Getting to know each other after two years of cooperation
Our department Mobile Online Services (MOS) visited our colleagues from Volkswagen Digital Solutions (VWDS) in Lisbon for a week. The VWGISers provide a brief report on their experiences at this meet and greet in Portugal:
The international cooperation between Volkswagen Group IT Solutions in Germany and Volkswagen Digital Solutions in the Connected Car Competence Center started back in 2020. Due to the Corona pandemic, however, a physical meeting was unfortunately not possible until now. Therefore, it was necessary to set up a complete team in Portugal remotely right from the start. Especially the transition of tasks from Germany to Portugal and establishing the cooperation between both teams was a big challenge.
Therefore, the colleagues were all the more pleased that after two years of virtual cooperation, a first visit to Lisbon was finally possible. For this, three colleagues from the VWGIS flew to Portugal to conduct various workshops on site. First, a retrospective was made to look back at the past and develop measures for future cooperation. In the following days, the measures were defined in workshops with the Portuguese service managers and project leaders and finally compiled for implementation in the coming weeks and months.
It quickly became clear to all participants that although workshops on the digital whiteboard work very well, face-to-face communication enormously strengthens professional cooperation. This creates new synergies in the intercultural exchange and the socialising with the colleagues from Volkswagen Digital Solutions was sustainably promoted.
The conclusion of the trip: The first meeting live and in colour was a complete success! The result was a diverse package of measures and tasks for both teams. After two years of remote work, we thought we already knew each other. But only now do we really know each other well on a personal and professional level.
We are convinced that the professional cooperation will become even more intensive through the personal meeting!