Philipp Steidler-Senior Full-Stack Engineer | Certified Data Scientist (XDI) | Digital Strategist

• A digital system made up of special software and hardware components. The overall system replaces the traditional process with job slips and handwritten notes and enables more efficient order intake. Orders and work steps for the violin-making company’s projects can now be recorded, processed and logged in real time directly on the workshop’s touchscreen PC, by mobile phone or on the desktop. This gives customers a more transparent view of the work on their instruments and allows them to track the status and progress of their instrument through their customer account.

Tech stack: next.js, React, Flutter, Dart, Raspberry, Linux, Directus

• Dynamic, modern company website (headless CMS) with online appointment booking

Tech stack: next.js, node.js, React, SCSS, Rest API, Directus

• An AI assistant that independently handles phone support for my company’s mobile and landline numbers. The assistant conducts a smooth, confident conversation and responds to callers’ concerns in a charming and flexible way.

• Challenge: For the end-customer portal of the network for solar installers, an easy-to-use digital advisor, online calculator, and comparison tool was needed. On the website, users should be able to quickly and easily estimate their own energy needs and the potential for cost and energy savings, and clearly compare the economic value of various individual suitable scenarios. The tool was also meant to serve as a funnel system to guide prospects from their initial research through to a successful purchase and then on to a fully installed system. Leads should be provided to the accredited solar installers in the network’s automated wimada24 system according to the prospect’s region.
• Action: Defined the requirements, planned and designed the software architecture, structured the processes, prepared and modeled the data to create a stable and high-performance base for the calculator. Developed the user flow and layout. Programmed the tool and the required interfaces.
• Result: Photovoltaic prospects were successfully guided by this tool from their first visit to the online platform all the way to their successfully installed photovoltaic system - in record time, with excellent customer service and satisfied customers.

Tech stack: TypeScript, PHP, SCSS, REST API, GitLab, Bitrix24

• Wimada 24 GmbH was a startup company with the goal of becoming the network for solar installers in the DACH region. In addition to a strong purchasing and sales community, its aim was to provide its members with software that would revolutionize solar installers' project workflows through cutting-edge process automation, enabling maximum efficiency with short project lead times.
• Planning, development, and documentation of software projects for process digitalization
• UX/UI design and creation of the company’s corporate identity system

• Challenge: With the new innovative possibilities of digital direct marketing processes, there was also a need to create a tool for administrative staff that could be used across teams to support sales staff through direct chats. Problem solving and support should also be made available to new administrative employees through detailed, easy-to-understand action flows with automated solution suggestions for issue cases, so they could provide effective and confident support to salespeople and team leads. In addition, some administrative work steps from direct marketing were to be moved into the new system to enable a more intuitive and efficient way of working than was possible with the existing complex business software used in direct marketing.
• Action: Development of a Laravel application as a back office for the administrative staff in direct marketing.
• Result: Through this system, direct marketing received a tool that significantly improved the overview and working methods of administrative staff, optimized communication with salespeople and team leads, and enabled more efficient processes.

Tech Stack: PHP, Laravel, React, REST API, SCSS, Bitbucket, Jira, Confluence, Teams, myFactory

• Challenge: The time tracking system originally used in the company had standard recording devices. Employees with extended licenses could also record their work and break times through a complicated app from the manufacturer. The license costs for the individual devices and app accounts were extremely high. However, the time tracking system also had an API interface that could be used at low cost.
• Solution: Custom low-cost time tracking terminals in Karls style were developed and produced in small series. Employees received cheaper employee cards that allowed them to record working times efficiently and intuitively. The system also had functions to minimize incorrect entries, such as double bookings or wrong statuses. In addition, it could also be used to efficiently record times for employees who worked across different systems in the agricultural areas and the adventure village areas. To protect against failures and manipulation attempts, the terminals also had offline functionality, among other things, and could be managed, controlled, and updated through a central device management system.

