‍“Our processes are becoming more rigorous, more precise and more effective.”

As part of freenet’s repositioning, my previous IT unit has now become “Technology and Processes”. This is more than just a mere change of name; instead, it reflects our company’s consistent focus on its processes.

Over the past financial year, we have slimmed down our portfolio of projects further, streamlined our workflows and largely standardised our processes, all of which eases the burden on the technology that underpins our business. In some cases, we were able to identify more than half a dozen different versions of the same process, including the ordering, number porting and payment reminder processes for our individual mobile brands. The first shoots of success are already apparent. By systematically managing our product portfolio, we are taking new approaches to use our resources as efficiently and sparingly as possible.

At Executive Board level, for example, we systematically assess all ongoing and upcoming projects each month to see if they are actually paying off, either in the form of improved customer service or a positive impact for our company. We have appointed “gatekeepers” for each of our main processes from among our employees, who are responsible for ensuring that no new deviations or ramifications emerge. Each process improvement must now be reviewed by these gatekeepers.

The positive effect of these activities is immediately apparent, with redundant complexity within both processes and products significantly reduced. For example, we now manage only a fraction of the different SIM card types we once did, saving both material and process costs. Where we once had a dozen different variants of the extremely complex telephone number porting process, two is now enough for us – and our customers. This has lowered the number of customer service inquiries significantly, as problems in this area were the second most common reason for these inquiries. At the same time, this reduction makes it easier to automate our processes, with around 40 percent of customer procedures now digitalised, while customers can manage and monitor a growing number of different processes themselves.