Profile: Wolfgang Dannemann

Initiator of abas Business Software, lord of figures and mastermind of ABAS Software AG

This is why he is still involved in the financial controlling of ABAS Software AG. Mr. Dannemann himself always describes his life very matter-of-factly, "I went through three job developments, actually four if you include my studies. At first, I completed the two study courses Mechanical Engineering and Economics at the Technische Hochschule (technical college) in Karlsruhe. Then I got a job and thirdly, I worked as a management consultant. Finally, I founded a company. This involves a certain consistence."

An Idea is born

In the mid-70s, Mr. Dannemann was reorganizing companies on behalf of a bank as management consultant. In doing so, his requirement for a business software which would be independent of hardware providers was growing constantly. As a logical conclusion, due to his previous jobs, Mr. Dannemann had a financial basis to finance the development of the software that he wanted.
"In the sixties and seventies, software was still developed with customers. This means, customers supported the development financially. This was already over by the time we started in 1980. Customers only bought software that was available. Of course, this cannot be compared to ERP software these days, with everything ready to go. Today, a software has to be almost perfect. In 1980 certain things had to be available and in 1960 nothing had to be available at all. This was the development," remembers Mr. Dannemann.

As a man of action he involved a freelancer who was to create executable rapid prototypes for a modern software which was adapted to PCs/ As a man of action he involved a student who was to record the structure of a modern software adapted to PCs and thus formed the basis for the current ABAS Business Software at the end of the 1970s. Reinhard Harms was the developer of the very first hour with the "initial order for the software". Mr. Harms reports, "In 1979 I was working at the University of Karlsruhe as a research assistant. My first programming course at a US high school, where I spent a year prior to my university-entrance diploma as an exchange student, really fascinated me. Thanks to this exchange organization, just after my Computer Sciences studies, I became acquainted with a family, whose father was a management consultant. At a barbecue cook out, right at the campfire in his backyard, Wolfgang Dannemann sat next to me and said the words: 'You are a computer scientist, maybe you could do me a favor.' According to him, the software using which production companies are managed could be much better. If I wanted to look for a PC that could handle a task like this. With a sausage in my hand I had to admit my ignorance of business processes. However, Mr. Dannemann remained unimpressed by this obstacle. 'That doesn't matter, simply go through some magazines and look for a computer you think might be adequate. I will pay your hours. What are you doing next Sunday? My wife will make some tea and then we can talk about it in more detail.' - Who could say no to this?"

Cooperation leads to success

The software was developed and went on sale in 1986. The journey there brought two companies together. „We, Systems 3, were never really interested in getting into sales. When I started I was only interested in how the product had to be in order to survive on the market. I never really thought about sales. I realized that we would never be able to exist as System 3 in the long run because we didn't sell. Here the synthesis with the former ABAS GmbH resulted - we needed their sales know-how to successfully bring the software on the market. Some employees of System 3 and ABAS already knew each other from their studies so that a cooperation was just natural," says Mr. Dannemann.

Therefore, today's ABAS Software AG actually has two roots: System 3, founded by Wolfgang Dannemann to realize his dream of a software which is independent of hardware providers, and ABAS GmbH, which made this dream come true through its sales know-how. Before meeting System 3, ABAS GmbH was mainly doing contract programming in many fields of business, from research projects at the Karlsruhe Research Center to software development using PCs, NCR, Wang and Kienzle computers. The idea to develop a standard package was also contemplated here early on, realization, however, was never consequently addressed due to the flourishing daily business, as was done at System 3. When ABAS got to know the solution by System 3, its quality and development status really impressed people at abas. In 1984, ABAS started to sell System-3-software. In 1989, the two companies became one. The know-how of both software houses is the basis for the success story of today's abas Business Software.(te/jaja)

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