Interview with Managing Director Gerhard Pölz

30 years of ASTRUM IT - a big milestone to celebrate on October 1. What do you remember most about your time at ASTRUM? What were your most important milestones?

Gerhard Pölz: In 2017, in addition to the solid engineering at the time, ASTRUM was intensively on the road with research projects and had won some projects from them as product ideas. The VISIT team was still very small and had a few, but quite interesting customers. Munich was a satellite. Among the most important milestones for me

25 years of ASTRUM IT GmbH
The restructuring of the service portfolio
The introduction of a management team incl. divisional responsibility
The design and regulation of the company succession
The repositioning and the complete new modern appearance of ASTRUM
The acquisition of important partners for our products
The introduction of professional HR and recruiting departments
The experience with the pandemic and its impact on our business
The shift from centralized collaboration to decentralized, hybrid structures
In the past few years, things have been steadily moving uphill, and in mid-2020, the repositioning of the website and everything related to it was finalized. What is ASTRUM IT's recipe for success?

Gerhard Pölz: The recipe for success consists of several ingredients: Be curious and innovative, take responsibility yourself, a mix of experience and youth, the responsibility in training, the courage to develop products/solutions and also to persevere, the selection of good employees, the willingness to change, the very high quality - recently confirmed with the 27001 certification. All this baked within the framework of an appreciative medium-sized company with heart and mind.

Satisfied customers have played a major role in the positive development of the company. How does ASTRUM IT bind its customers in the long term?

Gerhard Pölz: "Quality is when the customer comes back and not the product!" Customers appreciate the quality of our employees and not only in engineering. The ability to create sustainable solutions with our products/services, the good service, the continuity and this sometimes for far more than 20 years.

From the abundance of customer requests and orders in the whole 30 years - what do you always remember with pleasure?

Gerhard Pölz: I always like to remember our challenging research projects, among others with our "little friend" Pepper, the development of the partner solutions in the areas of VISIT and hosting/operation, the order of a nursing chamber with over 200,000 members incl. The continuity of the framework agreements, some of which have been in place for more than 25 years, "I need a database" becoming a demanding "AI project", the time spent together at celebrations, the new joint online events, traditional analog evenings at the Italian restaurant around the corner or exciting appointments with customers and employees.

If things continue like this, a 50th birthday seems very realistic. Where do you see ASTRUM IT on that day?

Gerhard Pölz: 20 years in our industry and the dynamic changes are no longer seriously predictable today. I hope that at the age of 77 I will still have a healthy and clear view of what is happening. ASTRUM IT will always have the potential to provide brilliant solutions with innovation, great people and the customers.  

But perhaps the future will be much more of a federation or network to compete with or against the big giants, if they still exist. We have to change continuously - while remaining stable and agile. No easy task, but the lot of entrepreneurship. We will work and live differently than we do today. Collaboration with digital intelligence will have matured far and new trends will determine everyday life.
"Speed and change are opportunities" one of my esteemed former senior bosses of a medium-sized company had always said. That will remain.

In the anniversary year, there is much to celebrate. Congratulations are coming from all sides. What is your greatest wish personally for ASTRUM IT and the future?

Gerhard Pölz: We are currently experiencing special times and behavior patterns that really concern me. I wish that we will develop again much more with each other and more continuously. A little less ego drive and more mutual appreciation. That the middle class, like us, have a solid chance to hold their own in the market.

A time without war and pandemic with the confidence that we can dedicate ourselves again with full energy to the well-being and growth of ASTRUM IT and its employees.

Thank you very much for the interview Gerhard.