Community of Practice at adesso – added value for (potential) customers

Community of Practice

Community of Practice (CoP) generally means an association of experts. The aims of a community of practice include sharing ideas on the subject in question, learning from each other and together, supporting each other in coping with day-to-day work and in acquiring knowledge, sharing thoughts and generating work results.

Community of Practice at adesso

adesso has recognised the potential that a community of practice offers. That is why the adesso Group has various Communities of Practice, for example on the topics of

• Company pension schemes
• Reinsurance
• Agil@Insurance
• Claims management
• BiPRO
• Artificial intelligence
• (New) technologies
• Private health insurance/life insurance

Community of practice using the example of company pension schemes

Each community of practice sets its own goals. These are in addition to the general goals that a community of practice sets out to achieve such as sharing and imparting knowledge on the specialist topic. These goals are then used to derive and implement measures to achieve them. To give you a better understanding of what I mean, I will show you the Community of Practice for Company Pension Schemes, the people involved in it and its goals. I will do the same for the benefits for (potential) customers and those interested in company pension schemes.

Participants

The participants of the Community of Practice meet regularly in virtual meetings to discuss topics on the agenda as well as anything that comes up ad hoc. This gives them the opportunity to report on existing challenges, ask for solutions or work out solutions together.

In principle, all employees of the adesso Group can participate. Ideally, these will be employees who deal with company pension schemes, who are working in live company pension scheme projects, who are adjacent to the field of company pension schemes and/or are fundamentally interested in the topic of company pension schemes.

The group of participants includes employees from various divisions of the adesso Group with different roles such as managers, consultants, developers, product managers and sales staff. This also means they bring different types of professional experience and knowledge to the table, as well as different strengths and perspectives.

Goals

The Community of Practice for Company Pension Schemes has set itself the following broad objectives, among others:

• Have regular meetings on existing knowledge, current developments and trends in company pension schemes
• Ensure that knowledge is shared
• Continue the develop of the participants on both a personal and a collective level
• Analyse IT realisation, market opportunities and addressees
• Create added value for (potential) customers and interested parties

Create benefits for (potential) customers and interested parties

The Community of Practice is adesso’s central contact point for the topic of company pension schemes. The strengths of the heterogeneous group of participants in terms of roles, areas of responsibility, knowledge and professional experience are used to promote the transfer of knowledge and to learn from each other.

The experts in the Community of Practice take part in internal and external events and work in working groups, where they contribute their experience and knowledge, thus passing it on to the respective participants. The Community of Practice not only uses the regular virtual meetings to do this, but it also uses various forms of communication, including modern ones. In this way, the experts can always stay up to date, for example, on topics such as the German Act to Strengthen Occupational Pensions (Betriebsrentenstärkungsgesetz, BRSG), the digital pension overview, corporate client portals, process management and sustainability in company pension schemes.

Sharing experience is an added value for the participants in the Community of Practice. The knowledge acquired is used in coping with day-to-day work and by consultants in projects. In addition, sharing experience provides input for sales activities, which has a positive effect on the quality of the work. The higher the level of knowledge among the participants, the more (potential) customers and interested parties will benefit from it.

When providing consultancy for (potential) customers, the professional and methodical knowledge is applied, taking into account market and trend behaviour. This increases the quality of the work results – not only in consulting, but also in carrying out analyses, including deriving and pointing out possible solutions, as well as in projects. Plus, human resources and capacity for both the company and that of the (potential) customer are saved, helping to reduce costs and achieve the (company) goals of the (potential) customer.

Should challenges arise, adesso’s excellent internal networking system means the participants can quickly contact the relevant people and find solutions. They use the best practice experiences of other experts specifically for their own work and thus for the benefit of (potential) customers.

The Community of Practice is also always directly focused on the target group of (potential) customers in order to be able to offer them added value. The group of participants deals with the questions of which trends can be observed, how the market is developing and which framework conditions will apply (in the future). They also look at what requirements customers have (and will have in the future) and what influence, if any, this has (or will have) on (potential) customers – and not only in relation to specific specialist topics in terms of company pension schemes, but also, for instance, topics such as IT, processes, sustainability, quality, transparency, methods and agility. The exchange and discussions of the experts and the use of modern approaches – such as the design thinking method – generates new ideas and inspiration. Innovative and digital solutions are developed further, for instance to support process automation and increase efficiency, which offer real added value to our (potential) customers.

adesso’s (potential) customer thus has a contact who can fall back on the tried and tested, but who also has a ‘view to the future’ – allowing adesso to offer customised solutions that fit the (potential) customer. This in turn then has the advantage of offering added value to its (potential) customers, meaning it is one step ahead of its competitors, which increases its competitiveness in the market.

Would you like to learn more about exciting topics from the world of adesso? Then check out our latest blog posts.