The year 2019 was a special year for the EBF GmbH. The team around the founders and managing partners Marco Föllmer and Markus Adolph celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2019 in the IT service industry and looked back on a time in which the company always recognized technological trends early and reacted quickly with innovative solutions.
From Fax Systems Consultant to Digital Workplace Advisor
“We want to show our customers how easy digital working is. Both users and administrators have real added value from EBF’s services,” is how Markus Adolph sums up the vision of the Cologne-based IT service provider. What is realized today by about 90 employees began in 1994 as a two-man partnership with services around fax systems – the predominant communication technology at that time – and around collaboration solutions in the IBM Lotus Notes environment.
When the world’s first smartphone came onto the market in the early 2000s and the first iPhone in 2007, EBF quickly realized that this would change the work of the future and foresaw the need for device management. From then on, mobile devices and, from 2010, enterprise mobility management solutions became the focus of its corporate strategy. Today, the company is a partner of many leading UEM providers and other technology companies and offers many of its own products and services that make the digital workplace in companies a reality.
Experience the exciting company history and the individual development stages of EBF GmbH from the 90s to today and get to know the vision of the company in this video (only available in German).
Own products and services for concrete customer challenges
EBF has developed many of its own solutions that simplify mobile work and provide great added value for both users and administrators. In 2006, for example, the company launched the EBF Connector, which provides access to numerous data sources and enterprise applications. The EBF Onboarder was launched in 2015, enabling a largely automated switch from one UEM system to another. Due to the large number of UEM systems that had become established in the meantime, such a change became increasingly necessary. To date, more than 750,000 devices have been successfully migrated.
In addition, EBF recognized early on that customers wanted to relieve their internal infrastructure and offered hosting services from 2012. An offer that was and still is very well received. Today, more than 200,000 devices are hosted in EBF’s certified data center in Germany.
These products and services in combination with the large network and above all with the consulting competence and agility of the EBF team make EBF a valuable partner for many companies – today and in the future.
Identifying and implementing the right trends at an early stage
“We are very proud of the past 25 years and what we have achieved together with our team and partners. In the past we have proven time and again that we can identify industry trends early on and transform them into valuable solutions and services for our customers,” says Marco Föllmer. “This will continue to be our goal in the future so that we can help our customers to realize and continually optimize the digital workplace,” continues Föllmer.
Well equipped for the future
Many indicators clearly show that companies have to change: Trends such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality, the urge to work from any location and increased cyber risks require companies to change and also to change the world of work.
“Only if we deal with future challenges and trends in the market and think about possible solutions today, can we continue to survive in this fast-moving market. In this context, cooperations are also of great importance,” says Markus Adolph. This is why the EBF founded the Enterprise Mobility Expert Alliance in 2015 – a network of leading IT service providers in Europe. Through cooperation like this and professional exchange, it is possible to quickly develop solutions for existing and future challenges. As early as 2011, EBF started a cooperation with Deutsche Telekom and developed an extensive joint mobility portfolio, which is constantly being further developed. As a result, Deutsche Telekom’s business customers have a major advantage and receive all mobile solutions from a single source.
The EBF Anniversary Event on the Future of the Digital Workplace
The 25th anniversary of the company was an occasion to celebrate and to invite employees, customers, partners and long-time companions to a unique, innovative event. In September, the EBF organized an event on the future of the Digital Workplace in Cologne, which recalled the company’s history and beginnings, while an inspiring keynote lecture, exciting start-up pitches and interactive break-out sessions provided an insight into the future of mobile working. The event also offered plenty of space for networking and celebrating. “We thank our employees, partners and customers for their trust and look forward to the next 25 years”, Markus Adolph summarizes the anniversary.
With this in mind, the EBF team wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We look forward to continuing to accompany you in the implementation of Digital Workplace projects in 2020.
