Commercial employees receive Microsoft 365: Nagel-Group launches pilot project for “Frontline Workers”
Komorniki, Gdańsk, Wroclaw, 18.06.2024. Nagel-Group has launched the “Microsoft 365 for Frontline Workers” pilot project at its Polish sites in Komorniki, Gdańsk and Wroclaw. 250 industrial employees have access to the Microsoft 365 applications – with their personal account, they can, for example, communicate directly with colleagues via Microsoft Teams, submit holiday requests or view shift schedules.
The five-month pilot project “Frontline Worker” was launched to specifically optimise communication and interaction with employees in the operational areas and is being implemented in close cooperation with the provider Microsoft.
“We already use a broad portfolio of M365 applications at all Nagel-Group locations in the entire commercial area. The pilot project will also give commercial staff access to the M365 applications in the future. This would ensure seamless integration and collaboration within the company,” explains Michael Lütjann, CIO of Nagel-Group.
Communication challenges
A central element of the project and at the same time a huge potential for digitalisation is the improvement of communication between industrial and commercial employees. Language barriers, shifts in working hours and different work locations make communication considerably more difficult.
Nagel-Group already uses various channels to provide its employees with company information: the “NagelApp” is currently one of the internal communication platforms available to both commercial and industrial staff. The app enables employees to easily receive all company news directly on their private smartphone.
To further improve communication, company news and many other functions for industrial employees will be available directly on the MDE devices[1] in future to ensure that all relevant information is communicated promptly and effectively.
Carsten Taucke, CEO of Nagel-Group, says: “This is an immensely important project and it is particularly important to us to keep the several thousand industrial employees informed and involved in company events in the best possible way. By transmitting company news directly to the MDE devices in the warehouse, we want to further strengthen communication with each other. We have the opportunity to share relevant company-wide information directly with the workforce and simplify the exchange of information locally on site.”
The pilot project comprises several applications
By using state-of-the-art, simple and intuitive applications, Nagel-Group’s industrial employees should be better supported in their daily work in future and be able to organise their work processes more efficiently. For the pilot phase, the focus is on the following applications:
Communication & collaboration: the integration of “Frontline Workers” into digital corporate communication through chat and Teams functions enables effective communication and information exchange.
Translation functions: Employees from over 92 nations work at Nagel-Group. The translation function facilitates communication between colleagues who speak different languages.
Walkie-talkie function: The walkie-talkie app in Teams offers a push-to-talk (PTT) experience that enables clear, immediate and secure voice communication.
Holiday and shift planning: Easy digital creation and management of holiday requests.
The next steps are already being planned
With the “Frontline Workers” pilot project, Nagel-Group is creating the basis for further digitalisation projects. Regular feedback rounds with employees during the pilot phase have already resulted in a number of follow-up projects. These follow-up projects include the integration of the “Nagel Online Campus”, Nagel-Group’s learning management system (LMS), and the activation of further PowerApps. A highlight for many employees is the future use of NagelGPT, Nagel-Group’s internal AI-based GPT model for processing internal company information in the shortest possible time.
[1] An MDE device is a portable recording device for mobile data collection (MDE) in the warehouse.
About the Nagel-Group
Nagel-Group, which specialises in food logistics and operates throughout Europe. At more than 130 locations, over 11,000 employees work every day to reliably supply Europe with food. Every day, the Nagel-Group moves 105,000 consignments of a wide variety of foodstuffs in all consignment sizes and temperature classes. Most recently, the company generated a turnover of 2.2 billion euros. Find out more about Nagel-Group and how the company manages to deliver the right goods at the right time and in the right quality every day: www.nagel-group.com
About Microsoft
Microsoft Deutschland GmbH was founded in 1983 as a subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation (Redmond, U.S.A.). In Germany, we employ over 3,000 people at our seven locations in Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Cologne, Munich, Stuttgart and Walldorf. Together with our 30,000 partners in Germany, we support companies with innovative solutions for the intelligent cloud and the intelligent edge so that they are successfully positioned for digital transformation. Microsoft is also a global leader in many other areas such as productive software solutions, IT security, innovative hardware and development platforms, which are also based on open source technology. We also connect more than 950 million people worldwide through our LinkedIn career network. With Xbox and Game Pass, we enable a cross-platform gaming experience. Furthermore, Microsoft is involved in a wide range of initiatives and projects together with politics, business and science so that everyone can participate in the progress of the digital society.
Click here for the Polish translation /POLSKA.
