Focus on sovereign communication with Wire: Schwarz Digits realigns digital service provider mmmake

• To strengthen the strategic partnership between Companies of Schwarz Groupand the communications service provider Wire, Schwarz Digits is realigning its digital service provider mmmake
• The focus of the change is the integration of internal digital services into the existing structures. The external business will remain under new management
• Co-founder Marcel Appolt will be responsible for joint solutions with secure communication provider Wire in future
• Co-founder Jean-Pierre Erdas strengthens the in-house cloud and colocation provider STACKIT

Neckarsulm, 14. June 2024 – Schwarz Digits, the IT and digital division of Schwarz Group (including Lidl and Kaufland) is realigning its agency offering. The IT arm of the division, Schwarz IT, acquired mmmake (then Camao IDC) in May 2020 in order to strengthen its IT expertise and provide external customers with an additional digital service offering. Camao IDC had 60 employees at the time. The full-service digital agency offers consulting, software development and IT services, traditional agency services such as social media campaigns and moving image productions as well as HR transformation consulting, including implementation with SAP.

Internal service provider and external business model

Part of mmmake supports the digitalization of the Schwarz Group, while another part offers external services. The company mmmake, which now has 350 employees, is now realigning itself. The developers, IT specialists and shared service experts working on cloud and digitalization projects are moving to the relevant specialist teams within Schwarz Digits - partly to the STACKIT cloud and partly to Schwarz IT.

The experts for the external business model ACT (Agency - Consulting - Technology) will remain as a separate unit. "We are very pleased that with Michael Lang and Rainer Schürg, two strong entrepreneurs are continuing to develop the external business in a promising way," says co-founder Marcel Appolt. Michael Lang focuses on HR transformation consulting with SAP, Rainer Schürg on the classic agency business. The mmmake portfolio includes well-known clients such as McDonalds, Kärcher and companies from the Würth Group.

A whole new level of sovereign digital communication: Wire on STACKIT

Marcel Appolt, who has been independently active as an "internet service provider" in the Heilbronn area since 1998, will be responsible for the strategic partnership with communications service provider Wire in future. Schwarz Digits announced its investment in Wire in April 2024. At the heart of this partnership is the joint product Wire on STACKIT. Wire's messenger is hosted on the Schwarz Cloud STACKIT. The data centers for the Schwarz Group's cloud are located in Germany and Austria, with development and data processing taking place exclusively in Germany. Wire enables end-to-end encryption of all data directly on the end device and is based on the world's first open protocol for end-to-end encrypted real-time communication ("Messaging Layer Security"), which the company played a key role in developing. The joint messenger thus sets new standards for secure and sovereign communication. The companies involved will present the joint product at the STACKIT customer and partner event Cloud X Summit on June 19 at the Bildungscampus in Heilbronn.

Stregthening the in-house cloud STACKIT

Jean-Pierre Erdas, co-founder of mmmake, is transferring a large part of the IT and software employees to the STACKIT organization. "The fact that Schwarz IT and Schwarz Digits are not only implementing their own cloud for their own infrastructure, but also successfully placing it on the external market, is an incredibly strong commitment to the digital sovereignty of the Schwarz Group and Europe," says Erdas. "I look forward to the challenge of being part of the vision of 'An independent Europe - digital, leading'."