A Marketplace for Social Interaction
The city administration of Königsbrunn has set up its new intranet on the Intrakommuna platform, creating a place for socializing on the Internet for its employees.
IT enjoys high importance at the Königsbrunn city hall. In February 2023, the Free State of Bavaria awarded the city, located ten kilometers south of Augsburg with a population of just over 27,000, the title of “Digital Office.” Bavarian municipalities receive this accolade when they offer at least 50 administrative procedures online. So far, only 145 of over 2,000 towns and municipalities have achieved this – including Königsbrunn. The city also received the “Municipal IT Security” seal and is one of the finalists for the “Digital Award” in the category of cities and municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants, which make an “excellent contribution to the digitalization of administration.”
When Manfred Birling, head of the “Information and Communication Technology” department at the Königsbrunn city hall, took on the renewal of the city administration’s intranet a few years ago, it was clear to him that the city employees also deserved a first-class solution. “We wanted to replace our ancient HTML-based page with a platform where colleagues could not only find information but also exchange ideas and where more socializing is possible,” explains Marco Merten, the system administrator responsible for Königsbrunn’s intranet. “Because people can only work well together if they can also exchange private and off-topic ideas.” Merten is convinced of this.
With the Intrakommuna platform, colleagues in remote branches can be socially integrated
The IT experts of the city of Königsbrunn found the suitable platform with Intrakommuna. With the solution of the specialist for digital knowledge and dialogue platforms, they can offer all employees a framework for social exchange with colleagues – including those who do not complete their tasks in the city hall. “The city has many external branches like the construction yard or the city library. Also, the caretakers in the schools and the gardeners are not present at the city hall during their work, but they want to be informed about what is happening in the city, their common employer, and socially among their colleagues,” reports Marco Merten. Sometimes these employees at the city do not even need a computer account and an email address . “But they still have access to our social network on the Intrakommuna platform. Because Intrakommuna offers an app with the platform, through which colleagues can access the intranet of the city of Königsbrunn via their smartphone,” explains system administrator Marco Merten.
Emails do not create social interaction
Such touchpoints could not be created with an “Email to All.” “You just get another email that needs to be noticed and archived, without it leading to more interaction,” reports the IT specialist. With the intranet named “Lesen, Erfahren, Austauschen – LEA” (Read, Experience, Exchange), set up on the Intrakommuna platform, this is possible, as both Marco Merten and department head Manfred Birling are convinced.
Their colleagues are organized there in groups assigned to the individual departments of the city administration. To enable the confidentiality required for the social exchange among colleagues, each department has a public and a secret group in which not even the system administrator can read along.
Each department can use its group and the possibilities of the Intrakommuna platform as they see fit. For example, they introduce new employees there, post something funny or a holiday photo, or, like the construction department, regularly post news about the current construction sites in the city on the platform. “Employees in all departments find this interesting,” reports Marco Merten. After all, colleagues are often also citizens of Königsbrunn. Such contributions have definitely changed togetherness at the city hall, thanks to the Intrakommuna platform, Merten feels. “Because there is a much more intense and audible discussion about topics that are posted on LEA.”
Through the Intrakommuna platform, all employees are always up to date
Although the intranet set up on the Intrakommuna platform in the city of Königsbrunn is therefore literally a social network and only to a limited extent a tool for daily work, it also supplies the employees with the information they need at their workplace. “In our old intranet, we had a document storage with service instructions, forms, and other information relevant to the administration. Of course, we adopted it, as well as the folder structure that colleagues knew from the old intranet,” reports Marco Merten. This has made the transition easier for many.
To facilitate the finding of information added since the switch to the Intrakommuna platform, they make intensive use of the option to link to documents stored and other posts in the city’s intranet from the LEA homepage or from posts. Also, messages that affect all employees of the city administration, like upcoming server maintenance, are centralized on the platform by Marco Merten and his colleagues from IT. “Then we don’t get an unmanageable number of emails from the departments at our helpdesk,” Merten explains.
“In terms of data security, Intrakommuna is definitely at an advantage”
Thus, the Intrakommuna platform makes work easier for the Königsbrunn system administrator. However, since Marco Merten is also the information security officer in the Swabian small town, he highlights another aspect of the Intrakommuna platform. “I definitely see advantages in data security with Intrakommuna. Because the company has its servers located in Germany. We know that our data is processed in the way prescribed by the General Data Protection Regulation,” praises Merten. He knows what he’s talking about, after all, as an IT expert in a municipality that has been recognized for its IT security.
