, powercloud also has an e-Smart fleet of five vehicles.

Through many activities, powercloud pursues a corporate culture that raises awareness of sustainable cooperation. And so, in the spirit of “Walk the Talk”, the commitment and measures around corporate sustainability align with the fundamental orientation of the powercloud solution towards a sustainable energy industry.

 

download our whitepaper now

 

 

Utilities: How can the “Cost-to-Serve” be reduced to 10 euros?

/in , /by

Digitization, climate change, blockchain, 5G and the like – the mega-topics of our time are bundled together in the energy sector and trigger massive pressure to act among the utility companies. The focus is primarily on “Cost-to-Serve” (CtS) because it has a massive impact on falling margins in mass business. Can a target value of 10 euros be achieved here? The answer from powercloud: a resounding “YES”. The costs can be reduced by up to 75 percent. And best of all: Existing legacy systems can now easily be migrated.

“Cost pressure” is currently a term that is often heard among energy suppliers – and no wonder: In which other industries have so many new competitors recently emerged, has the purchasing behavior of end customers changed so much and is digitization causing such massive changes in product development? In other words: While the automotive industry is still debating ordering cars by “clicking” online, something similar has long been a reality in the energy industry. It is obvious that the coronavirus pandemic is further complicating the cost situation of the supply companies – for example, because the demand for electricity is weakening due to decreased industrial production, digital channels are rapidly gaining in importance.


The expensive “legacy” burden of many utilities

Today, the question arises more than ever – how can utilities significantly reduce their cost-to -serve? Existing IT infrastructures often limit the potential for cost reductions and increased revenues: They are shaped by ´so-called´ legacy software systems – often consisting of home grown or aged vendor applications that are frequently over 15 years old, and based on outdated technologies. Users have grown comfortable and accustomed to such solutions – decision-makers fearing high cost and risk from the migration of these monolithic systems into new agile platforms. In a nutshell: They prefer to stick with the ´safe and old´, fearing to embrace strategies necessary to sure up their digital future and removing the shackles of a CtS of 25 to 80 euros per customer per year – which is simply not sustainable in today’s markets according to a Deloitte study. Instead, “a target CtS of 10 euros or lower per customer (…) can also be achieved for established suppliers” according to the authors.

 

 

Download powercloud / Accenture / Salesforce White Paper now

 


But why exactly are such minimal costs impossible to achieve with established legacy systems?

  • Lack of flexibility: The energy industry is constantly changing – some would say in a state of flux. In the case of old, monolithic software solutions, even simple regulatory format changes in market communication requires huge efforts to implement. And: For cost inhibitive reasons, new ideas and revenue innovations from sales or marketing fall at the first hurdle due to a feared cost avalanche adding to the churn problem.
  • High effort: Beyond cost, the maintenance of in-house developments and legacy vendor solutions consisting of many individual customizations often puts too much strain on IT resources and related bandwidth. The whole thing is a constant “problem area” quoted one of powercloud’s newest customers: “We should have listed to our inner voice and done this sooner – we´ve lost too much time and too many customers”
  • Security risk: Legacy software systems are a security risk – fact. And new compliance challenges such as amendments to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) can only be implemented by complex reprogramming.


Migration of the legacy system to an open cloud platform

Ultimately, these unresolved problems endanger the competitiveness of the utility companies – new market participants position themselves ahead of the game by using agile software solutions that focus on flexible communication and intimacy with end customers: Many suppliers are offering more and more products and services that have fee schedules and pricing tailored for the customer. In addition, additional topics such as “smart meters” and the “Internet of Things” bring added complexity and greater volumes of data that requires both integrating and managing.

In other words: More and more data has to be processed at speed and with confidence, from order acceptance to billing and payment. The basic prerequisite for this is having digitized processes underpinning the company which are designed and implemented according to customer needs. Gartner describes the ideal world as a “post-modern platform” – cloud-based end-to-end by approach – the powercloud platform for which there are impressive migration success stories with legacy systems. Last year powercloud carried out the largest replacement of SAP IS-U in Europe with around 4 million customers, who are now billed and managed on the powercloud platform.

 

 

Download powercloud / Accenture / Salesforce White Paper now

 


The formula for the solution is: Standardization + speed with high flexibility. As a result, five central factors which ensure cost leadership:

  1. Regulatory updates: Regular format adjustments due to changing legal requirements within the regulatory framework of market communication requires timely adjustments in IT. powercloud delivers these format updates free of charge via a process of continuous updates, several times a week, with no downtime or business disruption.
  2. Automation: Highly automated processes are the DNA of powercloud, for example “change processes”: The system maps changes in accordance with regulation and monitors the timely exchange of messages with market partners saving an enormous amount of manual effort. The same applies to the automated detection, validation and reissuing of incorrect invoices via multiple channels. The processes relating to termination at the previous supplier – the start and end of delivery and incoming cancellations are also highly automated.
  3. Simplicity: The user interface with its stored functions and operational guidance is logically configured from the perspective of the user experience, and that is exactly what makes it so appreciated by our growing user community. For example, “pricing calculation” – a process that in the past required many individual coordination loops and work steps involving calculation/simulation on the basis of energy prices and margin requirements, network usage fees, taxes, levies and charges – has a completely guided user experience within powercloud, removing much decision complexity
  4. End-to-end approach: The system contains all business processes and data needed for the “energy-related machine room” – an end-to-end solution, in where all services can also be composed individually within the powerApp Store. This includes billing processes, market communication, payment transactions, receivables management, invoice verification, pricing & offer calculation but to name a few.
  5. powerApp Store: powercloud and various highly experienced partner companies offer over 80 apps that cover the individual requirements of utility companies. Examples of these would be forecasting software for electricity consumption and extensions for shared photovoltaic systems.

