What is happening at Eurostep? How are you doing? How is COVID-19 affecting you?
Part 1 of 2
We all get similar questions these days so here is an update from Eurostep, sharing with you what we share with our employees.
First and foremost, our condolences to all who lost someone close during this taxing spring of COVID-19. May the care and love of those around provide you with comfort and peace in these difficult times. We would also like to take the opportunity to express our gratitude and appreciation to all the women and men fighting COVID-19, doing a remarkable job while many times risking their lives. And to the many brave and courageous people that are risking their business – hang in there, hope we will all make it!
Yes, the COVID-19 has hit us in Eurostep too. It is difficult or impossible to go anywhere and visiting our clients. Meeting our clients in person is part of what we enjoy most but a luxury that will have to wait for now. We also miss seeing our colleagues in the office.
What we have come to realise however, during this spring, is that COVID-19 has had very little impact in the way we work internally. Eurostep has always been a highly distributed company working across different countries and offices. As a Microsoft Gold Partner, we are using the full stack of Microsoft software and technologies including Office 365, Teams, SharePoint, DevOps etc. Some even say we have gained in efficiency by avoiding travel time to offices and skipping some meetings one can do without, at least in the short term. We are running some internal fun events every week, culminating at the end of April with the Eurostep 2019 Awards ceremony, all happening on Teams. We announced the Eurostep employee of the year and other categories representing or value words – Brave, Trusted, Dedicated, Successful and Making a Difference. It was great and fun seeing everyone participating from home and “getting together”! We try as much as possible to include everyone while working remotely, running hundreds of Teams meeting every day, internally and externally!
In a crisis like this, it is also very interesting to see which businesses are staying afloat. This is of course where everyone wants to be. During the recession in 2008-2009, we had a good 2008 and a bad 2009. One reason for 2009 hitting us was our installed base with ShareAspace was not big enough and the use of the system was not always business-critical. If it’s not business critical there is a risk it will be cut. We are now a more established SW vendor where ShareAspace based solutions must be up and running, being business-critical.
The digitalization of the supply chain is happening and, even with reduced activities, supplies need to ship, engineering changes need to be communicated and the dialogue must be digital and secure. Interestingly as ShareAspace proves its value to users in one project it is considered as a SW tool for more applications. We are unable to provide any details yet but we are getting involved with companies that are looking to separate from their business partner(s) and need a system for a period of time holding the joint data so access into inhouse corporate IT systems can be disabled. A kind of collaboration with a planned split in the near term. Other companies have an urgent need to redesign their supply chain and the way they interact with partners, suppliers and clients.
We keep on investing in marketing and sales with new recruitments – and we are doing it despite of, or rather because of COVID-19. We believe we can come out of this situation even stronger by investing now. So, expect more content such as papers, videos and webinars from us in the near future. There is so much we want to share with you. We have taken the time to review and update our privacy notice to reflect our intentions in regards to GDPR and our processing of your personal data.
Going back to the questions – What is happening at Eurostep? How are you doing? How is COVID-19 affecting you?
In summary, we are actually doing quite OK in these circumstances, thanks for asking. There is definitely a light at the end of the tunnel but there is light even inside the tunnel. Life after COVID-19 will change and won’t be the same. Nevertheless, we believe we will be an even stronger company post COVID-19 and we certainly hope to be able to demonstrate this to you. We look forward to working with you all in improving your collaboration capabilities, something that COVID-19 has demonstrated to us all is needed not only for survival but for long term success!
Stay safe and see you all soon!
Stay tuned for a second blog post out Wednesday this week, May 6.
