Cologne, Germany, July 22, 2008: The sharp rise in demand for SaaS (Software as a Service) currently being experienced by Pironet NDH amongst its middle-sized customers is reflected in the results of the latest Experton Group study. The market-research expert’s survey, published in June 2008, shows that the most significant factors behind a German company’s decision to outsource its applications and ICT infrastructure are mutually supportive cooperation with one central outsourcing partner, costs that are both transparent and flexible and a reliable service from a company operating at the same level.

Transparent Costs and a Wide Portfolio
“Middle-sized companies in particular are resorting more and more to modern SaaS models in order to bring their ICT costs into line with the development of their business. According to the Experton analysis, the factors that companies particularly value are competent employees, fair play and comprehensive consulting,” says Felix Höger, Board Member at Pironet NDH. “Our holistic solution, which covers the operation of both applications and networks and is conceived specifically for middle-sized companies, enables us to provide our service to customers on a month-to-month basis, with the choice of applications and number of users subject to constant change; the resulting costs are fully transparent and based entirely on usage. The professional organization of processes and close relationship with the customer that modern companies have come to expect from their ICT service provider are assured by ITIL-certified and fully customer-focused services.”

Felix Höger sees the fact that – according to the survey – nearly 80% of the companies did not develop an explicit or formal outsourcing strategy beforehand as a challenge for outsourcing providers: “Companies want their applications to be available ‘on tap’, especially when it comes to standard applications such as ERP, office and groupware solutions. The challenge for us as a provider is to make our SaaS solutions available in such a way that companies can book capacity on a daily, rather than weekly, basis.”

Differing Experiences in Mergers & Acquisitions
The experience of Pironet NDH in the field of Mergers and Acquisitions, however, does not correspond to the results of the study. Whereas the companies who participated in the survey did not attribute a significant role to M&As in their outsourcing decisions, a large proportion of the Pironet NDH customers employ SaaS explicitly in order to consolidate their IT landscape, using the third-party provision to optimize their connectivity and operative readiness should it come to a merger or acquisition.

Working in Partnership with Rather than in Competition to the Software Industry According to the Experton market-research experts, SaaS has also led to increasing competition between outsourcing providers and traditional software vendors, who rent their solutions directly to their customers as a complement to the sale of licenses. Pironet NDH, on the other hand, chose a different way – and now belongs to a worldwide circle of just ten specially qualified companies with whom vendors such as Microsoft are implementing their SaaS strategies. The joint Incubation Center Program provides a framework from which middle-sized software houses who lack resources, know-how and investment capital for the operation of SaaS solutions can benefit from the existing ICT and data center infrastructure at Pironet NDH, enabling them to reach new customer-groups and realize their potential for turnover quickly and successfully.

High Performance-Capacity in the IT Outsourcing Market
The most important success-related factors are clearly recognized not just by software manufacturers but also by the companies who participated in the survey, all of whom passed comment on the performance and visibility of the various IT outsourcing service providers. The resulting “Performance Index” is based on the number of performance-capacity ratings for a given provider, combined with the individual evaluation of the Experton group.

“In the Performance category, Pironet NDH lies in the above-average top third of the scale. We are particularly pleased with the fact that we – a middle-sized company – were able to hold our own against the well-known global industry players,” says Felix Höger. “The survey confirms that our strategy – customer-specific organization and the holistic, one-stop provision of solutions and infrastructure – is the right one.”

Interested companies can download a free Management Summary of the latest Experton study (“Outtasking, Outsourcing, Utility Services – Status Quo und Trends in Deutschland – 2008”) from www.pironet-ndh.com/kontakt.

Founded in 1995, Pironet NDH offers innovative solutions for the creation, synchronization and distribution of digital content of any kind, as well as for the optimization of internal and external business processes. The company's main areas of expertise include consulting and creative services, software products and the operation of business-critical infrastructures and applications. The technology firm listed on the stock exchange with headquarters in Cologne employs more than 450 people in several offices in Europe. Clients include both medium-sized companies and international corporate groups.

Pironet NDH
Adrian Rosa
Press Office
Maarweg 149-161
50825 Cologne, Germany
Tel.: +49.221.56939-2406
Fax: +49.221.56939-2424
E-Mail: press@pironet-ndh.com