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NKG’s Group IT: from the background into the spotlight
NKG’s Group IT: from the background into the spotlight
Many departments in a company like NKG do important work in the background – usually not visible for others but still indispensable for the daily work of the companies’ employees. So does NKG’s IT department in Hamburg. With its different teams and specialists, they are “problem-solvers” not just for employees working in Hamburg but for all colleagues worldwide. The pandemic and the associated acceleration of digital work processes have brought the IT department and its essential work into sharper focus.
Quick solutions had to be found, technical equipment for remote work had to be organized, many support questions about new tools had to be answered – just to name a few challenges that the team had to face. Also, more cyber-attacks like phishing-mails occurred during the pandemic, which required the optimization of the IT security. “We noticed a bigger awareness of the work and importance of NKG’s Group IT. We are now seen as ‘business enablers’ or at least as a necessary means to be able to do business,” says Cyrille Négaret, Head of NKG Group IT.
“We noticed a bigger awareness of the work and importance of NKG’s Group IT. We are now seen as ‘business enablers’ or at least as a necessary means to be able to do business,” says Cyrille Négaret, Head of NKG Group IT.
Sabine von Appen (with NKG since January 2002) and Nils Dammann (with Group IT since July 2019) together form the COMTRAS team.
Due to the pandemic, it has become important to create PDF versions of large documents that were previously distributed in paper form. Sabine and Nils have therefore been adapting programs so that more documents can be created in PDF format. The reports that previously had to be printed out for editing can now be sent to users as a PDF by email. This sustainable conversion to PDF also ensures that even more paper can be saved in the future. In this context, you can also read about the transition to a “paperless office” at NKG Kala Hamburg.
Besides the different teams of NKG’s Group IT, there is also the NITRO team. Luis Carlos Rodriguez, Head of NITRO Project Management, and his colleagues are responsible for managing and planning IT-related business projects and give requirements to the Group IT, who help to implement those projects. One of NITROs major projects is the Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDWH) that we already introduced to you in our NITRO News. The EDWH project aims to achieve fast access to data material and better data processing, a. o. Another important project, that the team is working on right now, is called “Fundamental IT Infrastructure (FITIN)”. It aims to provide all trading Group companies with a modern and comprehensive CTRM tool. More information on current developments of the EDWH and other news-updates from the NITRO team will follow soon, so stay tuned!
Background:
“I am Julian Döring, I am married and have a son and two dogs. I have been working for NKG in my current team since December 2019. Before I started at NKG, I studied business informatics and worked as a developer and product owner in the field of industrial insurance.”
The team and its area of responsibility:
“With ‘4 ½’ team members, we take care of implementation of new development projects, such as the introduction of Salescockpit (trader software) and small reporting projects. We are always responsible for the entire range of tasks, from requirements analysis, through release planning, product and project management, deployment and evaluation, to user tests and user support. Our goal is to use software to support the work of our colleagues in a targeted way and to make it more efficient. This means that we exchange ideas with the departments in order to understand where the pressure points are, so that we can then reflect on how best to implement things. So, you could say we are a creative bunch, who solves various problems through plenty of communication (I know that’s not how people normally see IT 😃).”
Current issues:
“Due to the Corona pandemic, one of our recent focal points has been migration of areas and projects to the cloud. For example, the Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDWH). Our colleagues work from home all over the world, and without the cloud the EDWH would only have been accessible in the office for the majority of them. It has been running in the cloud for almost a year now. We are currently in the process of making the Salescockpit project accessible to various subsidiaries in this way, too. Individual companies such as Inter American Coffee Hamburg, Bero Polska and Inter American Coffee London are already using Salescockpit, and the plan is to roll it out to other companies in the near future. We are also pushing forward with the use of Microsoft PowerBI. This is a business analytics service provided by Microsoft that allows even non-technical users to aggregate, analyze, visualize and share company data. We are currently working on giving PowerBI access to the reports in the EDWH.”
Katharina Nicol joined the Group IT team in October 2020. She has been with NKG since 2012 and previously worked as a personal assistant to members of the Board of Management. Her work focuses on IT process coordination and change management. “My tasks are very varied. First and foremost, I am involved in optimizing IT-based processes and structures and, in the event of changes, identifying and preparing those involved as early as possible – in other words, creating transparency and promoting openness to change through communication,” says Katharina. In doing so, she works closely with Cyrille Négaret, Head of Group IT, and all the teams. In the course of the pandemic, the issue of process optimization became particularly important. In this context, Katharina is responsible for the introduction of DocuSign, a software package that enables legally binding digital signature of documents. “At the beginning of the pandemic, I was still working as an assistant and had to arrange for various documents to be moved around for signature – all very complex. With DocuSign, anyone can sign digitally from anywhere with legally binding effect,” she says. DocuSign is now to be made available to the subsidiaries and will soon be a tool that they can use, too.
In normal times, the Board of Management holds regular meetings at the office in Hamburg with selected colleagues from NKG to discuss current and upcoming business issues. Although we are currently still far away from these normal times, the Work Together took place again this year.
Responsibility and sustainability have always been integral to our work at NKG, as coffee connects us to people, communities and their natural environments all over the globe, and their rights and health are a basic necessity for our coffee supply. The NKG Responsible Business Program further strengthens our commitment to the many facets of sustainable and responsible business by setting group-wide, ambitious goals.
The pandemic has shown us clearly how important it is to have a sustainable business model and clear values. Therefore, NG Communications has even intensified the renewed efforts to develop and reinforce NKG’s Corporate Identity and Design during these uncertain times as an important step towards a successful future.
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