So that's (almost) it - a day before christmas and slowly the year is coming to an end. Time to review the Highs and Lows of this year and to take a look at 2025. I will start with the Lows of this year for me and then work myself uphill again with the Highs - and there are plenty this year!

My Lows in 2024:

  1. Microsoft and its market power

The more I see Microsoft becoming the ultra-dominant player in the collaboration sector, the more I wonder how many companies are falling for the honey trap layed out to them. M$ is slowly showing it's ugly face again - raising the "toll" for MS365 like Trump each year and pushing competitors out of the market by buying up e-mail services and implementing adopted standards to be able to block independant offerings from mail and calendar routing. Next will be AI used in all services whether you want it or not - Bing gets killed already for Copilot. Next is M$ as a hyper-scaler - they start to eat into Google and AWS so there's the next monopoly on the rise.

For Europe, there's no hope. We are too slow and too weak to implement something on our own that would be able to compete with any of the services. It would be more important than ever to build and support alternatives, ideally as Open Source but with the German Angst Ursula at the Helm - all is lost.

  1. The European industry debacle - little innovation and short sighted management

If I look at the european industry sector (besides some lighthouse companies in the midsized sector) I see a fear to innovate and short sighted, solely financially driven decision making at the management level. The lack of entrepreneurship and lack of sense of long-term responsibilty for the enterprises future leads to little to no innovation in the key sectors. The future of these corporations is deliberately spoofed by obeying to shareholder value and dividends. Instead of seeing where China is heading (flood the european market with mass products, increasingly when Trumps toll plans come to life), we help them grow for another good quarter. And then we wonder why the Chinese don't buy German cars anymore - the ones that are designed not to resonate in China and not cater to market demands. Best example is Daimler - if you drop your bread and butter market segments for a luxury segment in China and then design luxury priced products for that segment that can't keep up in quality and functionality and even pure esthetics - you're f****d, and rightfully so. But as the CEO said, the problem is that the employees in germany take too many sick days. But that's only one prominent example - we have CEOs for sunny days, not for rough seas. That's what will be killing us - more than any regulations from Brussels can.

  1. The demise of the political caste

As we only have CEOs for sunny days, we also only have politicians for undercomplex problems to be solved. Germany especially is only capable of re-iterating a base narrative for each political problem we face - no matter how big or important it is - we throw money at it. And lots of it. we don't solve the problem but we COULD if somebody knew how.

This results in a meandering stream of government grants to all sorts of receivers, micro-managed and bloated with bureaucracy so often times only a friction of the grants will be utilized. And then, there's the old problem of the spineless politician - should I be smootching with the #gesternklebern of the old fossile fuel guys? How far right can I go to gather some votes from the not totally Nazi population? If I demand something stupid - would Elon send me blessings and money? Trust in the political system in total is at an all-time low. What do our politicians? "Hell, we don't give a rats ass - we're campaigning! YAY - it's that time in the year where we can say anything without any consequences!". That's what they can - campaigning. That's all they need. The needs of the people, the country, the businesses, the children, the retirement system, the health system, the education system, our military, our infrastructure - oh, well, it will have to wait - we are campaigning. God help us all.

  1. Angst.

Angst for the future. Angst about our economy. Angst for the return of the Nazis to power in Germany and Europe. Angst for my children, especially as they are two girls. How long until their rights get taken away again?

  1. Ukraine, Israel and the fallout

I said it last year - my heart continues to go out to all the Ukrainians that are fighting for their home land in whatever possible way. My only hope is that the europeans will not abandon you and we hopefully will find a way to get rid of Orban and Fico the Russian clowns in our own house.

This year, I would like to add a thought to that - who thinks about the North Korean soldiers, forced to fight in Ukraine? I don't believe they do it without being forced to - you go or your family dies. You poor souls - I hope you can go home soon in peace. Nobody should have to do what you have to do.

We have seen that the world is willing to move back to barbaric terms when needed - Putin opened Pandora's box. The Hamas played with it and almost got eliminated. Israel is now no longer defending itself but also trying to go down Putins path - I take what I want because I can. Don't get me wrong - Israels right to defend itself is undenied but the interpretation is way out of bounds for me.

  1. The cracks in our social environment

The number of people in Germany who need to fully or partially rely on food donations or subsidies is rising alarmingly year by year. The so called "Tafeln" that coordinate the food supplies here have to set up waiting lists. And in parallel, our rich buy Dubai Chocolate for 150 € per bar. It's that immense gap between the have-nots and the have-everythings that divides our society. And in the best historical repeat, we don't sympathize and help but segregate and hate. It's the next receipe for desaster and the AfD and the Nazis are surely hoping that this will go on to push them into power. And it will - our political caste has long abandoned the ties to society, like, once again in the Weimarer Republik. We all know what followed that.

  1. Our personal "mishaps"

The last quarter has been problematic for us as a company - three lead project managers had to drop out of work healthwise - a testament, that we are also getting older - 2025 marks 30 years for SIT and it seems to show on a few lead players here. Myself, I am currently recovering from a retina detachment (big one) that will limit my eyesight for the next three months - let's see how that goes.

