Welcome to OpenOcean’s portfolio and to our series where we shine the spotlight on our awesome portfolio companies! At OpenOcean, our mission is to support scaling technical, data-driven startups from Europe to global category leadership. However, a company is only as good as the people behind it, and that’s why we’re excited to share the stories of the teams driving these innovations.
We are thrilled to share the story of Operations1, a company that revolutionises industrial operations with a user-friendly digital platform for work instructions, enabling companies to achieve operational excellence, improve quality and reduce costs, while empowering employees with the essential tools.
The need for digital solutions in processes is imminent. In the Connected Work study published in 2023 by Operations1, only 3% of companies surveyed have gone completely paperless so far, while 18% still rely exclusively on paper for their operational processes.
Let’s explore the journey of Operations1, founded by Benjamin Brockmann, Daniel Grobe and Anian Ziegler.
What inspired you to start Operations1?
We, Daniel and Benjamin, studied together at the Technical University of Munich and conducted research at the Fraunhofer Institute. During this time, we met Anian Ziegler. Through our research and insights gained from industry and management consulting, we observed that even in the age of Industry 4.0, manufacturing shop floors remained heavily reliant on paper, complicating information provision for employees. Determined to change this status quo, we developed the idea for the Operations1 software solution. Operations1 was officially established in 2017, and OpenOcean invested in our Series A funding round in 2021.
What do you consider to be the key value that Operations1 provides to its clients, and how does that differentiate your platform from other solutions on the market?
Operations1 helps manufacturing companies reduce costs and risks. By providing easy-to-use software with multimedia and modular digital work instructions, customers can save resources and money from efficient planning to avoidance of errors by always providing up-to-date documents.
Unlike other providers, Operations1 offers extensive experience in managing product line-related variant diversity and a comprehensive set of end-to-end integration solutions for related systems such as ERP from SAP or Oracle. These combined strengths make Operations1 a reliable long-term partner and a software solution that can be globally deployed across large corporations throughout their entire organisation.
Reflecting on your experience, what has been the defining moment in the history of Operations1?
Our first company-wide rollout with over 2000 users at a leading manufacturing company was a significant milestone. Witnessing our software in action at such a scale made the impact tangible and provided incredible motivation for our ongoing journey. It's truly fascinating to shape the way industrial companies operate.
What are your plans for the near future?
We will leverage the impact of our software platform with the use of AI. However, we don't want to be one of those software providers who simply use this buzzword and release AI features without substance. This aligns perfectly with our core principle: providing real added value for our Operations1 users, enabling them to perform their jobs even better. The foundation for this is the millions of relevant data points generated every day on our platform.
Thanks Daniel, Benjamin and Anian for the interview!
