Dr. Jörg Dittrich

Dr. Jörg Dittrich earned his doctorate in production and procurement logistics from the Bavarian Research Center for Knowledge-Based Systems (FORWISS) under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Peter Mertens. As the founder of Axis GmbH and later ATRADA AG, he drove the development of Web-based auction platforms. After ten years of senior-level management experience at EDS and HP, Jörg Dittrich founded Orpheus GmbH with his partner Michael Lauer.

In corporation with the management consultancy A.T. Kearney, Orpheus has developed innovative spend and logistics management solutions for large corporations and midsize companies. Orpheus customers analyze over €130 billion of purchasing volume using its solutions and have generated a huge amount of savings through sourcing initiatives.

The lack of modern control systems that use data mining techniques and innovative OLAP reporting to help managers see and measure their savings potential inspired Jörg Dittrich and Michael Lauer to establish Orpheus. Today, Orpheus offers cost-effective software solutions for optimizing spend management as well as planning and managing sourcing initiatives. The focus of its R&D and customer implementations is recognizing and measuring savings by categories as well as to develop innovative visualizations to analyze relations and effects.
Through his vast hands-on experience, Jörg Dittrich has authored several books on sourcing/outsourcing, spend and production management, as well as IT consulting.

Dipl. Kfm. Michael Lauer

Michael Lauer is the co-founder of Orpheus GmbH. He studied Business, Economics and Business Information Systems at Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen and Nuremburg.

Together with Dr. Dittrich, he developed e-procurement and e-auction systems as well as software for materials logistics and material requirements management at Axis GmbH and later ATRADA AG.

Michael Lauer has designed BI systems for global purchasing and logistics as well as sales reporting and analysis for many different European and international customers. As a technical specialist and architect for Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS), Integration Services (SSIS) and Reporting Services (SSRS), he has supported many large installations at DAX and MDax corporations in Germany as well as corporations throughout Europe.

This wealth of experience in developing standardized Business Intelligence software for procurement, production and sales reporting and analysis inspired Jörg Dittrich and Michael Lauer to establish Orpheus back in 2005.

As the Chief Technical Officer at Orpheus, Michael Lauer heads R&D for control methods, variance analytics, OLAP data modeling and KPI systems as well as innovative ways to measure and visualize savings. Orpheus operates in close cooperation with the management consultancy A.T. Kearney, the Business Intelligence company Bissantz, as well as the European Business School (EBS) in Oestrich-Winkel and has authored joint publications, for example, on procurement control.