Tech Stack: RaspberryPi, Python, React, Laravel, SCSS, TypeScript, REST API, Bitbucket, Jira, Confluence, Teams, myFactory

• Challenge: Karls regularly runs different prize draws with different game types; there are also online games as well as games on site. There are both ongoing prize draws and prize draws over a fixed period. Some prize draws are started very spontaneously by management. There are different numbers and types of prizes, and there can be one or even multiple winners with different prizes.
• Core functions: different prize draw types (types can be scaled at any time), planning, creation, management of prizes, participant management, prize management, automated solution verification, automated winner selection, winner notification with delivery of digital prizes (e.g. vouchers), overview of prize redemption, GDPR compliance, integration as a microservice and the overall system (usable on the web, in the app), prize draws were also run directly via QR code at local attractions (e.g. waiting area of the KK roller coaster in Elstal)

Tech Stack: UniteCMS, PHP, Vue.js, GraphQL, CSS, REST API

• In the adventure villages, visitors should be able to use free Wi-Fi if they are already subscribers to the Karls newsletter or subscribe before logging in. To provide a stable, GDPR-compliant solution, various Cisco Meraki functions and Karls microservices had to be connected and extended through a custom software solution to enable the desired process. Depending on their status, customers were shown a dynamic splash page with individual functions before actually logging in to the Wi-Fi.

Tech stack: Cisco Meraki, PHP, scss, REST API, Bitbucket, CleverReach

• Initial situation: Karls is very complex and also has several "adventure villages" as locations. For content editors, it became increasingly difficult to produce, keep track of, and maintain all content up to date. Classic CMS systems and Excel-based stand-alone solutions at the locations and departments made reliable and smooth work increasingly impossible.
• Action: Migration of the editorial base, as well as some previous stand-alone solutions, to the headless system UniteCMS. Editors can now create and manage content intuitively, efficiently, and in a structured way. Duplicate data and content are no longer necessary. Content is automatically available and up to date across all channels (e.g. website, app, hotel TV)

Tech stack: UniteCMS, PHP, Vue.js, GraphQL, SCSS, Bitbucket, Jira, Confluence, Teams

• Initial situation: At Karls, several advertising material distributors were employed, each of whom had to independently and responsibly manage larger areas with many different advertising partners. Their approach was very individual and took place without any documentation.
• Project goal: As the company grew, the marketing department increasingly needed an overview of the advertising materials in circulation, the distributors' way of working, and the quality of their work. Efficient route planning for distribution tours as well as the management and "ordering" of advertising materials should be included. Offline functionality was also important. Data protection compliance was, of course, the highest priority in this project.
• Action: Planning, architecture, and implementation of an Android app solution with a REST API interface to Aktivmarketing software.

Tech-Stack: React, Ionic, TypeScript, SCSS, GitLab

• Initial situation: Karls recognized the potential of fence advertising very early on. (Private) advertising partners were given the opportunity by Karls, in exchange for a fee, to place advertising banners on fences around properties with good roadside locations. Due to the high demand and number of banners, some of which were handed out in a decentralized way without real documentation, a centralized, clear solution had to be created to automate the processes around issuing and renewing the banners. In addition, this software should also allow the marketing team to centrally plan and manage advertising materials and the tours of the advertising material distributors.
• Core features: Online booking via Karls.de, process automation, status tracking (including authority applications), dynamic overview map of all banners and applications (Google Maps), validity and contract management (e.g. limited contract terms), planning of advertising material distributors' tours, management of different advertising materials

Tech-Stack: PHP, Symfony, Twig, SCSS, JavaScript, TypeScript, Bitbucket, Jira, Teams

• Migration and redesign of an existing Contao website to the new Karls microservice system & headless CMS as a base, as well as a flexible, dynamic custom solution in the frontend. The later further development and redesign of the frontend was handed over to an external service provider after 2019.

Tech-Stack: php, twig, symphony, jQuery, javascript, vue.js, scss, GitLab, REST-API, GraphQL

• Development of various company websites and online shops

Tech stack: php, jQuery, javascript, Ajax, css, Wordpress, Magento, Subversion (SVN), Git

• Strategic IT & marketing consulting for small businesses
• Business and product photography

• Online shops, CMS websites, server-client software

Tech stack: php, asp, jQuery, javascript, Ajax, css, XT-Commerce, Magento, Wordpress

• Online configurators

Tech stack: php, jQuery, flash, flex, Actionscript, javascript, Ajax, css

• Tourism info terminals for municipalities

Tech stack: php, jQuery, javascript, Ajax, css, Linux, Shell

• 360° panorama software / virtual tours

Tech stack: Java, Java Applet, css, javascript, php

• 4th Dimension business applications

Tech stack: 4th-Dimension, 4D, REST-API