Hectronic’s sales conference: “The main challenge is digitization”

The German system provider for parking, gas stations and tanks gathered its partners for a sales conference in the Black Forest.

On the back of the famous Titisee lake, in Germany’s southwest, Hectronic held their Sales Conference on June 26-29. Over 100 partners and professionals from 30 countries made their way to the sunny Black Forest to exchange ideas and experiences.

“The objective is to bring our partners together every two years to exchange information between. The feedback that we get - what solutions work where - we can forward to other areas,” explained Stefan Foster, Managing Director of Hectronic.

The event focused on digital transformation with the challenge of "ambidextrous" leadership. The aim is to combine the strengths of the core business with the new technological possibilities in order to secure the company's long-term success in the digital world.

The participants were informed about possibilities, developments and customer projects with an interesting mix of lectures and workshops, which invited a lively exchange.

“One of the main challenges right now is digitization. There are a lot of new possibilities with mobile payments, remote access to products... We want to bring these services into the market. As we serve the market indirectly through our partners, it is a challenge to see what is the function of a partner in the future. Right now they install, warrant and maintain products. Those are jobs that will increase as we can do more with mobile phones,” added Foster.

The Sales Conference included informative presentations on trends as well as case studies based on partners of Hectronic. smartlab Innovationsgesellschaft discussed the development of electric vehicles charging infrastructure across Europe.

Elmar Kühn, Managing Director of UNITI Bundesverband, made a presentation on synthetic liquid fuels. The German gas stations association believes e-fuels will be the energy carriers of the future – carbon-neutral liquid fuels that are easy to transport, can use existing infrastructure and be blended with traditional diesel and unleaded.

“As a payment provider it doesn't really matter if we sell gasoline, diesel or e-fuel. Electricity might be different as I am not sure if a gas station will remain as they are today,” said Hectronic’s MD on the topic of alternative fuels.

FEIG ELECTRONIC which gave a lecture on "Innovations in the field of card payment". Hamer from Belgium explained step by step how to meet the challenge to equip the largest container terminal at the port of Antwerp with an intelligent refuelling system. The trading and services group BayWa presented how the HecFuel app could be used to create a completely digitalized customer process directly at the filling station.

The workshops also focused on future-oriented, digital solutions that not only offer their users a lot of added value, but can also be combined with existing hardware products and used optimally.

One highlight of the program was the business talk with Olympic ski jumper Sven Hannawald, who spoke of his life as a top athlete.

In addition, various companies were rewarded for outstanding projects and achievements of the partners. Modul System and Liquid Automation Systems were named partners of the year.