Christoph Hertz of Visunext Tells Us How Corona Exposes the Digital Divide and How Companies can Arm Themselves Against It

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times? 

Christoph Hertz: my family and I are doing well, considering the circumstances. The children go to school and kindergarten as long as possible. I work mainly from the home office to protect the family and my staff.

Tell us about you, your career, how you founded Visunext.

Christoph Hertz: Together with a friend, we developed an e-commerce niche player from the student flat share with over 150 employees, 10 branches in Europe, the USA, and Hong Kong. In the last fiscal year, the group had a turnover of 80 million euros and already equipped more than 800,000 customers.

How does Visunext innovate? 

Christoph Hertz: By digitalizing almost all processes and working from the cloud (SAAS supported), completely mobile working is possible. We can work regardless of location and thus react flexibly and quickly to changes.

How the coronavirus pandemic affects your business, and how are you coping?

Christoph Hertz: We are experiencing forced digitalization. Coronavirus highlights the shortcomings of digitization in companies and schools. For society, a leap on the learning curve. 

Due to Corona, some segments are declining, but we also sell solutions that promote digital collaboration and take advantage of the moment, such as video conferencing systems, interactive displays, projectors, etc.

Due to our digital work structure, there are few problems in the daily work routine. On the site, employees keep the known rules, such as distance, hygiene, and everyday mask, so we try to ensure a high-security level.

Did you have to make difficult choices, and what are the lessons learned?

Christoph Hertz: We have been thinking about extending our office building for some time. Due to Corona and the mobile work from the home office, we had to decide whether we wanted to build the new building at all. The decision had to be made about future digital collaboration or on-site collaboration. However, due to the good exchange with our employees, we know that an on-site exchange is irreplaceable. For this reason, we decided to build a new office building.

How do you deal with stress and anxiety?

Christoph Hertz: Stress can arise quickly in the hectic rush of everyday life. A structured way of working helps to prevent stress from arising in the first place. It is also important to focus on topics.

When dealing with anxiety, it helps talk to familiar people about the problems and get several opinions on the topic. In most cases, fears can be resolved quickly in this way.

Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?

Christoph Hertz: Other system houses, providers of similar products, and marketplaces are our competitors.

We try to stand out from the competition by offering a unique service, high product know-how, and a suitable price-performance ratio.

Your website?

www.visunext.de