The group has also built up an enormous amount of expertise over the years, which makes it easier for us to adapt to new trends and technologies. Last but not least, with around 50 million active customers worldwide, we have a wealth of data that helps us tailor our offers and campaigns to our customers' needs and with great success. Our retail brands OTTO and About You, for instance, go to great efforts in marketing automation, which makes them proven leaders of the field. Successful digitalisation is thus the sum of many individual parts. At the same time, however, it remains a race for technology in which we have to measure ourselves not only against the competition, but against our own processes. Both areas always hold plenty of room for improvement.
Hamburg News: A new position was created especially for you. What does a "Group Vice President Technology Strategy & Governance" do?
Dr. Hanna Huber: My job is akin to that of an air traffic controller. I keep track of all the technology projects within the group and steer them in the right direction - in the truest sense of the word. This involves sharing information with the relevant decision-makers in the company, setting standards and of course, monitoring success. Redundant processes are the biggest brake in a digitalisation process. I try to counteract this early to save time. As I have just explained, we operate in a very fast-moving, competitive environment that leaves little room for manoeuvre in terms of speed.
Hamburg News: What success has the Otto Group already had with its digital course?
Dr. Hanna Huber: We have made leaps and bounds in the field of standardisation over the past two years and from our own strengths. At present, we are pushing ahead with a uniform tech stack, i.e. a solution environment for e-commerce, to which several group companies are successively docked. This is particularly helpful for smaller group companies with reduced technology teams, as they benefit from the latest developments, but do not have to maintain these skills themselves. This allows them to concentrate on their core business. An essential part of this tech stack is the About You Cloud, whose solutions are already being used by several Otto Group shops. In other words, we use modern technologies and skills in individual group companies to benefit others.
Hamburg News: What challenges are you facing presently?
Dr. Hanna Huber: Decentralisation is perhaps the greatest challenge facing the Otto Group. But at the same time, it is also one of our greatest strengths. From a technological point of view, however, it involves lots of work especially in terms of striving for standard processes and the speed outlined above. We have more than a hundred retail brands and deal with very different business models sometimes. Our goals are thus quite heterogeneous, which is reflected in the technological setup. Bringing these different perspectives together and making decisions that benefit us as a group means we have to talk to each other and find solutions together. We form teams consisting of representatives from different companies in the group, who then jointly develop and evaluate a solution for each topic.
