Corona and the flood have shown: German IT systems are not future-proof, let alone crisis-proof. Peter Kürpick (54) is one of Germany’s top IT managers. In an interview with BILD, he explains what has to happen now so that Germany is not equally poorly prepared for the next crisis.
Perfection takes time
“The USA laid the foundation stone for today’s Silicon Valley back in the 1960s. There is a culture of speed there. It is important there to be on the market with something quickly. Germans always want everything to be perfect. ”This means that US products reach customers faster and are already established there before the German competitor is even on the market.
Peter Kürpick was at SAP and Software AG, later managing director of the navigation consortium HERE. Now he is taking over the management of the German branch of the American software giant EPAM.
He also sees a huge need for digitization in German industry. “Medium-sized companies are just finding that software is suddenly becoming the focus of their business. But they often don’t even know how to approach a programmer who specializes in artificial intelligence. “
Not prepared for crises
According to Kürpick, the corona and the flood also made the deficits in digitization in Germany clear. “The current crises have shown that we in Germany are not prepared for disasters,” explains Kürpick.
“It would be great if the state resolved to finally digitize all processes that affect the citizen. Governments need to look ahead to respond to disasters, whether that be floods, pandemics or forest fires. We are not allowed to leave our voluntary fire brigades, doctors and all other helpers out in the rain in the event of a disaster. “
But he also sees strengths: “We saw the strong infrastructure in Germany during the Corona crisis. We all went online and our networks passed this acid test. On the other hand, the vaccination process, for example, was not managed very professionally. We still have a lot of catching up to do here. “
See migration positively
And what would a top IT manager wish for in the future? For Kürpick the answer is simple: “Germany has to become attractive to talent from all over the world. Because we currently have a huge talent shortage – and that was accelerated extremely quickly by the rapid digitization in the Corona crisis. “
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