Vision Statement - innovaphone

written by Dr. Petra Wanner-Meyer I December 11^th, 2023

The former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt is said to have uttered following quote during the 1980 election campaign:

“If you have visions, you ought to see a doctor.”¹

This assessment is no longer timely. Today, you will encounter some type of vision statement on many business websites. The vision is an orientation and a guiding principle for employees. It should inspire and motivate, and determine the direction of development for the company. A vision is not static. Instead, it is a dynamic process that is readjusted from time to time.

innovaphone was established in 1997. We are active in the very agile ICT industry and have continued to evolve as a business ever since the founding – despite all continuity in entrepreneurial matters. Our claims mirror these changes and developments over time in a nutshell. “Pure IP Telephony” was our initial claim, followed by “Pure IP Communications.” This second claim demonstrated that there was more to corporate communications than just telephony. Followed by “communicate. connect. collaborate.” - the fitting claim to accompany the launch of our myApps platform with UCC applications back in 2019. Ever since, our claims have always been closely linked to our vision, indicating the direction of our journey. What is the status today? What is our vision at the end of the year 2023, and what statement fits at this moment in time?

Our myApps platform is at the core of our vision. In the past, we had new products such as new gateways or new end devices. With myApps, however, an entire ecosystem has been created – a vast universe of products with plenty of room for new developments. What was the intent? Corporate communications require much more than just telephony. Applications such as chat messaging or video telephony that we were accustomed to in our private lives found their way to our workplaces – in form of UCC tools. Mobility has become a big thing. Working remotely from home or on the go – easy to accomplish with myApps. Yet there is more to it: We want to help businesses become more efficient and productive to create time and space for the truly important matters such as the development of new cures or breakthrough technologies to protect our environment. As we stand today, this is our vision. In accordance, new productivity apps are increasingly being added to the myApps platform, resulting in our refreshed vision statement: “more than communication.”

We had a few questions for Johannes Nowak – Head of Business Development International @innovaphone

Where is the myApps journey headed?

One major goal is surely to utilize the many advantages of the myApps platform architecture more extensively. These advantages include for example the low demand of resources, open APIs, many default (security) functions and on-premises availability. We want our partners to develop and provide solutions for this platform as well.

With our new slogan “more than communication,” we consciously focus on solutions that expand our product portfolio with tools that go beyond the purpose of communication, to enable use entirely without our communication components, for example with an existing communication system. I am thinking of our Working App to record working hours, project tools or CRM systems to complement the portfolio. Just as the new slogan already implies: Our existing portfolio is to be expanded and not replaced. The overarching aim is to create lean and efficient processes to enhance productivity within businesses.

How do you involve resellers / partners in selling the myApps ecosystem? Do new business opportunities arise for them?

So far, our partners involved in traditional telecommunications sales are more or less tied to the life cycles of a PBX. With this scenario, you only come across an opportunity for larger projects with a customer every five to ten years. If you now have a broader portfolio to offer, the partner can approach the customer with valuable additions to their existing solution, ultimately generating more revenue. Even better: The partner can offer these solutions even if a customer is already using communication system from another manufacturer. There are more sales opportunities, and you are given a head start for the next communication project.
What is more, these new solutions address far more users than telephony alone. If you take the time recording tool as an example. This is needed by employees at the supermarket, in a production plant and at many other workplaces which do not require an own telephone or extension.

We highly encourage our established partners to join us on our journey. Further, we are also confident that our solutions will also appeal to new partners who are able to and willing to provide consultation and integration services centered around the expanded portfolio. These new partners do not compete with our long-standing partners. It is more a matter of entering new sales territories.

Data protection and data sovereignty have been part of the innovaphone DNA right from the start. Do you notice that companies are becoming increasingly aware of these topics?

Many companies have always been very careful in handling data. This is the reason why the topic has been on our agenda very early on. Recent developments connected to cloud installations, the exploding number of cyberattacks - also affecting SMBs - and the rapidly changing political situation have increased awareness over the past years.

CEOs and IT administrators want to know what they can do to protect business and infrastructure. This is where we come into play. We provide solutions which are easy to manage and interesting from an economic perspective. Especially the security aspects integrated into our platform, our redundancy concept and our own operating system make our solutions efficient, low in maintenance and offer security for cloud installations and installations on premises.

Numerous projects in the public sector in various countries confirm that we meet particularly high security standards. The trust seals “IT security made in Germany” and “IT security made in Europe” help to establish trust with customers in Germany as well as on an international level.

How did the pandemic change the direction and development of innovaphone?

The pandemic profoundly altered the way we communicate. The workplace at the office was replaced by the remote workplace at home. Meeting up in person was largely replaced by virtual meetings with video conferencing technologies. This led to a new communication culture, seemingly more flexible and more diverse. This suited our concept “Anywhere Workplace” by innovaphone, which had been established long before the pandemic hit. The myApps client provides the UI to all solutions and is equally available to the various end devices. With the launch of myApps, we accomplished an important milestone prior to the pandemic. Adding multi-video conferencing without media disruption to the already existing solution was hence only another part of the development chain.

The new players in the communications sector such as Microsoft or Zoom further motivated us to look beyond communication and to develop ideas on how to utilize our platform even better. One example is our Connect App. We have been using it internally at innovaphone for just about a year now, and it truly is a game changer for our internal communication.

innovaphone does not follow fads of the market but often goes own ways when developing products. Do current market trends and pressures still influence the direction of innovaphone?

innovaphone does not exist in a bubble. Our partners and customers constantly need to decide between different offers. We perpetually need to reposition ourselves – and we do reinvent ourselves to a certain extent. It is not our goal to just be “different.” We analyze the requirements of the market and develop ways to meet these requirements. Our goal is to provide a particularly beneficial solution – this is perhaps from time to time also a “different” solution. However, you have to be careful that you do not exclusively follow pressures on the market. This is why innovaphone continues to launch products which are not a direct response to market requirements but rather an anticipation to future trends. This is exactly what happened when we launched myApps four years ago – we anticipated what the market would need today.

source:

^{[1] Chancellor Helmut Schmidt Foundation: collection of quotes (DE)}