01 19 New! EOS Journal is now EOS explore. Comprehensive insights delivered How teams get creative twice a year. Time for a rethink eos-solutions.com — Growth markets Sales of receivables Blockchain at work Eastern Europe demands Values count More sources solid know-how more than prices mean more trust The magazine for customers of the EOSThe Group eos-solutions.com editorial For a debt-free world EOS originated in 1974 as the debt collection arm of the Otto Group 20 ,000 in Germany. Now, EOS is an customers international financial investor and including banks, Dear Readers, insurance companies service provider and a trusted partner and utilities, mail to customers from a wide range of order firms and telcos, sectors in 26 countries. mechanical engineering firms and publishers, How do you know that you’re working at the right company? are looked after When changes have to be made and your people don’t shout For Europe’s banks, we are one of by our more than 60 subsidiaries. “help!” but “super!”. When your team gets great pleasure out the leading purchasers of non- of reinventing things. performing loans (NPLs). We take over receivables management for So it is with this magazine. Last year we asked ourselves: companies, municipal authorities and More than Who needs a print magazine these days? What can paper do administrations, even across borders. that a screen can’t? Why do we believe that our journal is Through our services we ensure worth your time? liquidity and investments and safe - You are holding the answer in your hands. EOS explore guard jobs. However, our most impor- 7,400 is our new biannual magazine. It offers more space for the tant investment is in our employees employees issues that shape our industry and gives us the time and and the technology that underpins our work for the EOS Group worldwide. serenity to handle topics in more depth than daily newsfeeds services. We would like to introduce can. some of them in this magazine. Ireland In addition to reporting on our activities, we will provide United Kingdom specific insigts to questions such as: How do we compete in Eastern Europe’s hugely expanding markets, while we roll Belgium out new cloud software across borders? How do regulations Denmark The companies of the Germany EOS Group are represented in like the EU GDPR challenge us? We want to show you our Czech Republic approach to such issues and tell you what we are talking Poland Russia Slovenia about. Another goal is to introduce you to our employees, Croatia Bosnia Herzegovina the faces behind the stories. Montenegro Romania Especially in these exciting times, our focus is not internal. Canada Bulgaria We’ll be talking to players who have a different opinion. It’s Serbia USA 26 all about getting out there, looking around and asking ques- Spain Kosovo countries. Illustrations: EOS myvector / shutterstock, Greece tions, which is why we have named our magazine “explore”. France Macedonia/ Republic of North Macedonia That’s also why our editorial team devised the motto that Slovakia you’ll find on the back cover: “Finance is changing. We like Hungary Switzerland it that way!” Austria Have I mentioned that I know I am working at the right company? Photos: / EOS Sebastian Vollmert 95 percent of all paid cases in international debt collection are settled by us out of court. Through its international network of subsidiaries and partners, EOS offers services Klaus Engberding, in more than 180 countries. Cover Illustration: Mathis Rekowski CEO of the EOS Group 3 content thoughts dossier NO 2 tools eastern europe 22 Money Laundering Act: 54 What’s the most secure A rethink option? 34 Always in flight mode Do blockchain systems reduce the Are fingerprint scans and facial In the receivables purchasing work involved in meeting Know Your recognition suitable for the mobile segment, personal contact matters. Customer obligations? daily business routine? That’s why Karel Smerak is always on the move. starting up inside outlook 38 One system for a lot of 06 What’s happened so far 24 And what do you do? countries 56 What’s going to be important An overview of the last few months People with special talents work EOS is developing a future-proof How will we pay in the future? at EOS: new data protection tech- at EOS. Let’s get to know a few platform with its cloud-compatible Let’s ask those that it will matter niques, the latest surveys, paying of them. receivables software Kollecto+. to the most. with Apple Pay, and more. 41 Good relationships bring work standards dossier NO 1 Why Würth wouldn’t want to be innovation without the services of EOS. 3 Editorial EOS CEO Klaus Engberding on rules the new magazine concept. 12 Opening up to success 24 EOS is using a new format to position itself as an employer 44 Europe rebuilds 58 Calender of IT specialists. ECB relocation, road tolls and The most interesting conferences document exchange: The latest in the coming months. 