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Ten years after its founding, the Vienna-based company SolveDirect has become one of the world’s leading companies in Service Management that guarantees robust connections between customers and service providers.

The idea was to help customers with multiple service providers in dispatching error messages without delay to the right service provider. Shortly after SolveDirect was founded in 2000, the year of the internet-boom, Martin Bittner and Marcus Oppitz recognized a business opportunity: A pilot project at Spar the Austrian retail chain had in its design a guarantee that the failure of cash registers, scales, PCs or printers is to be reported to the responsible service provider in order to fix the error. Roland Hahn, Head of computer science at Spar remembers how, 10 years ago, 200 branches were gradually connected to the service network. “Today we control the service management of 1270 branches across Austria with SolveDirect.” In the future, independent merchants will also be connected. Meanwhile, the IT departments at their Headquarters in Salzburg and in their six other subsidiaries also contribute to the savings by communicating via the SolveDirect platform. More than 200 SolveDirect customers worldwide use the platform for efficient collaboration. For the Viennese company that has almost doubled the number of employees this year, connection problems are easily resolved. Whether a customer uses software from CA, HP, IBM, Oracle or SAP, the service management processes are seamless. Looking back, Bittner and Oppitz are quite realistic: “It was an illusion that the whole B2B business will agree on one standard.” Therefore the SolveDirect offering which is a cloud application, satisfies each customer’s individual need while being assured that the technology is always up to date.  

Automatic Integration.

 

When SolveDirect recently discussed the progress of the integration platform, it noted how it allows the automatic integration of various systems of all service partners: “In five years we want to achieve that service management in the B2B environment is as easy as putting the plug into the socket. We are moving from B2B to E4B - Easy for Business.”

When asked about the structural similarity of trends such as Application Service Providing (ASP), SaaS or Cloud, CTO Oppitz responds: “Hagenberg-Professor Buchberger has indicated that computing had hardly changed in 50 years: It consists of input, processing and output. Sometimes only the name changed.” But still: “If you know how to articulate something that means that it is already 50 percent understood.” For example there is no outsourcing of development at SolveDirect, “because analysis shows that ”off”- or “near” shoring will only work well if the matter can be settled by a         Martin Bittner & Marcus Oppitz

simple scheme.” In Vienna “Pair-Programming” is preferred: “One works and

one other is looking over their shoulder. They have one desk and two

screens. Even the teams of the Big IT companies employed in Redmond

(Microsoft) or in Silicon Valley work this way.”, where SolveDirect

recently established a branch. 

According to Oppitz, SolveDirect got “six or seven promotions from the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG)” since its founding, most recently for the development of tools for collaboration based on Web 2.0. “We have added Chat and Wiki functions to facilitate communication within the workflow.” SolveDirect adheres to standards like ITIL but Oppitz sees serious changes in recent times: “The iPad changed the user experience and having to deal with technology completely. Thus, the level of acceptance of computers has decreased. It is obvious now that it also works without booting, tons of buttons and / or menus.” What could the industry learn from “Apple’s Revolution”? “The art of simplification!” In a method developed by SolveDirect, the number of decision options was reduced to one tenth.

Oppitz can imagine iPad or iPhone as a device for the service manager or technician. While he develops relevant apps, he doesn’t forget the core business which is the fast integration of all service partners: “B2B Integration needs to be quicker and easier.” This is achievable if accurate standard methods are developed; the key words are “low touch” and “no touch”. “Low touch means that both partners have little effort in the integration, no touch means they don’t have any effort.”

 

In 2000, before the end of the internet hype, Martin Bittner and Marcus Oppitz founded SolveDirect with the goal of increasing efficiency in the maintenance of everyday life. The SolveDirect Bridge for connecting customers and service providers was used as a pilot project at the retail chain Spar. 2004 a service desk application was launched and in 2006 SolveDirect presented Cube, a solution for large, international companies. Today SolveDirect is an international player in Service Management and is the technology leader in smart integration. In 2007 SolveDirect was taken over by the Brainforce Group and was divided into a separate company again in late 2009. Besides Brainforce the 3TS Cisco Growth Fund is a major shareholder of SolveDirect. In May 2010 a branch in California’s high-tech location Silicon Valley was established.