For the fourth year of our existence, we can again report stable turnover thanks to a strong service business and very high capacity utilisation of more than 60 employees at four locations. In addition to acquiring the Stuttgart-based software company EXOKNOX GmbH, we made massive investments in expanding the existing product range. With this, we are driving our future sustainability.
The basis of the successful year was a large number of projects in different sectors, whereas the public sector deserves special mention. As a framework contract partner of the Canton of Aargau, Karakun is actively working on the visual and structural design as well as the technical implementation of front-end and back-end components for web applications. In addition, several “green” projects, for example with the German Carbonfuture GmbH or FiBL, one of the world’s leading research, advisory and documentation centres for organic agriculture, have been successfully implemented.
Increased visibility in the AI and automotive environment
Especially in artificial intelligence and automotive, Karakun experts left a footprint in the past year. In the AI environment, Karakun is researching the industrial application of the latest deep learning technologies (pre-trained language models) jointly with our partners DSwiss and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI) in a project funded by Innosuisse. The knowledge gained is incorporated into the HIBU platform developed in-house. This significantly reduces the effort and cost of using such methods in customer projects and in many cases makes them affordable in the first place, especially for SMEs. In addition to active participation in conferences such as AI-SDV or Swisstext, the customer portfolio was expanded to include legal tech companies.
In the international automotive environment, Karakun presented its “Digital Engineering Solutions” products LYZIUM and EXOKNOX at industry-leading trade fairs such as the IAA MOBILITY in Munich last year. In addition to numerous functional enhancements of EXOKNOX, the first productive version of the Big Data measurement data platform LYZIUM has recently become available. Customers benefit from massive savings in the area of data analysis and parameterisation.
OpenWebStart is under VOLTAge
The product team of VOLTA, the industry solution for the Swiss electrical installation industry, has put a lot of energy into connecting third-party products such as OneDrive. The concept gives users the opportunity to use special solutions already in use together with VOLTA without interrupting their daily work.
Last but not least, the open-source project OpenWebStart, initiated by Karakun, has broken the mark of 250,000 downloads. With OpenWebStart, companies and organisations such as the German Weather Service (DWD), DXC Technology or the Charité Berlin can continue to use existing Java applications as usual despite the discontinuation of WebStart technology by Oracle.
“Our fourth year was a challenging, exhausting year,” says Karakun CEO Elisabeth Maier. “But we are sure that this effort will pay off. Positive feedback from our customers and partners confirms this impression. Special thanks go to our employees. Without their commitment, Karakun would not be where we are today!”