USU Software AG is headquartered in

Möglingen Möglingen is a municipality in the district of Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated 13 km northwest of Stuttgart, and 5 km west of Ludwigsburg. Möglingen has the headquarter of the "Württemberger Weingärtner-Zen ...

near

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, and serves as the holding company for two IT subsidiaries. USU GmbH operates internationally in the

IT management Information technology management (IT management) is the discipline whereby all of the information technology resources of a firm are managed in accordance with its needs and priorities. Managing the responsibility within a company entails many ...

software sector, particularly the digitalisation of IT and customer services. USU Digital Consulting GmbH provides services to support

digital transformation Digital transformation (DT) is the process of adoption and implementation of digital technology by an organization in order to create new or modify existing products, services and operations by the means of translating business processes into a d ...

within organisations. In the 2023 financial year, the group generated revenue of €132.1 million with 803 employees and recorded a net profit of €5.3 million. USU Software AG is represented by subsidiaries in Germany, the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

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Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, and the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

Company history

Founding and early years

The company was founded in 1977 by the banker and programmer Udo Strehl as ''Udo Strehl Unternehmensberatung'' (USU). In 1988 it began selling software products for IT management and in 1995 these were sold abroad for the first time. In the following years, the company expanded its business to include

knowledge management Knowledge management (KM) is the set of procedures for producing, disseminating, utilizing, and overseeing an organization's knowledge and data. It alludes to a multidisciplinary strategy that maximizes knowledge utilization to accomplish organ ...

products and services.

IPO and takeovers

On 4 July 2000, USU was listed on the stock exchange. At that time, the company already had 170 employees and generated revenue of DM41 million in the 1998/99 financial year. Strehl planned to invest half of the proceeds from the IPO, amounting to DM35 million, in product development and the other half in acquisitions. The share price of the

Neu-Ulm Neu-Ulm (, ; Swabian: ''Nej-Ulm'') is the seat of the Neu-Ulm district and a town in Swabia, Bavaria. Neighbouring towns include Ulm, Senden, Pfaffenhofen an der Roth, Holzheim, Nersingen and Elchingen. The population is 58,978 (31 Decembe ...

-based company ''Openshop'', which was also listed on the stock exchange on 21 March 2000, plummeted after its founder and CEO Thomas Egner (1962–2001) died in a plane crash in January 2001. Subsequently, in March 2002, Openshop merged with USU AG to form ''USU-Openshop AG''. In 2003, the name was changed to ''USU Software AG''. Founder Udo Strehl moved to the Supervisory Board in 2002. In order to expand its product range, USU acquired ''Omega GmbH'' in 2005, ''LeuTek GmbH'' in 2006 and ''Aspera GmbH'' in 2010. With the acquisition of Aspera GmbH, the company claims to have become one of the world's leading providers of IT asset management system software. In 2012, the USU Group acquired a majority stake in ''BIG Social Media GmbH'', based in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, and founded ''Aspera Technologies Inc.'' in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. In 2013, USU established a new research division focused on Industrial

Big Data Big data primarily refers to data sets that are too large or complex to be dealt with by traditional data processing, data-processing application software, software. Data with many entries (rows) offer greater statistical power, while data with ...

. In mid-2015, it acquired ''SecurIntegration GmbH'', based in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

, which operated in

SAP Sap is a fluid transported in the xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a s ...

licence management; this company merged with Aspera GmbH a year later. Since early 2017, ''UnitB Technology GmbH'', an agency for digital media and IT, has also been part of the USU Group. In May 2017, ''Easytrust SAS'' became the first French company to be acquired, and at the end of the same year, it was renamed ''USU SAS'', focusing on software asset management and

Oracle An oracle is a person or thing considered to provide insight, wise counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. If done through occultic means, it is a form of divination. Descript ...

licence management An end-user license agreement or EULA () is a legal contract between a software supplier and a customer or end-user. The practice of selling licenses to rather than copies of software predates the recognition of software copyright, which has b ...

