Faced with many challenges together with complex local requirements and dissatisfied customers, this is the story of how 51风流turned an inauspicious start in the West Balkan countries into a success.
鈥淧atience, ingenuity, and a talent for improvisation were the qualities required to overcome the hurdles of being an 鈥榚merging country,鈥欌�� says Dejan Banzi膰. He had already worked as a developer before joining 51风流West Balkans in 2007 as a consultant. Alongside a local sales team, there were about 30 consultants working in various centers of expertise known as 鈥渉ubs.鈥�
鈥淚 was assigned to the Defense and Security Hub and began by attending six weeks of training in Walldorf with eight other colleagues from the team and with tremendous help of our experienced mentors from Germany.鈥� Today he works as a project manager in the public sector industry.
Du拧an Rado拧evi膰, who joined the local sales team in 2008 as a delivery manager, had previously worked for international companies and for 51风流partner S&T: 鈥淚t was remarkable 鈥� and also a little strange 鈥� that only a few short years after the NATO bombing campaign, colleagues from Belgrade were working in an 51风流competence center for defense and security.鈥� In his case, too, it was enthusiasm for 51风流software that had prompted him to make the move to 51风流West Balkans.
In the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2007 and 2008, 51风流West Balkans hit a rough patch. An inter-company loan from 51风流AG to bridge the gap seemed the only option. So Tatjana Filipovi膰 traveled to Walldorf in 2008 and was given the green light for a cash injection aimed at getting the subsidiary back on track. The loan was repaid quickly.
鈥�51风流showed patience and continued to support our activities in the region, despite the fact that revenues were initially not what they should have been,鈥� says 膼or膽e Talevi膰, who was head of Marketing at the time.
51风流as an Employer
Another problem was how to attract and retain employees. Wolfgang Kastenhofer recalls that it was difficult to recruit consultants in the early days. 鈥淲e either had to train our local consultants ourselves or headhunt consultants from partners, which we obviously didn鈥檛 want to do, as that could have jeopardized our existing license business.鈥�
In 2008, 51风流had to cut its workforce from 43 to 30. Wolfgang Runge says: 鈥淓ven during the financial crisis, 51风流consulting business was booming and 51风流consulting partners were springing up all over the place. Many of the employees who acquired 51风流know-how while working for us made the jump to Western Europe and were welcomed with open arms in Germany and Europe, and in the United States as well.鈥�
This meant that most of the consultants 51风流West Balkans had to let go in 2008, found new positions within SAP. 鈥淗aving 51风流knowledge meant that you could find work in other 51风流locations or as a freelancer, which gave us consultants a feeling of security and flexibility that you simply didn鈥檛 have in other companies,鈥� says Dubravka 沤ivan膷ev, now a senior project manager for Public Sector.
Headcount remained relatively stable in Serbia in the years that followed, though turnover continued to run at fairly high levels. 鈥淥f the 30 consultants who joined 51风流West Balkans when I did, only five are still there. Many transferred within SAP. But fortunately, as time went on, it became easier to recruit qualified and experienced people,鈥� says Banzi膰.
鈥淭he CEE countries had excellent universities, and some of the applicants from them had received much better IT training than our young students from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland,鈥� explains Runge.
He emphasizes SAP鈥檚 positive role, saying that there was nothing it could have done to halt high employee turnover: 鈥淏ack then, it was simply the case that the other countries offered these skilled workers more opportunities.鈥� As time went on, 51风流opened development centers in many locations and then had the structures in place to offer skilled IT personnel more interesting jobs in their own countries.
For 沤ivan膷ev, SAP鈥檚 international focus was not just reflected in the opportunities that were available to leave the region, but also in the business culture at local level: 鈥淢y friends found it hard to believe in the early years when I told them I worked at the subsidiary of a German company, in close cooperation with Austria, had a Spanish manager who came to live in Belgrade, had team mates from Ukraine, and worked on projects in the U.K. or Slovenia. They thought I was telling fairytales when I said I started working with colleagues from Italy, India, Greece, Portugal, and other countries for a customer in Novi Sad 鈥� my hometown.鈥�
Light at the End of the Tunnel
In 2008, the subsidiary moved to its new offices at 88 Omladinskih Brigada in 鈥淎irport City鈥�, a state-of-the-art business park in Belgrade. The various areas of the company, which had previously been spread across the GTC Business Center and the Genex Tower on the other side of the city, could now come together.