Combined, these factors ensure a CtS of 10 euros or less. Everything can be implemented step-by-step and the powercloud platform is founded on an open source architecture which guarantees substantial independence from vendors, suppliers and technologies. Additionally, powercloud has also created new innovative standards in terms of “implementation scenarios around the connecting and coupling to existing systems”. A real example is the migration to the powercloud platform at the green electricity start-up stromee. Despite social distancing and video conferencing, this took just eight weeks – from kick-off to go-live. Due to the completely digitized processes in the background, homee, with its innovative energy offer stromee, is able, on a one-to-one basis, to pass on to customers a basic fee of less than 5 euros, as well as the purchase price fohttp://www.hom.eer green electricity from hydropower – an outstanding example of the influence a modern energy IT structure can have on the CtS.

 

 

Download powercloud / Accenture / Salesforce White Paper now

 

 

About the author

Marco Beicht, born in Achern in southern Baden, is the founder and CEO of powercloud. He still lives and works in Achern, the headquarters of powercloud GmbH, which will soon have a state-of-the-art and climate-neutral IT campus as the new company headquarters. Marco Beicht founded his first software start-up immediately after graduating from high school, and specialized in eCommerce after his university studies. Today, Marco Beicht is the Managing Director and partner of various energy, software and investment companies.

.

References

https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/de/Documents/energy-resources/deloitte-studie-transformation-energieversorger-2018.pdf

 

 

The makers of the energy industry

/in /by

Dynamic software for dynamic markets

From energy 4.0, Compendium 2020/2021

MARCO BEICHT is founder and CEO of powercloud. The entrepreneur has already founded several companies before this one, including Intellishop in 2004, which he led as a board member until 2010. With his investment company, Karemha Holding, formerly MBB Technologies Group, he also holds shares in other companies, such as the electromobility specialist Chargecloud. Among other things, Beicht studied at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) before earning his MBA.

During the Corona crisis there are few optimists – Marco Beicht is one of them. The head of the IT company powercloud assumes that Germany will probably return to its former strength within 18 months. In his opinion, the pandemic will further accelerate the trend towards digitalization and customer centricity in the energy industry. “We will see more courageous decisions and new business models as a result,” predicts the IT expert. Courage is certainly a characteristic that aptly fits the 36-year-old. Immediately after graduating from high school, with a starting capital of 25,000 euros, which he had received from his father, he developed the e-commerce software company Intellishop, which works for companies such as T-Mobile and Eismann. This also laid the foundation for the path into the energy industry with the founding of powercloud. After a long period of financing the company alone, the US investor General Atlantic entered the market in 2019 with over 100 million euros.

The company, headquartered in Achern in southern Baden, has been causing a stir in the industry since EnBW and Eon became customers of its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution. Beicht explains the decisive characteristics: “We provide our customers with a standardized Cloud platform for the energy industry processes related to billing, market communication, metering, and accounting. We handle all regulatory changes centrally and without asking the customers to do anything more, so that they can concentrate fully on their customer relationships and on developing new products and services.” By its own account, powercloud now manages seven million end customer contracts. Speed is the decisive factor for Beicht. “We are faster and more agile than existing systems and players.” In addition, the focus is strictly on the utility and waste management industry.

The founder sums up the DNA of his company in this way: “We have the gift of youth. We are the breath of fresh air in the industry.” At the same time, he is well aware that it is never wise to rest on one’s laurels. That’s why they are constantly working on the IT architecture: “We are firmly convinced that we must constantly challenge ourselves in order to be successful long-term,” stresses Beicht. The focus is currently on the powercloud App Store. In addition, third-party providers already offer numerous apps that add additional functionality to the platform. According to the entrepreneur, this makes the system so flexible that new ideas can be implemented and processed in the shortest possible time and with very little effort. “The ecosystem grows with every partner and customer,” emphasizes Beicht.

This is fueling a market dynamic that is also being experienced by IT start-up customers. Beicht sees the situation this way: “There will be more new providers fighting over customers with low prices or innovative offers. At the same time, the existing players are gradually upgrading and want to continue to drive innovation with new platforms and new strengths.” According to the Baden-based company, some market participants will not be able to keep up with this innovation race, while many others will emerge from it stronger. Therefore, consolidations are also possible.

 

The challenger

/in /by

08/13/2020 – With impressive business achievements at major utility companies and with the entry of a major financial investor, the software provider powercloud from the small town of Achern in Baden, Germany has attracted considerable attention in the industry since the middle of last year. We spoke with founder and managing director Marco Beicht.