  1. Lowperformers of the year

I decided to note the individuals, that I call my low performers for the year with no substantial detail why, it's more for self-reference to see what happens next year.

  • Jens Spahn (CDU)
  • Gitta Connemann (MIT)
  • Olla Källenius
  • Elon Musk

So now let's leave that miserable part behind and focus on the good things, and there are plenty this year.

My Highs in 2024:

  1. HCL Ambassador once more

Early in the year, I have been promoted to be an HCL Ambassador for another year. It's always a privelige to be part of this elite group around the HCL Software Solutions and be recognized as part of so many bright minds (much brighter than me) and to continue the trustful relationship with the HCL Management and Development Teams. Thank you, HCL, it really means a lot!

  1. New Technologies and components I learned in 2024

Learning has always been part of the job but this year increased that level to new heights and it was fun until today when the first release of a potential new product came to light. In no particular order:

  • AI and RAG using Ollama, Domino and Python
  • Building a PoS System on Domino including Online Shop, TSE Integration and ZugFERD/X-Rechnung Modules for Domino (lots of Specs to learn)
  • Building automation solutions with N8N with Domino, WebEx, SAP, Facebook and much more
  • Building an On-Premise Document Signing Solution into Domino using Documenso as the base system
  • Learnig to build Big Data Analytic components in a Portal using LoRaWAN Data from our own environmental sensors, based on Bosch BME 688 Sensors using Neuronal networks for smoke detection.
  • Developing Keycloak Extensions and Workflows with E-Mail-2FA as well as Kerberos SSO integration
  1. Our Business Sector - growth in difficult times

We had the goal to grow in a 5-8% yoy ratio in revenue and profit - both goals have been met at the upper range. Also, we intended to generate three new customers this year and ended up having five. Looking at our problems in Q4 that is really good.

  1. Conferences

Well, I had the honor to speak at three conferences this year - all of them were great in their own way but one was special - Theo's last Engage! in Antwerp. Location, Content, After-Conference Program - this venue had it all. I'm really looking forward to next year!

Another big thank you goes out to the Let's Connect Nordics team - I really enjoyed the conferences in Oslo and Stockholm this year. Well done - great content, great locations!

  1. OpenNTF

I am now on my 2nd Tenure with OpenNTF and unfortunately, I still wasn't able to deliver my Marketing Tool yet. I promise I will in 2025 - due to the time restrictions in 2024, I just couldn't make it. Nevertheless, I could help with some work on the Policy Settings DB, some work with Daniel Nashed on a coming new service from OpenNTF and with Thomas Hampel on a Catalog for HCL Domino Policy Settings as an NSF.

  1. My private side project - a bakery service for our village

This was my personal highlight project of the year - after being in the works for two years, we finally managed to start our bakery service in the village. We are selling bread and shortbread now again on two days per week (Wednesday and Saturday) through volunteer work. We have set up a club (Verein) with 110 Members, bought a delivery car, and I am happy to tell you that HCL Domino and XPages are at the helm of the operation regarding the PoS System, Order Management, Pre-Ordering and Delivery as well as sales statistics and Invoicing. This is working for nine months now and we will be moving to a bigger location in spring, bringing in veggies and an "Allimentari" Service, maybe even a small post office. My village had been dying for years - and maybe, just maybe we will get a store a post office and a new Pub back next year. The work with the team and the fun we have through multi generations is worth the huge amount of work that is needed to make this work and keep it going.

  1. Family, friends and Canada

My personal highlights are of course in the family - my girls are getting older and are in their 2nd year of school now. Me cooking lunch and doing homework with them, I enjoy the time we have and being part of their journey. It's amazing to see their development and growth and to feel their love every day. The nicest compliment we got as parents was, when the kids decided that summer holidays are only good when it's the four of us - if one has to leave early, we all go.

My 3rd love will always be canada and our litte spot in Nova Scotia - it's always a place to get grounded again. The nicest lesson I learned this year was when a 100 year old man got asked about the secret of turing 100 in good health. He said: "Its about treating the world as family. Be nice. Be gentle. If we would all do this, it would all be so much easier." That, for me, is the essence of my love for Canada - that's what we experienced so often in the already 18 years we have spent with our friends abroad. That truly makes a difference.

Without my friends here and in Canada, my mental sanity would be in danger. Thank you all for your time, for hanging out, having a beer or just being there on Discord, WhatsApp and other platforms. Can't wait to get back to the legendary mug club again!

  1. My High Performers of the year

Again in no particular order (besides the first one):

  • My wife. How you handle work, family and social life is a phenomenon. And that you still cope with me is more than an achievement for you.
  • My teams at SIT GmbH and Harbour Light Software Development Ltd.
  • Emily and Henry from Boxing Rock Brewing Company in Shelburne.
  • Felix Binsack
  • Thomas Hampel and Daniel Nashed
  • Uwe Schneider and his Team from GTW Touristik Wetzlar

And that's it for today. I wish all of you happy holidays and a great 2025. It's on us to make it a good year for all of us.

Heiko.