CRATOS GROUP

"Experten für eine sichere, digitale und nachhaltige Welt"

Digitale Unternehmenssicherheit und -transformation

Experten für Cybersecurity

Shaping Sustainable Energy

Green Energy & Cybersecurity

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CRATOS GmbH
Georgstraße 36
30159 Hanover

Strategy &
Business Consulting

Creating tomorrow’s solutions

for your sector

INDUSTRIES

Our changing world.

Every industry faces its own challenges—and we know them in depth. Our experts combine deep industry insight with IT excellence to make transformation measurably successful.

Enterprise IT organizations
Utilities
Finance & Insurance
Public Sector

Great ideas need
landing gear
as well as wings

(C. D. Jackson)

ENTERPRISE IT ORGANIZATIONS

Enterprise IT is no longer a cost center—it is the power center for growth, security, and innovation. Those who lead here determine the success of the entire company. Cloud transformation, zero-trust security, NIS2 and DORA compliance, AI integration, and data excellence are no longer projects; they are non-negotiable disciplines.

We partner with enterprise IT organizations that don’t compromise. Our consultants and architects combine strategic foresight with operational excellence. We modernize infrastructure, build and transform applications, and integrate services across entire corporate landscapes—creating IT that is resilient, scalable, and data-driven.

Our ambition isn’t to “manage” projects. We deliver outcomes that make a difference—felt by boards, business units, and customers. With Cratos at your side, you gain a partner who takes ownership, minimizes risk, and delivers the quality you expect from an elite service provider.

Visit our Success Stories for deeper insights.

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energy industry

The energy sector is at the center of transformation: smart grids, decentralized generation, and strict regulation are radically reshaping the industry. Leaders here rely on AI in grid control, flexible billing models and systems, application consolidation, and the development of tailored solutions.

But innovation alone isn’t enough—it must be secure. With zero-trust security architectures, rigorous NIS2 compliance, and comprehensive cyber resilience, we protect energy providers and municipal utilities from growing threats.

We support the sector end-to-end: from application development and cloud integration to project & change management. This ensures digitalization doesn’t stall at the pilot stage, but delivers real business value—stable, compliant, and future-ready.

Cratos is the IT service provider for the energy industry that turns technology, data, and security into competitive advantage. We deliver outcomes that make grids more stable, billing systems smarter, applications more efficient, and infrastructure more secure—hands-on and at the highest level.

Our Success Stories showcase how we’ve already supported energy providers.

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FINANCE AND INSURANCE INDUSTRY

The financial and insurance industry is undergoing its biggest upheaval in decades. Banks and insurers are under pressure to modernize their IT systems, implement regulatory requirements such as BaFin, DORA, and NIS2, and at the same time build cloud-based digital business models. To remain successful in this sector, you need IT that is secure, scalable, and innovation-ready.

We support financial and insurance institutions in building digital platforms, introducing cloud services, and implementing a holistic cybersecurity and compliance strategy. Our strength lies in combining innovation with regulatory assurance—from data and process automation to application development and resilient IT infrastructures.

With Cratos, you gain an IT service partner for banks and insurers that takes ownership and delivers top-tier results. No compromises, no “business-as-usual”—but IT excellence for the financial sector.

We’ve compiled our IT excellence for the finance and insurance sector in our Success Stories.

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PUBLIC SECTOR

The pressure to digitalize in the public sector is steadily increasing. New work models, a skills shortage driven by demographic change, and the growing complexity of IT landscapes pose enormous challenges for administrations and public authorities. Without process automation, cloud integration, and modern security concepts, this transition cannot be managed.

We support the public sector with top-tier IT project management and change management. Our experts analyze processes, transform workflows, and implement cloud solutions as well as zero-trust security architectures. It’s not about technology alone, but about the structured transformation of organizations—efficient, resilient, and future-proof.

Cratos is the IT service provider for the public sector that brings together project governance, technology, and change management. We deliver outcomes that make an impact—measurable, sustainable, and compliant.

Visit our Success Stories to gain an overview of our expertise.

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Extract from our customer list

CAREER

Jointly successful

We encourage the spirit of research and the curiosity of our team members and celebrate our successes together. If you're a responsible, curious explorer too, check out what else we have to offer here.

Our job offerings

Background
Parallel to the electricity and gas routes, a distribution network operator (DSO) has laid many thousands of kilometers of optical fiber, which can only be marketed on the free market with considerable effort due to the requirements in the regulated business.

