We have not only grown older, but also better
The best from 21 years
And because even the best in their field don’t always get everything right, we’re sharing a few of our stories that have taught us something – or simply entertained us.
How quickly time passes. Another year is over.
This was our anniversary year
Behind us lie 12 eventful months that presented us with some hurdles, but also brought new experiences. As is the case for many companies, the Corona location was a particular challenge for nexnet. Thanks to our modern way of working and the high level of digitalization, we were able to quickly master the transition between office and remote work. But it is precisely these experiences that make the 21 years of the company’s history so special. Most important were and are the many great moments we experienced together with our colleagues, despite mostly remote work and fancy company parties.
Over this long period of 21 years, our company has grown steadily. We now have more than 110 colleagues in our team. Among them are many trainees and dual students who are supported by experienced trainers. It’s the great people who make a company what it is.
We have realized ideas, conquered new markets and work with many different customers. We will soon be launching new cloud products for small and medium-sized enterprises. And nexnet will also shine digitally in new splendor, as we give our website a modern exterior.
When we look back at nexnet’s beginnings and compare them with the company of today, we are proud of what we have achieved and look forward to the future with excitement.
From long customer relationships and great commitment
How do you win customers in the long term? How do you motivate your employees? We have asked ourselves these and other questions again and again over the past 21 years. And worked hard to find suitable solutions.
The basis of a good customer relationship is customer satisfaction. We maintain close and regular contact with our customers. To quickly address questions and problems and overcome hurdles. The great commitment of our employees is a key success factor in our company. And jointly responsible for the loyal and long-standing customer relationships we have accumulated in over 20 years of company history.
Over the years we have also put a lot of work into our web presence, and constantly improved our website. Meanwhile, we also use various social media channels, for dialog with potential new customers. You don’t know us there yet? Follow now and discover our news!
Sustainable corporate structure
Anyone who has been around for 21 years, like us at nexnet, naturally takes care of the next generation. As a respected BPO company, we can train business economists and business IT specialists, among others.
Our managing director Lars Heucke likes to talk about a “sustainable company structure” at nexnet and means that there should be a balanced relationship between long-time employees* and new colleagues* and trainees. Because only in this way can everyone benefit and learn from each other. Rigid, entrenched hierarchies, as they still exist in many other companies or public authorities, are a horror to us. At nexnet, we promote shared togetherness, where everyone can get involved.
In recent years in particular, we have invested heavily in training young talent. And today we can say that we now have a ratio of about 10% of trainees among the entire workforce. And many decide to stay with the company after their training and continue to strengthen the nexnet team.
As a result, there are more and more employees who have been with the company for more than 10 years. Which is a rather rare phenomenon, especially in this industry. We look forward to being able to offer young people an apprenticeship in the years to come.
1,000 liters of coffee drink our Employees* every month
Sailing and boat trips
In our 21 years, there have been employee events that we always remember fondly. Our colleagues from Flensburg were happy to invite us on a sailing trip. The rides on the big, proud 3-Master were particularly impressive.
With a strong wind we went out into the open Baltic Sea. And under tense sails we sailed from Flensburg towards Kiel. Many a landlubber had to struggle with seasickness. But even that couldn’t dampen the adventure. On board, with good supplies, we all had our fun and enjoyed the fresh sea air.
In return we invited our colleagues from Flensburg to our waters in Berlin. The Wannsee is not as rough and wild as the Baltic Sea, but even here we had many an adventure. Although some of us were soaking wet, it didn’t dampen our spirits. With clothes almost dried, good food and warm drinks, the boat trip continued.
But a sailing trip like this is not just fun and remains an impressive memory: on the high seas, we got to know many unique facets of our colleagues that we would probably never have seen in everyday office life.
Departure into new markets
Call by call is still a familiar term for many people. This market used to be extremely promising in terms of profits, but today it is increasingly disappearing. For us, this means: “Every change is an opportunity. If this business model no longer exists, we’ll just evolve.”
We launched new services such as payment clearing and(subscription) billing in unfamiliar markets. We achieved significant successes in e-commerce, for example.
When we took part in the tender for an MDAX company, we had no idea what a key experience this was going to be. Our colleague Farid Langshausen recalls: “In many hours of work, a team of several people prepared about 120 documents that showed in detail what nexnet could do and also answered all the customer’s questions in detail. In the process, we learned a lot about ourselves, who we are as nexnet and what sets us apart as a company.” The hard work and great team performance finally paid off and we were awarded the contract.
We are also breaking into new markets thanks to our very good quality management and various certifications. We have been working with many of our contractors for a long time. Together with them, we are constantly developing, learning and looking to the future with excitement.
Together we overcome the teething problems
Behind us lie 21 turbulent years, with ups and downs.
During our beginnings as a pure clearing house, we focused on the telecommunications sector, as this market was constantly growing. But there was strong competition. It was often difficult to find the right balance between price wars, margins and profits. But gradually we established ourselves on the market, because we proved that we did fast, effective and high quality work.
Our company grew and we offered new services. With these, we were then able to convince even larger customers.
Limiting ourselves to just one market was out of the question for us. Because we knew that we were positioned with our services in an industry-neutral way. For example, we tried to do business with energy suppliers. However, we were unable to compete with our competitors in this market.
