- Partnering strategy: More innovation by cooperation
- New European role: National companies responsible for technology and innovation projects
- Hub:raum launch in Krakow: Innovation hub opens in April
Deutsche Telekom is focusing on partnerships and giving its national companies more responsibility for bringing new technologies and innovations to Europe. The company’s commitment to complementing its own ideas through targeted partnerships is one example of this. The partnering strategy focuses on cooperations with partners such as Mozilla as well as promoting startups through the new innovation hub in Krakow, which is Deutsche Telekom’s second hub:raum incubator. Deutsche Telekom is also targeting the internationalization of its technology strategy and innovations by handing over greater responsibility for key initiatives to its national companies. “We’re going to use the full range of opportunities to build on our position as the leading company for technology in Europe,” explains Claudia Nemat, Deutsche Telekom’s Board Member for Europe and Technology. “We want to use the best ideas from each individual market.” Deutsche Telekom invested a total of around 1 billion euros (Cash Capex) in Europe in the first nine months of 2012. “Technology-based leadership is the key to success in Europe,” says Nemat. “We’re taking a look at all aspects of technology and want to integrate different technologies into a strong broadband product range.” The aim is to consistently leverage successful technology and innovation from Deutsche Telekom’s individual markets for the benefit of the entire Group. This way, pioneering projects like the introduction of mobile payment in Poland, the successful test of advanced LTE in Austria and the introduction of modern IP networks in Croatia and Macedonia can become success factors for the entire Deutsche Telekom Group. Innovation through partnerships The partnership with Mozilla for the new Firefox OS operating system is a key topic at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. “We consistently rely on cooperation to drive new developments,” says Thomas Kiessling, Deutsche Telekom’s Chief Product and Innovation Officer. “Firefox OS is an important step towards increased competition among ecosystems. We want to create freedom of choice for our customers.” Deutsche Telekom is becoming the first mobile communications provider in Europe to launch a smartphone with the new Mozilla operating system. Sales of the Alcatel ONE TOUCH FIRE begin in Poland in the summer. Deutsche Telekom wants to establish itself as the leading provider of end-to-end solutions in the machine-to-machine (M2M) area with its new partners IBM and SAP. The Group is working with IBM to develop intelligent M2M solutions for cities such as intelligent parking systems and traffic congestion predictions. Deutsche Telekom is also collaborating with SAP to develop solutions that make processes in harbors more efficient. “We’re working together with more and more partners to develop a growing ecosystem around M2M,” says Kiessling. “Our strength as Deutsche Telekom lies in the expansion and management of this complex ecosystem and platform business.” Launch of innovation hub in Krakow Deutsche Telekom is launching an innovation hub in Krakow, Poland, to drive partnerships with startups. It will be the Group’s second incubator of this kind under the hub:raum brand, and will focus on startups from southern and central Europe. “We want to create innovations in those areas in which the market is taking off,” says Nemat. “The innovation hub’s first projects are slated to begin in spring.” Alongside facilities and mentoring programs, the innovation hub will offer the opportunity for startup founders to access Deutsche Telekom’s customer base and technical testing facilities. There are plans for startup funds of up to 30,000 euros for six months. There has been a successful hub:raum incubator in Berlin since the middle of 2012, and two hub:raum startups have already brought their products onto the market. Blinkist is an app that makes specialized literature easier to read by offering short summaries of non-fiction books. Stylemarks is an online flea market for second-hand and vintage goods. United companies of Europe Deutsche Telekom is counting on its Europe-approach to promote innovation across the Group which sees national companies taking on more responsibility for topics and implementing selected projects for the Group. Hrvatski Telekom’s leading role in Deutsche Telekom’s IP migration project is one example. With “Terastream”, the Croatian subsidiary has launched brand new network architecture. The software for operating the network will be moved from network components into the cloud so that its operation will take place centrally, from a single data center. Mobile payment Poland is a second example. It is the first country within the Deutsche Telekom Group to have introduced mobile payment systems. With the launch of MyWallet in Poland at the end of October 2012, Deutsche Telekom brought the first real mobile wallet in Europe onto the market. The market reaction was very good, with more than 5,000 customers after just a few weeks. In January, Getin Bank and Noble Bank joined the two banks that the product was initially launched with – Polbank and mBank. MyWallet will be made available in further European countries this year. In addition, ClickandBuy International Limited is launching a payment card in Austria in cooperation with MasterCard.
About Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom is one of the world’s leading integrated telecommunications companies with more than 131 million mobile customers, 33 million fixed-network lines and over 17 million broadband lines (as of September 30, 2012). The Group provides products and services for the fixed network, mobile communications, the Internet and IPTV for consumers, and ICT solutions for business customers and corporate customers. Deutsche Telekom is present in around 50 countries and has over 230,000 employees worldwide. The Group generated revenues of EUR 58.7 billion in the 2011 financial year – more than half of it outside Germany (as of December 31, 2011).