Jena bundles digital competences

Digital Summit - Smart City - 5G model region. Within a short period of time, Jena set the course for the future. In order to anchor digital contents sustainably in daily processes, the city of Jena has set up the strategic project management for digitalization.

Manuela Meyer has been entrusted with the position of digitisation officer (CDO). She will be the central contact person for major municipal digital projects. Ms. Meyer has taken over the coordination for Smart City, the project for the 5G model region is headed by Dorothea Prell - the department head's consultant. With this they support Benjamin Koppe, who is responsible for digitalization in the city of Jena.

Ms Meyer has a strong connection to Jena, knows the needs of the city, is highly networked and is characterised by the corresponding competence to act. In her last position as project manager in a company, she managed the introduction of the E-File in various authorities and, among other things, managed the corresponding customer-specific software developments for a federal state.

She is looking forward to the cooperation with the different partners of the city of Jena: "Digitalisation is more than the introduction of new software and the modernisation of outdated hardware. Processes must be collected, analysed and optimised on the way to their digital representation. Digitalisation is the way, not the goal!

In November, Dirk Lange also took over the position of Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the city of Jena on an interim basis. He will adapt the urban IT landscape to the challenges of digital transformation.

"The consideration and optimization of the internal administrative workflows is the basis of digitization that is geared towards added value for citizens and employees," says Dirk Lange. "We have to understand that the greatest possible success can be achieved if the process of digital transformation is understood as a holistic, iterative and customer-oriented process that must be continuously evaluated and adapted."

Benjamin Koppe, Head of the Department for Digitization, summarizes: "Jena has all the prerequisites to develop into the leading digital region. A strong local developer scene with internationally active specialist companies offer excellent services. Highly endowed funding projects were successfully acquired. The Digital Summit 2020 drew a lot of attention to our city despite the circumstances. With Manuela Meyer and Dirk Lange, two heads with outstanding expertise are now bringing together the major projects and the urban IT basics. I am convinced that we will exceed the expectations of the funding agencies for digital transformations".