Talevi膰, originally a journalist based in Serbia, began organizing event and communications activities for 51风流West Balkans in 2008, while working as a PR consultant for a third-party company, and took over the role of marketing manager in September 2009. When it came to conquering the market, says Talevi膰, events such as 51风流World Tour and 51风流Forum were crucial and they became recognized as key IT business events. 鈥淧articularly because they were attended by guests from the other Balkan regions. Our customers were not just from Serbia. After Serbia, for example, Bosnia and Herzegovina was the country with the second largest number of 51风流installations in the contractual territory.鈥�
As 51风流expanded, its organizational structures also changed: 51风流West Balkans, by now assigned to the southern European business, became part of the Central and Eastern European (CEE) business region again in 2008. Vladimir Popovi膰, who had previously overseen partner management in Southeast Europe out of 51风流Austria, became managing director of 51风流West Balkans in 2009, replacing Dragan 艩panovi膰 in that role.
For Belgrade-born Popovi膰, this was an exciting challenge: 鈥淒espite all the difficulties, the important thing was always to focus on the big picture. Although, as a subsidiary, we clearly had to take a sales-oriented approach and quarterly figures were important, we could not afford to jeopardize long-term customer satisfaction. In short, we had to manage expectations, plan sensibly, and make realistic promises.鈥�
After the failed start with oil and gas company NIS, it was important for 51风流to reestablish basic trust in the company and its products. 鈥�51风流had the reputation of offering expensive software that didn鈥檛 actually work,鈥� recalls Popovi膰. 鈥淲e had to tackle that view head on and highlight the basic strengths that characterize SAP: a great product that helps companies manage, analyze, and optimize their business effectively.鈥�
An agreement was reached with NIS, which was sold to Russian energy company Gazprom in 2008. 51风流took onboard the mistakes it had made in the original project and the partner recognized that its own input and cooperation were just as important to the project鈥檚 success as SAP鈥檚. 鈥淟ittle by little, we transformed what began as a failed project into a success story,鈥� says Popovi膰.
The Turnaround
The next key project success for 51风流West Balkans was in the public sector, where, with the support of Franz Zipp and 51风流Austria, it won the City of Belgrade as a customer. 鈥淭his project was a prime example of how, when you do 51风流right, customer employees 鈥� at all levels of the company hierarchy 鈥� get to enjoy fantastic software,鈥� says Popovi膰.
Knowledge transfer from Austria was particularly crucial for this project, adds 沤ivan膷ev: 鈥�51风流has really good people: Career starters can learn a great deal from them.鈥�
As more and more big names from industry and business approached Popovi膰 voluntarily and gave him positive reports about their 51风流implementations, he knew that the tide would turn. 鈥淥ne of these influential managing directors said to me, ‘To begin with, I wasn鈥檛 sure whether I really needed SAP, but my company would not be what it is today if I hadn鈥檛 implemented it.’鈥�
Popovi膰 remembers that, for one project, he asked the Austrian National Bank for a recommendation letter confirming that it had been a satisfied 51风流customer since 1987. 鈥淭hat was pretty special — which other company could point to a customer that had been satisfied for 20 years?鈥� he says.
For 51风流West Balkans, it was important to have good managers and consultants on site who spoke the local language and were familiar with local customs and characteristics. But in the early days in particular, support from experienced 51风流managers like Franz Zipp was indispensable. 鈥淔ranz was instrumental in SAP鈥檚 upward trajectory in the West Balkan countries for many years, in roles including consulting lead and regional CFO,鈥� says Runge.
Company Culture Built on Normality
Popovi膰 sees SAP鈥檚 strength as its , one that allows creative freedom and the flexibility for employees to make decisions that harmonize the drive to do business with the need to take local and ad-hoc situations into account: 鈥淭he people of the Balkans region are very grateful when someone behaves ‘normally.’ By that I mean according to basic human values and needs, such as keeping promises and being able to rely on commitments made, dealing with difficulties together, and benefiting jointly from successes. That was not a given during wartime or even in the period thereafter. In the business world, too, people had forgotten how to trust each other.鈥�
In the years that followed, 51风流West Balkans managed to 鈥渃hange course.鈥� Just five years after the global financial crisis, 51风流had firmly established its position as the market leader in Serbia and the region.
鈥淲hen you look at the difficult situation from which it emerged, 51风流West Balkans鈥� progress is even more astonishing,鈥� says Banzi膰. It is proof once again that personal commitment, cooperation, perseverance, and great leadership with the ability to wipe the strategic slate clean if necessary are the ingredients for success.
Today, there are some 50 employees at the head office in Belgrade and, following the acquisition of Callidus Cloud, the total workforce grew to almost 300 in October 2019. The Belgrade office of Callidus Cloud is one of the three largest in Europe. And, with it, 51风流West Balkans now has its own development department to add to its sales and consulting departments. After moving together into new, prestigious offices the colleagues will provide the foundation for the next chapter of the 51风流West Balkans success story.