Initial situation
A regional energy supplier, which owns electricity, gas and telecommunications networks in Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Hesse, decided to set up its own company to market fiber-optic capacity.

Special feature
As part of a large energy group, many structures already exist in the IT area. In reality, these structures lead to long processes and little individuality. However, adapted and fast processes are a major competitive advantage, so the task was to combine good and cost-effective standard solutions with optimized individual solutions. Equally critical for success is the definition of the business processes of a newly founded company.

Implementation
In addition to the customer-focused sales processes, planning, construction, operation and fault clearance processes also had to be defined and interlinked. In order to really leverage the synergy of the demerger, it was essential to integrate the existing capacities from the regulated business into the process flow in a process-oriented and, if possible, automated manner. This was done despite the fact that the existing documentation structures were not optimal in terms of topology and topography. The basis for the interface processes and services was a contract, which was set up before the foundation, and accordingly made many assumptions. This contract also had to be broken down into OLAs (operational level agreements) as SLAs (service level agreements) in order to be able to guarantee quantity structures, performance promises and service capacities right down to the specialist departments.

Customer benefits
To enable our customer to concentrate on its core business, we took over the development of the IT infrastructure, managing the group's internal IT service provider on the one hand and establishing individual solutions on the other. This included mapping sales processes in a CRM system based on Microsoft Dynamics and introducing Microsoft Teams.

Business processes were defined, measurement systems developed and transferred to the line organization. Since even the best business processes have to adapt to the market and the complete environment again and again, process owners were appointed, and a continuous improvement process was established.

Background
Through the input we get in our consulting projects with our clients, as well as our constant interest in the topics of energy, mobility and sustainability, coupled with creativity and vision, we come up with many ideas that we discuss internally. One of these ideas revolves around the topic of sector coupling, i.e. the interlinking of energy and mobility. In this case, however, a very specific form of mobility, namely in agriculture.

Initial situation
Since we as Cratos do not have a lot of knowledge about agriculture, technologies used there and specifics, we were looking for a partner to take our idea further. A globally active and experienced manufacturer of agricultural machinery was interested in our idea, so we set up a partnership.

Special feature
Anyone who deals with mobility in agriculture, i.e. agricultural machinery, will quickly understand that many things are very special. This also applies to the use profiles of agricultural machinery. Many of the machines are used on only a few days or weeks a year. Then, however, with many operating hours per day and with a high performance required. Our partner expressed this very aptly: "When a tractor pulls a piece of metal (plow) through the ground, a lot of power and performance is needed!"

Implementation
These very specific user profiles, however, also result in many opportunities, which we explored in more detail in a number of workshops. Expert knowledge paired with creative workshop methods led to many ideas, which were subsequently examined for their viability in a business model. These included the following topics: Use of alternative fuels, from methanized hydrogen to synthetic fuels; reverse power generation; virtual power plants; control energy pooling; and many more! It quickly became clear that only the combination of several use cases would make ecological and economic sense.

Customer benefits
Our partner from the agricultural machinery sector has an existing business model and can make a decision for the future business orientation on this basis. Essential information on developments and framework conditions to be observed in the energy supply and market are available in order to be able to evaluate opportunities, risks and entire business models, in the implementation of which we are happy to provide support.

Background
Digitalization opens the door to unprecedented opportunities for energy providers to sustainably expand their business model and make it more efficient: Customer loyalty, network control, price optimization are just a few buzzwords. But how can these very diverse parameters be optimally linked with each other? Our client called on us to manage the technical product development project.

Initial situation
The goal was to make energy "tangible". To this end, a product was to be developed that would control electricity and heat in households of consumers and feeders, measure consumption and generated quantities, but also create forecasts and thus be able to influence both consumption and generation. These forecasts are based on a host of external data - residents' schedules, weather forecasts for hours of sunshine, wind strength, shading and much more.

Special feature
The variety and abundance of interfaces and their coordination presented a special challenge. No two houses in Germany have the same framework conditions for their energy systems - and for reliable forecasts and models, all contingencies must be created, at least in principle, sometimes down to the individual data point of a heating system. Where "smart meters" are already quite common today, this product development with its consideration of heat and electricity, consumption measurement and generation forecasting represent a trend-setting innovation and a milestone in energy transparency.

Implementation
Before the first finished device could be installed in the house, we had to do a lot of coordination work. Literally all possible scenarios had to be considered, thought through and created in advance. We contacted a whole range of manufacturers (heating, photovoltaics, control technology) and involved them in the development, controlled all interfaces in the development and guided the service provider who took over the programming. Only thanks to agile development was it possible to keep to the schedule, up to and including the structuring and monitoring of all tests in an external test laboratory.

