Our strategy is designed to be long-term: after the crisis we will continue to be in “Pole-Position”
The happiness of our customers and employees is the key to success – and helps us to overcome “difficult” timesDear customers, employees, partners,
at the end of May, the chief editor of the professional magazine ELEKTRONIKPRAXIS contacted me and requested to talk about our experiences in the COVID-19-crisis.
This mail led me to reflecting – even more than usual – on how to meet the challenges of the current Covid-19 crisis and why we things, the way we do.
It became even clearer to me, how we at Verifysoft Technology are in a comparatively good situation. We were fortunate enough to have the right products at the right time while meeting the right people. However, at Verifysoft we have always “rolled up our sleeves” and seized opportunities with serious and committed work. This tactic enabled us to advance and gives us the self-confidence to overcome the current crisis
My view on the current situation thus is relatively positive. However, I do not want to be misunderstood at this point: there are many industries and companies who without debt greatly suffer under the current crisis. We wish the most success in overcoming these challenges.
I believe that the software-industry – especially the subcategory of software quality – does not belong to the most unfortunate. For this, I am very thankful – this may very well be the first step out of this crisis…
Offenburg, den 19th June 2020
Klaus Lambertz
CEO, Verifysoft Technology GmbH
Update September 2020:
We are hiring! Learn more...
We are hiring! Learn more...
Please read below our Covid-19 Q&A
How do we handle the crisis?
As developer and distributor of tools for software testing and analysing, the current crisis does not leave Verifysoft Technology unaffected. Our revenue in the first five months was around 30% below equivalent timeframe in the previous year and thus noticeably below the original yearly revenue goals decided upon in 2019. Even so, our sales-pipeline is filled quite nicely – even if releasing the budgets takes a little longer longer.
A decisive advantage is having first-class products and motivated colleagues.
. Instead of paying out last year’s profits to our shareholders, we kept them in the company and “gained muscles”. This is much easier to achieve in companies led by a managing proprietor rather than a big stock corporation with numerous different investors.
It may seem "old school" and no longer be compliant with the latest management theories, but we still adhere to the saying: "waste not, want not". Since the founding of this company we have financed ourselves through the Cash-Flow and are thus financially very stable today.
We will continue to invest in training for our employees and further developments for our tools.
Even this crisis will be over at some point and then we want to continue being in the “Pole-Position”.
Overall, we conduct “business as usual”…
What is helping in these difficult times?
Good products, loyal employees and long-time grown trusted relationship to customers are always of great help.
In our case it is in my opinion advantageous that we do not have investors looking primarily on short-term profit-maximisation (keyword “Quarter”). We are self-operated – which brings “calm and peace”.
We founded Verifysoft without external capital in 2003. Until a start-up can generate profit, it takes on our experience three years. In 2003 we started with a “lean spell”– basically in “crisis-mode” but were able to continuously “pull-through” unperturbed. This experience helped us in 2008/2009 and contributes now to not start panicking.
We think positively and know what is to do. At Verifysoft we assume that the current challenging situation will soon be part of history. .
Our strategy has always been designed to be long-term: long-term success is more important to us than “the quick Euro”.
In the current challenging times, we have adjusted our goals. In the present year it suffices for us to cover costs and “make ends meet”. I believe it to be very realistic to achieve said goal with serious work and the “good fortune of the competent and proficient”.
A financial cushion naturally helps overcoming weaker periods. It is calming to know that our majority share-holders – who actively work in the company – primarily thought of the weal of the company and not personal “financial gain”.
Happy employees and happy customers are for us equally important as the end-of-year result which should only ever be seen as “means to an end”.
Our employees are highly motivated and “push” forward even now..
Verifysoft works with customers in currently 39 countries all over the world. In this pandemic, different industries need a different amount of time to get out of this crisis. We work with different industries such as automotive, aerospace but also medical technology and communication. This diversification reduces risk.
We think positively: : somewhere something will always – by the way, our last two orders came from Italy… and our numbers have been going up since June.
How does your company support its employees?
The success of Verifysoft can mainly be attributed to the work and motivation of our employees. In our small team everyone knows what depends on them.
In March we calculated that we safe money through “short-time work” and contract terminations. However, the work of our motivated employees is that valuable for us, that we decided to no longer pursue this topic. The saving potential we have not up here, we rather se as an “investment into the future”..
Since the founding of this company, we did not need any help from outside and we are convinced that will stay this way
A secure job and a secure income have a positive effect on the motivation of the employees which in return is beneficial for the company.
Having our employees assume responsibility is very important to us. Therefore, we early on offered the choice between going into Home-Office our staying in the actual office to all our employees, who were able to choose due to their function in the company. This worked out wonderfully and gave the opportunity to everyone to manage challenges like childcare flexibly.
Even before the crisis we lived extensive working hour models.
Motivated and responsible employees know themselves, when they are needed and when to take things somewhat easier. There are no “demands” from above.
Many of those who worked completely or partly “remote” returned into the team. One factor might be our positive working atmosphere…
How do you include your partners?
Long-term relationships – whether it may be with customers, delivery men, employees or other partners – are very important for us. When the crisis started, we neither questioned our cooperation nor did we reduce budgets.
Covid-19 has not changed the relationship with our partners.
What do you see in the future?
We are optimists and have a positive outlook into the future. I am convinced that we are now “only” – like in 2008/2009 in a temporary crisis.
Software will exist in the future – more than ever before. And this software needs to function properly – in cars, trains, mobile phones and other devices and applications. .
It may well be that we will have some more “quiet” months laying ahead of us, however we see a "light at the end of the tunnel".
How do you prepare for this?
Our development department is currently working on improving our software.
In sales and marketing, we still work to maximum capacity. Although we did work less in the last few months or rather wrote “smaller” receipts, we consolidated the contact with current and future customers via Mail, telephone or video conferences.We “keep a finger on the pulse” and do not “bury our head in the sand”. The future is being prepared today.
If we were to start assembling the people only once the economy would get started again, we would have wasted months. This is another reason why we have not registered for "short-work". We see this as an investment in our future.
At Verifysoft we are used to solve our problems ourselves. Overall, we do not act differently than anytime else.
We do our thing like we did before the crisis. Some people might think of this as negligent – however it might just be the key to new successes..
Klaus Lambertz, Geschäftsführer Verifysoft Technology