Expansion and restructuring

In spring 2018, the subsidiary USU AG changed its legal form and has operated as ''USU GmbH'' since 28 March. Also in 2018, USU restructured its business areas and established the ''Unymira'' division, which focuses on the digitalisation of business processes in service and combined the offerings of the four previously independent USU divisions: ''BIG Social Media'', ''Business Solutions'', ''KCenter'', and ''UnitB Technology''. On 28 January 2021, the group announced that all subsidiaries would be united under the common USU umbrella brand. To strengthen the distribution of its software applications in

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

, USU founded the company ''USU GK'' in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

in autumn 2021. The following year, USU consolidated its IT management offerings into a new cloud portal.

Recent developments

In April 2023, ''USU Technology GmbH'' and ''USU Solutions GmbH'' were merged into the sister company USU GmbH. One year later, in March 2024, the company announced that a delisting was planned; this came into effect on 2 July 2024. On 1 October 2024, Thoma Bravo, a US software investment company, announced the acquisition of a majority stake in the USU product business (USU GmbH). The consulting business was transferred to USU Digital Consulting GmbH by means of a spin-off. In March 2025, USU Software AG acquired

Saas Software as a service (SaaS ) is a cloud computing service model where the provider offers use of application software to a client and manages all needed physical and software resources. SaaS is usually accessed via a web application. Unlike oth ...

management company ''Saasmetrix''.

Products and services

The product business of USU Software AG is bundled in the subsidiary USU GmbH. In the IT service management business area, USU supports companies with

ITIL ITIL (previously and also known as Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is a framework with a set of practices (previously processes) for IT activities such as IT service management (ITSM) and IT asset management (ITAM) that focus ...

-compliant products for strategic and operational IT and enterprise service management. USU’s programs enable the digitalisation and automation of all processes necessary for the planning, design, operation, control, use, and billing of services. Analyst firms rank USU as a global market leader in this field. In the area of IT asset management, the company provides software asset management applications and managed services. This allows customers to manage their IT resources to reduce costs, ensure software compliance, and minimise risks. Global large corporations use these SAM applications to improve their software usage. The IT monitoring business area includes applications such as

event monitoring {{more citations needed, date=August 2017 In computer science, event monitoring is the process of collecting, analyzing, and Signal (information theory), signaling event occurrences to subscribers such as operating system Process (computing), proc ...

, end-to-end monitoring, cloud and container monitoring, and IT event management, which monitor the entire IT infrastructure of companies to ensure its functionality. With FinOps, USU offers services such as cloud cost management for more cost-efficient use of cloud modules, cloud governance for secure management of customer systems, IT financial management for IT cost planning, and

SaaS Software as a service (SaaS ) is a cloud computing service model where the provider offers use of application software to a client and manages all needed physical and software resources. SaaS is usually accessed via a web application. Unlike oth ...

management. Additionally, USU provides AI applications and data-driven services for

mechanical Mechanical may refer to: Machine * Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement * Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations o ...

and

plant engineering ''Plant Engineering'' () is a trade publication and web site owned by CFE Media. It covers the field of plant engineering and maintenance in both manufacturing and non-manufacturing industries. In April 2010, former owner Reed Business Informati ...

. The Customer Service Knowledge Management segment offers digital applications for knowledge management in organisations' customer service. The USU

knowledge base In computer science, a knowledge base (KB) is a set of sentences, each sentence given in a knowledge representation language, with interfaces to tell new sentences and to ask questions about what is known, where either of these interfaces migh ...

is primarily used in call and service centres. The offering is complemented by self-service options,

chatbot A chatbot (originally chatterbot) is a software application or web interface designed to have textual or spoken conversations. Modern chatbots are typically online and use generative artificial intelligence systems that are capable of main ...

s, voice bots, and portal services. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

in Germany, the USU chatbot was used by some municipalities and districts to provide information to citizens. At the end of 2021, USU launched Bot Universe, an open-source project for chatbot networks, which has included

