Roots and acquisitions

On 2 May 2022, All for One Group SE acquired all the shares in customer experience (CX) experts POET GmbH, Karlsruhe, as well as a 75% stake in the development com­pany POET Egypt LLC., Alexandria/Egypt. The purchase price is comprised of a contractually agreed initial base purchase price of EUR 8.0 million (which is subject to sub­sequent purchase price adjustments), a further purchase price instalment of EUR 0.75 million that is due at a later date, and variable purchase price components of up to EUR 1.25 million that are substantially dependent on the sales revenues and operating result (EBIT) achieved in financial year 2022/23 by the relevant companies. Funding is being provided from the Group's own resources.

The acquisition will allow All for One Group to take a large step forward in expanding its customer experience port­folio. The 110 experts working for the Karlsruhe-based IT service provider and its development company in Egypt will strengthen the Group‘s portfolio of customer experi­ence products and services that its subsidiary B4B Solu­tions is already successfully providing to more than 3,000 customers throughout the Group. POET has been an SAP Gold Partner for many years and generated annual sales of around EUR 7.9 million and positive earnings.

To expand the customer experience portfolio to include mobile, cloud-based solutions for managing the sales force, All for One Group acquired all shares in blue-zone AG. Founded in 2010, the company is Germany’s leading provider of offline sales force mobilisation and an acknowledged expert in cloud-based product development based on Microsoft Azure. The multiple award-winning product development experts – Microsoft Azure evangelists right from the very beginning – are also set to drive the Group's own product development progress. In 2020, with around 20 employees, the company generated revenues of EUR 2.2 million.

ASC offers a broad portfolio of consulting products and services focusing on business and IT/SAP consulting and ranks among the leading players in Switzerland in the fields of corporate finance and enterprise performance management with expertise therefore in group consolidation, controlling and the associated disciplines of business planning, BI reporting and analytics. The 50 or so consultants at ASC advise both well-known companies in the larger midmarket and international groups and generated revenues in 2020 in the region of CHF 12 million (around EUR 11 million).

On 30 September 2021 (effective 1 October 2021) All for One Group acquired a majority stake of 51% in SNP Poland Sp. z o.o., Suchy Las (Posen), from SNP Schneider-Neureither & Partner SE, Heidelberg, a world-leading provider of software solutions for digital transformation processes and automated data migration. The parties have entered into reciprocal optional purchase and sale agreements governing the complete acquisition of all shares that can be exercised for the first time from the end of 2023 onwards.

SNP Poland (formerly BCC), has been in the market for over 25 years. As leading provider of SAP services in Poland with more than 400 employees the company recently generated annual revenues of around EUR 29 million with around 400 clients in over 50 countries. Recurring revenues from cloud and software maintenance services account for roughly 50% of all earnings.

The acquisition strengthens particularly the area of SAP S/4HANA conversions and the capacities when executing large international projects.

Founded in 2001, CDE is an acknowledged engineering specialist in the fields of embedded systems, app & web and analytics. The business model centres around customer-specific firmware and electronic developments integrating sensor and connectivity solutions for the medical technology, industrial, mobility and energy sectors. CDE provides an extensive range of services from sensors to data analysis to well-known clients. With its team of more than 20 highly specialised engineers and developers, CDE generated annual revenues of nearly 1.8 million euros last year. The purpose of this acquisition (share deal, acquisition of 100% of the shares) is to further strengthen our industrial IoT expertise.

Established in 2001, the company today is a recognised talent management and cloud specialist in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (the so-called DACH region). The business model focuses on implementation projects for upper midmarket and large accounts, »ready-to-use« solution packages covering pre-configured modules of SAP SuccessFactors with comprehensive support on a fixed-price basis. With its team of 35 certified employees, TalentChamp generated annual revenues of around 4 million euros last year. Its base of more than 100 customers is made up predominantly of midmarket and large accounts – from all sectors of industry. Together with our subsidiary KWP INSIDE HR and strengthened by our strategic acquisition of TalentChamp (share deal, acquisition of 100% of the shares), we plan to further expand our market leadership in the German-speaking SAP cloud HR market and to offer our customers comprehensive support in exploiting the digital value creation potential in HR to the full.

