Trending articles

International Coffee Chats – How we stay in touch as a global team during the Corona pandemic

At Netfira, we pride ourselves on creating innovative solutions that are built by people, for people. While great effort is put to placing our customers’ needs at the heart of our research and development, we are also committed to nurturing a sense of connection within our global team. Shared team activities, considered initiatives, and a dedication to professional development are always a top priority for us. Like most teams worldwide, the Covid-19 pandemic caused great disruption to the way we go about our day-to-day work. In response to this we launched the Netfira Coffee Chat to support team members to stay connected around the world despite lockdowns, working from home and isolation. 

Share:

Looking back

Pre Covid-19: Shared lunch and coffee breaks, an after-work beer with colleagues, Christmas and summer parties all contributed to an enjoyable work life at Netfira. 

2020: The Corona pandemic changes the world. Netfira’s commitment to placing the health of its employees above all else leads to teams working from the safety of their home. Everyday office life as we know it is shifted to the virtual world.  

Now: The Covid-19 pandemic continues. Social distancing and working from home have become the new normal. Companies must support employees to remain connected through this challenging and unpredictable time.  

International cooperation at Netfira

Faced with the question of how to stay in touch virtually as a team despite the “new normal” in the working world, we were able to build off our experience in working as an international team. We are proud of the collaboration between our Australian and German teams and the “new normal” presented an opportunity for us to take this collaboration and communication to the next level. You can read more about this in our International Collaboration blog post.  

Weekly coffee chats at Netfira

The most important consideration for smooth digital collaboration between international teams and varying time zones is the use of digital communication tools to keep in touch and hold virtual meetings. For this reason, we have launched a weekly Coffee Chat initiative. Once a week, we meet around morning tea in random groups of 3 to 4 people to chat, catch up with colleagues in other teams and share a laugh. This virtual meeting offers us a great opportunity to take a break from our daily work routine, connect with our colleagues on a personal level and learn something new. For new colleagues, the international coffee chats provide a great opportunity to get to know the Netfira team in an informal atmosphere. Australian colleagues have even shared stories of seeing snow for the first time thanks to their coffee chat.  

Time and cultural differences – no problem for the Netfira team

Due to the significant time difference between Germany and Australia, the term “coffee chat” is not to be taken too literally. While coffee is indeed an important part of the break for our German team, Australian colleagues often prefer a “good night” tea in the early evening (or a well-deserved “Feierabendbier”). 

Cultural differences and idiosyncrasies are a part of everyday working life for international teams. Language barriers are not a cause for concern at Netfira, although the Australian slang can present some funny pitfalls. For example, the expression “I’m fine” might seem like a straightforward response to “how are you?” However, in Australia, it is often used sarcastically when you are anything but fine which has led to some confusion from our new Australian colleagues. Thanks to modern communication tools and a commitment to developing and nurturing the Netfira Family we are able to creatively deal with the challenges that a global team in pandemic times.  

We value the diversity of our team and are proud of our international corporate culture. In these challenging times, it is even more important to take short breaks to stay in touch with colleagues and exchange ideas. This also helps us to work together successfully as a global team and to put our customers at the centre of everything we do. 

Return to blog

Trending articles

International Collaboration

How we’re reaching new heights through our diverse, international team

Share:

The Netfira journey: from consultancy to international software company 

Netfira was founded in Australia in 2009 as a consultancy for supply chain management. Our work in the area of supply chain optimisation led to the development of innovative applications and artificial intelligence to help our customers. After setting up co-headquarters in Germany almost a decade ago, our European team has driven the development of these technologies and helped many high-quality enterprises achieve great outcomes by making business processes simpler and more effective.  

 Today, we are serving customers around the world from our co-headquarters in Walldorf, Germany and Sydney, Australia. Our solution, the Netfira Platform, is a secure cloud platform that seamlessly integrates with existing systems and helps automate B2B processes so that employees can focus on value-adding activities that benefit their business. We recognise the value of diversity and collaboration when doing business – something which is even more important today given that people and organisations are more connected than ever before. We are proud of our international culture and our focus creating long-term solutions for our customers that are future-proof. 

