Digital adoption platform stimulating change at Continental
Generate a high level of acceptance for continuous change
Continental’s success comes down to its ability to combine current customer and market demands with the latest trends in technology. It’s not surprising, therefore, that its strategic focus is a varied one, ranging from mobility as a service and Industry 4.0 to cloud computing, the digital workplace, blockchain, artificial intelligence and service management.
Operating in this highly volatile and complex environment throws up new challenges on a daily basis – and not just for the organization as a whole, but for every member of staff, too. IT applications, business processes, roles and global collaboration with colleagues, customers and suppliers all change in rapid succession. “We never stop,” comments Marcus Meyer, SAP QM Consultant at Continental. “However, we can only achieve our targets if our staff both accept and implement the changes that are needed.” Meyer firmly believes that the top priority for change management is to ensure change becomes an integral part of the corporate culture. “But this only works if we create the right conditions to ensure that each and every individual in the company has positive experiences of changes.”
User adoption and business guidance for new software and processes
When it comes to achieving this aim, the tts performance suite plays a key role. Continental has been using the digital adoption platform as its standard performance support solution for working with new IT applications in its Automotive division since 2006 and in its Rubber Technologies division since 2015. The software was initially seen primarily as a tool for supporting users in all aspects relating to the roll-out of new IT applications and for relieving some of the pressure on the IT helpdesk. However, in view of the positive feedback from various areas, Continental has since scaled up the tts performance suite to make it the single source of truth for the entire group.
Some 100,000 users at Continental now have access to the solution, as do an increasing number of service and supply firms. The digital adoption platform provides them with guidelines, documentation and training documents, but that’s not all – they also have access to application know-how, process knowledge and business guidance for the task at hand in their moment of need.
“The mix of step-by-step instructions, detailed information and training materials is really valuable, as it helps us build up the application and process knowledge we need for all aspects of the ‘big bang’ of our change projects,” says Meyer, who is platform administrator for the tires and ContiTech business units and for corporate management. “At the same time, we benefit from a high level of acceptance for change projects, because our users follow a steep learning curve and their motivation for leveraging the potential of new applications never wavers,” the SAP QM expert adds.
A dynamically growing knowledge platform for agile change projects
The digital adoption platform at Continental has become the central port of call for all questions relating to IT applications, processes and further training. This is partly because there are around 800 authors supplying new content on a timely basis to support and stimulate the change process. For example, the PC workstations offer access to more than 23,000 company-specific documents for various applications. Compiled exclusively by in-house authors, there are over 14,500 documents for the Automotive division and more than 9,000 for Rubber Technologies and corporate management. What’s more, over 17,000 of these documents provide help when working with Microsoft Office 365. A particularly important feature is that Conti itself can decide at any time which format the multilingual documents are to be issued in, with options ranging from step-by-step instructions and PDF files to PowerPoint files and eLearning.
Since Continental opted for an open usage concept without access restrictions, not only authors but also staff will be able to produce and supply content in the future. This results in dynamic growth for the platform, which in turn stimulates change throughout the group. In 2021 alone, more than 2,500 new documents were added and almost 13,000 updates were made.
At the same time, there was a massive rise in user numbers compared to the previous year – a staggering increase of around 700 percent. “Just like in other organizations, COVID-19 has been a strong driver of change for us, too” says Meyer, explaining the sustained high demand for the platform. “Equally, however, the intensive use of our digital adoption platform also led to a really smooth switchover to working remotely, for example.”
If you have general questions or difficulties with IT applications, you can always ask Google. However, Google can’t help with company-specific processes, instructions or guidelines. And this is exactly what makes our digital adoption platform so unique when it comes to continuous change within our organization.
This also applies to other areas where the digital adoption platform is driving forward strategic change. Examples include the current migration to SAP S/4HANA in the ContiTech business unit, and the tires business unit, which succeeded in implementing or kicking off the following four projects between 2020 and 2021:
- The go-live of new manufacturing instructions for worldwide tire production, consisting of more than 1,700 documents and 25 gigabytes of video materials for training more than 540 employees.
- The ongoing eDrive project, during which a new, central ERP solution based on Microsoft Dynamics is being rolled out in the Continental retail organization. The aim is that this will be used by all European branch offices and workshops, including Best Drive and Vergölst, to name just two of many. The tts performance suite will provide support for the roll-out and the aim is to use it to train more than 8,000 employees.
- The roll-out of an innovative IT service management system with new processes and functions. More than 7,000 IT Support employees have been trained for this purpose.
- The roll-out of process-oriented support for staff at the Central Order Desk. This provides sales staff with assistance when talking to customers and during simultaneous SAP transactions.
As Meyer sees it, the digital adoption platform had its breakthrough at Continental in 2021. That’s why he is optimistic about the future – because he knows how efficient the solution is and is counting on dynamic development to create new synergies that will reinforce themselves. “If you have general questions or difficulties with IT applications, you can always ask Google. However, Google can’t help with company-specific processes, instructions or guidelines. And this is exactly what makes our digital adoption platform so unique when it comes to continuous change within our organization.”
What Continental AG has achieved with the tts performance suite
- A single source of truth for around 100,000 members of staff
- Improved agility thanks to a high level of acceptance for change projects
- Reliable applications and processes, thanks to digital adoption and business guidance in the moment of need
- Better responsiveness and greater power of innovation in a highly dynamic market environment
- More than 23,000 company-specific documents by in-house authors
- More than 2,500 new documents and almost 13,000 updates in 2021
- Help with more than 15 different applications, including the cloud-based collaboration platform HCL Connections, several SAP solutions, the CRM system, applications for specifications, reporting and the management of aluminum molds, and all Microsoft applications and processes on the intranet
About Continental AG
Continental AG, which was founded in 1871, has grown into one of the world’s leading technology companies. In line with the brand promise, “The Future in Motion”, the Automotive Technologies and Rubber Technologies divisions of the DAX-listed company develop mobility solutions for vehicles, traffic and transport – solutions that are intelligent and effective in equal measure.
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