"Cologne stood out as our gateway to the EU market."

International software company Attensi recently opened its headquarters for the DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) market in Cologne. It's the company's first office in the EU. Felix Doepke, Country Lead DACH and Director of Customer Simulations, Germany, told us about the reasons for choosing Cologne and Attensi's ambitious growth plans for the Cologne office.

What is Attensi? Who are your customers and how do they benefit from your product?

Attensi is a tech company. We design and build game-based training solutions for a wide range of sectors including hospitality, retail, financial services, industry, automotive, public, healthcare and pharma. Our customers can also create these solutions themselves using our no code, user-friendly platform. Our solutions include analytics tools to measure impact and specific KPIs, such as increasing sales or reducing incidents at work.

Our customer base includes Accenture, BCG, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bosch Siemens Hausgeräte (BSH), KPMG, Mercedes-Benz, SportScheck, and Zurich Insurance.

Attensi's solutions are used in over 150 countries and in more than 50 languages. We have offices in Cologne, Oslo, London, and Boston.

We combine a wide range of expertise to create our bespoke training solutions, including experts from the world of gaming, learning and development, and psychology. We've also recently implemented an AI engine to create solutions even more efficiently.

What were the main reasons for choosing Cologne as the headquarters to access the DACH market?

Establishing Attensi's first office in the EU was a big step for the company, and Cologne stood out as a location for a number of reasons:

• A vast network of world-class universities and institutions offering degrees in business, digital media and IT, providing access to talent for our future growth.
• Cologne is home to Gamescom, one of the world's largest video game conferences, which means that institutions and companies in the city are well aware of the power and potential of game-based training to achieve business goals.
• Cologne's geographical location makes it a powerful transport hub to reach the entire DACH region and much of Europe, with 3 international airports and an excellent rail network. With Attensi offices in Oslo, London and Boston, and customers around the world, Cologne is a fantastic location to facilitate our travel needs.
• As Germany's fourth largest city and home to exciting companies with ambitious growth plans, Cologne offers us the opportunity to network with companies looking to accelerate growth through digitalisation and innovative training.

What are your plans for the Cologne office over the next few years?

When we first expanded outside Oslo and into London, the new office grew from a few people to over 90 in just a few years. The DACH market is even larger, so we have ambitious growth plans for the Cologne office. It will act as a hub to bring Attensi's solutions to our customers in this market and we're already having many productive conversations. We are excited to be here and feel that this is the start of something big!

Learn more about Attensi on their website.