Featured: Rico Barth, c.a.p.e. IT GmbH

08.05.2011 15:00
Anika Kehrer

Rico Barth is probably able to spell the expanded meaning of the acronym OTRS ("Open Ticket Request System") backwards and forwards: The mathematician worked as system integrator for several years and made IT infrastructure and service management in 2006 with the founding of cape IT GmbH his very own business. His day starts at 5 a.m., he loves boogie woogie and he collects hats.

Talk "Mit OTRS und opsi IT-Serviceprozesse optimieren", Wednesday, 11.05.2011, Berlin II, 12 - 13 p.m: Der Vortrag betrachtet die Vorfallsbearbeitung im Service Management sowie die Unterstützung dieser Prozesse durch die eingesetzten IT-Systeme. Eingegangen wird auf die Anforderungen an die eingesetzten IT-Systeme sowie die ausgeprägten Schnittstellen. Ein wichtiger und wesentlicher Bestandteil des Vortrages ist der Aufbau einer einheitlichen und zentralen Konfigurationsmanagement Datenbank, welche eine wichtige informelle Basis der Mitarbeiter im Service Desk ist. To Rico's Talk

Backstage with Rico

Rico, you've founded a company, doing open source business. Many people don't see how one would make many out of something that is "available for free". What's your experience with explaining what you do - do you enjoy the amazement?

Yes, of course it's fun to exlpain the open source business model to interested people and customers. Many are amazed, but we see more and more of an existent conception for this kind of business model. It is important to explain, that people can shift their budget - which they saved from licence fees - to customized solutions and that the open source model provides flexibility and integration potential.

What would you do with 1 Million Euro? Precondition: You have to spend at least half of the money for private joy.

In this place, I think I focus on the private site only. :-) Beside my business I am a family man, so I would accelerate our project of multiple generations in one house. And I would invest in the basic structure of the building. A part of the rest buys me an american oldtimer, which would carry my wife and me to dances in proper style of the 30ies/40ies. We both love boogie woogie. If there is still some money left, it should go into stocks or something, which would mean some more decisions to make. Let's see what time shows. ;-)

Apart from OTRS and the whole Tekkiverse - which part of life is of special interest for you, something you find really fascinating?

In the first place there's my wife and my son. We practise motorcycling together these days. My wife is driving on her own, my son sits in the side car. I'm especially fond of MZ motorcycles. :-) Then, I've been a passionate boogie woogie dancer for ten years now. I am interested in the era of the 30ies to 50ies, especially the clothes and dance events. I think this was a one-of-a-kind flair. People who know me well know about my collection of hats - which I do wear indeed.

You're CEO at your own company. Let us look over your shoulder: What does a typical "Rico workingday" look like?

The day starts at 5 a.m. with a family breakfast. Depending of the day of the week, it is my turn to get my son to the kindergarten. After that there's 50 kilometers way between my place of living and my place of work, Chemnitz. Arriving at work, depending on the day of the week it is 7.30 or 8.30 a.m. Typically there's a personal Hello with all workmates. I definitely believe that this makes a good and positive start for a workingday. Of course this is no roll call, but it often means little personal dialogues. Now I go ahead for the written correspondence, some of which I execute immediately, some of which I get priorized.

Then, the scheduled to-dos for the days are beginning ... Sales and partner meetings, telephone conferences, alignings with chief collegues about scheduling and other CEO issues. This varies from day to day. Often there is external work as well. Beside planned to-dos there are many tasks or appointments off-schedule, which have to get adapted. Therefore I am in contact with my collegues Yvonne and Anna all the time.

I leave the company building between 4 and 5 or between 6 and 7 p.m., depending on the week. Back at home, I have another round with my email. Finally I'm getting private.

Why did you choose to present a talk at LinuxTag 2011?

I like talking about the open source product OTRS and its integration, both technically and focussing on processes. Thus, I make people realize the importance of service processes in institutions and companies (regardless if custumer service or IT service). This year, for example, we focus on the integration of inventories.

Rico's Data Sheet

Place of birth: Borna (near Leipzig), Saxony

Place of living: Freiberg, Saxony

Age: 35

Favourite programming language(s): Oops... I think I grew out of this topic ;-)

Favourite FOSS operating system flavour(s): Debian GNU/Linux

A day is perfect for me, if ...
... I'm high spirited all day and even achieve something.

It really annoys me, when ...
... I'm discussing the same topic over and over again, without getting anywhere.

What is FOSS and Linux all about? My answer in 3 sentences:
FOSS means Free and Open Source Software. Linux and many other programs implement that concept. This software is free to use, to copy, to customize and to enhance.


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