About the City of Reutlingen
Renowned for the narrowest street in the world and the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Swabian Jura: The university town and former Free Imperial City of Reutlingen is the ninth-biggest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg and has been relying on Stackfield for cross-departmental and internal collaboration since 2023. The Department of Information and Communication Technologies in particular is setting a good example in this regard: the team uses Stackfield to efficiently organize hardware deliveries, repairs, maintenance work, and many other tasks.
The initial situation
Before Stackfield, the city of Reutlingen had struggled with interdepartmental collaboration in particular: the various departments either did not use any digital solutions at all or did not use the same ones. Isolated solutions made it difficult to carry out projects within the authority that often crossed departmental boundaries. In most cases, information could not be exchanged via a tool, but had to be passed on by conventional means, e.g., by email or telephone. Until then, no tool had been used in the Department of Information and Communication Technologies itself, and communication took place almost exclusively via email. The use of email alone made transparency within the team considerably more difficult, as information was only available to the respective recipients of the email, and emails sent to larger distribution lists threatened to overload mailboxes. In order to replace the various isolated applications and introduce a uniform platform for the first time in areas that had not previously been covered, it was decided to roll out a collaboration tool as the standard throughout the entire authority.
Why Stackfield?
On the hunt for a good collaboration solution, the city of Reutlingen first put together a test group of employees from different departments to check out a bunch of tools. The requirements were clear from the start: the tool had to be simple and user-friendly, but still offer enough features for complex, cross-departmental projects, be available on all devices, including mobile ones, and, of course, meet the highest data protection standards.
After various tools failed to meet the requirements, the test group came across Stackfield thanks to an internal tip and deemed it to be a convincing solution. Stackfield combines simplicity with the necessary range of functions, offers a reliable mobile app, and meets the strict data protection requirements of public authorities. An additional advantage is its high flexibility. Users can show or hide modules as needed, allowing them to customize the platform to suit their individual working methods.
Management of hardware delivery to district offices
Today, nearly 100 city employees manage their projects using Stackfield. One example of this is the organization of hardware deliveries to district offices by the Department of Information and Communication Technology. The tasks involved in delivering and replacing devices on the client and network side were heavily dependent on other factors and subject to numerous specifications. In order to reliably manage the workload and make it transparently accessible to all parties involved, the entire planning process was therefore mapped in Stackfield.
The first step was to determine the order in which the various district offices were to be processed. Time slots were then scheduled and appointments coordinated with the relevant offices. In the next step, the appointments were entered into the calendar in a room specially created for hardware delivery. This meant that all appointments remained visible and accessible to everyone involved and appeared on the corresponding day in the personal dashboard My Week. And if anything changed later, all participants were automatically notified without the need to send a separate circular email.
The actual tasks were created in the tasks module, dated, and assigned to the responsible individuals. All relevant details were stored in the respective task cards, such as which devices needed to be replaced or which special circumstances needed to be taken into account at a given site. This ensures that colleagues who might step in later remain informed.
To provide a better overview, the tasks were also displayed in the timeline module as a Gantt chart, including dependencies. This display not only makes it easier to keep track of the project, but also creates greater transparency between the team and management. The Department of Information and Communication Technology reports: “The timeline was important to us because the head of the department, who is in regular contact with the district mayors, needs to be able to communicate what we are planning and when at any time. Thanks to the overview, he can check the current status whenever he wants.”
People who are not directly employed by the city are also involved: a supplier, for example, was given access to approved content via the role External – with restricted rights, but seamlessly integrated into the process.
Communication and collaboration with trainees
For the Department of Information and Communication Technology, a separate Stackfield room has been set up for collaborating with trainees. Here, the main focus is on posting relevant documents, such as weekly reports and timetables. The files module ensures order and, above all, transparency: supervisors know at all times when trainees are in the office, when they have classes, and which subjects are currently on the schedule.
Another advantage lies in the flexible communication. Trainees can ask questions in the communication module or directly in the comments on tasks or documents. This means they don't need to have a contact person on site at all times—their supervisors answer questions as soon as they have time. Conversely, supervisors can also post information or tasks in the room for trainees to read later, for example after a school day.
Cross-departmental work with Stackfield as an interface
Today, interdepartmental collaboration also largely takes place on Stackfield, for example between the Department of Information and Communication Technologies and the office that oversees and coordinates the city's daycare centers.
A key issue at present is the switch from purchasing to leasing equipment (e.g., computers) in the individual daycare centers. Previously, a single employee was responsible for the growing number of facilities and was unable to manage the regular replacement of hardware equipment on their own. Today, the increased workload is no longer a problem thanks to a larger team and Stackfield as the central point of contact: daycare centers regularly receive up-to-date hardware, and planning, procurement, and implementation are organized entirely through Stackfield.
In addition, a wide range of topics are dealt with in the shared room, including:
- the digital equipment of new or renovated daycare centers, including moving out and back in,
- repairs and reporting defective hardware,
- the expansion of Wi-Fi and network technology,
- and the planning of regular quarterly meetings.
Instead of laboriously exchanging relevant materials such as plans and overviews by email, these are stored centrally in Stackfield, for example site plans with marked network sockets or lists of internet connections in the daycare centers. All relevant information is thus available to both sides without having to request or distribute data multiple times.
Stackfield's mobile app is also popular for use on the go. Information is available from anywhere, and if a task comes up, it can be created, dated, and assigned directly without losing important details on the way back to the office.
Final words
Transparent and asynchronous working has become standard practice thanks to Stackfield, particularly in the Department of Information and Communication Technology. Everyone involved remains on the same page, and information can be exchanged without having to wait for everyone to be available. One employee praises: “If I write something down and my colleague is in a meeting, they can look it up in Stackfield later and still get the information. And at the same time, I don't have to remember to call someone later who didn't get the information. That's a huge advantage.” In the future, the plan is to further expand Stackfield, add use cases, and, in particular, enable comprehensive cross-departmental collaboration in Stackfield.