In May 2017, we set up ALLFOYE Managementberatung GmbH, Düsseldorf, as a wholly-owned subsidiary of All for One Steeb AG, firstly to go beyond IT services and make our customers' strategies, business processes, organisation and corporate culture fit for the future as the digital transformation progresses, and secondly to offer more extensive consulting services to top management. The operational organisation of the business was formed by carving a team of management consultants out of the Group and bringing them into the company.

All for One Steeb bolstered its KWP subsidiary by acquiring all the shares of inside Unternehmensberatung GmbH, Oldenburg, effective 1 April 2017. Like KWP, inside, which was founded in 1989, specialises in end-to-end SAP human capital management services and has completed more than 400 customer projects to date. The firm employs 40 people, operates primarily in Germany and generates sales of some EUR 8 million. About one third of this figure is already attributable to a significantly growing amount of recurring cloud-based revenues, which ensures a high degree of customer loyalty, a stable cash flow and robust profitability.

All for One Steeb acquired a 70% majority interest in the cloud specialist B4B Solutions GmbH of Graz (Austria) effective 1 November 2016. B4B is an acknowledged expert for rapid and high quality developments and implementations of cloud applications, and has been SAP Cloud Partner of the Year several times. Established in 2012, B4B employs a total of 20 people in Austria and Germany, is growing much faster than the market and recently achieved revenues of about EUR 2 million. Recurring revenues from cloud software subscriptions and support account for nearly half of the company’s sales. Our shared objective for this strategic acquisition is to bundle the enormous wealth of cloud experience of All for One Steeb and B4B Solutions for the benefit of our customers and, in doing so, to become both pacesetter and best partner for SAP ERP and CRM cloud solutions in the German-speaking region.

On 1 October 2016, All for One Steeb AG increased its equity interest in OSC AG, Lübeck, from 60% to 100%. In order to significantly expand its local presence in northern Germany and to intensify its customer support, All for One Steeb AG had initially taken over 60% of the shares in the company in November 2012. OSC is strongest-selling SAP Consulting Partner.

On 1 April 2015, the share purchase agreement for the majority acquisition of Grandconsult DEXINA GmbH, Filderstadt, was closed. The company was renamed Grandconsult GmbH in August 2015. All for One Steeb AG holds 74.9% of the shares. The majority stake represents an annual sales volume that came to around 6 million euros last year. The share purchase agreement includes combined call/put options with essentially the same exercise conditions to allow the stake to be increased to 100% at a later date. Because of these options, the stake has been recognised as wholly-owned in the accounts ever since it was first consolidated although the actual shareholding currently only represents 74.9% ownership. The purpose of this acquisition is to enable us to strengthen our technology and management consulting services for companies with their own data centers, which we started under the »Grandconsult« brand at the beginning of 2014. Innovations such as SAP HANA or cloud solutions are generating growing demand – especially among large companies – for all-inclusive technology consulting expertise. Skills such as these are, moreover, becoming increasingly important when cascading innovations down to the midmarket, which is the core market of All for One Steeb.

On 1 May 2014, All for One Steeb AG closed the share purchase agreement as scheduled to acquire all the shareholdings in avantum consult AG, Duesseldorf. Operating primarily in Germany and Switzerland, avantum consult AG is one of the most respected technology-independent consultancies in the market for performance management and business analytics. Its range of services extends from designing the operational concept and strategy all the way to implementing management systems to improve business performance. The company currently employs about 70 people and generated total revenues of approximately EUR 10 million in the financial year 2013[WJJ1] . As the Number 1 in the German-speaking SAP midmarket segment, All for One Steeb wants to use this transaction to also take a top spot in the growing overall market for business analytics and performance management.

