Siemens EPLS in Athens 2023

This is a summary story about Taipuva team’s trip to Siemens’s European partner event in Athens, January 2023. Sorry for not revealing everything! What happens in Athens, stays in Athens…
– Written by Pasi Ahola, CEO and Founder of Taipuva

Absolute Highlights

• More than 600 people, from all Siemens Digital Industries Software partner companies in the EMEA region.
• Me and Tapio Tuomola got to be on stage for a presentation of Taipuva’s business transformation and success to inspire other partners.
• Finland HQ:d partners emptied the table of awards – IDEAL GRP obtaining three of them and Taipuva’s Tapio Tuomola having the personal award of the Top Salesperson in the Nordic region.
• Tony Jolly, a long-time Vice President of Siemens EMEA partner channels (recently retired), joined the Nordic team for “country dinners” and we got to enjoy his great company.

Networking and meeting people in person makes a difference

This was the first live get-together after two years of virtual Siemens partner events, and one could see that people appreciated being there – enjoying each other’s company and building relationships. Taipuva’s team (Tord, Tapio, Pasi) had interesting talks with most other Polarion ALM partners. Unlike with many other solutions, there is a strong ecosystem among the vendor Siemens, value-adding expert partners and customers & users. For you to have a similar experience, join the Nordic community’s annual Polarion Days event in March!

It was very nice reconnecting with the French Polarsoft, who we know ever since both companies were founded. Ad hoc – but many times business-related discussions, believe it or not – with the British, Swiss, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, and other Nordic. Bad English was the most common language, although I got to refresh my German skills a little. It would have been better over beer, but the beautiful Greece wines took over.

Learnings and takeways

Two days’ official program was packed full of interesting news of the latest development and industry trends. As a very short summary:

• It’s going strong for Siemens and the EMEA partner ecosystem in general
• Value-adding partner network is an essential part of how Siemens is present in the market
• Polarion ALM is one of the fastest growing solutions
• Siemens continuously keeps investing in its portfolio

Small and medium-size enterprises have appreciated the option to use software in the cloud, fast and easy. This is exactly what Taipuva has been offering ever since it was possible. As compared to other regions it seems the Nordics market has been leading the way. One another key differentiator for Taipuva is that we try to make things simple. This was revealed in various talks with other partners. They also seemed to appreciate the learnings and development work we have done in Business Finland -funded AHMED project, through which we have streamlined our solution to support agile software and AI product development in regulated industries.

In marketing and sales -related workshops the term “social selling” seemed to be a hot topic, although it received many interpretations in the peer-to-peer discussions with various people. The possibilities of AI and the buzz around Chat GPT was something that captivated the imagination.

Athens with the eyes of a Conference Tourist

Athens – We had never been there before, so we took the opportunity to see the city a bit. The history is just overwhelming, and without being an enthusiast it’s impossible to absorb all things you see and learn. I was most impressed by the beautifully restored Odeon of Herodes Atticus, an amphitheatre, which we quickly estimated of having the capacity of 5,000 people (which was actually spot on according to a fact check).

The Panathenaic Stadium is another site that is amazingly huge, the only stadium built of marble and holding 50,000 spectators. There is so much to see: Acropolis at large, Parthenon, the new museum and the list goes on…  It’s mind-blowing that the Greek had stunning science thousands of years ago, when the people in the Nordics were just about to start farming.

It was quite pleasant to walk around the sights and some modern parts of the city at 15-18 degrees of Celsius and partly sunny weather, in our T shirts, knowing the slushy and grey conditions back home. The traffic is something to always keep an eye on in Athens. It’s crowded, packed and people drive fast. Beforehand I considered of doing what I like to do the most, rent a bicycle and get around the sights. First impression sitting tight in the airport taxi at a “car race”, and I quickly abandoned the idea.

The Athens city is just huge – it goes on and on. We could not see but just glimpses here and there. What we didn’t have time for was a trip outside the city, to nearby islands. It’s a pity but leaves something for the next time. The food is absolutely delicious where ever you go, and people are very friendly. We did well with English language, and the local language is all Greek to us. Even though an old physicist could read the alphabet, it didn’t help much. It’s just funny because everything looks so “scientific” with the Greek alphabet!