Dr. Knut Löschke is the founder and chairman of the board of PC-WARE Information Technologies AG. Today, approximately 1,200 employees generate annual turnover of 700 million euros with 85,000 customers. PC-WARE intends to grow into the position of a real global player in the premier league of IT service providers in Europe by 2009. In the interview, the CEO explains the company’s growth strategy, why a broad performance portfolio leads to sustained profit and why enthusiasm is the basis of all success.

PC-WARE has traded in the black since its foundation in 1990, the company is expanding and is already one of Europe’s leading service providers in the software licensing area – what is the journey’s intended destination and what makes you so confident?

A service provider must always be wherever the customers need them and must be there with the correct product range. That’s why we tread the same paths as our customers. They require firstly competence, quality and reliability, and secondly a rather large spectrum of performances that is available at ever more locations.

So we will steadfastly do exactly that.

Of course I am entirely confident that we will master this challenge. Why? Because PC-Ware has the best team imaginable and because that is the key to success.

PC-WARE established itself successfully in the software licensing and software management market. Then PC-Ware entered the system house field, and is strengthening the performance portfolio in the service area. It sounds like a general store…

… but it is not. It is the logical consequence of our customers’ requirements. In this case from the small and medium-sized enterprises area in particular. I also hear the same demands from our partners in the technology manufacturing camp. However there are also other reasons, entrepreneurial ones. Because the various parts of the IT market, namely hardware, software and service provision, have such different volatilities, we must ride all the market’s waves equally well so as not to allow the PC-WARE ship, which has grown in size, to swing continually between the crests and troughs of a single wave.

Delayed product launches at Microsoft, falling margins – how much longer will the licence trading pillar bear the load?

License trading has long been a consultancy business and is becoming ever more so. Keywords: Software Asset Management. On the other hand the subject of the protection of intellectual property and the granting of permission to use it – exactly what licence marketing means – is in principle gaining ever greater importance, and not only in the software field. We would not be well advised to call into question our proven competence in this area.

PC-WARE regards itself as a mediator between the manufacturers of technology and its users. What part does PC-WARE play in this position?

Exactly that of a mediator, adviser and friend of both sides. We know the requirements, the needs and the problems of software and hardware users very precisely. However, we also understand the challenges confronting software and hardware producers. Bringing both sides together here and ultimately creating a win-win situation for all of them is the perfect art of service provision and customer orientation. That is our goal.

You are at present changing the names of the acquired businesses (senas AG in Germany, Ravenholm in Scandinavia etc.) to PC-WARE. Why do you think that is necessary?

Experience teaches that a strong brand is a good basis on which to develop a business enterprise. PC-Ware as a brand is already quite well established in the market. What we are now doing is to consolidate that even further. I think that not only do the employees of a well-known business feel proud about a good brand, but also the customers feel better under its shield.

You expect a turnover of 60 – 70 million EUR for PC-WARE’s service area by 2009/10, and overall an increasing EBITDA margin, how do you intend to achieve that?

The management’s declared aim is to develop the service area strongly as a strategic challenge. Services and consultancy around a standard software and hardware infrastructure. When I look at the magnificent customer base we have built up in the past 16 years through our “software licensing” core business, it should not be difficult for us to incorporate services into this customer relationship as well. Assuming, of course, that we can satisfy customer requirements through competent specialists and excellent project management. If we succeed in this and in this way, an increase in the EBITDA margin will follow for purely mathematical reasons.

PC-WARE is known for a special kind of corporate culture. You yourself talk about a customer-driven corporate philosophy – can customers really still be enthused and do customers really want to be enthused?

That’s something you can really try out yourself! Of course as a customer I want my service provider to make me feel enthusiastic about his ability and his approach. That applies to a private person just as much as a company or an authority. Besides: after an obviously failed outing into the unadulterated “Mean is Cool” world, many of our corporate customers are showing signs of wanting (again) a long-term, stable partnership – i.e. one that makes them enthusiastic. That’s exactly what we want as well.
However, enthusiasm is not a one-way street. It is one component of a good partnership. This will also click with the customer only if there is enthusiasm for the task on the part of the service provider. However, this “virus” can only be transmitted by people. That’s why we do everything possible to make our employees enthusiastic about the goal, the spirit and the task that PC-WARE has set itself.