What is your connection to these industries?

At digatus, I am responsible for the Business Center Public Sector and NGO, which primarily deals with the special IT challenges of the church, social institutions, and educational establishments. I have always been familiar with the peculiarities of the public sector, as both my parents are civil servants. Through my wife’s work as a teacher, I am also aware of the daily challenges and requirements in the field of education.
Additionally, I was also a volunteer board member in my cycling club for over ten years. Therefore, I have a strong connection to these industries not only professionally but also personally, and I have a good understanding of their needs.

How is IT currently used and operated in these industries?

In many cases, there are currently two main manifestations: On one hand, the centrally provided IT of the respective institution. On the other hand, in many decentralized institutions, IT is still operated by volunteers or full-time employees who are not IT specialists.

Where do you think the current challenges lie?

Care facilities, in particular, are under great strain in the current situation, and the focus is naturally on protecting people and providing health care for these risk groups. Until now, many care workers have had little experience with rapid, digital information dissemination and virtual collaboration among colleagues, so many questions arise: How do I use communication tools, such as Skype and Teams online conferences, correctly and meaningfully? How do I access the information I need? The crisis is uncovering such problems, which can be solved more easily and largely avoided in the future through stronger digitalization and appropriate training of employees.

In schools, we can clearly see the potential that digital solutions can have for home schooling and video conferences, learning platforms, or similar, so that classes don’t have to be cancelled for weeks. But not just as an emergency solution; in everyday life, learning platforms and digital learning content can introduce children to the digital future at an early stage.

Furthermore, in my opinion, a central challenge in the course of digitalization is to consider the different age groups within the users and to address their individual needs accordingly. On one hand, for example, among teachers, there are generations of digital natives who have grown up with technology and increasing digitalization, who see the necessity for it and explicitly demand it. On the other hand, there are teachers with many years of professional experience who are close to retirement and have had little contact with current technological possibilities so far.
A similar scenario is also increasingly emerging in care facilities. The age differences and thus also the needs and demands of the residents diverge quite strongly in some cases. For example, the availability of WiFi and the provision of entertainment services such as Netflix are becoming increasingly important.
The great challenge in the course of digitalization of these industries is therefore to meet these extremely different requirements while at the same time not overwhelming anyone with too much technology or even completely leaving them behind.

Another important focus is on the standardization and centralization of IT as well as the unification of specialized software. The desired effect from this is to achieve better controllability of IT and to save costs through more efficiency and transparency. In addition to cost savings, however, it is also essential to save the valuable time of employees so that, for example, nursing staff have more time available for the residents.

The issue of data protection continues to be of high importance due to the very sensitive data in these industries and accordingly plays a major role in digitalization.

“For me, a major challenge lies in advancing digitalization without overwhelming users and completely leaving some behind.”

Florian Owen – Business Center Manager Public Sector and NGO

How can digatus support organizations on their path to digitalization?

By specifically focusing on public and social institutions. This way, we develop valuable expert knowledge and can optimally support and advise our customers.
We use, for example, Design Thinking workshops to identify the most important problems and questions through innovative approaches, and to test the acceptance and effectiveness of the solution with quickly implementable Minimum Viable Products (MVP) or prototypes. This creates the prerequisites for subsequently embarking on a common, individually adapted solution path with the institutions.
When dealing with social and church institutions, special emphasis is placed on empathetic and understanding customer contact. This is very crucial, as the conveyed values are also appreciated and lived in everyday professional life there. Additionally, many users often have had little contact with IT and thus require more intensive support in connection with advancing digitalization.

What experiences has digatus already gained in the industry?

With the assignment from our first Europe-wide tender, we are currently accompanying the facilities of a Munich nursing service on their path to digitalization. The goal is to create both contemporary, digitalized nursing homes for the residents and modern workplaces for the nursing staff. To achieve this, we are implementing comprehensive WiFi coverage, data center consolidation, and the introduction of Microsoft Office 365, among other things.
In the area of public educational institutions, we supported a municipal IT service provider in a comprehensive transition project to take over IT services for around 40,000 workplaces and are currently optimizing and modernizing the IT service in a large-scale future project.
We have also already accompanied several dioceses and Caritas associations in exciting projects. For example, we supported the Diocese of Würzburg with diocese-wide client rollouts as part of the EDV2020 project, as well as with the introduction of a project management office (PMO) and IT service management. For the Caritas Association of the Diocese of Würzburg, we also carried out a complete outsourcing of IT, from evaluation to tendering, to planning the transition and its implementation to the new IT service provider.

What developments and trends are currently emerging?

Due to the extreme shortage of skilled workers in nursing professions, it is becoming increasingly important for institutions to use IT optimally and, above all, in a resource-efficient manner so that nursing staff have as much time as possible for caring for residents.
In educational institutions, it is important to make the working environment for teachers as pleasant as possible and thus keep the profession attractive for future generations of teachers. Children should also be introduced to digitalization at an early age.
Limited resources are also forcing the church and its welfare associations to use IT cost-effectively and focus on their core competencies. We believe this will increasingly lead to the outsourcing of basic IT services to external providers. Internal IT must increasingly strive to provide employees on-site with modern applications and a mobile-available infrastructure.
Advancing digitalization requires a functioning and modern IT as a basis, which is why a structural realignment and professionalization of IT is emerging in these sectors.

What potential do you see for these sectors?

I believe that further relief for staff is possible, especially through consistent standardization. The use of innovative technologies at the current state of the art not only brings advantages for the working methods and daily routines of existing employees, but also has a positive impact on personnel recruitment. Young talents, in particular, place great importance on a modern working environment today.
Moreover, especially in the field of education, it is important not to lose touch with the digital leaders in international comparison. The foundation for this lies in consistent and comprehensive digitalization.

What do you personally take away from these projects?

For me, the most exciting thing is the behind-the-scenes look at these industries. This opportunity for a change of perspective is very rare, and I have already been able to gain many valuable experiences. I enjoy the close collaboration with employees from different institutions and organizations, and I’m looking forward to mastering the upcoming challenges together.

Thank you for the interesting interview and continued success.