About the district of Fulda
The district of Fulda is located at the eastern edge of the Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region in the east of the German state Hesse and counts just over 222,000 residents. Marc-Alexander Reid has been interested in expanding digital collaboration within the agency since he started working in the district of Fulda as a network administrator in 2012. Today, he is the head of the Data Center and the deputy director of the Information Technology Division.
Marc-Alexander Reid
– Head of the Data Center and Deputy Head of the Information Technology Division
Growing teams and decentralized information management
When Marc-Alexander Reid became head of the Data Center six years ago, he set out to establish a new tool within the Information Technology Division and beyond. He explains: “Over the years, our divison has grown to include many people, and it’s no longer possible to coordinate them all using an Excel spreadsheet.” Initially, SharePoint was introduced for division-internal organization before introducing a project management tool some time later. This tool was in use at the Data Center for about two years but could not fully meet the requirements of all units. In particular, resource planning lacked adequate support, which therefore remained managed in a makeshift manner using Excel. Consequently, there was no central location for storing relevant information. Marc-Alexander Reid explains: “This resulted in a relatively significant loss of information, because people sometimes didn’t read the documents or simply looked in the wrong place. Employees had to search for a long time, and there were many follow-up questions. Dependencies between tasks were overlooked, and especially during reporting sessions with the department head, it was difficult to recount past events because we couldn’t always find the respective information.”
Consolidating work without raising data protection concerns
While searching for a new tool, Marc-Alexander Reid initially placed a high priority on user-friendly, intuitive features. “We needed something with a clear overview, a tool that’s easy to learn and doesn’t require endless training sessions,” he emphasizes. Information needed to be stored in one place in a transparent and traceable manner. Particularly important was the ability to group information in a specific way, for example, through communication threads within a task, so that the information exchanged regarding a task is immediately apparent. For the team members, the ability to schedule tasks as needed and intuitive resource management were also decisive factors.
Stackfield not only met all of the district's functional requirements but also impressed in terms of data protection.
“We work in the public sector, so GDPR compliance is one of our top priorities. We need security, a partner based in Germany and, ideally, data centers located in Germany as well. With U.S.-based providers, there’s really no point in even starting the conversation. You often have 27 different subcontractors involved. If you present something like that to the data protection officer, it simply won’t get approved.”
In the end, price was another factor that tipped the scales in Stackfield’s favor, Marc-Alexander Reid emphasizes: “That was a major criterion for us. Our previous provider wasn’t exactly cheap. Stackfield offered us a very attractive pricing model.”
Seamless transition to Stackfield via room import
Once the decision to use Stackfield had been made, the individual units and their data were first migrated from the previously used tool to Stackfield. Marc-Alexander Reid placed particular emphasis on ensuring a smooth transition. Thanks to Stackfield, transferring the existing structures only took a few clicks: the exported data could be imported into new rooms, individual workspaces, using Stackfield’s room import feature and then organized into a logical structure. “It was relatively straightforward,” he says. A dedicated guide was created for the individual teams so that even employees who were not part of the IT department could carry out the migration without any major difficulties. The guide explained in concrete terms how to export data from the previous platform, import it into Stackfield, and map the relevant fields. “For the most part, our colleagues managed it on their own. We received very few questions. Another advantage is the online tutorial, which is very self-explanatory. And it also has to be said that the support team responds extremely quickly,” Marc-Alexander Reid emphasizes.
Stackfield as an interface: mapping cross-department tasks and work steps using subtasks
Today, Stackfield is successfully used by around 75 people across all departments of the Information Technology Division, as well as in administration and budget planning in the district of Fulda. In particular, the information technology units (Data Center, User Support, and IT Service Schools) are now better connected and can manage cross-departmental tasks transparently for everyone involved in shared Stackfield rooms.
Unit-internal topics are also managed in Stackfield. Marc-Alexander Reid explains: “We use Stackfield for everything in the data center: our entire organization, day-to-day operations, task distribution, keeping track of deadlines, project coordination, resource management, and extensive documentation.” At the heart of the rooms are tasks and, in particular, subtasks, which make it possible to break work down into individual steps while keeping everything grouped under the overarching parent task.
“We have some tasks with almost 200 subtasks – that’s how extensively we use this feature. Those subtasks are, in turn, assigned to different people. We really appreciate having that flexibility.”
If a due date is also set for a subtask, it will appear in the assigned person’s “My Week” dashboard at the appropriate time, helping ensure that it is not overlooked.
Coordinating data processing agreements with the legal department
Especially in processes that require collaboration between different departments, a lack of centralized coordination can quickly lead to additional communication channels. One example is the coordination of data processing agreements between the data center and the legal department.
The data center is therefore currently exploring how external contacts can be more closely integrated into collaboration via Stackfield. The aim is to handle coordination surrounding the review of data processing agreements more centrally and directly within the relevant context in the future. This could make the current processing status more transparent and allow questions to be clarified without the need for additional communication channels. The process is currently being tested as part of a trial phase.
Creating and updating ISMS documents with Stackfield's support
Another process that requires precise documentation and transparent coordination between everyone involved is the maintenance of ISMS documents and the implementation of various BSI guidelines. Related information security topics involving the district’s Information Security Officer are now managed in Stackfield. Marc-Alexander Reid explains: “We have an ISMS consisting of documents required by the BSI, for example guidelines on passwords or access protection. Many different people need to work on a document like this: the technician, who has to draft the document and is responsible for its technical content; me as their manager; the Information Security Officer, who has to review the document; and my own manager, who has to sign off on it and formally acknowledge it.” Today, the coordination of all parties involved in these documents takes place entirely within Stackfield tasks.
Keeping processes transparent and preserving knowledge long-term
Before Stackfield was introduced, it was difficult to systematically track work and review past activities at any given time. Today, if the head of the division has any questions, Stackfield makes it possible to answer them quickly and reliably. Content is organized by topic in rooms, while the global search can be used to find specific information across rooms whenever needed. Marc-Alexander Reid explains: “I also use Stackfield as a research tool to check and demonstrate the current status of a particular process. That works extremely well.”
Furthermore, Stackfield’s pages module is well suited for keeping records, allowing text documents to be created transparently and edited collaboratively within the team. To make this even easier, Marc-Alexander Reid and his team have created dedicated page templates, so new meeting minutes can be set up with very little additional effort. “We use that relatively frequently,” he emphasizes.
Transparently mapping availability and planning resources effectively
One of the key criteria for introducing Stackfield was intuitive and comprehensive resource planning for the “IT Service Schools” unit. Many tasks require a certain amount of time to be blocked out, for example when installing access points at a school. Today, the unit adds these time blocks to Stackfield’s calendar module. The respective employee is then automatically shown as unavailable in Stackfield’s resource planning during that period, preventing them from accidentally being scheduled for other meetings or activities at the same time. Marc-Alexander Reid says: “Today, my colleagues manage this perfectly in Stackfield.”
Conclusion and outlook: all-in-one for greater efficiency
In conclusion, there is broad agreement across the district of Fulda that collaboration has improved significantly. “We now have all our information in one place. From a manager’s perspective, I personally couldn’t imagine working without Stackfield anymore, because I honestly wouldn’t know how else to keep track of all the tasks – currently somewhere between 300 and 400,” says Marc-Alexander Reid. Looking ahead, he is therefore excited to continue rolling out Stackfield, allowing other interested teams to join at any time. “We’re very happy that we chose Stackfield. It makes our work so much easier.”