KID impregnation and sealing technology GmbH

Management Summary

Companies that deliberately choose not to have their own IT and instead prefer to focus on more important tasks outsource their IT management to an external partner and obtain everything they need "as a service" from the cloud. For example, IT-HAUS not only supported the former Henkel subsidiary KID in setting up its own IT as part of a management buy-out, but also ensures smooth IT operations on a permanent basis as part of a managed service contract. The flexible consumption and subscription model guarantees the customer that it can adapt its environment to its growth and the associated requirements at any time at the click of a mouse.

Added value for the customer

Project environment

Towards the end of 2021, the Henkel Group decided to sell its European impregnation business for strategic reasons. At the end of a long project phase, the long-standing Managing Director Markus Alterauge and his son Jannik Alterauge won the bid. The company then changed hands on November 1. Since then, the former Henkel Loctite KID GmbH has been trading as KID Imprägnier- und Dichttechnik GmbH and, as a medium-sized, family-run company, intends to respond even more flexibly to customer needs and expand long-term partnerships in future.

However, with the spin-off from the Henkel Group, the IT infrastructure previously used was also lost. For KID, this meant starting from scratch and providing the entire IT environment, from the server infrastructure to the network and Internet connection, within just a few months - and without an in-house IT department to take on the project. Due to a lack of in-house capacity, a competent partner was sought and found in IT-HAUS .

In addition to the close personal support and open communication, the nationwide presence with permanent employees at over 26 locations was also an important decision criterion for IT-HAUS , says Jannik Alterauge looking back: "As we have nine locations in Germany alone and a further four in Eastern Europe, we needed an IT partner who could cover this. If we have an urgent hardware problem in Berlin, for example, someone has to be on site within an hour to solve the problem."

"Due to the lack of IT capacity, it was the customer's express wish that we take on the role of IT manager when designing the future IT environment," recalls Dr.-Ing. Matthias Bender, Head of Competence Center Productivity & Applications at IT-HAUS. For the IT system house headquartered in Föhren (near Trier), it was important to determine the requirements while remaining within the planned budget.

A comprehensive IT assessment was to provide answers. "Before the buy-out by Henkel was made public, it was very difficult for us to obtain information," reports Marco Barth, Senior Project Manager at IT-HAUS. "Our hands were partially tied because we were not allowed to talk to anyone about the planned transfer of operations." "Nevertheless, two teams were able to carry out a comprehensive inventory of the IT used at all locations in Germany," adds Max Dechow, Senior Account Manager at IT-HAUS.

The costs for the upcoming project could only be roughly estimated at this early stage. "Parallel to our tour of all locations, there were a series of requirements workshops on topics such as network, printing, client/notebook and IT security, on the basis of which we were only able to submit complete offers for the technical implementation," explains Matthias Bender.

The KID management's main focus was on ensuring the smoothest possible transition to business operations on the specified date - a Herculean organizational task for the project management team at IT-HAUS GmbH . "After all, this was not a classic start-up with two employees," explains Marco Barth, "but 170 employees had to be able to continue working from day one." In order to overcome this challenge given the tight schedule, a cloud-only approach was pursued from the outset. "The aim was to install, operate and maintain as little hardware as possible on site," continues Bender. That's why the company opted for cloud-based solutions wherever possible and sensible.

Project success

“Wir haben uns auf die Bereiche E-Mail, Office und Zusammenarbeit konzentriert und dabei wesentliche Sicherheitsfunktionen berücksichtigt, wie zum Beispiel den Schutz der Endgeräte vor Viren. Beispielsweise mit den Microsoft Produkten Microsoft Defender und Microsoft 365 konnten diese Themen abgebildet werden”, sagt Matthias Bender. “Zusätzlich benötigt der Kunde weitere Server, um seine eigenen Anwendungen zu betreiben.“

The required virtual machines are provided via the IT-HAUS cloud. The IT-HAUS cloud implements the latest storage technologies and offers all the necessary security functions to ensure the company's digital sovereignty and compliance.

The fact that the KID's end devices were also to be managed via a familiar endpoint management platform made commissioning in the new environment child's play: "All notebooks were pre-installed and refueled by us at Föhren ," says Max Dechow, "so that users could simply open their device later and get started immediately without any waiting time." To ensure that users were able to work without restrictions from day one, "we provided them with instructions for logging into the new environment for the first time. For the customer's international locations, this was even available in different languages," adds Matthias Bender.

WLAN controllers and firewalls, which were also preconfigured in Föhren and then sent to the individual locations, ensure a reliable Internet connection at the KID locations. The on-site installation was supported by IT-HAUS technicians from the nearest branch office. Since then, the company's network has been monitored and managed by a managed service from IT-HAUS . "Thanks to our extensive partner network and strong partners such as Aruba and Microsoft, we are always able to find the best IT infrastructure configurations for our customers," reports Matthias Bender.

"Two weeks before the agreed deadline, all the hardware had already been installed at all locations and the internet was working everywhere, so our employees could actually have started work," says a delighted Jannik Alterauge.

For KID, the scheduled restart in no way marked the end of the collaboration with IT-HAUS, emphasizes Matthias Bender: "It was clear to the customer from the outset that they wanted us to provide continuous support after day X. That's why we started planning the transition from the project phase to the service phase in good time. That's why we started planning the transition from the project phase to the service phase in good time." Today, the IT-HAUS Service Desk is the central point of contact for all IT faults at KID and takes on other administrative tasks. "This allows us to intervene at an early stage and often resolve problems before the customer even notices," explains Bender.

Onboarding new employees is also made easier by the all-round carefree package, aka "Managed Service", from IT-HAUS GmbH : "We work with the customer to define everything a new employee needs," explains Max Dechow. "We then order the right notebook with the desired features, set up their email inbox and assign the appropriate authorizations so that they have a fully functional IT environment when they start work."

In regular review meetings with those responsible at KID, tickets, service assignments and response times are compared and optimization potential is derived in order to ensure smooth operation in the future and to further develop the IT environment.

One of the biggest advantages for the customer: They have trouble-free IT that they don't have to worry about and can concentrate fully on their core business instead. The agreed budgets were always adhered to exactly, as Jannik Alterauge confirms: "Even in the project phase, but also in the service phase, we stayed within the framework announced by IT-HAUS ." Clearly defined billing of costs ensures maximum planning security at all times - and the necessary flexibility for dynamic company growth. "Especially in the initial phase of setting up our company, we wanted to keep our investment costs low and shift them to the operating phase in order to protect our liquidity," explains Jannik Alterauge.

"All in all, IT-HAUS was exactly the right partner for this very complex and streamlined project, which we were able to successfully implement together," says the shareholder happily - also with a view to the future: "There will be more projects. We made a conscious decision to focus on the cloud in order to further advance the topic of digitalization with the help of IT-HAUS ."

Our experts will be happy to advise you on the individual options.

Fill out our contact form or call us directly. We look forward to talking to you.