The people behind ROBIOTIC: a portrait of Ovidiu Ursachi

Welcome to the next part in our series of portraits of the heads within the ROBIOTIC team: Ovidiu Ursachi as Chief Technical/Digital Officer (CTO/CDO) is responsible for the entire cybersecurity area and thus for a crucial basic requirement of our entire service portfolio.

With his many years of experience, he will drive forward the digitalization of current projects, while also keeping the topic of cybersecurity strategically in focus at all times.

Study and career start in Romania

"My professional career so far and my way from my home country to Germany is a long story," says Romanian-born Ovidiu Ursachi. Even as a teenager, he is enthusiastic about almost all current technical developments in the IT sector. Consequently, he first studied "Information Technology" at the university in his hometown of Iasi and successfully completed his bachelor's degree in 2004. Subsequently, in 2007, he completed his master's degree in "IT Project Management" at the Academia de Studii Economice in Bucharest. His professional stations lead him across Europe parallel to his training activities: from 2003 Ovidiu gained his first experience in the quality sector at Dacia/Renault in Romania. In 2004 he moved to the American company IT Sourcing Company as Software Test Manager. 

Global projects in the field of cybersecurity

When Romania joins the EU, he is drawn to Vienna for his next professional step: there he will take over the position of Senior Software Tester & Project Test Manager for a lottery company from 2007. Over the next few years, he travels a lot through Europe, gets to know different cultures and lives for some time in the south of France and in Rome. "Despite this exciting time, my wife and I then talked about settling down somewhere. And so we chose the beautiful town of Salzkotten near Paderborn", Ovidiu describes the step that brought him close to ROBIOTIC for the first time. He initially worked for the automotive supplier Hella in Lippstadt. In 2013 he will move on to the next stage: Ovidiu will start as IT Consultant Test & Project Management at the international IT service provider Atos, and in 2016 he will be promoted to Global Security Solutions Architect. In 2014, parallel to his professional activities, he will be awarded an MBA (Master of Business Administration) at the renowned Manchester Business School in "Engineering Stream". At Atos, Ovidiu is responsible for software development and cybersecurity: "During my time at Atos, I had a lot to do with the digitalization of large, globally active companies - in Germany, Switzerland, the UK, France, the USA, Brazil and India". At the same time, he is building up his own consulting company for cybersecurity with Masernet. In autumn 2019, the first contact with ROBIOTIC takes place in a rather unusual way: Ovidiu Ursachi meets ROBIOTIC CEO Thomas Krekeler during their sons' joint football training. After a few conversations, it is clear to him: There is so much future in this company that he would like to be part of it and help shape its development.

IoT and ROBIOTIC - a secure deal for the future

"I am a big fan of constant learning; of constantly trying to find new ways of thinking up and networking new products. That's why ROBIOTIC fits so well with the whole environment with TK-World AG and HK Systems Group", Ovidiu describes his daily motivation. In his opinion, ROBIOTIC has a huge advantage: the agility in a small company is significantly higher than in a large one. "We can make decisions within the management circle in a few minutes if necessary."

In Ovidiu Ursachi's view, the IoT market will grow considerably in the near future. For ROBIOTIC, the right strategic focus will be a crucial point. "There are basically two strategic directions: Continue to produce simple hardware devices or try to build product ecosystems or platforms around these devices. ROBIOTIC's goal should be to offer the customer not only a product, but a complete added value. For the customer it is then clear: No matter whether I only need the sensor or the whole platform around this sensor - I get added value. And this added value accompanies me along the entire supply chain. "So we should not only think about the added value for our customers, but also about the added value for our customers' customers".

In Ovidiu Ursachi's view, flexibility is the basic prerequisite for a successful future business: "We must always identify exactly which data flows and processes we are currently implementing. This gives us the flexibility to always adapt, because the market is also very volatile. And we need this flexibility: As an IoT service provider, it does not make sense to rely solely on a solitary business model".

Focus, technological advantage, flexibility and security

For the CTO it is immensely important that ROBIOTIC acts flexibly as a service provider in the targeted main markets. This is the only way to guarantee steady growth in the next five years. Added to this is the flexible use of the latest technologies, which allows a certain lead over the competition, for example in the areas of machine learning or artificial intelligence. "For ROBIOTIC, this means that we rely on a basis of products or devices that we provide to our customers. However, in the next step it is absolutely essential for us to process the data thus obtained and in this way provide the customer with even more added value," explains Ovidiu Ursachi. This is combined with effective observation of competitors - not only in Germany, but also beyond its own borders in Europe and especially in China. Last but not least: The selection of the right partners and suppliers who can keep up with ROBIOTIC's innovation and flexibility potential is another decisive building block for the future as a successful IoT service provider. 

In his position as Chief Digital Officer/Chief Technical Officer, Ovidiu Ursachi is not only the specialist for cybersecurity at ROBIOTIC, but is also jointly responsible for the digitalization process of current projects. "In this context it is also important to determine what resources we need in-house and what development strategies we have for our own company. What is really important remains in-house as a resource, the rest we realize with external partners, on whom we will not be dependent in any case". The aim is above all to be able to process orders very quickly. This requires the flexibility of the platforms already mentioned as well as fast, short feedback loops.

"Of course, I always look at the existentially important issue of security in the IoT sector, both in terms of hardware and software", emphasizes Ovidiu Ursachi. "We will define with our customers in the respective projects how the compliance and lifecycle requirements with regard to data security, etc. will turn out, so that they will function absolutely securely during use in the course of the IoT project - for sensors, for example". Ursachi has taken the concept of "sustainable product safety" as the basic principle of his work in this context: "This is the approach: How can we design our products so that they are safe for our customers and also for the people who work with them?