But we wouldn’t be us if we didn’t learn something from every lost pitch. And so we won other markets for ourselves and continue to grow steadily today.
More about our current customers and their case studies
We have already delivered more than 750 laptops to charitable organizations donated
Our trade fair appearances 2020/21
Since the start of the Corona pandemic, everyday life has been turned upside down. And we as a company also had to face many challenges due to the situation: We were no longer allowed to meet our customers in person, had to close our office for several months and were no longer able to participate in the trade fairs we so enjoyed.
trade fairs
participate.
But thanks to the Internet and our willpower, we have found ways to be close even in these extraordinary times. And we could continue to help other people get started in the subscription economy with our expertise. These efforts include our participation in the A-Commerce Day 2020, where we were able to exchange views on the current developments in online retail on the virtual podium.
Although we were not able to put a smile on the faces of our audience with cool give-aways as usual, the exciting presentation by our colleagues Ingo Hentschel and Mario Kaiser provided helpful tips, showed the diversity of our services and gave insights into our daily work.
Having big plans is easy
Actually implementing them, on the other hand, is much more difficult. Fortunately, our employees are characterized by diligence, perseverance and motivation, which is why we have been able to manage every project together so far. But one of our colleagues has distinguished himself through very special commitment to nexnet.
In order to impress our new customer with a fast and error-free creation of test invoices, this courageous colleague agreed to work many overtime hours. With utmost concentration, he worked his way through the bills as time went on and on. However, when the clock read 3:30 a.m., he realized it was already too late to take the public transportation home. So he searched the office for a suitable place to sleep and finally made himself comfortable under his desk with an old pillow and a woman’s coat as a blanket. After being spotted by another employee in the morning, news of his nighttime exploit quickly made the rounds. After all, he managed to finish the test calculations on his own and even gave up his well-deserved resting sleep to do so. Even today, we are amazed at his enormous dedication and are grateful to have had him on our team for 20 years.
A royal procession
April 29, 2011 is a truly historic date. On this day, not only countless Royal fans followed the wedding of Prince William and Kate, but also many Berlin city center residents watched the move to our new office. We had been waiting for this moment for six months, patiently awaiting the conversion work. The former law office with its “shoebox offices” was to become an open and modern office according to our own wishes. And the architects really excelled in the design, so that we even became a model office for the other tenants in the building.
So, with packed furniture carts and plenty of IT, we welcomed our new home in Berlin-Mitte in April. We spent an entire weekend hanging out under the tables to neatly lay all the cables and competing with each other for the most beautifully set up workspace. A few weeks later, we were able to celebrate the final result at an inauguration ceremony with all our employees and many customers. In the meantime, we have been living in the office for 10 years and are more than satisfied. But what we love even more than our beautiful office are, of course, the people we share it with.
19+ years are some colleagues already on board with us
What do athletes and entrepreneurs have in common?
Both need strong competitors to spur them on to top performance. Healthy competition ultimately awakens ambition, fighting spirit and motivation – And that is precisely what nexnet’s success is based on. Starting as a clearinghouse we soon tried to reach for the stars under the foundation & leadership of Dr. Rainer Caspar. We had a clear vision and big plans for our then still small company. But these plans were in danger of being thwarted when a company with the same service portfolio was founded 560 km away from us.
What was initially a bit of a shock for us and made us look anxiously to the future, however, quickly proved to be a real motivator. Indeed, the new challenge that the Düsseldorf-based company presented us with awakened our entrepreneurial “sporting spirit” and led us to tackle our tasks even faster, even better and even more creatively. In the end, the hard work also paid off, because our business model proved to be much more future-proof and nexnet was able to emerge as the winner in this competition.
Where one door closes, another opens
This applies to life as well as to the office. In our old nexnet office, until 2011, we actually had to run a half marathon to get past the numerous locked doors and get to the next office room. But at least Tegel Airport was only a stone’s throw away. This meant that we were able to land at all our customers from Terminal 1 within a very short time.
Since our move to the city center, we have enjoyed open, modern office space with far fewer doors. And hopefully they will be open to our customers and employees again soon.
What does not fit is made to fit
At least that’s what we thought when we set up the technology room in our old nexnet office. Accommodating the huge servers with their thousands of lamps and cables in one place was not at all easy. And no sooner was everything safely stowed away than the next problems arose: the noisy rattling of the servers and the accompanying hellish heat. To our rescue, we therefore had to insulate an office room with a material in egg-box appearance.
Since our move to the center, however, we have downsized significantly in terms of server technology. Now we can store everything safely and easily, as the servers are only the size of two pizza boxes. However, we have not cut any corners when it comes to our IT security, because here the motto is clearly: more is more.
Our IT has already set up over 1,000 laptops and workstations
Lars Heucke
Managing Director
A thank you to all employees and customers
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my colleagues for their commitment and motivation. We have experienced and gone through a lot together, which fills me with pride and makes me look back with satisfaction.
My thanks also go to all our loyal customers who have enabled us to constantly learn, grow and get better over the past 21 years. I look forward to many more projects and beautiful moments with you by our side.
