The first step is the most important one
The foundation stone for our company was laid when Jochen Blöcher took on a student job in an IT company in 1998 alongside his studies. As a working student, he assembled computers, repaired and connected devices and supervised server networks and advised medium-sized companies.
In 2000, the time had come and Jochen Blöcher founded his small system house as a retailer, with a focus on network support, training in the network sector, applications, Excel, PowerPoint, development of individual software, device maintenance, etc.
The company progressed rapidly, the first employees joined and after five years it was time for the next step.
From one man company to owner-managed Ltd
As early as 2005, the company changed its name to GmbH (limited liability company) and grew steadily. The fields of activity essentially comprised the following three areas: 1. network support for small and medium-sized enterprises and schools 2. web design for a wide variety of companies 3. software development, which from 2007 onwards was focused on the topic of occupational safety.
The focus changed…
Our specialisation in the field of occupational safety was caused by a tragic accident involving an employee at one of our customers. The client's management then commissioned us to research the market to find out whether there was a software or certain solutions that ensured that employees were instructed in the handling of hazardous substances.
So, at that time we set out on a quest and conducted a market research for the client. By then, there were two manufacturers who offered something similar, but their products did not fit the requirements of a medium-sized company. As a result, we were given the task of developing a suitable product that would meet the requirements and that we could develop further and distribute ourselves later on.
… and eplas® emerged
Thus, from the beginning, we designed the product so that it would work for any company. Over the years, it continued to grow due to ever new requirements other customers had or due to legal specifications. Finally, eplas became so important to us that we disengaged from both network support and web design and have exclusively been concentrating on the software development of our occupational health and safety management solution for a few years now.
Today, we have more than 80 employees who take care of all aspects of software development, support, sales, consulting, software implementation and related services. We have grown organically. The company does not consist of external capital providers, but is an entirely owner-managed company. We could only grow proportionate to our earnings. It is important to us that everything is done by our own employees, which means that we don't have any external services that we procure, no programmers in other countries, but all the services that we provide, every product that we produce, we make ourselves with our own employees. We are proud of this and see and appreciate the special qualities of our employees.