On June 27, CIOmove@Home traveled to the beautiful city of Heilbronn to exchange ideas and gain a deeper insight into the current IT projects of the companies of the Schwarz Group. Schwarz Digits is the division that brings together all IT and digital activities within the group, so we met with the CIOs and IT experts of Schwarz IT and STACKIT, the group’s cloud provider. The event took place in the FORUM at the Bildungscampus Ost – a location supported by the Dieter Schwarz Foundation, which is characterized by its modern, straightforward architecture and is still relatively young: the ground-breaking ceremony took place only in 2010.
Schwarz IT manages the entire digital infrastructure and software solutions for all users of its retail divisions Lidl and Kaufland, Schwarz Produktion and the environmental services provider PreZero.
In total, Schwarz Digits has around 7,500 employees. Further figures at a glance:
- 7.2 billion store customers at Lidl and Kaufland per year
- 575,000 end users (oder employees)
- > 1,250 IT solutions
- 34 IT units
More information about the fields of activity and the projects of Schwarz IT can be found on the company’s website.
After the CIOmove community gathered, Christian Müller, CEO of Schwarz IT and Co-CEO of Schwarz Digits, and Volker Martens, CEO of Faktor 3, welcomed the attendees. Christian kicked off the event with his keynote, “Digitalization as a Competitive Advantage in IT”. When asked about the IT topic that is currently on his mind and that CIOs should have on their radar, he told us:
Tim Roder, Head of Business Development IPAI Management GmbH, then presented the IPAI project (short for Innovation Park Artificial Intelligence): A nearby AI district under construction that could become one of the largest and most important artificial intelligence ecosystems in Europe.
After the lunch break, Robin Hermann, Managing Director STACKIT, took the floor and presented on the following topics:
STACKIT is the cloud and colocation provider of the Schwarz Group, founded in 2018 to drive the digital transformation within the Schwarz Group with its own cloud services. The company is part of Schwarz Digits, the IT and digital division of the Schwarz Group.
With a technical infrastructure located exclusively in Germany and Austria, STACKIT promises data sovereignty that goes beyond the market standard. The team, headquartered in Neckarsulm, is committed to an independent Europe. In April 2022, the Schwarz Group announced the opening of the STACKIT cloud for companies and public administrations.
The last major keynote of the day, titled “Why Failed Software Projects Can Still Lead to Success,” was delivered by Yvonne Vogt, member of the executive board of LIDL Stiftung & Co. KG. In a preliminary talk, she explained what the title stands for.
CIOmove@Schwarz IT featured exciting speeches, networking and exchange about IT trends, challenges and personal experiences. We would like to thank all participants and especially our hosts Schwarz IT & STACKIT.
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Further impressions of CIOmove@Schwarz IT
