Derdack - Annual report 2021

Could you please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your company?

I founded Derdack in 1999 in Potsdam, Germany. Derdack provides enterprise-class mobile alerting and incident management solutions. It helps companies and organizations to automate and centralize alert notification processes, allowing them to respond to critical incidents and emergency situations before they can impact business continuity. We offer two products: Enterprise Alert, an on-premises solution, and SIGNL4, a plug & play cloud solution. The former runs through the client’s data center and is designed for global enterprises and organizations with high security and data privacy requirements, while the latter addresses the needs of smaller customers. Derdack has customers in over 50 countries.

Could you explain why you decided to set up an office in Switzerland?

Switzerland is one of the most important markets for Enterprise Alert and SIGNL4. We already had numerous local partners and long-standing customers in manufacturing, banking, IT services, as well as federal and cantonal authorities. We were therefore keen to expand our market presence here. Based on our previous internationalization experience in the United States, we knew that the best way to increase our traction was through a local subsidiary. With Bern as a new location, we are close to our existing customers and partners and also have an excellent starting point for growth in all the linguistic regions of Switzerland.

How has GGBa supported you?

When we were approached by GGBa at an IT fair in Germany, we were considering further internationalization and looking at different locations across Europe. The contact with GGBa definitely tipped the scales in favor of Switzerland. The support that we received, both from GGBa and the Bern Economic Development Agency, included information about the company creation process, legal advice over tax issues, as well as introductions to trusted service providers. It was exactly what we needed, and made our investment journey a phenomenal experience.

The support that we received was exactly what we needed, and made our investment journey a phenomenal experience.

What’s your vision for Derdack in Switzerland? Where do you see the business in five years’ time?

As a cashflow driven company, we rely on organic growth. We are currently focused on growing our customer base in Switzerland, as well as on nurturing our existing network of clients and partners. To this end, we plan on hiring sales resources. Our goal is to integrate within the local ecosystem and to rapidly become a native company with Swiss employees. At a later stage, we are considering opening a data center in Switzerland for our cloud solution. We therefore expect to deploy the full range of positions in Bern in the medium term, as we will need technical services and engineering talent. We expect above-average growth in Switzerland in the coming years.

Matthes Derdack Co-Founder and CEO Derdack

Could you please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your company?

Could you explain why you decided to set up an office in Switzerland?

How has GGBa supported you?

What’s your vision for Derdack in Switzerland? Where do you see the business in five years’ time?

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