Customer benefits
With the "Box", our client now has a digital device with which he can offer his customers clear added value. Consumption of electricity and heating can be measured transparently and predicted precisely. The systems are controlled via an online portal or via an app using a smartphone or tablet. This enables a novel and exciting "user experience" that gives the abstract topics of saving and generating energy a whole new quality of experience.

For the energy supplier itself, the "box" provides new data on the utilization of its network and opens the way to a virtual power plant: if many customers are equipped with it, it can feed electricity into the network at optimal times or draw it out very quickly. Both serve to ensure stable supply and grid security and are also highly interesting from an economic point of view: a win-win situation for all parties involved.

Background
In response to Microsoft's announcement to discontinue support for the Windows 7 operating system in January 2020, numerous enterprises faced a compelling need to modernize their IT infrastructure, including all Windows 7 workstations.

Initial situation
During project initiation, our customer operated an extensive network comprising over 53,000 clients and over 2,000 virtual desktops, all running on Windows 7. These assets were geographically distributed across multiple locations spanning twelve countries in Europe, North America, and South America.

To facilitate a smooth migration to Windows 10, we established a SCCM infrastructure based on ConfigMgr 2016 ("current branch") in collaboration with the workplace service provider. Furthermore, we accomplished the roll-out of Windows 10 by replacing the older devices with pre-installed new devices or the complete reinstallation of existing Windows 10-compatible devices.

Finally, we have combined and migrated several thousand applications to the new SCCM environment, ensuring uninterrupted operational continuity and efficiency.

Special feature
To streamline the roll-out process efficiently and optimize resource utilization, we enabled users to independently reinstall their devices. Fulfilling this objective required an alignment of all processes including the user experience, encompassing both technical and organizational considerations.

Additionally, we implemented proactive measures to ensure workstations remained up to date with the latest version of Windows 10, in line with Microsoft's evergreen approach.

Implementation
In close collaboration with the customer, we made a strategic decision to use a traditional project management process model for the roll-out initiative. This choice was driven by the interdependencies among various phases (Technical Enabling, Application Enabling, and Roll-Out), which used to partially overlap due to time constraints. Leveraging modern roll-out management software, we successfully made individual decisions regarding the installation of Windows 10 or the replacement of the computer. These decisions were based on considerations of required software and the fulfilment of technical prerequisites at each specific location.

Customer benefits
Representing this project, we have successfully completed a crucial milestone for our customer, marking a significant step towards the modernization of their IT infrastructure and serving as a foundational prerequisite for realizing their strategic objectives within the Managed Workplace environment. We empowered them to unlock new levels of operational efficiency, productivity, and technological advancement.

Background
Technically, the renewal of workplace IT is often driven by the manufacturers of operating systems and software based on them.

In the case of our customer, however, there was an added motivation: The usage behavior of classic services, such as email, has changed significantly over generations. While Generation X still relies heavily on communication via email, Generations Y and Z are taking full advantage of the possibilities and benefits of social networks. Not only in private, but also on internal company platforms, collaboration is being completely reorganized in this way. The almost exclusive use of mobile devices (smartphones, tablets), which are highly networked and always-on, awakens the desire to want to use this convenience in the professional context as well.

The adaptation of freely available and innovative services by companies has already become a selection criterion for prospective applicants, thus presenting companies with new challenges in the "war for talent".

This is where the project and our assignment come in.

Initial situation
Our client wanted to update the workstations of its employees in terms of IT. The goal was to increase responsiveness and enable more flexibility. The strategy had two orientations: "Cloud First!" and comprehensive user orientation. Employees should not even get the idea of setting up an individual "shadow IT" or posting company knowledge in an unsecured public cloud. In addition, new possibilities for using mobile end devices were to be opened.

Special feature
Our measures involved 3,500 users with extremely high-quality requirements. The users were to be given access to all relevant company data, including telephone and e-mail, from anywhere and at any time - regardless of their end device (smartphone, iPad, laptop) or their location, worldwide.

Implementation
The project encompasses all parts of the workplace infrastructure, including cloud-based identity management, Windows 10 roll-out, Office 365 and Office 2016. A hybrid approach was chosen as the process model to implement the classic project content with a clear scope (including roll-out) and the innovative content as best as possible.

