T&I strategy: digital transformation and human centricity

At Deutsche Telekom, innovation means creating the best possible (digital) customer experience on the basis of our multiple award-winning network – now and in the future. We believe our core competency consists in integrating the individual components (such as hardware and software in the mobile and fixed networks) so that, in conjunction with our own network and IT infrastructure and supported by partner companies, we can guarantee the best customer experience at a reasonable price with resilient and future-proof technology. This is precisely the task of our Technology and Innovation Board of Management department, which works in close cooperation with our operating segments. The Technology and Innovation Board of Management department is where we combine and integrate our Technology, Innovation, IT, and Security functions. This structure will allow us to meet the demands of the future network generation and the associated requirements not only of our customers, but also of our employees, our partners, and our shareholders – in terms of network security and sustainability, too. Our Group strategy Leading Digital Telco applies not only to high-speed broadband access, but also to responsible network production. That is an economic and ecological necessity, especially given growing cloudification, increasing data traffic, and the rising number and concentration of active components in our network.

We are thus in a position both to enable Deutsche Telekom’s current business and at the same time to shape the future. We are convinced that we can reliably deliver results, constantly develop product, industry, and technological innovations, and simultaneously hone and refine our ways of working. The following examples, which illustrate our improved network infrastructure, strong technology partnerships, and innovative services and customer experience, highlight how we want to safeguard and maintain our technology leadership among European network operators through technological progress and innovation.

• Delivery Innovation: Technology and Innovation is a supplier and service provider for the 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.
• Experience Innovation: We are Deutsche Telekom’s central innovation unit. Constantly pursuing innovations that benefit our customers, the Group, and all other stakeholders 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 segments and with external partner companies in order to meet our customers’ requirements and to create the innovations this calls for.
• Capability Innovation: Continuing to turn Deutsche Telekom into a software-based company entails transforming our capabilities on an ongoing basis. We want to recognize the need for future changes in our Company and to be able to handle them as they arise. Changes become entrenched especially when accompanied by cultural innovation in the shape of skills transformation and the systematic retraining and further training of our employees as software engineers, AI experts, and network architects. By the end of 2022, we had given some 2,000 of our employees intensive training in topics relevant for the future, such as software development, artificial intelligence (AI), and DevOps, as well as in agile methods, in 16 international Skill Academies.