msg joins The Climate Pledge, a commitment to be net-zero carbon by 2040 - a decade ahead of the Paris Climate Agreement's 2050 target.  The IT and consulting company has even set a firm goal to become carbon neutral as early as 2030. “The Climate Pledge” initiative was co-founded by Amazon and Global Optimism in 2019. Since then, more than 300 companies have signed “The Climate Pledge”.

The topic of sustainability has always played a central role at msg throughout the company’s 40-year history. Sustainability, for example, is also one of msg’s seven values, which express the company’s self-image in terms of how it treats people and the environment. Since 2020, sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) have also been firmly anchored in msg’s corporate strategy – Roadmap 2025. In this Roadmap, CSR forms one of the company’s 13 strategic goals up to 2025.

By signing The Climate Pledge, msg commits to:

• Measure and report greenhouse gas emissions on a regular basis.
• Implement decarbonization strategies in line with the Paris Agreement through real business change and innovation, including efficiency improvements, renewable energy, material reductions, and other carbon avoidance strategies.
• Neutralize all remaining emissions through additional, quantifiable, real, permanent, and socially beneficial offsets to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040 - a decade ahead of the Paris Agreement's 2050 target.

Christiane Rimat, Head of CSR executive department at msg, says: "As the CSR officer of the msg group, I am very proud that msg has joined “The Climate Pledge” and thus set another example in terms of sustainability. In addition, msg is now part of a community that shares knowledge, ideas and best practices. Together, we can take collective action to achieve net-zero carbon emissions.”

From July 1, 2022, msg services and msg treorbis belong together under company law: With the "new" msg services, msg is combining the extensive range of services offered by the two companies. The merger will enable the market potential to be leveraged even more successfully. The course is thus clearly set for growth. On July 1, 2022, Michael Wilk and Bernhard Allwang will take over as managing directors of the msg group company msg services GmbH. Both have already been working in the msg group for many years.

msg services will combine the wide range of competences in managed services and consulting, and will be oriented toward cross-industry activities. This way, the group company will be positioned as one of the leading full-service solution providers. Joint accelerated growth will also be supported by the change in legal form from a stock company (AG) to a limited liability company (GmbH).

“In my new role, I look forward to driving the sales integration of the SAP business in particular.", says Bernhard Allwang. Michael Wilk adds: "Our goal is to drive the development into the leading full service provider for our customers by combining the competencies from both group companies."

For the fourth time in a row, msg comes sixth in the Lünendonk ranking of the “Leading IT Consulting and System Integration Companies in Germany”. The ranking lists the 25 largest international and German providers of IT consulting services according to their annual sales figures. It thus provides an overview of the major players in the German market for IT consulting and system integration.

The demand for IT services increased significantly in the second year of the corona pandemic 2021. The companies surveyed in the Lünendonk study recorded average growth of 13.1 percent in domestic sales (up from 4.7 percent in the previous year). One reason for this massive upturn is the increased demand for IT services in the areas of cloud transformation, IT modernization, data analytics, custom software development and digital experience. Another factor behind the increased demand is the pressure to digitize and transform. This is driving companies in all sectors to call on the expertise of IT service providers. This high demand has been thwarted by a very tight shortage of skilled workers in the IT sector.

Both consulting companies merge and provide a comprehensive end-to-end offering for the entire utilities industry.

The consulting company m3 management consulting GmbH, which focuses on the network industry and is a member of the msg group, and the consulting company for energy and water management K.GROUP are joining forces with immediate effect under the umbrella of m3. Customers from the utility industries thus get an end-to-end offering that ranges from strategic realignment and streamlining of functional processes to their digital implementation. With this range of services and more than 100 consultants, m3 is one of the most effective consulting companies for business transformation in the energy sector and telecommunication in the DACH region.

Berlin, May 4, 2022. The current study of the IT and consulting company msg on electronic administration work clearly shows: Processes without media and system disruptions remain an exception. Interfaces and connections, technological and organizational standards but also a professional, electronically documented process management and suitable digitalization platforms are still missing.

Lack of process understanding is the biggest hurdle for electronic files in public authorities

Although the electronic file is now at least planned or being introduced in almost all the public authorities surveyed, the cultural change to electronic administrative work is progressing only slowly. In addition to taking into account the functional requirements (89 percent) and implementing the process requirements (88 percent), 85 percent of the public authorities surveyed consider acceptance and training management to be a key challenge in introducing the electronic file.

 The advantages of the electronic file, e.g. easier retrieval of information or faster work, are clearly seen overall, but hardly any authorities also use the introduction of the electronic file as an opportunity for reorganization (5 percent). And while as many as 47 percent state that the introduction of the electronic file has a high added value for process optimization, only 10 percent of the authorities surveyed have so far developed comprehensive process documentation. In these cases, it should also form the basis for comprehensive process management that supports the digital transformation of the administration. However, the use of process management is a significant success factor for digitalization and requires unconditional support from the management level.

The implementation of interfaces for connecting specialist procedures to e-government basic components is still incomplete at a large number of German public authorities. It is therefore necessary to create both technical and organizational standards.

Platform solutions also create significant added value for digital administration work

One possible solution is offered by digitalization platforms, which have been increasingly used in the private sector for several years. These act as interface managers by flexibly integrating existing IT solutions and applications and also enabling complex processes to be automated. This is why they are an integral part of the specialist and IT architecture. This has been understood by public authorities to a very limited extent, as the analysis of the study shows. For example, only 8 percent of the surveyed public authorities plan the introduction of low code platforms. 4 percent are already implementing them and only one percent has completed this process.

By the way: 99 percent of the respondents are still planning to use paper files. The era of paperless administration is therefore still a long way off.