For all of us at ALMEX it is a rewarding experience to get in touch with the ALMEX brand during travelling the world

Boris Marten , Head of Management Board at ALMEX GmbH, told us about high speed innovation and amazing career opportunities at his company.

TRI STAR:? ALMEX GmbH is leading in innovative solutions for public transport as well as retail & logistics. What makes your company so unique?

Boris Marten: We place a considerable focus on the close cooperation with top brands and large enterprises. In the retail sector these are mainly well-known supermarket chains and in public transport the larger public transport operating companies as well as national railways across Europe. These customers are usually interested in installing individual solutions based on state-of –the-art technology and recognized future trends. A perfect fit: the customers get a highly innovative solution and ALMEX GmbH is enabled to develop the newest product generation for the next 15 years - based on intense customers input and expectation.

Our ALMEX GmbH station is a good example in the rail sector. On the one hand we offer a high degree of modularity. On the other hand we make sure that customer-specific requirements can be precisely implemented. An outstanding example are the video travel centers and the video consulting ticket vending machines. Here, in addition to ticketing functionality, a highest level of digitalized consultancy services can be delivered to the passenger from a remote video call center. We are proud that the majority of the installed solutions have been provided by ALMEX GmbH .

The next generation of ALMEX ticket vending machines

https://almex.de/portfolio-item/cashless-public-transport/?lang=en

TRI STAR:?Boris, which innovative trends are you currently observing in public transport? Will the provision of video consulting or other services via a ticketing machine develop into a sustainable trend?

The trend is clearly moving away from a standard ticketing-only machine. This generation is going to be outdated during the next couple of years. Instead, purely digital services will take over, like for example mobile phones. Right now we implemented our part of a solution in a major German city where coins and bank notes are replaced by cards used as a cash substitutes. This, by the way, eliminates the need to allow for payment on-board and is a huge contribution to diminished total cost of ownership in ticketing systems including cash in transit cost. A ticket machine under these circumstances rather becomes part of a card management system. Regarding video consulting. In a rather anonymous digital world, such a live communication may be the only point in a ticket sales procedure, where a passenger gets directly in touch with the operator. So a perfect opportunity to ensure customer satisfaction and retention. Especially elderly people appreciate the possibility to simply press a button to get real and immediate support. This is one of the rare opportunities for an operator to stand out with service friendliness and customer proximity.

TRI STAR:?Making a career in your company means ...

Boris Marten: Being ready-to grow. Independent from the starting point we are happy to train our future leaders on the job. This challenges our candidates to bring in substantial entrepreneurial spirit and a broad generalist mind set as well as the clear commitment to take over responsibility. We are further developing ourselves as a company very dynamically in our market segments and in new business regions. This continuously offers the opportunity to move a career quickly to the next level, e.g. into high-end project management with top accounts, ambitious product management tasks in new technologies or a leading role in our research and development teams.

An example: Right now ALMEX GmbH speeds up in building competencies in robotics. In a very short period of time we installed a robotics competence center with hardware, software and service related skills and implemented a 360° marketing strategy for the ramp-up in this new business area. This offers a vast set of new career perspectives to our employees. In all the company divisions.

We also care about our newbies experiencing a solid and encouraging trainee program at ALMEX GmbH , for example by a planned long-term journey through the various departments of ALMEX GmbH . The aim is to support them at our best in finding their own personal future focus. Flexibility and the willingness to take on responsibility in an appropriate balance with additional personal goals are important.

TRI STAR: Why should a Young Professional apply for a job at ALMEX?

Boris Marten: At ALMEX GmbH , we can offer a place right at the forefront of innovative markets. Here, we are right at the spot where it comes to automation, digitization, and technology drive. If a young professional is as curious as we at ALMEX GmbH are regarding innovation and customer centric initiatives, he or she is in very good hands with us. Our technicians are enthusiastic about enabling a machine to even heal certain failures itself - without human interference. And this is only the start in getting deeper into AI-driven solutions. By the way: for all of us at ALMEX GmbH it is a rewarding experience to get in touch with the ALMEX GmbH brand when travelling the world; moving through Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Belgium, Spain or even South Africa. Also, still today seeing the ALMEX GmbH self check-in kiosks at a majority of European airports.

?TRI STAR: ALMEX is part of a strong Global Group. Which ones are the most important benefits for your company?

Boris Marten: For ALMEX it is particularly important that we can use the production facilities in China. We moved away from a German production to a Chinese one and installed the necessary processes to do so in just a few months. Most of our current products, like the ticket vending machines, come from China - in a quality fully meeting the highest demands of our customers. At the same time we are in a position to benefit from noticeable cost advantages. Another important benefit is the scalability of the work forces, as we are project business driven and face related peaks. This allows us to stay sufficiently lean.

We definitely benefit from the know-how existing within the Group, in our sister companies. Our high secure standards in TVMs are strongly supported by our co-operation with Format Tresorbau, who are experts in secure technologies.

In the retail & logistics field we cooperate within the Group regarding highly innovative hybrid self-check-out solutions at the cashier, where one and the same place can be used for manned check-out or self-service.

Another large benefit is the close co-operation with the research and development departments in China as also with the European TSI software factory in Cork, Ireland. Especially the joint initiatives with the software factory are an important asset in order to deliver software following highly professional requirements in terms of quality developing processes and especially IT security demands. All of these are important embracing contributions to our innovation focus.

Visit ALMEX GmbH at https://almex.de/

If you are interested in our public transport, retail, robotic solutions or other ALMEX services please take contact to Boris Marten