In an interview with Dr Udo Merten, Managing Director of the digital agency mertensteinke.de, Art Director Matin Mehrabi discusses the partnership with hsp.
The interview: in words and writing
Matin Mehrabi: First of all, we are delighted to have you here with us today, Dr Merten.
Dr Udo Merten: Thank you.
Matin Mehrabi: We would also like to thank you once again for taking the time to do this interview.
Dr Udo Merten: I’d be delighted.
Matin Mehrabi: Merten and Steinke – what does your company offer, and what do you specialise in?
Dr Udo Merten: Essentially, we are a medium-sized IT company with two main service areas. One is the traditional IT consultancy business, where we provide clients with the resources and expertise they need for their projects – ranging from requirements engineering through development to quality assurance and project management. At the moment, we’re certainly placing a strong emphasis on topics such as agile project management and agile methodologies in software development – using tools such as Scrum or Kanban, for example – and we’re also active in the coaching sector. We also offer guidance on how to transform IT organisations to become agile.
Our second main area of business is traditional back-office work, where we develop bespoke solutions ourselves using web technologies, as well as mobile applications and workflow solutions.
Matin Mehrabi: How did you first come into contact with hsp?
Dr Udo Merten: That’s actually the starting point – the last thing I mentioned to you just now – namely the topic of workflow solutions. Mr Liese, Managing Director of hsp, essentially tracked us down and got in touch with us. He approached us with an idea of how we might create value-added services for hsp products in some way, based on workflow-based extensions.
Matin Mehrabi: And what was your first impression of this idea?
Dr Udo Merten: Generally speaking, we’re always delighted to get in touch with people who try to think outside the box and consider how we can create added value through synergy. In that respect, we’re always very open to such ideas. I was pleased to receive the enquiry; I found the subject area very interesting. The topic of process documentation, here in this specific case, it’s always seen as something with a „must-do“ element, but in reality it’s an activity that we want to support as best we can – particularly when it comes to the mandatory tasks that our clients simply have to carry out. In that respect, I was very taken with the idea right from the start, and we very quickly began discussing this topic.
Dr Udo Merten: When you’re getting to know someone for the first time, I think you should always be open with one another – and perhaps, in that sense, also keep an open mind about the outcome. So I didn’t have any specific expectations, apart from the hope that we’d discuss the possibilities for cooperation quite openly and directly. That was certainly the case here. In that respect, we were able to establish a sound basis for discussion straight away and take this line of thinking forward. I found that very positive.
Matin Mehrabi: How well has the collaboration with hsp worked so far? And what do you think we could do better?
Dr Udo Merten: From my perspective, I can only report positive things at the moment. It’s got off to a very good start. Right from the start, there was a very open and direct atmosphere to our discussions, including questions such as: Who am I? What can I do? What do I want? What is my goal? What about you? How do our approaches fit together? It was a very positive experience. It was exactly the same when it came to the practical „doing“ – an uncomplicated and pragmatic approach. Whenever one person needed something from the other, it was always sorted very quickly through direct channels of communication without any fuss. This is a mindset that suits me personally very well – namely, that in the old ‘handshake culture’, you can still get things done together.
Matin Mehrabi: That’s good to hear. How do you feel about working with hsp in the future?
Dr Udo Merten: I think we’re on the right track together. We’re now working in partnership to expand hsp’s procedural documentation to include this workflow-oriented aspect of task management, and we’re actually starting to see the first results – which is a great feeling. I believe this also strengthens our collaboration. The expectation is that we’ll be able to translate this experience into further ideas for generating added value for our clients and, in doing so, further expand this triple-win situation – for hsp, for us at Merten Steinke, and for our shared clients.
Matin Mehrabi: Once again, I would like to thank you most sincerely, Dr Merten, for being here today.
Dr Udo Merten: I’d be delighted, thank you very much.
Matin Mehrabi: I hope you have a lovely rest of the day.
Dr Udo Merten: Thank you.
About Dr Udo Mertens and his agency, mertensteinke.de
As a digital agency, we mertensteinke.de The bridge between an internet agency and an IT implementation partner. Their mission: to create synergies through conviction and creative drive. For over 15 years, mertensteinke.de has been embodying the integration of digital disciplines that are converging in today’s world of communication and information processing. To deliver uncompromising quality through outstanding individual contributions and compelling teamwork.
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