On 20 December 2013, All for One Steeb AG increased its equity interest in its subsidiary KWP Kümmel, Wiedmann + Partner Unternehmensberatung GmbH, Heilbronn, (KWP), from 56% to 100%. In addition to paying a consideration in cash, the capital was increased against consideration in kind from the authorised capital and 122,000 new shares were issued. Following a robust growth phase in recent years, KWP is recognised as a market leader for SAP ERP Human Capital Management. With the closer integration of our largest subsidiary, we aim to reinforce our Number 1 position in German-speaking countries.

In addition to SAP ERP, enterprises are increasingly considering their messaging software as being mission critical. Microsoft collaboration solutions are the market leaders. Extensive portal landscapes are being used to scale these services toward many thousands of users. Here is precisely where the technology specialist WEBMAXX has such exceptional expertise. As part of measures by Munich-based WEBMAXX GmbH to raise capital, All for One Steeb AG took over 73.68% of the shares on 1 July 2013, thus acquiring the majority stake in this Microsoft cloud technology company. All for One Steeb AG plans to use this strategic acquisition to drive the expansion of its Microsoft Collaboration Services.

A service office in Istanbul/Turkey – All for One Steeb Yazılım Servisleri Limited Sirketi (»All for One Steeb Software Services Ltd.«) – was established on 11 July 2013 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of All for One Steeb AG to expand our remote support for All for One Steeb's SAP midmarket accounts in German-speaking countries. This step aims to take advantage of the labour market for well-trained, German-speaking SAP experts in Istanbul.

Effective 1 May 2013, All for One Steeb AG acquired 49 employees, more than 80 customer accounts and further assets from ORGA Gesellschaft für automatische Datenverarbeitung mbH and ORGA Consulting GmbH – both subsidiaries of Fiducia IT AG, Karlsruhe, and both based in Karlsruhe (»asset deal«). The SAP application landscapes for Orga's SME customers, which are currently being run in Fiducia's data centres, will be gradually shifted to the All for One Steeb data centres. The purpose of the acquisition is to expand the share of recurring revenues and to leverage additional growth potential.

Established in 1993, the OSC Group (»Open Systems Consulting«) is one of the strongest mid-size SAP consulting companies when it comes to sales. OSC employs some 80 people and most recently generated total annual revenues of approximately EUR 8 million. The OSC Group is not only an SAP Special Expertise Partner for Supply Chain Execution and SAP Professional Services, but also operates successfully in the fields of SAP Human Capital Management, SAP Business Analytics and SAP Business One. Effective 1 November 2012, All for One Steeb AG acquired 60% of the shares in OSC AG, Lübeck. The aim of this strategic acquisition is to greatly expand our local presence in northern Germany.

On 10 November 2011, All for One executed on schedule the share purchase agreement signed with SAP. Under this agreement, All for One Midmarket AG acquired 100% of the shares in Steeb Anwendungssysteme GmbH, Abstatt, from SAP AG, Walldorf. Share ownership was transferred with effect from 1 December 2011. The industry logic behind the acquisition is clear: two strong and profitable companies with similar organisational structures join forces to become the strongest SAP full-service provider in the German-speaking SAP midmarket.

Integrated SAP projects comprising outsourcing and comprehensive consultancy services are increasingly taking centre stage. The reason for acquiring a 56% stake in KWP Kümmel Wiedmann + Partner is to expand the shared SAP HR service portfolio. Previously, the stake in Process Partner AG was increased to 100% (2004). Talks about selling All for One Systemhaus GmbH Midmarket Solutions to AC-Service AG culminate in the signing of a letter of intent in November 2005.

Process Partner receives the SAP Global Business Partner Award. AC Solutions in Austria is qualified as a Special Expertise Partner for SAP Netweaver. To enable delivery of integrated projects, AC-Service had previously set up its own SAP consulting companies called AC Solutions in Germany and Austria. Process Partner's 24-hour world record SAP rollout at Schweizerischer Verein für Technische Inspektion attracts huge attention (2001).

