About sevDesk
The accounting software sevdesk is the brainchild of sevDesk GmbH – a young, rapidly growing company based in Offenburg, at the foot of the Black Forest. Their flagship product is sevdesk.
The Challenge
sevDesk has set itself a long-term goal: market domination. But first, this provider of accounting services needs to make its IT more efficient. PCG is aiding sevDesk in transitioning to Kubernetes.
It’s the beginning of the month and sevDesk is working under pressure. Thousands of small business owners and self-employed individuals are uploading invoices and receipts for their advance VAT returns. The computers in the AWS cloud are humming and, as always, the booked capacity is sufficient to cope with the onslaught. This will also be the situation at the turn of the year when sevDesk customers are preparing their tax returns during the Christmas vacations and traffic swells to five times the annual average.
This is good. And bad. If the computers in the cloud only have to perform at full power for a few days a year and are figuratively twiddling their thumbs in the time in between, this is a huge waste - of computing power, energy and, of course, capital, because sevDesk always pays for the maximum power, even if it is not needed.
IT breathes
At first it wasn’t a problem that this software provider for small businesses was growing so rapidly. This is because there is huge potential in the market: out of a total of around 6.6 million small business owners in Germany, only less than ten percent use cloud-based software for their accounting. In a few years, sevDesk wants to serve at least one million of them. Fabian Silberer and Marco Reinbold, who founded sevDesk in 2013, decided that the situation had to be changed. A more efficient IT system that is constantly “breathing,” that always provides the exactly right service and only charges what is needed.
The Solution
Max Trense, Chief Architect at sevDesk since 2023, went and sought help and quickly found what he was looking for: PCG. “Colleagues had recommended PCG to me as a sparring partner, and I haven’t looked back since.”
The AWS partner from Berlin doesn’t just act as an extended workbench: “We’re developing a strategy together with sevDesk, modernizing and standardizing the processes and accompanying the customer on this journey,” emphasizes Kristine Jetzke, Business Unit Director PCG DE x AWS. The following applies to all projects: “We train the customer’s employees so that they can handle everything themselves in the future. We don’t want to make customers dependent.”
The introduction of a Kubernetes platform is at the heart of the project. It scales automatically and absorbs load peaks immediately. The response time is less than two minutes. “That’s completely sufficient because we can plan the traffic well throughout the day and year,” says Trense. It’s also easier on the wallet. sevDesk currently pays around 8,000 euros per month for AWS services; at least 20 percent can now be saved. That doesn’t sound like much, and Max Trense admits: “The project initially costs more than it saves.” But if the growth in customers and therefore in IT resources continues at this rate, the economies of scale will result in considerable savings over the next few years. And will also contribute to sevDesk’s sustainability account.
Results and Benefits
The platform is also a great relief for the more than 100 developers at sevDesk. Previously, the development environment and production environment were separate, which could lead to unpleasant surprises when a new software functionality went live. In the future, developers will work on the same infrastructure as for the production environment, for example when debugging, load testing or when customers report problems.
If the test is successful, it will also work for the customer. Kubernetes is also a multi-tenant platform: development teams can work on different projects at the same time without influencing each other.
A pleasant side effect of the project for sevDesk is that it is more attractive on the job market. “Talents with cloud expertise are desperately sought after, the market is empty,” explains Max Trense. “Our previous IT stack, although only five years old, is almost the Stone Age for young applicants and nobody wants to deal with it anymore.” With the new Kubernetes platform, the company is highly up-to-date and appealing to young talent. This can already be seen in the rising number of applicants. Three new developers have already been hired during the project. This demonstrates that the Kubernetes platform makes onboarding much easier and new employees are productive much more quickly. “Until we have enough developers on board, PCG helps us to fill the gaps - even outside of the actual project.”
Can’t wait to work with PCG again
Max Trense, Chief-Architect at sevDesk, rates the collaboration with PCG as positive throughout.
He knows of what he speaks. In his previous job with other IT service providers, things never went so smoothly. The project with the Kubernetes platform will be completed in April 2024, but that is probably not the end.
Trense: "We still have a lot planned, and we will definitely get PCG on board again.”
About PCG
Public Cloud Group (PCG) supports companies in their digital transformation through the use of public cloud solutions.
With a product portfolio designed to accompany organisations of all sizes in their cloud journey and competence that is a synonym for highly qualified staff that clients and partners like to work with, PCG is positioned as a reliable and trustworthy partner for the hyperscalers, relevant and with repeatedly validated competence and credibility.
We have the highest partnership status with the three relevant hyperscalers: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, and Microsoft. As experienced providers, we advise our customers independently with cloud implementation, application development, and managed services.