TOP 100: What Our Award Means for Customers and Partners
A few days ago, water was honored with the TOP 100 seal at the German Mittelstand Summit. That officially places us among the 100 most innovative mid-sized companies in Germany. At the award ceremony in Heidelberg, former German President Christian Wulff personally congratulated us on the achievement.
Naturally, we're thrilled about this recognition.
But what does it actually mean for the customers and partners who work with us every day?
Innovation is not an end in itself
The TOP 100 innovation competition doesn't evaluate individual products or campaigns. Instead, it examines how innovation actually happens within a company – how quickly new ideas are developed, tested, and successfully brought to life. The assessment draws on more than 100 evaluation criteria.
Why does an innovative mindset matter? Because our customers' challenges today are simply different from what they were just a few years ago. Cyber threats keep evolving. Regulatory requirements try to provide answers but raise new questions in the process. Technology – AI above all – is changing at breakneck speed. The question, then, isn't whether companies need to adapt, but how fast they can.
That's exactly why our customers benefit from an innovation-driven organization.
Better solutions emerge closer to the problem
Many of our solutions didn't originate in a business plan or on a drawing board – they were built together with customers and partners, out of very concrete needs. Today's managed services like TRACE, ARC, and Managed Data Security are the result of countless conversations and (failed) attempts. Not because we set out to build something "innovative," but because customers had real problems, and together we found a solution.
Innovation doesn't happen alone
water's place among the TOP 100 today isn't something we achieved on our own. A large part of our innovative strength comes from working closely with our partner network, especially technology partners like Microsoft. Collaboration, trust, and shared momentum are key drivers behind new services and ongoing development. For our partners, then, the award really comes down to one thing: they're working with a company that's willing to break new ground, test ideas early, and turn innovation into market-ready services fast.
The water way
We'll only still be successful and innovative five years from now if our people take ownership, contribute ideas, and treat change not as an exception but as part of everyday business. So honestly, what pleases me most about this award isn't the certificate or the title – it's the confirmation that this conviction holds true and that our approach works.
That's why we won't rest on this success. We'll keep investing, questioning ourselves, improving, and developing new solutions. For us, innovation isn't a goal – it's the prerequisite for delivering the right answers to our customers' security questions tomorrow, too.