Customer benefits
The project has an extremely high business significance for our client. So, it is important for him that we meet his strategic goals across the board. Now its IT can react very quickly and flexibly to user needs. The integration of a secure cloud makes it much easier for employees to handle all relevant data. This increases their satisfaction with the working environment and their productivity. At the same time, data security is increased through clearly defined processes in a uniform and secure environment.

Background
During re-municipalization, a large energy group sold its majority stake in a regional energy supplier to various regional municipalities. However, this carve-out entails considerable changes that need to be reliably managed.

Initial situation
Due to the carve-out, a regional energy supplier in Westphalia is transformed from an energy group back into a medium-sized company. The carve-out of all components and areas necessary for operation is a complex task. While the conversion of the process IT as an encapsulated area proceeded relatively straightforwardly, a new service provider had to be found for the business areas (shared services of the network business, HR, IT). Our involvement in this project began with the support of the tender for the largest part - the shared services of the network business.

Special feature
Preparing the tender is a very demanding project. Considerable adaptation effort resulted from the earlier energy company running a complex and individually customized system landscape.The amounts of data from the old to the new service provider, including adapting to completely different data structures, was certainly one of the biggest challenges. The network management processes also had to be adapted - especially due to the significant differences in billing and feed-in structures, as well as balancing processes. However, we also successfully designed and went with these phases of this overall complex project.

Implementation
In order for this transition from the old to the new service provider to proceed smoothly, extensive and very thorough preparatory work was crucial. Because the German Federal Network Agency has extremely strict requirements with regard to market communication and balancing rules, a smooth transition was extremely important. This was so successful, not only did the end customers not notice anything about the change, but also the billing, which was very complex in some cases, immediately ran correctly with the new service provider in the background.

Customer benefits
This project affected our client's core business and was therefore absolutely critical to its success. By changing the service provider, our client not only benefits from much more attractive conditions, but its processes have also been significantly simplified. With the current standard solutions, employees can work much faster, easier and more cost-effectively - which in turn benefits the end customers. In this respect, we have been able to sustainably strengthen the basis for future clearly positive business development.

Background
The separation of group companies presents significant IT challenges that should not be underestimated. Particularly when dealing with established and integrated IT services, such a project can uncover complexities that were previously overlooked. When coupled with the migration to a Cloud service, such as the case with the Exchange infrastructure, the project's complexity further escalated. In the context of a corporate separation, the objective was to achieve a seamless and efficient separation of the entire mail infrastructure into two distinct and independent domains. Additionally, we aimed to dissolve the existing system and migrate it to the Cloud as part of this separation process.

Initial situation
The scope of the project encompassed 60,000 users with a total of 90,000 mailboxes and 80,000 archives. The seamless migration was of great importance to ensure uninterrupted and smooth business operations. Meeting this challenge was not only crucial for operational continuity but also to mitigate the risk of potential antitrust-related penalties.

Special feature
The mail infrastructure of this group represented a complex network with numerous legacy components as a result of various acquisitions and disposals and had strong dependencies within the mailboxes due to various restructurings. Transitioning to a cloud-based service, which offered limited customization options, posed significant challenges, not solely from a technical perspective.

Implementation
The project was structured into three phases:
1. Enabling, including all preparatory measures for the technical upgrade.
2. Migration of all mailboxes.
3. Roll-out of Office 365 Pro, including Skype for Business, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive for Business, to all users.

Throughout all project phases, we were the central point of contact for all parts of the company for the migration, coordinated the in-house units and acted as the interface to the external infrastructure service provider. We effectively brought together the internal teams and served as the bridge between the company and the external infrastructure service provider, ensuring smooth collaboration and seamless execution.

Customer benefits
The project was business-critical for our customer as it entailed fulfilling their legal obligations. We successfully accomplished this task within the aligned timeframe, prioritizing security, and transparency. Additionally, we implemented a new future-proof package of applications to our client's employees. As a result, the operating costs associated with the entire email domain decreased, while the breadth of services expanded. The services are now more accessible on a global scale, independent of specific platforms, eliminating access barriers such as the need for VPN. With our new future-proof IT solution in place, employees experience greater productivity and enhanced security.

PROVIDER TRANSITION

Background
Changes are often accompanied with risks but are essential for successful development of any business. Either feeling stuck in an unproductive or costly relationship with the current provider, expiring contracts or other challenges. A professionally managed service provider transition can dramatically improve experience and enhance performance, mitigating risks while optimising business processes.

Initial situation
The customer expressed the need to migrate from the existing decentralized on-premises infrastructure to a centralized hybrid virtualized platform. Additionally, the new platform and all provided services needed to be taken over by a new service provider.

