After rescheduling our Partner Day in 2020 at short notice due to the pandemic and offering an online event, we were very happy to welcome our valued partners back in-house in 2021. The topics focused on
- the innovations we created last year,
- the new opportunities created by our parent company AEB SE, and
- upcoming changes that await us in the coming year.
Opening and presentation of the new shareholder structure
After a short and cozy brunch, where we enjoyed the already unaccustomed sociability, we moved on to the official part. Roland Thürmer, CEO of BEX since November 2020, opened the BEX Partner Day. He emphasized the importance of the role of our partners and the importance of a good partnership.
An event from 2020 was also brought up on this occasion: the new shareholder structure and the change of the board of directors. This provided clarity for everyone. Even for those who had not followed the developments so closely. It is precisely through a new set-up that the independence and the role of BEX as a partner capable of serving medium-sized companies will be secured in the future. AEB’s involvement opens up the opportunity to expand the product portfolio and make it available through the partner channel.
Afterwards, our colleagues who joined us this year, Jörg Jahnke from Sales, Tizian Finzel and Paul Schubert from Support, and Bence Havran from IT Infrastructure, introduced themselves and explained which tasks and products they are responsible for.
MODULAR – the new pricing model of BEX
Our sales team has been thinking together about a new pricing model over the last few months. While the previous “Professional” pricing model served us well for many years, it was also designed to be confusing and complicated in some cases. The MODULAR pricing model is now intended to offer more transparency and simplicity in the preparation of quotations. Our partners welcomed this innovation very much and gave extremely positive feedback on it.
Artificial intelligence and blockchain – new technologies in the world of customs
Artificial intelligence and blockchain have become trendy terms of our time. Do these also have a place in the customs world or is this just science fiction? The answer: AI can already be used as a valuable tool that dramatically simplifies workflows when tariffing and classifying goods and dual-use goods by making suitable suggestions. In their guest presentations, Ulrich Lison and Daniel Schüler from AEB SE also conveyed, among other things, how blockchain or microtransactions can be used to automate the entire customs process, including payment processing. This, too, is by no means pure dreams of the future, but is currently being tested by the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics in cooperation with AEB.
Fresh warm tarte flambée and a lot of sunshine – afterwards “Ran ans ans Holz” (get to the wood)
After the rich information offered mental nourishment, it was then time for the body to be strengthened as well with a good lunch. For this partner day, we came up with something very special: There were fresh tarte flambée directly from the mobile wood-burning oven. The baking team “Hofladen Hermannsfeld” placed this directly in front of the building. The traditional delicacy was very well received by our partners and colleagues. So we found again the opportunity for refreshing conversations at the bar tables under the open sky and wonderful sunshine.
With the following action “Ran an’s Holz” we had called for overcoming one’s own limits – for many it was a good opportunity first of all to overcome an impending midday slump. Roland Thürmer, an active karateka in his spare time, presented the participants with a small but masterable challenge: to punch through a real wooden board with his fist. After a short introduction and concentration exercise, many of our participants decided to dare. Finally, all participants managed to complete the task and the event could go on after this diversified loosening up.
Quo Vadis, export portal and UX in product development
Sebastian Baumgarten, product manager at BEX, guided the participants through the upcoming innovations regarding. AES 3.0, showing screenshots that depicted concrete adjustments and made our partners aware of the changes.
Since user experience (UX), i.e. the design of user-optimized processes, is an ongoing topic at BEX, our colleague Sebastian Baumgarten together with our former UX intern Kim Kira Stöhr took the partners on a short UX excursion. After an explanation of the role UX plays in new product development, the steps were shown how our partners should define a so-called “Buyer Persona” together. By asking specific questions, we created a fictitious person whose characteristics and needs ideally reflect the people we work with as our sales and solution partners. We compared these with previously made assumptions and found many exciting similarities and differences in the characteristics. From now on, our product management can take this newly gained knowledge into account in future processes and development steps.
It was a successful event again this year, with plenty of opportunity for networking and a lively exchange between us and our partners. Probably the most important thing for all participants was to be able to get closer again on a human level, in personal exchange.
We are very much looking forward to Partner Day 2022 and would like to thank all participants and everyone else who made this day so diverse.
Gender Disclaimer: For the sole purpose of better readability, gender-specific spelling is not used. All personal terms are therefore to be understood as gender-neutral.