AC-Service returns to its roots and focuses on recurring outsourcing / payroll outsourcing services. It sells its in-house software development activities (distribution solutions) to Bäurer AG. The reason for acquiring a 40% stake in Process Partner AG, St. Gallen, is to build an in-house SAP consulting business. One year previously, computer centre Schulte GmbH, Asslar, had been acquired to further expand payroll outsourcing activities.

Dresdner Bank (lead bank) and a syndicate comprising BHF Bank, Sal Oppenheim and Bank Vontobel take the company public on the Neuer Markt on 30 November 1998. The private equity investors continue to hold their shares. The management buyout funding is repaid in full. Newly established AC-Service AG, Stuttgart, takes over at the head of AC-Group. The payroll outsourcing activities built on Multipers HR software are acquired by IBM Germany.

The restructuring programme to becoming a divisional organisation with three strategic business units – Distribution Solutions, IT Outsourcing and Human Resource Services – is completed. AC-Service first becomes an SAP System House, then a mySAP Hosted Solutions Provider and SAP Hosting Partner to enable expansion of the SAP-based outsourcing services and to enhance its portfolio of standard software packages developed in-house.

Repeated changes in shareholders – including UCC (USA), Inspectorate (CH), Meridien (UK), Adia (CH) and finally Raet (NL) – are followed in 1995 by a management buyout with key support provided by private equity investors 3i, Apax and Alpha. As part of the MBO, newly formed AC Automation Center B. V. in Haarlem, Netherlands, takes over as head of AC-Group.

Mid-range data processing technology is booming. AC-Service builds an in-house sector-oriented standard software business developing its own software for technical wholesale and industry, and gradually evolves into one of the biggest Value Added Resellers of Hewlett Packard (HP 3000) in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

AMAG Group (Automobil und Motoren AG) owned by Walter Haefner, Switzerland's largest automobile importer, carves the IT activities out of the group into AC-Automation Center AG based in Wettingen near Zurich. Companies without their own IT systems can avail themselves of professional data processing services. Expansion commences shortly afterwards as AC-Service GmbH, leading to Germany and Austria, among other countries.

As part of its efforts to restructure the joint stock corporation, All for One Systemhaus AG carves its SAP business out to All for One Systemhaus GmbH Midmarket Solutions. The successful business generated sales of about 23 million euros in 2005. To enhance its portfolio with outsourcing and remote services and to expand its leading market position in SAP midmarket business, All for One Midmarket Solutions is merged into listed AC-Service AG. Lars Landwehrkamp, Managing Director of All for One Midmarket Solutions, is appointed to the Management Board of AC-Service AG.

In 2006, the international SAP partners' community United VARs is founded under the leadership of All for One. United VARs is a global network that brings together globally leading SAP Value Added Resellers with the aim of delivering international projects under a central project management in accordance with uniform project standards that nevertheless incorporate national features. Focus is on local experience and best practices.

2004 is the most successful year in the history of the company for the SAP business activities of All for One Systemhaus AG, comprising the distribution and implementation of SAP industry solutions. All for One is presented with awards for new acquisitions, best sales performance and strongest distribution team performance by SAP AG. And the Creative Award for marketing performance is also presented to All for One.

The company is converted to a joint stock corporation in 1998 and changes its name from Härle GmbH to All for One Systemhaus AG.

Management consultants Härle GmbH – where the current system house business basically originated – becomes one of the first certified R/3 system houses, and as a result is qualified to distribute SAP licenses in the midmarket as a Value Added Reseller (VAR) of SAP AG.

With a base of approximately 1,000 solely German customers, Steeb is one of Germany's leading SAP System Houses. A team of around 190 employees generates sales of about 61 million euros. In December 2011, SAP sells the very profitable company to All for One Midmarket AG.

Analysis reveals that 48 percent of all Steeb industrial customers rank among the world market leaders. This prompts Steeb to sponsor the 1st German Congress of Global Market Leaders. Customers of the classic ERP solutions are delighted to be offered extended support. After extending its maintenance commitment for DCW users, Steeb also put its SC/400 support on a broader footing by cooperating with a specialist partner.