Special feature
A special focus was dedicated to the transfer of knowledge from the incumbent provider to the new provider. The most challenging step was to centralize the services into a cloud managed hybrid environment, while ensuring minimal latency and optimal performance without disrupting any business processes.

Implementation
Due to the project complexity, it was divided into 4 separate phases.
1. First, it was critical to understand and analyze the customer’s individual requirements for a virtualized platform. This included an extensive preparatory phase to identify gaps in the existing virtual platform and provide full control over documentation.
2. To facilitate a smooth transition, we managed knowledge transfer sessions between the existing service provider and the new one to prepare for the migration process.
3. The third phase was key to ensure the customer's successful future development, as we enabled close collaboration between all parties to plan the specifics of the new virtualized platform and user migration.
4. In the final phase we encompassed the construction of the new hybrid virtualized platform, along with the user transition, followed by feedback sessions to ensure the satisfaction of all parties involved with the new solution.

Customer benefits
The virtualized platform service was seamlessly handed over to the new service provider, ensuring the retention of knowledge. It offered enhanced flexibility to accommodate the specific requirements of the customer. Throughout the migration process, various unused resources were identified and decommissioned, resulting in a reduction of required licenses. Consequently, it contributed to a decrease in costs for the customer.

DESKTOP VIRTUALIZATION

Background
In this era of rapid technological advancement and digital transformation, an increasing number of companies are opting for virtual cloud-based desktops. These cutting-edge solutions empower employees to work from any location, while ensuring robust security and protection of data. Cloud-based virtualized desktops represent a significant leap forward in enhancing and elevating business operations.

Initial situation
Initially, our international customer had a hybrid offering of physical clients/ laptops as well as Citrix technology-based published applications to approx. 40.000 users. Additionally, they supported about 2.600 virtual desktops within their development, testing, and automation environments. These infrastructure components were hosted on-premises within the company’s local data centres managed by a third-party service provider. Consequently, the company expressed a strong motivation to incorporate a Cloud-based solution, in order to modernize their end-user environment. We leveraged flexibility and scalability to significantly reduce operational costs and to improve the user experience.

Special feature
Due to the international nature of the customer, the project accommodated over 40.000 users worldwide. It required a tailored approach, implementing compliance policies adhering carefully to regulatory purposes. The enhancement of the security measures and the strategic shift of the infrastructure management in-house from an external provider were the main focal points of the project.

Implementation
Due to the international scope of the project, it was split into multiple phases:
1. Based on the first alignments with the stakeholders, we proceeded with the analysis of the existing environment in order to drive and support the creation of the business case.
2. Guided by the customer’s strategic vision, we uncovered an innovative technical solution from concept, design, and evaluation.
3. Transitioning from the development and alignment phase, we aimed to secure support from senior management and proceeded with planning of the next steps for managing and delivering the project.
4. During the project we supplied high-quality risk management activities and regular procurement support to achieve planned goals. To achieve a smooth user migration process, we created extensive user guides in multiple languages as well as helpful FAQs that were regularly updated on Confluence & Jira pages, along with providing required technical support.
5. We established a seamless and consistent line of communication between the users and respective international teams. This became possible due to end user tests, trainings, and proactive collaboration with different departments and their leads.
6. To facilitate the smooth transition without any workload outages, we executed application assessments through continuous alignment with the product owners and enabled the integration of >1.000 customer applications in different environments throughout all stages (DEV, PRE, PROD).
7. From the PM perspective, we managed the corresponding activities and reported the project status to the Project Steering Committee establishing Power BI reports to make progress transparent to the customer.
8. After the transition was completed, we organized and supervised knowledge transfer sessions with the customer actively supporting frictionless business operations.
9. The operational service activities included the adaptation of service operation processes, ensuring their tailored and efficient integration. This involved collaboration, training, and alignment of migration timelines within business engagement. We also supervised and documented the incorporation of automation services.

Customer benefits
The digitalization/cloudification of the workplace has delivered significant value to our client. We completely restructured the end-user environment and implemented a solution that exactly met all requirements and expectations. We reached a higher degree of flexibility through the integration of native cloud services allowing for a pay-per-use model that effectively reducing operational costs and perfectly accommodated evolving demands while prioritizing a high standard of security. From the user's perspective, we established a consistent and seamless experience across all platforms, maintaining familiarity with their personal devices. Additional benefits included application reduction and the optimization of onboarding and offboarding processes.

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