program51: Large-scale Fulda-Main Line project in Stackfield

About program51 GmbH

program51 was founded in 2018 in Germany and offers customized services in infrastructure planning and implementation for companies in Germany and abroad. With energy transition in mind, program51 was involved in the construction of numerous cable routes and substations as well as battery bank projects. Since 2021, program51 has been overseeing the large-scale project Fulda-Main Line together with other partners for the transmission system operator TenneT, which involved introducing Stackfield across the network. Today, about 220 individuals from the program51 group, various partner firms, and other external firms are working with Stackfield allowing them to handle their communication and collaboration digitally. Patrick Schurtz is the managing director of 51bytes GmbH, a subsidiary company of program51 founded in 2023 that specializes in all IT matters within the program51 group.

The initial situation

Right from the start of the Fulda-Main Line project in 2021, the dimension of complexity became clear, as countless instances and environments had to be taken into account. The partner network was not only responsible for bringing the 380 kv a.c. line into construction and overseeing construction, but also for the entire planning and coordination of all service providers. A project of this magnitude requires more than just coordination between partners and service providers: a clear overview of current progress and responsibilities was needed, and ideally a central digital workspace to ensure the project's success. From the outset, it was clear that an all-in-one solution was needed, as relying solely on email communication was not an option. The search was on for a platform that offered sufficient flexibility, a file management system, and comprehensive communication and collaboration features.

Why Stackfield?

Since program51 did not want to create unnecessary dependencies on US corporations, the solution was to be German if possible, or alternatively from Europe. Tools such as Slack were immediately ruled out, explains Schurtz.

Working with large cooperations brought additional requirements: a high level of encryption was essential due to strict regulations, and the application had to be able to run in a browser so that partners did not have to roll out any new software. Although Microsoft Teams is well established in many corporations, the company deliberately did not want to limit itself fully on MS Teams. Instead, a solution was to be implemented that would work for both larger industry partners as well as mid-size companies which often do not use MS Teams. Similarly, the platform needed to provide support for including external partners and service providers seamlessly.

As a German, fully encripted all-in-one tool, Stackfield met all expectations. Whether in a browser, as a desktop app, or on a mobile device, Stackfield can be accessed from anywhere and external individuals can be integrated into the Stackfield organization via their own license. Schurtz praises the fact that nothing is lacking in terms of functionality: Stackfield has everything we were looking for and offers much more besides.

First steps

Once the decision to use Stackfield had been made, a Stackfield organization was first set up for program51 and all company employees were invited and familiarized with Stackfield's features. The next step was to create a separate organization for the Fulda-Main Line, which included all relevant colleagues from program51. The users concerned could then easily switch between the different organizations using the same account.

Partners and external service providers were also given their own acccounts and were seamlessly integrated into the collaboration. This approach has proven successful to this day: new team members are integrated in a structured manner and trained by program51 employees in central features, the organizational structure, and application guidelines.

Although Stackfield was initially introduced primariliy for planning and organizing all work surrounding the Fulda-Main Line digitally and with many different participants, today the platform also serves as a central working environment for numerous large-scale projects of various subsidiary organizations. This has expanded significantly over time, explains Schurtz.

Room and room templates: mapping work packages of the Fulda-Main Line

The organization for the Fulda-Main Line was initially structured according to a project structure plan (PSP). This was based on a tree-shaped work breakdown structure (WSB), from which individual work packages were derived. For each WSB node, a separate room was created in Stackfield. The respective room names are composed of the title of the work package title (e.g., construction or procurement) and the corresponding PSP code.

Since many rooms are similar in structure, custom room templates were created so that new rooms could later be added quickly and consistently. Within the templates, specific permissions are defined for each use case, modules are activated or deactivated, and relevant users are included. For example, project managers are already stored as room members in the templates and are automatically invited when a new room is created.

Managing users via teams

To simplify managing numerous participants from different departments and companies, program51 is making use of cross-room teams. Via the settings of the organization, teams can be added centrally and users of the organization grouped respectively. Here, users can be included in multiple teams at the same time. Once a user is added to a team, they receive automatic access to all rooms their team is included in.

Stackfield as a cloud storage

In the Fulda-Main Line project, numerous documents are created, edited and approved every day. Here, Stackfield serves as a central point of contact: Everything in the project must be documented for the authorities. Until these documents are approved, we work in Stackfield, explains Schurtz.

For this purpose, various folders have been created in the file module of the respective rooms. If a document needs to be revised, the file is downloaded by the responsible person, the changes are incorporated, and the new version is stored in the folder. For approval or release, the responsible person is tagged directly in the comment section of the file and receives an automatic notification in their personal dashboard My Week.

In addition, complementary tasks are created in the task module and assigned to the respective users accordingly. The task statuses such as "For commenting", "Incorporate comments" or "For approval" are precisely tailored to the document workflow.

Schurtz praises the way various mentions and tasks are listed in My Week: This way, we can track and work through our tasks in a very precise manner.

Communication and video conferences in breakout groups

When working in breakout groups or for 1:1 conversations, instead of the comment sections within the rooms, work often takes place in private and group chats. Schurtz recounts: When we have internal topics only two or three people work on, we create a group chat, work on the topic there and then upload the results in the respective room.

The integrated video telephony is often used for immediate topics. Here, issues can be discussed quickly and personally – if necessary, by sharing screens, for example, to go through invoices together with the accounting department or to clarify IT support cases. Cross-departmental work can thus be handled without any problems in Stackfield: Stackfield offers great ways to communicate with each other, regardless of whether you belong to the same team or not, says Schurtz.

Importing data via automated services

To provide information efficiently, 51bytes makes use of Stackfield's webhooks in various use cases:

• Error messages: If an IT service fails, the internal monitoring tool forwards information to Stackfield via a webhook, where it is automatically created as chat messages.
• News: Blog contents and news are fed into the corresponding room via connected RSS feeds.
• Updates: Notifications of new operating system updates appear immediately as chat messages in Stackfield.
• Ticket system: If a customer creates a ticket in the internal ticket system, it is automatically created as a task in Stackfield.

This way, information can be bundled centrally without the need to switch back and forth between different tools.

Page module: knowledge base and protocolls

Important information that is needed on a regular basis is stored in Stackfield's page module. With the integrated editor, documents can be created and edited directly in Stackfield. In addition, the automated versioning makes changes traceable for all room members. For instance, in the Organization room, key data such as the commercial register number or the company IBAN can be accessed at any time by authorized users.

At 51bytes the page module also serves as an internal knowledge base: instructions for applications or other useful information are collected here and are available for both new and more experienced colleagues to read.

The page module has also proven itself for creating protocolls. In the Fulda-Main Line, the most important points are documented after each jour fixe and remain permanently accessable. Schurtz praises: This means we don't have to send a separate email and no extra file is required.

Concluding words

At 51bytes, Schurtz and his team regularly advise companies on their IT infrastructure and most often encounter a similar picture: collaboration that is heavily based on MS Teams and MS Office. Since they themselves have successfully taken a step further and consciously freed themselves from these dependencies, they often recommend Stackfield to their customers: We warmly recommend Stackfield to anyone looking for a modern communication solution who values data protection. We are satisfied, summarizes Schurtz.