CASE STUDY DR. SCHNEIDER UNTERNEHMENSGRUPPE
The path to a digital workplace at Dr. Schneider
About Dr. Schneider
Dr. Schneider Unternehmensgruppe is a globally renowned supplier and experienced development partner for the premium automotive industry. It stands for high-quality plastic products – from innovative ventilation systems to highly integrated trims as well as aesthetically and functionally sophisticated modules for instrument panels and center consoles. The family-owned company has over 4,000 employees and produces at several sites in Germany as well as internationally in China, Poland, Spain, and the USA.
Initial situation
The Dr. Schneider Unternehmensgruppe had already been using an intranet based on SharePoint 2010, but neither news nor information could be exchanged over it. It only served as a document repository, although most of the documents were also stored on a file server. Employees were constantly faced with the challenge of finding content and documents, as well as determining whether these were up to date. Even collaboration was difficult because web-based collaboration was virtually impossible. Colleagues only exchanged documents and content via email. A uniform digital workplace for all Dr. Schneider employees was to be the solution. But what do employees really need for their daily business? To find out, a needs analysis was carried out with IPI, goals were defined, setting a solid foundation for the subsequent Digital Workplace project.
Goal
The aim was not only to improve communication and collaboration within Dr. Schneider Unternehmensgruppe, but to unite them across the various sites under a single “communication roof”. From the many different sources of information, a “Dr. Schneider corporate pot” was to be created that would ease employees’ routines. Initially, employees at the German sites in Kronach-Neuses, Tschirn and Judenbach were to be connected. Great importance was placed on creating a good basis for high user acceptance right from the start, and on taking all employees along on this journey – from management and the works council to production employees.
Solution
The Digital Workplace based on SharePoint 2013, rolled out after a one-year project period, comprises areas such as publishing, collaboration, knowledge management and employee profiles. Higher-level navigation and a uniform look and feel in all areas contribute to the holistic solution.
- Top News:
Global content that can be posted by selected editors. - Site-specific news:
The employee from the Neuses site sees the news from Neuses here. The employee from Judenbach, on the other hand, sees the news from Judenbach. - Quicklink slider:
Displays both global and personal links of the user in a clear tile format. - Person search:
With one click, the search box is expanded. Simply enter a name and quickly find your colleague’s employee profile. - Appointment calendar:
The user can see all important appointments at a glance, month by month. If they want to see all appointments, they can navigate to a SharePoint calendar by clicking on “Go to calendar”. - Footer area:
The icons can be used to quickly navigate to the company’s social networks.
The publishing portal consists of a global area and site-specific content. While the global content is visible to all employees, each site also has the option of creating its own site news. The global news is based on a centrally controlled editorial process, i.e. the editorial team from Kronach-Neuses collects the information, prepares it, makes it available and monitors it. Site-related news, on the other hand, can be posted by any colleague; all editors have been trained by IPI for this purpose.
In the collaboration area, “My Workplace” forms the central point, which not only serves as a starting point for the various areas, but also provides users with an overview: What team rooms are they a member of, what documents are they working on, and what tasks need to be completed. To improve both intra-departmental, cross-departmental and cross-location collaboration, so-called department pages as well as teamwork templates have been introduced. Each department has a department page right from the start where people can exchange information quickly and easily, collect important information and documents and work on them together. If teams want to collaborate outside of their team structures, they have the option to request a TeamworkTemplate. A NintexForm and a two-step approval process will automatically provide them with their workspace.
Benefits & outlook
The “INSIGHT” intranet of the Dr. Schneider Unternehmensgruppe, which has been launched nationwide, is well received by employees, and now forms the cornerstone in their daily work. The high acceptance of the solution was confirmed by an internal survey at Dr. Schneider: “Our employees are convinced by INSIGHT and enjoy using the solution,” says Torsten Werkmeister, INSIGHT project manager. Not only has communication and collaboration been improved, but IT is also relieved thanks to the automated allocation of teamwork rooms. Dr. Schneider has recognized this potential and would like to integrate an additional digitalized “life cycle process” that avoids uncontrolled growth and automatically checks whether a team room is being used. If a room is not used for a prolonged period, it simply gets deleted. Following the success of “INSIGHT,” the next step aims to better integrate plant employees as well. In addition to the German sites, “INSIGHT” is now being rolled out to the sites in China, Poland, Spain, and the USA.