Gregor, you have been dealing with the topic of data automation for a long time. How did this start?
Gregor: I have been working in the field of Business Intelligence and Data Analytics for almost 30 years. In the early days, I noticed that when setting up DWH solutions, the same questions about the right architecture were asked again and again and that many very similar development steps had to be taken in the implementation. That’s when I discovered that this calls for automation and standardization. So we built an automation framework that was used in the implementation service in the early 2000s.
A framework sounds more like tinkering than a mature software product?
Gregor: Absolutely – it wasn’t something to pass on to a customer. It was more of an expert system for our consultants in the field of DWH implementation.
What happened next?
Gregor: Our customers saw how quickly we could implement their DWH solutions with this automation approach and wanted to use the tool themselves. By 2005, we had turned the framework into a real software product that could confidently be passed on to customers. That was the birth of the first product version.
And this product is still used?
Gregor: No, that was one of the previous biGENIUS products. In 2011, Trivadis bought my company with the plan to develop a completely new product called biGENIUS, which would build on the experience of the previous products and makes many things even better. In the last 10 years, the software product and the customer base have developed very successfully.
In August 2021, Trivadis was then taken over by Accenture. What’s next with biGENIUS?
Gregor: As part of this transaction, the biGENIUS division was spun off into an independent product company – today’s biGENIUS AG. The existing biGENIUS team was also transferred to the new biGENIUS AG and will focus on sales, development, maintenance, support, enablement and setup services for the biGENIUS product range. For me, a dream comes true – in that we can make our baby internationally successful.
It sounds like a start-up – a brand new biGENIUS company. As a new company, how do you want to conquer the world?
Gregor: Laughs – Yes, it feels like a start-up with over 10 years of history!
To conquer the world, we must be scalable. We have been working on our new biGENIUS SaaS solution for some time. This year we will launch the cloud version of biGENIUS and thus be able to serve customers all over the world. I am really looking forward to it!
More on that another time. I have to go now and answer some exciting customer requests for proposals. I look forward to our next conversation.
