VTI strategy: We enable today’s business and shape the future

The digital transformation and the ongoing change process triggered by it are unstoppable. Real-time connections between people and things will continue to grow and become a widespread phenomenon. The new 5G mobile communications standard will ensure that the virtual and real worlds coalesce more and more. Smart robots and factories, self-driving cars, and artificial intelligence will increasingly become part of our everyday lives. While this ongoing change is a challenge to everyone – users, customers, and providers alike – it also offers many opportunities.

The Board of Management department Technology and Innovation (VTI) helps ensure that Deutsche Telekom can tackle these changes faster and more flexibly. To this end, VTI combines and integrates the technology, innovation, and IT functions. That enables us to align our efforts with the next generation of networks and with the customer requirements they will give rise to. Our goal is always to remain one step ahead of the radical changes in our industry, including digitalization, big data, software-defined networks, virtualization, and cloud services. Conventional network technology and IT are converging more and more. At the interface between them, crucial innovations are arising, and our task is to develop these and bring them to market quickly.

The goal we are pursuing with our VTI strategy is to enable today’s business and to shape the future. We are convinced that, in line with the priorities of our operating segments, we can reliably deliver results, constantly develop product, industry, and technological innovations, and simultaneously hone and refine our working methods – all in the best interests of Deutsche Telekom.

• Delivery: VTI is a provider to the entire Group. As such, it is particularly important that we consistently meet our obligations. That means conscientiously delivering our services, leveraging the synergies offered by centralized production, and working cost-efficiently. At the same time, we can also shape the future, e.g., by promoting agile working methods to make our production future-proof.
• Innovation: We are Deutsche Telekom’s central innovation team. Constantly pursuing innovations that benefit both our customers and the Group is our task and our obligation – but we also consider it an expression of the freedom we enjoy. Our technological innovations form the underpinnings for this. We work in close cooperation with the operating segments in order to meet all customer requirements, and create useful and meaningful innovations.
• Transformation: Our focus here is on how we work and lead, and the way in which we continuously develop and grow. The Academy programs we have created offer employees options to enhance their skills to match profiles such as software engineer, software architect, agile product owner, scrum master, product developer/marketer, and designer. Transformation is not an end in itself, but a necessary part of meeting the challenges posed by a dynamic environment, remaining innovative, and retaining our ability to perform.