15 Creativity beats comfort zone resolutions from EU committees. On its own initiative, an international 59 Addresses EOS team developed a debtor app. perspectives Where to find EOS close to you. 17 Are we talking about the 46 Taking the guesswork out of same thing? data protection How EOS is developing and The EU GDPR leaves many questi- fostering a shared understanding test case ons open – will the Debt Collection of analytics across the entire Code of Conduct answer them? Group. 28 Go with the flow Illustration: Mathis Rekowski EOS is having a positive experience stopover fintech with Forward-Flow deals. An ex- ample from Belgium illustrates the 48 Ljubljana with laptop 20 After the Bitcoin hype advantages. Tips for business trips to Slovenia’s Banks are testing blockchain capital. applications which are changing dataflow a lot of business models. style 30 Away with the debts 2018 was a record year in 52 Price isn’t everything eos-solutions.com receivables trading. Our data The experience of EOS in Poland poster shows the highlights. shows which values really count in 17 business life. 34 Credits 2019 _ 01 Publisher Overall responsibility: Lara Flemming Editorial board: Georg Dahm Image editing: Annegret Strauß EOS Holding GmbH Editor-in-Chief: Tabea Reich, Cornelia Editing: Saskia Fröhlich, Stefanie Bilen Final editing: Kathleen Simmons (fr.) Steindamm 71 Claußen, Laya Moghaddam Ghazvini (fr.), Nicholas Brautlecht (fr.), Project management: 20099 Hamburg, Germany Publication frequency: twice-yearly Denis Dilba (fr.), Claus Hornung (fr.), Isabell Hannemann Tel.: +49 40 2850 - 1222 Gerrit Wiesmann (fr.) Lithography: Giesick I Medien Produktion age fotostock / Gunter Kirsch / mauritius images, Achim Multhaupt, Christian Schmid, Sebastian Vollmert Multhaupt, Christian Schmid, / mauritius images, Achim / Gunter Kirsch age fotostock Email: [email protected] Editing & layout Creative Director: Jessica Winter Web: www.eos-solutions.com C3 Creative Code and Content GmbH, Art Direction: Eva-Maria Ostendorf, Printing EOS explore Photos: Hamburg Sandra Ost (fr.) optimal media GmbH, Hamburg 4 5 starting up starting up “Pacioli” software Robotic EOS Survey process automation OCT 16/17 2018 in Bulgaria 49 EOS Privacy Meeting percent of European companies regard the issue of More knowledge, cost reduction as a critical challenge up to 2020. More than 200 years ago, textile workers A Bulgarian team of developers tailored At the same time, almost every other company is worried about not being able to keep pace with fewer restrictions in England, enraged that automation had Pacioli specifically to EOS; with the help digital change. These are some of the insights from deprived them of their livelihoods, charged of artificial intelligence the software has the EOS Survey “European Payment Practices” 2018. In the spring of 2018, in partnership with Kantar TNS, through the textile mills and smashed learned the working processes of its human EOS conducted a survey of 3,400 companies in weaving looms. Our colleagues from EOS co-workers, who now have two and half 17 countries with an annual turnover of at least Matrix in Bulgaria reacted much more hours of extra time per day on average at EUR 5 million and a minimum workforce of 20. According to the survey, companies are obviously calmly when they were introduced to their their disposal, says Avramova. “Our still putting off digitalization projects new “co-worker”, a robot named “Pacioli”. colleagues feel more secure.” Pacioli plows in receivables management – even through automated processes can make receivables Skepticism quickly gave way to a certain through around 600 invoices an hour and management more efficient and therefore reduce pride, says Maria Avramova, who has makes fewer mistakes. Incidentally, our operating costs. co-responsibility for marketing at EOS colleagues don’t need to worry about their in Sofia. own livelihoods, as they now have more time to concentrate on analytical tasks. Named after the “father of bookkeeping” Top marks in Europe, Pacioli is an example of “robotic process automation” (RPA), one of the most important trends in the IT segment. RPA Four HOW DO WE PUT COMPLIANCE AND DATA systems take over routine manual tasks on PRIVACY into practice day by day? How do we stay the computer, e.g., copying customer data out agile, despite all the requirements imposed nowa- into an input mask. In Sofia, the technology A robot as a days on any company that processes data? Over a “co-worker”? period of two days, we discussed these matters with automates what would normally be a time- Pacioli is not quite 50 experts from 19 EOS national companies. The consuming accounting process for incoming as tangible, but of five the results of “his” predominant topic was the GDPR.