SICK Hellas introduces itself

SICK Austria is responsible for the entire sales of the products and services of the segments factory-, logistics- and process automation in a total of 15 countries. Most of these countries are located in Southeastern Europe. In addition to the main subsidiary in Wiener Neudorf, Austria, there are four further subsidiaries, namely in the countries of Greece, Hungary, Romania and Slovenia. Many customers are familiar with SICK Austria. In this way we would like to present our subsidiaries to them. The third subsidiary that we would like to introduce to you is SICK Hellas, which has been part of the SICK family since 2018.

Question: Which regions are covered by SICK Hellas?

Charalampos Litseselidis, Country Manager SICK Hellas: In terms of territorial coverage, SICK Hellas is responsible for Greece & Cyprus. Nevertheless, one important part of our business is the worldwide coverage of services  in the process automation industry. Service is a very demanding business and usually requires fast reactions. Our main target is to offer high quality services in the most flexible way the soonest possible depending on the importance of the incident. We put customer in the center and offer them a more than satisfying customer journey through our high quality services.

Question: How many employees does SICK Hellas have?

Litseselidis: Right now SICK Hellas consists of 20 employees, whereas more that the half are related to PA services. SICK Hellas also has a unique department, which is also unique in the SICK group. SICK Hellas runs an accredited laboratory according EN17025. The four members’ team is not only responsible for environmental measurements as per guidelines for periodic monitoring of gaseous emissions but also carries out calibration and annual surveillance tests (QAL2 and AST procedures of EN 14181).

Question: Do you involve your customers or partners in the developments of your company? If so, how do you do that?

Litseselidis: I'd like to start with the question: Who are our customers? Of course, the customers, in the conventional sense, are located in our region. As mentioned above an important part of our business is the international service, supporting many other SICK subsidiaries around the world.

Coming back to the main question, customers have more and more expertise, are more critical and demand simple solutions that can be implemented immediately. Innovations that meet these needs, cannot be efficiently provided by isolated R&D departments.

The customer himself conceives the product of the future. This statement not only reflects the spirit of the age in innovation management, but is also very conclusive: “The customer is the one who should buy the product later”. He knows best, what he wants and what he is looking for. It is therefore only right and proper to become part of a team that develops precisely those ideas into products.

With our customers, we keep a close relationship, investing time on what matters for them. Every year it is in our plan to perform a customized event for one specific customer, spending 1-2 days in deep technical and technological (trends) discussions. Actually, it is more like a workshop for both, sharing knowledge and making the bond even stronger.

On the other hand, our partners are considered as our “extended” sales force. Therefore, as a good fundament we start with a solid basis, the planning. With our partners we perform a strategic planning every year, focusing on what matters for mutual development. We stay close to each other and bidirectional feedback really does matter! We invest time & resources and therefore we have a positive and successful growth every year.

Question: What opportunities do you see for SICK Hellas in the future?

Litseselidis: SICK Hellas is a very young organization (since July 2018) with a very big expertise (more than 20 years in the PA business). Our employees are our assets, our successful service is the door opener to our customers, our flexibility is the key to success.

Right now, SICK Hellas is focused mainly on PA business. On this basis, we are currently working on a business plan to create a PA Competence Center that will boost the service pillar not only in our subsidiary, but also in our so-called  “cluster” level. Additionally, with more than 40% of the world fleet owned by Greeks & Cypriots and with Piraeus included in 1st phase reference ports development, maritime business is top priority for the next years.

Having diversity as the main driver for our sustainability, in the near future we see a lot of opportunities to develop other areas, like safety and vision, adding more assets to our service and product portfolio.

Question: Which social benefits are offered to your employees in the company?

Litseselidis: SICK Hellas employees along with their contract are offered a pension plan and a family health insurance program. This health program is an important part in our work! Our service technicians work worldwide in dangerous environmental conditions.

In addition, SICK Hellas is using a bonus system as an incentive to recruit new employees proposed by the existing ones. We foster self-responsibility promoting a flexible working schedule, focusing on the result and not related with the presence in the office. Employees can decide their working place taking into consideration professional and personal needs.

Question: What are the main pillars on which the SICK culture is built on? 

Litseselidis: If I would picture our culture, I would choose a simple shape: a triangle. Where the three corners are Customer – Products – Employees. We offer an amazing customer journey, with the best products and perfect employees. These three aspects are vital for our equilibrium. If one is not working well, the balance is lost. Therefore, we respect our employees the same as we respect our customers and our products.

Taking advantage of the vast experience and the broad installed base we already have in process automation, we are able to on-board new members quickly. But investing on technical expertise is not the only focus. Employees are involved in the company strategic planning having the opportunity to shape our future, as it matters for us.

Last but not least, is the cultural training we offer to all employees, not only with mixed cultural training, but also through our functional organization. Working on a functional level throughout all 15 countries, location of employees is not an obstacle. By forming mixed teams based on synergies and how much each employee can contribute, we utilize the advantage of sharing resources.