The good performance at group level was again driven by the IT System House & Managed Services segment. In the IT E-Commerce segment, on the other hand, Bechtle felt the saturation of many customers who had invested heavily in conventional IT infrastructure, such as PCs, in recent years. “The reference figures from the prior year were very challenging especially in terms of the revenue, but also with regard to the earnings. The fact that we achieved substantial growth and were able to keep our high prior-year margin stable despite difficult economic framework conditions sends a strong signal,” says Dr Thomas Olemotz, Chairman of the Executive Board of Bechtle AG.