Partner Success Story
Business Systemhaus AG has been a partner of Portal Systems for many years. It sells, advises on and further develops Shareflex products from Portal Systems on behalf of its customers – in the cloud.
Until a few years ago, Business Systemhaus AG created and sold its own SharePoint-based DMS solution – but only on-premises. “These were the so-called Quickstart modules, with which we offered solutions for quality, complaints and document management, among other things,” says Sebastian Kronenberger, CEO of Business Systemhaus AG, looking back. However, these modules were very individual and also difficult to administer, he says, outlining a core problem. And then, around the year 2018, everything changed for BSH AG…
The cloud trend was gathering pace. “SMEs were increasingly turning to cloud technologies, and Microsoft was also becoming much stronger in the area of cloud products,” recalls Sebastian Kronenberger. This posed a problem for BSH AG: “Our Quickstart modules were designed exclusively for SharePoint on-premises,” the CEO explains. “It was simply not possible to make the transition to the cloud, it was too complex.” So, in order to continue to meet the needs of their own customers, they set out to find a partner with a similar portfolio.
Business Systemhaus AG (BSH AG) is an IT service provider based in Bayreuth, Franconia, which was founded in 1995 as a limited liability company (GmbH). The company’s history dates back to 1952, when a branch of Taylorix GmbH was opened in Bayreuth, which established itself as an IT organisation provider in 1967.
Today, BSH AG and its 54 employees support medium-sized customers in all sectors with their business IT, helping them to digitalise and optimise their business processes on the basis of Microsoft technologies. The focus is on five areas: ERP systems (formerly Navision, now Business Central), Modern Workplaces, Business Intelligence, Information and Communication Technologies and Sage HR. Customers are medium-sized companies from Germany and neighbouring countries with 5 to 400 Dynamics 365 users and a company size between 20 and 1500 employees.
The search eventually led them to software provider Portal Systems. The company met all the requirements that Business Systemhaus AG was looking for in a potential partner. Above all, there was one thing that was particularly important: the new partner had to have a similar product portfolio to the one that Business Systemhaus AG had built up itself as an on-premises variant. And Portal Systems was a perfect fit: “As project planners, we were clear that we wanted to enter the new world of the cloud without having to develop anything ourselves,” says Kronenberger. “We needed a partner who could take over 100 per cent of this development as a manufacturer.” What’s more, “Portal Systems has the same DNA as we do. We always want to work together as equal partners, because we don’t want to be just a service provider.”
“What was particularly important to us, in addition to a high-quality product, was mutual support in generating solutions,” emphasises Sebastian Kronenberger. “What we didn’t want was a supplier who said: ‘Our product is the way it is – and that’s it’.” It was about real partnership – not just licensing. In total, Business Systemhaus AG has more than 100 partnerships. “However, the core partnerships are limited to about 10 to 15,” says Kronenberger, “where we really work closely together, and Portal Systems is one of them.”
Before the partnership was sealed, a number of meetings were held at BSH AG. “We got to know each other and our respective working methods and found that they went well together,” says the BSH board member, describing the early stages. “We realised that we worked in the same way and had the same basic principles.” The meetings were followed by the first contract negotiations, which “didn’t take very long”, says Kronenberger.
Aspects such as data protection, principles for mutual procurement, obligations, contract duration and modalities, mutual benefits and related monetary agreements are important in these contracts, which govern a partnership. In the past, Kronenberger adds, such contracts included binding sales targets. This meant that a certain number of a product had to be sold each month. The BSH board member emphasises: “This is not the case here – and nowadays, such practices are no longer the norm.”
Contact with Portal Systems is intensive and takes place in a variety of ways. “Through teams, of course,” says Kronenberger, giving an example, “but also by telephone, in an uncomplicated and direct way. We meet officially twice a year to discuss what’s coming up, what the challenges are and how we can tackle them together.”
For its day-to-day business, BSH requires nothing more from Portal Systems than “the licence and access to the Shareflex online software itself,” explains Sebastian Kronenberger. “Apart from that, we do everything ourselves: we sell it, we advise, we develop it further and customise it if necessary,” he lists. “In the meantime, we have even set up our own reclamation module, ‘Claims Management’, in coordination with the Shareflex products.”
