From Paper to Digital: An Agile Transformation
In the 19th century, José Maria Eça de Queirós claimed: “Curiosity leads to everything.” Let yourself be guided by that same curiosity today to find out where our success story of the day is taking place! Here are three clues: 1. I am a city where the most dialect-free German is spoken, 2. As the capital of the second largest state in Germany, I am characterized by a royal history and 3. My first letter is an “H”… Have you guessed it yet? Bingo! Today we are taking you to Hanover.
IHK Hanover
Founding Year
1866
Headquarter
Hanover, Germany
Industry
Service Sector
Assets
~10,000
The Challenge: Managing the Assets of the Hanover Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Hanover is a “green city” (with 640 hectares of urban forest – the largest in Germany), steeped in history and culture (the Herrenhausen Gardens and the Sprengel Museum are testament to this). Above all, however, it is an important economic center for industry, innovation and technology in Germany – topics that are the focus of this success story.
The Hanover Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHK Hanover), headquartered in the capital of Lower Saxony, represents the interests of over 180,000 companies in the Hanover region and eight districts between Bremen and Hessen. The IHK supports companies through all phases of operational development, from the initial idea to the handover to a successor. To this end, it offers a wide range of services to support and promote the regional economy. And the IHK is also responsible for state-assigned tasks in many areas, most notably in training in commercial and industrial-technical occupations. The IHK plays a key role in the economic development of the region.
In this context, the Hanover Chamber of Commerce and Industry manages a wide range of different properties. After moving into a new building, the need arose for a digital solution to manage their new inventory and the stock of consumables, as well as to ensure that maintenance, deadlines and other recurring tasks were met, as Stephan Denecke from the Hanover Chamber of Commerce and Industry explains: “We moved into a completely new building in August 2023 and needed plans for timely maintenance and an overview of what we were using.”
The challenge was clear: to capture all new and existing objects in a software platform that could manage both objects as well as consumables. That’s how the collaboration with Timly began. It should also be said that the customizable input mask for entering objects is well thought out in Timly. Activatable mandatory fields ensure that all relevant data is actually recorded during the inventory.
The Solution: A Flexible and Feature-Rich Platform
The new building was a fresh start for the IHK Hanover, which was able to rebuild the desired inventory management processes in a customized way and continue to expand them. Timly’s customizable platform met all the property management requirements, enabling a very efficient structure for managing the properties and inventory to be implemented.
Stephan Denecke, an employee at the Hanover Chamber of Commerce and Industry, explains the structure as follows: “We gave each room a room number and a QR code that only refers to that room. This is scanned when needed and a list of all objects that should be in that room is displayed. The inventory works perfectly, as does the stocktake.”
The Hanover Chamber of Commerce and Industry has introduced an efficient system for managing assets (IT equipment, office furniture, machinery, vehicles, etc.) and makes full use of Timly’s functions. Particularly interesting about this success story is the clever use of Timly for managing consumables.
For its event area, the IHK Hanover requires, among other things, a sufficient stock of drinks. The drinks are now quickly tracked in Timly using a specially created QR code in the warehouse when they are put into and taken out of storage, and they are created as stock items. When a predefined minimum stock level is reached, the person responsible receives an email notifying them that the stock needs to be replenished. The shelf life data is also stored in their digital profile as deadlines so that these are adhered to. Timly also manages consumables, including hygiene items such as toilet paper and paper towels, as inventory items, ensuring full control.
Most used functions:
Object Assignment
Maintenance Management
Maintenance is crucial and Timly makes it easy to manage and track all kinds of assets. Stephan Denecke explains: “I have created a small protocol in Timly. The inspector just has to tick boxes, fill in the defect field, etc. – it’s innovative.”
The Result: A Clever Management of Objects and Stocks
Since the Hanover Chamber of Commerce and Industry transferred its inventory, stocks and activities to Timly, a strong logistics system has been established. Stephan Denecke explains that their master keys are also managed in Timly and that the personal handover is secured by Timly’s digital signature function: “The scanning function and the signature tool are a great help. We use them not only for our key management, but also for our employees’ IT equipment, i.e. laptops, tablets and smartphones. No more paper!”
Thanks to our perfectly mastered ticketing system, the IHK Hanover is now also an expert in managing support requests, maintenance work and much more.
“The ticketing system is a great help. We now use it for everything from inspections of gardening tools to company cars or the statutory inspections of our caretakers’ personal protective equipment. We used to have all this only on paper. Now everything is consolidated, and when it’s time to take action, an email reminder pops up, which is a great help,” explains Stephan Denecke.
We are proud that our platform enables the IHK Hanover to develop its full potential and supports it in its daily operations.
Image Rights: ©IHK Hanover