2024 at ALVARA – a successful year!

The upcoming holidays, like every year, give us a reason to pause for a moment. We reflect on the last twelve months as a company and as a team. We review challenges to draw valuable conclusions for our future work. However, the focus in 2024 also remains on our jointly achieved successes.

Product Highlights 2024

Regarding our numerous products – both innovations and further developments – we could write an endless article, but we'll keep it brief and summarize our top 3 product highlights for 2024 for you.

Today, we are privileged to once again write a retrospective from a year ago – for the ALVARA year 2023. At that time, Fakturio with xRechnung was announced as a new module extension. In recent months, we have been busy and complemented automated invoicing with ZUGfERD (Central User Guide of the Forum for Electronic Invoices Germany). As a hybrid invoice format that combines structured data (XML) with a visually readable PDF, it has established itself alongside xRechnung. You can read more about the formats and the obligations related to e-invoices at the turn of the year in our blog "Simply Explained: What Obligations the E-Invoice 2025 Brings."

As test persons for the new Platform NExt, we were able to support the Deutsche Bundesbank along with other testers in the planned transition from the current e-business platform ExtraNet to NExt. Our first conclusion: In terms of usability, customization, and barrier-free interfaces, NExt will surpass its predecessor. All benefits can be found in the article: "Technical Replacement for ExtraNet: Deutsche Bundesbank Will Rely on NExt in the Future." There is no effort involved for our ICC customers. Because, as with its predecessor, we will continue to provide access to NExt in the future.

In June, we introduced our new cash center software generation Pecunia 7 as a cloud-based solution. After a successful history of over 30 years, we have thus opened the next chapter to meet the changing demands. Cash center employees benefit from a modern yet streamlined design, in the vault area our Pecunia app simplifies container transfer, and with efficient interface management, it serves various WTU actors as a comprehensive data hub system. Thus, Pecunia continuously expands its role as an indispensable WTU supporter along with ALVARA ICC as a fully integrated customer platform.

Around the Trade

Supporting the trade in efficient cash management is and remains one of our core competencies. Our annual meeting – the Cash Dialogue Trade – cannot be missed. For this event, we invited not to Leipzig for the first time in 2024. Instead, we met with customers and interested parties at the dm-dialogicum in Karlsruhe. In April, we focused on practical discussions, including topics like AI-based vault inventory capture as well as digitization and automation in cash management.

But these are just two central aspects from a whole pool of possibilities for retail:

• Digital signage continues to gain popularity. One reason for this: besides automated customer engagement, ease of use, and flexibility, increased sales are conceivable – as a study, which we delve into in our blog post, suggests.
• One of our theses: Bakery managers can achieve employee and customer satisfaction with pre-orders. But not as previously done on paper. Because bakeries gain more efficiency and security through electronic recordings, for example, with our ITR Cash Register.
• We have expanded the ICC app with smart safe management, allowing relevant processes to be mapped digitally and efficiently. AI must not be missing in our solutions either. Therefore, we are researching innovative extensions for cash forecasting and inventory capture through image recognition.
• Our ITR POS Sales App also brings relief for retail. It provides real-time sales analyses and key figures on products and employees to keep an overview at all times.

Customer Projects – Our Daily Business

Thanks to entrusted trust, we can look back on many exciting customer projects again this year. If you discover an exciting case for yourself, you are welcome to browse through some of our success stories.

• Automated invoicing: Cash – Logistik Allgäu GmbH relies on ALVARA | Digital Solutions billing software Fakturio
• BS Beck brings more efficiency, security, and transparency to cash logistics processes with logistics apps from ALVARA | Digital Solutions
• Messe Stuttgart relies on the ITR POS solution from ALVARA | Digital Solutions for efficient ticket sales
• ALVARA | Digital Solutions' ICC solution supports the Transgourmet Group with tracking and evaluation functions

Thank You to Everyone!

Away from daily business, we regularly made some time to grow together as a team. After all, without strong collaboration, we wouldn't be able to look back on innovative product innovations and developments or successful customer projects. We further strengthened this mutual appreciation and our team spirit at the autumn festival and joint hiking this year.

Like every year, there were also many beautiful moments this year with the team, our customers, and in the development workshop that we remember fondly.

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