Ralf joined KEK in 1991 as a programmer at the then-new Karlsruhe branch. His career path, which began with the CHARISMA/AS and SoftM-Suite products on the IBM i-Series, has led him to SAP S/4HANA #s4hana today. He has been working from home since 1999—long before the term became a household name.
Karlheinz joined KEK as a consultant in 2016, immediately working on SAP implementation projects, and is now responsible for managing subprojects related to the Materials Management and Production Planning modules in client projects across various industries.
- What has “Jung” learned from “Alt,” and vice versa?
Karlheinz: How to incorporate three decades of experience into every software development project in a matter of seconds, and how to take what seems impossible at first glance and execute it to perfection.
Ralf: How to simply set aside any ideas that aren’t getting you anywhere and start over from scratch. - How does the collaboration work?
Ralf and Karlheinz: a Bavarian-Baden synergy
Karlheinz: When off-the-shelf software reaches its limits in meeting customer requirements, Ralf is the perfect partner for initial brainstorming and serves as a living database at all times. What seems impossible becomes reality.
Ralf: With Karlheinz, when solving customer requests, you can sometimes take approaches that don’t seem to meet the requirements exactly at first, but ultimately fulfill the customer’s expectations 100%.
Ralf and Karlheinz: Things clicked with Ralf right from the start; after just a short time, we felt like we’d known each other forever. Sleeping on decisions overnight and starting implementation the next day with a fresh perspective is a piece of wisdom I learned very quickly from Ralf and soon saw the benefits of. The interesting thing about Ralf is that, for as long as we’ve known each other, we’ve always worked at a distance. However, this physical distance doesn’t prevent us from coordinating seamlessly—thanks to modern communication solutions such as video conferencing #communication. - What motivated “Alt” to join KEK and remain loyal to the company for so long?
Ralf: When KEK wanted to open a branch in Karlsruhe back then, I saw it as an interesting challenge. The company culture and flat hierarchies, combined with the interesting work assignments, make it easy to stick around. - What made you decide to join KEK, and what do you like about it?
Karlheinz: After my time working with in-house ERP systems, I wanted to make the switch to the consulting side. I joined KEK’s consulting division and was thrown right into the deep end. It’s been a learning-by-doing experience. The great teamwork with my fellow consultants continues to inspire me every day. - What do we both like about KEK?
Ralf and Karlheinz: A sense of belonging, authenticity, synergy, and trust—we live by all these values at KEK because we don’t have to compromise who we are. #youforus #usforyou #kekfamily
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