- Success Story
How Tchibo is improving employee satisfaction with a digital workspace
Digital HR: Future-oriented employee experience design at Tchibo
In the digital world of modern business, it is crucial to have the ability to adapt quickly to changes in the market.
Tchibo GmbH, known for its selection of high-quality coffees and a wide assortment of lifestyle products, has long established itself as a dynamic business in which quality and customer relationships take center stage.
But Tchibo is worried about more than just customer satisfaction – employee satisfaction is also of paramount importance. With SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone, the company transformed its complex HR system environment into a harmonized experience layer with a fitting look and feel for its team. SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone unified the individual HR systems and played a central role in creating a digital workspace that both motivates and supports employees.
What is SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone?
SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone is an innovative platform from SAP that makes it possible for businesses to consolidate different applications, data, and content in a central location. It serves as a digital work environment in which employees can seamlessly collaborate, share information, and design business processes more efficiently. In addition, SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone offers intelligent workflows that help to automate processes, reducing repetitive work and improving the company’s efficiency and productivity
In this success story, you’ll learn more about how MHP and Tchibo collaborated to implement the digital workspace – and why SAP awarded Tchibo the Customer Adoption Excellence Award for the successful transformation of their system environment.
From challenge to solution: Tchibo’s path to a unified workspace
The complex system environment in Tchibo’s HR department, which incorporated multiple tools for personnel management, was inconvenient for the employees, who were forced to use different systems. With multiple logins and no central point of access for HR-related information, applications, and tasks, employees quickly lost track of things, and there was no unified experience layer.
Tchibo made it their goal to create a central point of access for all HR-related information and management channels – for example, for updating employee records or accessing payroll records. After spending a great deal of time delving into the topic and testing various solutions, they ultimately chose SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone – a new, innovative product that allows companies to make different applications and content available in a central digital location.
Tchibo wanted to integrate the digital workspaces offered by this system into their existing HR system environment within a predetermined timeframe of five months. That’s where MHP stepped in as a partner – because technical knowledge and in-depth expertise with SAP architectures and integration strategies would be essential for successful implementation.
SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone would initially be introduced in the HR department. The aim was to increase employee satisfaction and build a basis for additional implementation projects. From there, it would serve as a launching pad for implementing SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone in additional areas of the company.
Strategic partnerships: MHP’s role in Tchibo’s digital HR transformation
MHP was Tchibo’s strategic partner and provided support during the HR system’s digital transformation. With their many years of hands-on expertise in HR-related SAP, architecture, and integration, and their close working relationship with SAP in the past, MHP proved to be the ideal partner to successfully design and implement the new SAP product.
By providing the technical expertise and applying DevOps principles – a modern methodology, that encourages agility in software development and IT operations – MHP was able to optimize the interplay between the systems in the HR department. With extensive experience in SAP architecture and integration projects, MHP ensured a seamless integration of the SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone across the entire system. They also developed the workspaces, which were designed in parallel to the technical integration. For project stakeholders, the theoretical concepts needed to be aligned with practical usability.
But MHP supported Tchibo with more than just technical integration. They also trained the project team, which was made up of IT and HR experts. The training was designed to get the team ready to handle the ideation process and implementation of the workspaces self-sufficiently. As a result, Tchibo was empowered to use the tools without MHP's help and to continue developing them in-house going forward.
Dominic Jacobsmeyer, Senior Consultant HR Applications at Tchibo, explains: "MHP trained the Tchibo project team to set up and use the SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone. Over the course of the project, the team was brought to a level where they could run the project independently after the Go-Live. When technical problems occurred during the integration with the IT ecosystem, MHP found an alternative solution and actively assisted us with implementation. All this helped us to go live with a successful project."
With the continuous, iterative development process, Tchibo was able to adapt SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone, and they were able to use their own internal wording and terminology to make the system feel like their own, right from the beginning.
A powerful team: The co-creation approach used by Tchibo and MHP
In their collaboration, the stakeholders at Tchibo and MHP took a co-creative approach designed to foster Tchibo’s self-sufficiency. This ensured that they would be able to continue developing the system on their own in the future.
The success of this method was particularly apparent in the Go-Live and hypercare phases, as Tchibo was able to work independently and yet also build on the support from MHP. The close collaboration meant that Tchibo’s teams were well-versed in the use of the new system and were able to roll it out to additional departments with minimal help.
"MHP worked incredibly hard to support us in implementing the new product SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone at Tchibo. We were actually one of the very first companies to begin using this product. The project team has consistently received positive feedback from the users and employee productivity has increased. The collaboration with MHP was a decisive factor in this success."
Dominic Jacobsmeyer
Senior Consultant HR Applications, Tchibo
Measurable results: Overview of the project KPIs
- Implementation time frame: quick implementation < 12 months
- Number of users: approx. 6,000
- Successful integrations: Integration of over 30 self-service scenarios
A glimpse into the future: Tchibo is focusing on continuous digital HR innovations
The total success of this project, which rid Tchibo of its complex system environment, can be seen not only in the KPIs but also in the ongoing developments in the company. For example, a chatbot has been added, which now helps employees interact with the system.
Moreover, the new employee experience layer is only one example of the successful use of SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone at Tchibo. Going forward, the digital workspaces will also be used in other areas of the Tchibo group, and stakeholders benefit from the experience they gained during the first project.
SAP Customer Adoption Excellence Award for Tchibo’s use of the digital workspaces
The project’s success was also reflected in SAP’s Customer Adoption Excellence Award, which Tchibo received in December 2023 for introducing digital workspaces using SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone.
By empowering key users, Tchibo made it possible for them to use the new tools effectively and adapt them flexibly, right from the start. The introduction of SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone also made it easier for employees to use the HR systems, apps, and data that they need in their jobs, which results in an improved employee experience. The successful collaboration between Tchibo and MHP ultimately paved the way for the integration of SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone within the entire Tchibo group.