Mr. Beicht, when and how did powercloud actually come about?
powercloud was founded in 2012, but the original idea and first developments were already in the making in 2009. My start was in e-commerce, where I had T-Mobile and tele.ring as customers since 2003. The path from the Telco segment to the energy segment was, at the time, not uncommon. In the beginning, powercloud focused primarily on sales processes and product management.

What gave you the idea of focusing on the energy industry in particular? The industry is considered a complicated market…
With our first customers, all of whom were initially electricity and gas discounters, it quickly became clear that not only were new solutions needed for product management and sales, but that processing, in particular, had become a cost driver and an obstacle to innovation. The initial focus on the new providers was an important decision for us. Here, we were able to make perfect use of our knowledge from e-commerce and, at the same time, met with approval for more lightweight approaches. Together with the new providers, we then began to bring our market communication, billing, and accounting solutions, for example, into operation—all of which are critical processes at the heart of any energy supplier. After we had a mid-six-figure number of customers on the platform, the first energy group became aware of powercloud in 2015.

How does the powercloud approach differ? Or to put it another way: what do you think convinced your customers?
Our customers decide to switch to powercloud for four main reasons. Firstly, we take care of the necessary regulatory updates without the customer having to spend time and effort on implementation in powercloud. These include format changes and legal adjustments such as the recent economic stimulus package. This not only cuts costs for the customer, but scarce resources can also be used more effectively.

Secondly, the automation, the significantly lower complexity, and the digital channels reduce the cost-to-serve far beyond the basic IT costs.
The third reason is that our customers want to test new products, smart bundles, and individual offers quickly and cost-effectively on the market and to process them without much effort. Product innovation is becoming more and more important for securing one’s competitive position.

Finally, investment security is a major issue. Market players are currently facing the challenge that the maintenance of many legacy systems is coming to an end or that the maintenance of these systems is becoming more difficult and costly. We have the right answer – a Standard Cloud Offer.

And how exactly do you implement this?
We are building a standard for the industry that is suitable not only for both small and large utility companies at the same time, but also for new suppliers and utility companies with a basic service area. This was long considered impossible—at least, before powercloud. We think through all processes strictly from the perspective of the end customer and focus on a high level of automation. In fact, what sets a utility company apart from the competition is less and less often back-end processes, but rather front-end processes—i.e., individual customer approach and new offers.

What topics or work processes does powercloud currently cover?
powercloud grows day by day. Not only do we constantly bring new functionalities, but also other providers via our App Store. Powercloud focuses on the core processes of the energy industry, such as product management, customer acquisition, CRM, billing, market communication, and accounting—and all that for electricity, gas, water, sewage, and heat.

Do you plan to expand the solution? As in, grid processes?
After we were able to establish the supplier market role very successfully, we started to develop a solution for meter and grid operators. In addition, other media, such as telecommunications offerings, will also be available from powercloud in the future. We will, however, remain loyal to the utility and waste management industry in the future and can differentiate ourselves from providers who are more agnostic with their expert knowledge and focus.

An interesting special feature of powercloud are the apps offered by partner or associated companies such as chargecloud. Can you explain this concept to our readers?
This works similarly to your mobile phone. In the powerApp store, you can activate new features in your powercloud client. There are three categories of apps. Fully integrated powerApps bring additional features and business models to powercloud. Chargecloud, for example, provides special billing models for electromobility or the management of charging points, while the Conuti tenant power module takes care of the marketing of locally generated energy. Another category is interface apps that integrate other software solutions, such as a connection to Salesforce. Finally, access to data can be granted via data apps, making it easy to implement data-driven business models in addition to analytics offerings.

Now powercloud is already in operation at EnBW, for example. What has changed for the company? (Processes, costs, etc.)
EnBW is extremely good at implementing digital channels and using smart automation with our event system. New products can be brought to market much faster and can then be handled reliably. Just as important as the new technical possibilities, however, is the cultural change within the company itself, which goes hand-in-hand with the introduction of a Cloud solution. In addition to reducing complexity, this includes the digitalization of daily business and new ways of working. That is why we first explain to our customers at the beginning of a project that, in addition to the purely technical migration, which can be carried out with low risk today, the specific challenges lie in change management.

Apart from the “Big Four”, we also have quite a few regional suppliers and municipal utility companies. How does powercloud operate in this segment?
Together with partners, we have created pre-packaged offers for municipal utility companies. This is important because many municipal utility companies do not want to deal with the individual selection of additional components, such as a web portal. The new IT landscape must be functional from day one. Success-proven combinations are a strong argument. Standards were also created in terms of implementation scenarios. This is also a very important point, which not only brings advantages in terms of time, but also reliably removes risk from the migration project.

Finally, a look into the future: what are the next steps and the medium-term goals?
Of course, we also want to be the first choice for municipal utility companies and to repeat the success of powercloud in the MSB and grid sector. The course for this has been set and we are actively working on implementing it. We are also growing outside of Germany. The end customer doesn’t see the various markets as all that different in the end. This is why the first suppliers are also following the successful model “Made in Germany”. (pq)