The key to successful international collaboration 

As many businesses have realised since 2020, working across distance brings many challenges, but also many opportunities. At Netfira, we have been embracing remote working concepts for more than five years. To succeed with remote working concepts, a modern approach is required. 

 At Netfira, we have a very flat organisational structure. Unlike traditional structures which often leave employees isolated and demotivated in silos, our structure ensures clear and honest communication all the way from our working students to our executive level staff. Our specialised teams make decisions quickly and at the point of need, avoiding delays that come with centralised decision-making so we can progress our projects rapidly. 

 Smooth digital collaboration across varying time zones requires the creative and diligent use of digital communication tools to keep in touch, track progress and enjoy virtual meetings. In our next article, we will share one of the fun techniques we have created to allow our workplace culture to thrive despite sweeping lockdowns and working from home due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  

 We have established business processes that allow us to work as a global team virtually around the clock. Consequently, the time difference is not a disadvantage for us, but an advantage: as soon as the working day in Australia draws to a close, it begins in Germany, and our colleagues pick up where their team members left off. The use of established wiki software and platforms, such as the Atlassian suite, helps us collaborate seamlessly and allow our team to enjoy flexible working hours while remaining connected by accessing information, contributing ideas and completing projects from anywhere at any time. 

A strong team for strong results 

While we operate in multiple regions, we are all one team at Netfira. Whether the DACH region, APAC, the Americas, or anywhere else – our global team is committed to serving our customers intimately and reliably.  

 People from different cultures with different backgrounds and different ways of thinking come together at Netfira to work towards common goals. Thanks to our global, multicultural team, we enjoy a great diversity of knowledge, experience, and expertise that allows us to approach projects with unique perspectives and insights. 

 Our staff are encouraged to work autonomously and creatively as we seek to break barriers and push the boundaries of what is possible. This freedom and nurturing of ideas enables us to be innovative and reliable as we respond to the evolving needs of our customers.

Combined strength for customer-orientated processes 

Our software is made by people, for people. As our team benefits from our international collaboration, so too does our software. A focus on people drives us to create customer-oriented solutions that automate B2B processes. The sharing of knowledge at Netfira ensures that we continue to develop as individuals and as a company. Equally, feedback from our customers is one of the most important things for us – we are excited to grow together with our customers as true partners.  

Our new logo is a symbol of the simplicity and reliability of the Netfira Platform that can help so many of our customers achieve their goals. We are excited to continue  collaborating as a global Netfira team, and also with our customers as we help them address their challenges that are constantly evolving as their businesses expand, reorganise, and improve. Consequently, our new branding represents a new era for Netfira, but our focus remains the same: to provide the best technology to our customers so we can advance together by putting our users at the centre of everything. 

Return to blog

Trending articles

A New Era

We are excited to reveal our new logo as part of our rebranding in 2021. You may have noticed some changes to our website as we develop our platforms to be concise, modern, and understandable.

You can explore these changes at Netfira.com

Share:

At Netfira, we have a proud history of helping our customers solve their business problems with our innovative software. Our previous logo has served us well since 2009. However, it just wasn’t working for us anymore. The gentle gradient and circular dots no longer communicate the message we are trying to share, nor our vision. Our new logo has been designed with care and precision by our very own team here at Netfira. We started by analysing the strengths and weaknesses of our existing logo before developing several options for feedback from both our team at Netfira and the wider community. The goal was to create something clean, simple and recognisable. We built on what we loved from the existing logo and kept our entire team involved throughout the process. The result is something we are proud of.

After many iterations, we arrived at a highly crafted, modern and well-engineered design symbolic of the high quality and precision we are proud of at Netfira. But, we felt one final detail was needed.

The sky blue core of the design represents Netfira, seamlessly joining business partners through automated document processing. We are proud that our technology is made by people, for people. To convey this message, we added a fingerprint detail to this piece of the design. This detail represents the human element behind Netfira. It reaffirms why we do what we do: to allow people to achieve their goals by reliably automating workflows.

Our rebranding will take time as we work on updating various platforms and products. At first, you will notice primarily visual changes, including our new logo. These changes are symbolic of what is to come. We are excited about our innovative development roadmap and look forward to revealing new features and updates soon. 

Return to blog