Swiss centralisation completed

The centralisation of Aimondo’s internationally positioned and globally oriented customer service, which was already announced in 2020, has now been completed and is concentrated in Switzerland. Since July 2022, all of the group’s customers from all countries to which Aimondo invoices have switched to contracting and invoicing from Switzerland. As a final building block, the German operational businessrelations will now also be formally served from Zurich.

After that, service components of programming and German-language customer service will remain in Germany but under the umbrella of the Swiss public limited company. Another company has already been handling parts of investor support, marketing and planning services for the founding shareholder and the Swiss Aimondo headquarters for over two years. The transition was seamless. The plan is to formally integrate this company as such or its tasks. This will then make the overall operational structure even leaner, i.e. it will also be well prepared for the future stock exchange listing as a holistic entity.

René Grübel, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Aimondo AG, already stated in a press release a few weeks ago: “Aimondo’s orientation has been international from day one. Now the focus on the European markets is beginning to bear fruit. In addition to opening up additional sales channels, this will also improve stability independent of local developments. Moreover, Switzerland has a first-class reputation worldwide as a reliable, innovative and trustworthy digital partner.” Last but not least, in this year’s ranking of the “Economist” group, Zurich ranks third behind Vienna and Copenhagen as one of the world’s most liveable cities.

The fact that the legal administration of the software remains with the founding partner TTIP Ltd. in Nicosia is a tradition for Aimondo’s founders and is favoured by the developer-friendly IP regime of the Republic of Cyprus. Thus, further product development in Zurich is to be completed alongside Düsseldorf in the digital stronghold of Limassol the international part of the developer team an attractive place to live and coordinate. Heinrich Muller, founder and CEO, emphasises: “For the further expansion of the core of artificial intelligence that I have been programming for a good ten years, the best experts are in demand. And we can attract them more easily to the Mediterranean region than to Germany and more cheaply than to Switzerland. In addition, the regulatory environment is a particularly interesting destination, especially for IP (note: intellectual property) and also for international investors. The copyright management had already been in the founding company of Aimondo AG since 2016 anyway. Since 2018, we have already maintained the legal framework for a technology development there as a separate company.”

This means that the basic structure is clear and very transparent legally and economically for the corporate partnerships. Aimondo AG in Zurich forms the head and the distributors in the individual countries work to it. The same applies to the development teams. The business customers, some of whom are located all over the world, only have to deal with one central office in administrative and legal terms. Active practical support continues to take place in the local language or from dedicated country desks.

At a time when the question of a physical headquarters no longer arises, this is a bridge structure to the globally networked, virtually structured company. “The best place to work is the one I choose for myself,” says Harvard professor Raj Choudhury in an interview with the business magazine brandeins (issue 4/22). Whether this requires a physical headquarters is up for discussion. And whether it will be in Düsseldorf, Zurich, Limassol or completely virtual remains to be seen. With e-citizenship, the Baltic states are pursuing a very interesting approach of offering the new digitally organised companies a virtual home.

Stephan A. Jansen, Professor for Management, Innovation and Financing at the Karlshochschule in Karlsruhe and visiting professor for Urban Innovation at the Berlin University of the Arts, is quoted by brandeins as saying: “On the one hand, it will become more analogue, i.e. more co-present in the headquarters, which is simultaneously an event space, restaurant, bar, dance hall, sports club, university, design and media house. And on the other hand, the companies will get a clever digital twin, with which one can realise oneself undisturbed and self-determined in one’s homely office with pets, plants and professional home video studios – just as if one were on site. Even if some have never heard of it and others already don’t take it seriously: Metaversen might actually have a future as a digital twin.”

Except for the core technical team, Müller says, “The people we want already have a job. So we have to offer them something that no one else can.” And he also takes his cue from Elise Müller of Spryker, who is responsible for new working worlds there. Today, all of the almost 500 employees there can work from wherever and whenever they want. According to Müller, the order of priority is: “Remote first, all meetings take place digitally” Elise Müller herself is sitting in front of the computer in a T-shirt during the video interview with brandeins, with lush green vegetation in the background. She had connected from San José, Costa Rica.

A method of working that her namesake at Aimondo also practices himself. For years, he has been in permanent conference with the teams. From Düsseldorf, Vienna, Los Angeles or Nicosia. In a classical structure, he would probably be the mayor of a global village in the model of MIT professor Marshall McLuhan, who coined the term 60 years ago in his book “The Gutenberg Galaxy”.

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