ChatGPT ChatGPT is a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI and released on November 30, 2022. It uses large language models (LLMs) such as GPT-4o as well as other Multimodal learning, multimodal models to create human-like re ...

since April 2023. A virtual AI assistant was introduced in autumn 2024. The service business of USU Software AG is located in the subsidiary USU Digital Consulting GmbH. Partners include technology provider

Pegasystems Pegasystems Inc. (Pega) is a global software company based in Waltham, Massachusetts, in the United States, and founded in 1983. The company has been publicly traded since 1996 as PEGA (NASDAQ). Pega is a platform for workflow automation and ge ...

and

Liferay Liferay, Inc., is an open-source company focused on enterprise portal technology. The company has its headquarters in Diamond Bar, California, United States. History Liferay's original product, Liferay Portal, was created in 2000 by chief s ...

Research and development

USU GmbH's research division deals mostly with cloud- and AI-based technologies and acts as a technology partner or consortium leader for publicly funded research projects, among other things. Since 2022 the company has been developing an AI-supported service platform for German mid-sized businesses, which is being funded by the

Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (, ; abbreviated BMWE, formerly BMWi) is a Cabinet of Germany, cabinet-level ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany. It was previously known as the "Ministry of Economy". It was recreate ...

Sustainability and social engagement

In the area of sustainability, USU supports the climate protection project ''Yuntdag Wind Park'' north of

İzmir İzmir is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, and is the capital of İzmir Province. In 2024, the city of İzmir had ...

on the Turkish

Aegean coast The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans and Anatolia, and covers an area of some . In the north, the Aegean is connected to the Marmara Sea, which in turn con ...

by financing the construction of 17 wind turbines, each with a capacity of 2.5 megawatts. The aim is to reduce the annual

greenhouse gas emissions Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities intensify the greenhouse effect. This contributes to climate change. Carbon dioxide (), from burning fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum, oil, and natural gas, is the main cause of climate chan ...

resulting from coal power generation. The company is a signatory of the diversity charter.

Awards (selection)

In 2022 and 2023, USU was included in the

Gartner Gartner, Inc. is an American research and advisory firm focusing on business and technology topics. Gartner provides its products and services through research reports, conferences, and consulting. Its clients include large corporations, gover ...

''Voice of the Customer'' report, which evaluates IT products. * 2020: 1st place in the ''Software Companies'' category and awarded the ''Germany's Most Valuable Companies'' seal in the study ''Deutschlandtest'' by

Focus Money ''Focus Money'' (stylized in all caps) is a business magazine published in Munich, Germany. It is one of the spin-offs of the German news magazine ''Focus'' and has been in circulation since 2000. History and profile ''Focus Money'' was first pu ...

* 2022: 1st place in the overall ranking of the ''Vendor Selection Matrix'' market study in the categories ''Hybrid Cloud Cost Management'' and ''Hybrid Cloud Service Management'' in the aspect of cost control and optimisation by the analysis company Research in Action * 2023: Named "Strong Performer" in the ''Enterprise Service Management'' category by the analysis company Forrester * 2024: Named "Niche Player" in the ''SaaS Management Platforms'' category by the analysis company

* 2024: Awarded as one of the leading providers in the ''IT Financial Management'' and ''Technology Business Management'' categories of the ''Vendor Selection Matrix'' market study by the analysis company Research in Action * 2024: Awarded Best ITC Employer by Great Place to Work * 2024: Named "Strong Performer" in the ''Knowledge Management Solutions'' category by the analysis company Forrester * 2024: Named "Technology Leader" in the ''Software Asset Management Tools'' category by the analysis company QKS Group * 2025: Named "Leader" in the ''Software Asset Management'' ''Solutions'' category by the analysis company Forrester

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Usu Software Software companies of Germany Companies established in 1977 German companies established in 1977