7 Perspectives on the Digital Workplace: Porsche goes Microsoft Ignite
In a world where digital transformation is omnipresent and impacting businesses across all industries, a modern workplace is necessary to get IT done right. For that reason and to drive the digital workplace of Porsche to the next level, we founded a new department here in Stuttgart: Digital Workplace @ Porsche. We are about seventy people, all with one goal: To achieve digital excellence and provide every Porsche employee with the best possible experience at work.
Depending on the users’ needs and requirements, we become listeners, companions or technicians. The Digital Workplace @Porsche is basically divided into four sections:
1. Workspace solutions including client and mobile device management
2. Collaboration solutions featuring topics such as collaboration technologies and change management
3. Workplace shop & consulting means the consultancy for hardware and user devices
4. Digital assistance which encompasses support management and service desk for all IT applications of Porsche
Learning directly from the source at Microsoft Ignite
Every Digital Workplace team member is an important puzzle piece in a larger picture. Our vision is to create a place where we love to work — even more than we do already today. In order to do so, we rely on external impulses and inspiration on state-of-the-art workplace technologies. This is why seven of us travelled to Orlando, Florida, in November to attend Microsoft’s annual tech conference, the Microsoft Ignite.
With nearly 30,000 attendees, more than 1,000 sessions and around 200 hands-on labs and workshops, the conference is one of the most important events for the latest insights and trends pertaining to Microsoft technologies.
Each of us has a different focus area regarding the digital workplace at Porsche, which is why we decided to split and deepen our individual knowledge in the specific fields to get the most out of the conference — and to create a future-oriented roadmap according to our focus areas. Altogether, we visited about one hundred fifty sessions, each of us covering more than 15,000 steps per day. In other words: it was as much a physical challenge as it was a mental challenge to absorb so much information at the same time.
Here, we’d like to share our seven perspectives on the Digital Workplace and Microsoft Ignite:
1. AI will make collaboration as simple as possible
My name is Shari Langes and I’m a Product Owner Collaboration in the Digital Workplace team. I focus on all technologies around collaboration and intelligent intranet combined with elements of artificial intelligence.
After the Microsoft Ignite, my fingers are tingling to try out the new released home sites for intelligent intranets with audience targeting for news and navigations. And I really like the power of the no-code Power Platform to support business departments in mapping their business processes digitally in a quite simple and fast way. Thus, paper processes can also be easily digitized.
What’s your key take-away? Artificial intelligence is far more than just a trend — it will become a ubiquitous set of tools and will be increasingly integrated into our IT services, supporting our daily business and making overall collaboration as simple as possible.
2. New innovations in IT infrastructure
My name is Alexander Rosswog, I’m an IT Infrastructure and Enterprise Architect. My focus at Ignite was on Multi-Cloud Management, Security (Zero Trust and SIEM), Cloud-Architecture (Network, Hybrid, etc.) and customer stories.
Microsoft presented very interesting new products, such as MS Azure Arc, a multi-cloud & on-premises management environment, and MS Azure Sentinel for cloud-based security information and event management with AI components. Overall, the perfect organization of this massive event impressed me — although there were nearly 30.000 participants, there were no queues for breakfast and lunch and the WIFI coverage was totally stable.
What’s your key take-away? Artificial intelligence is hot — it has the potential to radically change business.
3. Collaboration is the game changer when it comes to digital transformation
I’m Matthias Schmiga and I am a Solution Architect in the Digital Workplace department at Porsche.
At Ignite, I was especially interested in the technical aspects of the digital workplace, focusing on the user’s point of view in terms of the full Office 365 Suite. It was pretty cool to see the improvements of Office 365 and cases where local data centers are merged with the cloud with a central single management platform. It all confirmed that we made the right platform choice.
What’s your key take-away? Collaboration is still the game changer when it comes to digital transformation, and B2B collaboration will be enhanced in the near future. Also, Microsoft has understood its customers’ pain points.
4. AI supplements — in all business areas
I am Thorsten Heuberger, Tech Lead of the Emerging Technologies department.
My focus at Ignite was, as you might guess, on the emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, quantum computing and new research projects. I learned that all areas and services are increasingly working together across boundaries, thereby simplifying workflow and improving performance. And AI impacts all areas of our business, from infrastructure to security & compliance and all the way to the product. Furthermore, it was impressive to see what is already happening today in research. For example, Microsoft’s Project Silica stores the whole Superman movie on a small piece of quartz glass — that’s impressive!
What’s your key take-away? AI does not replace, AI supplements. Many of the new technologies hold enormous potential — we only have to use it.
5. Making use of technological innovations
My name is Dennis Geib and I am Technology Domain Architect in the Digital Workplace.
My focus this year was on device management, office application and EndPoint security. I was quite impressed by the further developments in the area of Device Management and the integrative possibilities with AI. It is stunning to see how many sessions, workshops and overall knowledge is offered at Ignite!
What’s your key take-away? It’s time for us to use Microsoft’s new intelligent technologies for our own purposes. AI is driving, and will further drive innovation.
6. Turning the Microsoft roadmap into a Porsche roadmap
My name is Attila Matyus and I’m the Product Owner for SharePoint and OneDrive within the Collaboration Solutions department.
Since I am focused on document management within Microsoft 365, I had a closer look on the interaction of SharePoint & OneDrive with different services nearby such as Teams, the Power Platform and of course AI. You could see that SharePoint is reaching adulthood now — it has the potential to be our every day starting point, covering our intranet news articles, communications incl. emails, documents, tasks, timetables etc., as well requests and approvals regarding automated business processes — and everything is available anywhere, anytime, on any device. What I liked most about Ignite was how wide the range of topics was and how deep you could dive into topics — from management to developer perspective at the same time.
What’s your key take-away / learning? Microsoft is aiming to increase the business relevance of their products. We need to find out how this fits our needs and turn the Microsoft roadmap into a Porsche roadmap.
7. Establishing a global player
My name is Jens Förster and I am a Service Manager for Collaboration and Business Process Solutions at Porsche.
My focus at Ignite was Power Automate, AI and SharePoint. As Shari mentioned as well, one of my highlights were the new released home sites for intelligent intranets, but also the new AI Builder for PowerApps and Flow which holds many new opportunities for businesses. The keynote deep dive into Microsoft’s Power Platform was amazing — this new tool holds great innovation potential. I was also impressed by the huge community Microsoft gathered in Orlando.
What’s your key take-away / learning? The Power Platform is going to be a global player at business process solutions.
For all of us, it was amazing to be part of this enormously huge conference. After one week in Orlando, we came back packed with ideas, inspiration and new impulses for the work at our own digital workplace in Stuttgart.
See you next year, Microsoft!
An article by Shari Langes, Product Owner Collaboration, Alexander Rosswog, IT Infrastructure and Enterprise Architect, Matthias Schmiga, IT Solution Architect, Thorsten Heuberger, Tech Lead Emerging Technologies, Dennis Geib, Technology Domain Architect, Attila Matyus, Product Owner for SharePoint and OneDrive and Jens Förster, Service Manager for Collaboration and Business Process Solutions. Follow us on Twitter (Porsche Digital, Next Visions), Instagram (Porsche Digital Lab Berlin, Porsche Digital, Next Visions) and LinkedIn (Porsche Digital Lab Berlin, Porsche Digital) for more.
