From Austria... into the wide IT-World

The security start-up LOGICO did not only survive the black days of the New Economy. How a small Austrian company searches its global niches, how it conquers the world market by intuitive judgement

Wolfgang P. Kalny does not only show coolness, but self-confidence as well. With the recent capital increase, the Logico CEO supplements his stock share on over 20 percent.




Once again the last weeks have been quite exciting for Wolfgang P. Kalny. In the course of the last capital increase the LOGICO CEO remarkably raised his stock share. “That’s confidence”, he dryly comments his step. “Or insanity. But do not write this that way, otherwise the people would believe, I am a gambler”, he adds with a smile. No, the 47-year old is personified seriousness. Any budget trick would disgust him, his word has contract quality. His profession is understatement. Anything Kalny stands for in business, he also lives privately. The “Yes” he gave to his wife 22 years ago holds like reinforced concrete. And these qualities are in demand, since Kalny now possesses more than one fifth of an enterprise that acts in a special environment. “Security” is Logico’s business. However, that buzzword alone is insufficient. Logico deals with things one would rather settle in the security wing of a Silicon Valley company than in a plain office building in the Viennese suburb Voesendorf, where the slim staff – with approximately 15 employees Logico has about the size of a typical Austrian small business – develops highly sensitive products. Digital signature solutions are filed in the laboratories; user authentication, access control, encryption, and smart cards are the stock-in-trade.
That’s not the way it is spoken about in the halls of Logico, of course. Rather terms as “secure authentication”, “key management”, or “government solutions” are used, because the “company language” is English. “We are a techno small business after all”, say Wolfgang Kalny, and reveals understatement again, since Logico moves internationally in the absolute leading field. The team in Voesendorf looked for a veritable niche in the global village. No, perhaps more than that. About eight or ten companies are active in that particular segment of e-Security world-wide, and Logico occupies the niche in the niche. Market Researcher IDC calls this segment “Identity Management” and forecasts a sevenfold increase of the market even in the short run, rather in the medium-term. IDC analyst Brain Burke sees an imminent revolution. Supplier of 3A – Security Solutions – which stands for authentication, authorization, and administration in analyser jargon – will have to prepare for rough times. Identity management is meant to become overall term for the whole 3A-market. “Not only protection of personal data profiles, but also communication itself depends on identity management”, writes Burke in an analysis. That’s exactly where Logico sets its product range.

Light and Shadow. Hence, Wolfgang Kalny logically took aim at the industry’s big players. Logico shall position itself with its identity management against “blue chips”, like the American RSA Security or the Franco-American Active Card. The absolute turnovers are in a comprehensible scale so far. This year’s goal is about three million Euros, but the total market is small yet, and for a fifteen employee company that goal is still remarkable. Perhaps the more important message: the business plan is going to hold and Logico will finally break even this year. This way has not always been sketched in such manner. Logico has been a new economy’s child far from the beginning. The first capital stock was spent rapidly; first turnover forecasts were about annual growth rates of 500 percent. Before the company fell completely, the Venture for Business Beteiligungs AG (V4B) increased its shares – the somewhat too optimistic company founders had to relinquish their sceptres. V4B, affiliate of the Volksbankengruppe, did not let die promising “babe” Logico down, despite its starting difficulties, and successively increased its shares. Since the summer of 2003 CEO Wolfgang Kalny is considered in the “techno small business” as “iron broom” and “Volksbanken” man, who does not only keep balances, ebits, and targets together, but who enforces the internationalization of the Voesendorfer company as well. Since Kalny took over, annual turnovers of “only” 120 percent are planned – and are realized. Kalny doesn’t talk much about himself, just as much as his academic graduation in business administration and electronic engineering. However, the fact that he admits in the known silent Turnauer group as youngest manager with a billion-responsibility, is hardly known. It is said that he was involved in the Thonet deal, as well as with the development of 1800 radio transmission stations Connect Austria/One had to install in 2000 within a few months. Furthermore, Kalny has been around a KPNQWEST, which he founded on the EU-Net in May 2002. At that time the likewise engaged Volksbankengruppe first threw their eyes on him as potential future Logico CEO.

Silence is golden. One itching issue for Kalny and his Logico crew is the obligation to maintain silence about the customers. “No comment”, is answered to each detail question. This much is certain, viz. that Logico has an excellent starting point at domestic hospital groups. The health sector is churned up not only in this country, but more and more in the USA, too. In Germany a breakthrough seems successful as well. One of the largest German police authorities uses Logico technology for identity management. Quite a lot of the 10,000 authority co-workers, particularly the security sensitive dial-up connections of the mobile task forces that are equipped with laptops, are secured by Logico. In the Formula One Logico rides along. Via WLAN connections, storage solutions, and Web integration of the construction teams, mega bytes of data tear over unsecured connections and networks. According to reliable sources an El Dorado for industrial espionage, a situation that at least one of the renowned teams brought to an end via Logico technology. A German mechanical engineering concern, apart from simple automation for decades particularly settled in the high-tech area from millimetre-exact satellite communication and micrometers, trusts on thousands of workstations in Logico technology. And discussions at the American east coast succeeded in an encouraging “That’s exactly what we are looking for”. Only drop of bitterness: The US customs authorities already took hostage of a simple smart card reader from Voesendorf. The materialized primeval technology is being kept hold of by the authorities for weeks. Kalny will solve this as well. Perhaps another aspect of the “insanity” he keeps talking about.



 Kalysis And Logico Sign Off Co-Operation Agreement

Wolfgang P. Kalny is a non executive member of Kalysis' board of directors.