Steeb helps midmarket companies to modernise their IT landscape. Various companies take advantage of the financial incentive to scrap their obsolete software installations. The new solution – Steeb Fix Finance & Accounting – enables fast and affordable entry to the world of SAP for less than 40,000 euros. Numerous companies opt for Steeb, including Karwendel, UHU or ABC Group, of which globally well-known screw brand SPAX is a part.

Companies are faced directly with severe data transparency problems as a result of the global financial crisis. Steeb is prompted to strengthen the distribution of the business solutions from the SAP BusinessObjects portfolio in response. These business intelligence applications give midmarket companies a complete overview of their data and processes that is guaranteed up to date at all times. The portfolio is enhanced by a key figures cockpit developed jointly with the German Mechanical Engineering Industry Association (Verband Deutscher Maschinen und Anlagenbau, VDMA).

Steeb is one of the first partners for SAP's new on-demand software Business ByDesign. The company also adds a planning and management package for midmarket industrial companies to its portfolio of pre-configured business solutions, together with various additional solutions.

Despite difficult market conditions, Steeb is able to increase its software licensing revenues by around 30 percent, thus strengthening its leading position among SAP System Houses in Germany. The consulting, service and support businesses are brought together in a single business unit to further improve single-source customer support. Pre-configured solutions for the price of a package: Steeb presents numerous standardised SAP-based products for ERP, CRM, Business Intelligence and HR together with new industry solutions – for the consumer goods industry, for example.

Steeb is the partner with the best sales performance for SAP midmarket solutions, which earns it the »Germany SAP Business Partner Award«. The two subsidiaries of SAP AG – DCW Software Deutschland GmbH and Steeb Anwendungssysteme GmbH – are merged and continue to operate under the name of »Steeb Anwendungssysteme GmbH«.

The trend towards pre-configuration in IT projects continues: Steeb develops the »Customising workshop« – a rollout concept for faster SAP implementation for smaller customers. Steeb customer Muhr und Bender is the first company in Germany to implement the new SAP ERP business application. Steeb's customer service is awarded multiple service certificates by SAP.

Helmut Steeb withdraws from the management of the company, as planned. Steeb increases its revenues by more than 31 percent to 38.0 million euros, further expanding its leadership position among SAP System Houses. During this period, the business partners' network is expanded to the same considerable extent as the portfolio of pre-configured industry solutions based on SAP R/3.

Additional offices open in Hamburg, Munich and Ratingen near Düsseldorf. Meanwhile, a team of 132 employees is generating sales of 23.4 million euros.

Now that the SAP R/3 ERP solution is available for IBM AS/400, Steeb becomes SAP System House for the midmarket and presents its first SC/400 migration tools for SAP R/3.

Steeb becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary of SAP AG. Joining forces with SAP marks an important step towards building the businesses over the long term. International support for customers is improved as a result – with different country and language versions, for example. Steeb subsequently focuses strongly on the mid-range market with IBM AS/400 systems.

Market rollout of the first version of the SC/400 standard software for IBM System /38 and its successor IBM AS/400.

First ever participation at CeBIT. Back then, it is still part of the Hanover Industrial Fair. With its standard software for two separate firms, the company is targeting the mainframe market for IBM /370 and 43XX as well as Bull systems and the mid-range market for IBM /34, /36 and /38. To keep its customer base – which has meanwhile expanded enormously – up to date on new developments, Steeb publishes its customer magazine »Lösung« (Solution) – one of the first corporate journals in the world of IT.

The company is established in Heilbronn by Helmut Steeb. It starts with 6 employees. An IBM System /3 Model 10 is installed to develop standard software systems. The DOS/VSE version of Steeb's products are developed on an IBM System /370-125 at automotive supply firm Läpple in Heilbronn. First major customers include Wega-Radio (Fellbach), J.A. Becker (Neckarsulm), Berner (Künzelsau), Renz (Kirchberg) and Intersport (Heilbronn). Strong growth soon makes a new building necessary – two years later, the company moves to its own premises in neighbouring Abstatt.