Inxmail honoured as a top innovator

Lothar Späth awards the Top 100 seal of approval to email marketing company for outstanding innovations management

Freiburg – It's official: Inxmail GmbH is one of the 100 most innovative small and medium-sized companies in Germany. So say the results of this year's "Top 100" corporate benchmarking competition - a cross-sectoral business initiative covering the entire country. One key element of the firm's success in this, the 17th year of the renowned contest, was its finely-tuned innovations management. Lothar Späth, former state premier of Baden-Württemberg, will present the prestigious "Top 100" seal of approval to Inxmail at an official ceremony in Königswinter's "Gästehaus Petersberg" this Friday evening.

As patron of the SME initiative, he will be recognising this south-west German company's achievements in the five key categories of "Innovation-friendly Senior Management", "Climate of Innovation", "Innovative Processes and Organisation", "Innovations Marketing" and "Successful Innovations". This is the second time that Inxmail has been recognised as one of Germany's top 100 most innovative SMEs.

Innovation played a key role right from the outset for this software company. Its core competency is the development and supply of technical solutions for state-of-the-art, professional email marketing. "We knew at the time that there was no similar software available", remembers managing director Martin Bucher, "that could send email newsletters easily and securely at a reasonable price." So he and his fellow director Peter Ziras wrote the software themselves. The product and the company are both ten years old this year, but the ideas keep on coming. Innovations currently account for 80 per cent of Inxmail's revenue and 70 per cent of its profits. And it's also breaking new ground in marketing, with Inxmail software solutions that are compatible with social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Linkedln as well as other IT systems. Because the systems are integrated, users can subscribe to a newsletter sent via Inxmail directly from their Facebook page. Martin Bucher also writes his own regular CEO's blog, full of news about the company from the boss's perspective.

To qualify for the award, Inxmail had to undergo a stringent, two-stage process devised by the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. "Our results show that the 100 top innovators generally tackle challenges head on and are thus well-equipped to deal with the current economic situation, for example. Innovation is a matter of priority at management level for most of these companies," commented Professor Nikolaus Franke, head of the research team, on the analysis. In the past three years, these award-winners generated two thirds of their revenue from innovations and innovative improvements, compared with 30 per cent in a sample of similarly-structured German SMEs. In addition, Top 100 firms were able to shave some 12 per cent off their costs through process innovations, compared with a paltry 4 per cent on the part of "average SMEs". As a result, this year's "Top 100" contains 54 German market leaders, 22 of which are global leaders in their field. Martin Bucher is jubilant about the firm's success: "We are now officially classed among the most formidable innovators in the German SME sector. This is a great boost to our credibility and will inspire our employees, partners and, of course, customers with confidence. We could scarcely have hoped for better news in these times of crisis." Overall, 319 companies entered the "Top 100" competition this year.

All of the 100 top innovators are featured in the book "Top 100 - the 100 most innovative companies in Germany's SME sector" edited by Lothar Späth, and featured on the website www.top100.de. The project is organised by compamedia GmbH, Überlingen, Germany. Companies interested in entering the competition can apply as of now via the website. The deadline for entries is 30 October 2009.