Sebastian Kronenberger describes the cooperation with Portal Systems as exemplary, intensive and friendly. “If we have a problem, we can communicate openly and quickly make an appointment to work on it,” he says. This may involve technical problems, such as a malfunctioning file transfer between Business Central and Shareflex Documents.
“If, for example, a customer calls us with a technical problem that we can’t solve immediately because we don’t know enough about it, we always have a hotline to Portal Systems. They work very closely together – even late into the night if necessary.” Kronenberger emphasises that the support is simply incredibly good.
“It’s not the two companies that are partners. It’s the people who work for them. Some really great connections have been made between the employees of both companies, and I think that’s something very special.”
Sebastian Kronenberger was particularly impressed by the “sincere honesty” in the way they dealt with each other during the collaboration. “They communicate exactly what the software can and cannot do,” he says, giving an example. “And if there is a problem, which has not been the case very often, it is addressed clearly. That way, you are just prepared to work on it together and not talk your way out of it.” In a partnership you can promise each other things like that, he explains, “but you can’t necessarily count on it. Less would have been fine.”
“It took just over two months from the first emails exchanging draft contracts to the final partnership agreement being archived,” says Kronenberger, who is still impressed. “The first discussions may have taken place a few months earlier, but everything went very quickly.” There have been no major challenges or problems over the past three years. “It was just a perfect fit from the start and I really couldn’t say anything negative even if I wanted to.”
And how has the economic situation improved as a result of the partnership with Portal Systems? “We have become more efficient,” says Sebastian Kronenberger. “Particularly in the first two years, we have implemented many projects with Shareflex products that we would not have had otherwise.” Thus, it was possible to attract existing customers who wanted to position themselves better and more digitally, with the advantages of the cloud, “especially with our two best-selling products in the portfolio, quality management and document storage.” But the partnership with Portal Systems has also attracted many new customers.
Are you interested in a cooperation, solution or technology partnership? Are you looking for a DMS/ECM solution that perfectly complements your portfolio as an ERP system provider (e.g. in the Microsoft Dynamics 365 BC environment)? Or do you have an idea for a new business application or industry solution based on Shareflex?
Then learn more about our partner programme and make an appointment to discuss your requirements. We look forward to your questions!
For Sebastian Kronenberger, one of the biggest advantages of the partnership with Portal Systems is that BSH does not have to produce, maintain, develop and operate the software itself. “That’s very convenient,” he says, “and it’s one of the things that we at BSH no longer wanted or could afford to do.” It would have meant expanding the team, and that was not an option.
A second benefit of the partnership is Portal Systems’ expertise: “We have a sparring partner who has the same expertise as we do and who knows, for example, the intricacies of SharePoint and the problems associated with it.” Shareflex, says Kronenberger, is a software that has been developed precisely for this area. “It is a great product that makes SharePoint usable in a completely different way, and this open exchange at a high level is simply a huge advantage for us.”
Sebastian Kronenberger describes the mood at BSH at the start of the partnership: “As Franconians, we are always a little reserved at the beginning and like to wait for the first successes,” he explains. The mood was neither negative nor euphoric, but rather one of waiting to see if everything would work out as planned. “I would almost say that our team is an ‘extended arm’ of Portal Systems. There is a very positive atmosphere and a lot of potential.”
“In order to get to know Shareflex better and to find out what the software can do,” the BSH team received intensive training from Portal Systems. And that is not all: “At Portal Systems they go one step further, because they always acquire the first customer for a product together,” says Sebastian Kronenberger and explains: “There is the theory – and the practice – and the latter is usually quite different.” He himself attended the Shareflex Documents training and remembers: “We really learned something there. After that, you are prepared for everything that comes your way.”
Further cooperation with Portal Systems as a partner is firmly planned. “We are very happy to continue this,” says BSH CEO Kronenberger, “because we simply work very closely together.” For the future, he hopes “that the cooperation will remain at the same level and that we will continue to grow together. And that’s basically what we do with every new joint project.”
Patrick Carl
Chief Sales Officer
Email: info[at]portalsystems.de
