This is exactly the kind of situation our #topteam is trying to avoid in the future. The Open Digital Community, or ODC for short, promotes transparency within the Group and encourages an exchange of views on digitization issues. Kirstin Seuken (tkIM), Lara-Kristin Baszok (tkAG), Fanziska Sellner (SE), Laura Kreienkamp (SE), Patrick Berghoff (MX), Marco Theis (MX), Kathrin Bals (MX) and Christoph Bruns (tkIM) tell us in an interview why and how the Open Digital Community came into being.

What have you achieved as a team?

"In a nutshell: more communication about digitalization. In just a few months, we have both built an intranet site and launched different exchange formats. Our goal: to strengthen communication & networking on digitization topics within thyssenkrupp.

For example, we have compiled problems that have already been solved. We present them as 52 use cases on our intranet page. A concrete example: The return rate of pallets was so low in one business that avoidable orders for packaging had to be placed. By introducing a new process, this could be changed: A software robot now creates an overview of pallets delivered to customers. This overview provides information for next steps such as organizing return transport or creating an invoice. Our platform is accessible to all employees: anyone who has already successfully solved a problem is welcome to submit it as a use case.

In addition, seven DigiPodcasts have already been created by employees for employees – examining a wide range of topics relating to digitization at thyssenkrupp. And we have organized further dialog formats: Three DigiTables and four DigiExpertTalks in which a total of around 500 thyssenkrupp employees took part. Here, digital experts from a wide range of areas can exchange ideas in person.

Anyone with an interest in digitization topics can contact and join our community. We also report on upcoming events and new use cases in our community newsletter. This way, the thyssenkrupp Digital Community always stays up to date."

How did you achieve this together?

"Started as a Lean & Agile project, we established the Open Digital Community in an agile team setup last year. Initially, the pilot project was limited to Germany, but now we are expanding our network globally. Cross-segment collaboration was particularly important to us in order to bring together different business needs.

The team members are familiar with the situation where several people are ignorantly working on the same digitization problem and therefore have a great deal of self-motivation to come up with a pragmatic solution. With this in mind, we were also able to use existing pages as a guide when creating our intranet page as a central information location. For example, we used the pages of the Digital Technology Office, Digital Basics and NWoW as a template and were thus able to accelerate our conceptualization phase and the development process.

What's special about the Open Digital Community? It grew out of the desire of employees who discussed the digitization of thyssenkrupp as part of a klar:text. The general consensus: If thyssenkrupp knew what thyssenkrupp already knew - we would be further ahead! And that's what spurred us on as a team to make a difference."

What is the significance of your achievement for thyssenkrupp?

"Through the ODC we can learn from and with each other across the segments, avoid repeating mistakes and implement projects faster. Technology expertise in the Group also reduces dependencies on third parties and leads to faster results. This means that if a problem has already been solved, others can also benefit from it and resources can be saved or used more wisely. In this way we strengthen the digital community within thyssenkrupp and move the entire corporate group forward."

Congratulations to the #topteam of thyssenkrupp for this great achievement!

Are you also part of a #topteam or you know someone who is? Then send us an email. We look forward to celebrating your successes together!