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From administration to production: Digitize communication with Microsoft 365
Innovation and modern technologies are changing the way we work and live – and additionally are creating new jobs.
Artificial Intelligence, autonomous driving and robotics are no longer dreams of the future. They are part of the daily lives of all our employees. For our #DigiJobs series, we spoke to the digital minds at thyssenkrupp and asked them how digitalization is influencing their work.
Laura Kreienkamp and Franziska Sellner are part of the Digital Solutions department at thyssenkrupp Steel and are shaping and managing the Microsoft 365 rollout at the steel manufacturer.
Progress with a digital mindset
You might think that most people know Microsoft's Office applications inside out. Yet, the solutions and their functions are constantly changing, and so are their capabilities. Franziska Sellner and Laura Kreienkamp are working with their colleagues to leverage these opportunities as effectively as possible for the digital transformation of business processes at thyssenkrupp Steel. One of their focal points is also the end-to-end integration of Microsoft 365 into the everyday work of all employees – for smooth, cross-functional collaboration and increased productivity. This also includes the establishment of a company-wide and cross-functional network, including the training of multipliers in all departments, who specifically pass on and spread the knowledge they have learned throughout the company.
Both women find the fact that they are among the first to try out, assess and use new technologies particularly exciting about the roll-out of Microsoft 365.
Advantages from the office to the plant
In addition to the familiar Office applications such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint, Microsoft365 includes many other applications. For example, the Teams app. At thyssenkrupp Steel, these applications are used not only in administration, but also in production, maintenance and logistics. In practical terms, this means, for example: "The maintenance teams in the plants have traditionally used walkie-talkies to communicate from different parts of the plant. Now they use the walkie-talkie app in teams on their smartphones to communicate not only with employees on site at the plant, but also with those at other production sites. This means they no longer have to carry an additional device," Kreienkamp and Sellner say.
As further advantages, both point out that thanks to the cloud service, employees can access the files they need for their work without lengthy approval processes and activation of document drives. "Working with different versions of a file is finally a thing of the past, and working from the home office has been made a lot easier by using the chat or instant meeting function," say the experts.
Microsoft 365 is a living product that is constantly evolving, so there is something new to learn every day.
Before these benefits can seen across all departments, there are a few challenges to overcome. The introduction of new technologies doesn't always work right away. This calls for resilience, explain Kreienkamp and Sellner. In such cases, the key is to persevere, learn by doing and retain curiosity about new technologies – because that's the only way to implement change.
For the work of the future, including in production facilities, Kreienkamp sees one thing above all: "A faster, better networked working world – even across company boundaries."