01/22/2019 - "Anyone who talks about the successful digitization of administration in Germany has Bremen in mind. And means your work." Dr. Stephan Klein, Managing Director of Governikus KG, had these words of praise for the work done by his colleagues. Together with Bremen's Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Chairman of the IT Planning Council Hans-Henning Lühr and Supervisory Board Chairman Martin Hagen, the Managing Director opened the company's new premises at the Hochschulring.
It was getting too cramped at the old location. Founded in 1999 with five employees, the software company quickly established itself as an authority on eGovernment. The digitization of administration, made in Bremen, so to speak. Today, around 160 employees in Bremen and Berlin work on solutions for secure electronic identities, communication, encryption and long-term security. Specialized software from which almost every German citizen has benefited at some point - even if unknowingly.
Governikus KG's customer base includes municipalities, states and the federal government. These are the very organizations that work with the particularly sensitive data of citizens on a daily basis and have to communicate with each other.
New space was found in the former premises of the Economics Department of the University of Bremen, just a few hundred meters from the previous location. "We needed a building that fulfilled our ideas of modern workplaces," continues Dr. Stephan Klein. "That means an open, flexible design and enough space to allow future projects to develop as well. At the same time, proximity to the university was also important to us."
On more than 3,500 square meters, the Bremen-based company made its vision of modern workplaces come true. The conversion of the building on the Hochschulring took around two months, during which the rooms were completely redesigned and modernized and more than 800 network sockets and around 15 kilometers of network cable were installed.
The biggest logistical challenge was to ensure that all technical systems were available at all times. During the move, which took more than three weeks in total, the employees at the sites and at home in their home offices had to be able to work without any restrictions. Several hundred servers had to be transported to the new location without any downtime. A project that succeeded thanks to good preparation and implementation. "Here we were able to benefit from the great expertise of our colleagues, which is usually enjoyed by our customers," says Dr. Stephan Klein.
