date: 03/10/2017
DIGIT staff showed and explained how different IT solutions in place can increase work efficiency and flexibility. Visitors were especially interested in seeing in practice what DIGIT Deputy Director-General Mario Campolargo described as "my office adapted to me". The replacement of desktops with laptops, phones replaced by laptop-connected headsets, advanced touch screens for meetings and videoconferences and the new MyRemote were the main attractions.
The building is designed both for energy-saving purposes, consuming five times less energy than an average Brussels office building, and to allow for increased natural lighting, further improving working conditions for employees. Realized jointly by OIB and DIGIT, the building was equipped with modern IT tools, improving working methods, user experience and flexibility. The guided tours offered an insight into DIGIT's transformed culture, where sitting at one’s desk
represents only one of many options of working, along with working from social and common areas or, actually, teleworking from wherever.
However, as underlined by Vice-President Ansip during the visit, the digital workplace is above all a people matter. Change needs to be embraced by staff and our culture needs to shift to make it happen. As said by DG HR's Deputy DG Bernard Magenhann “we need to switch to an organization driven by objectives and to ensure that we meet the challenge of changing the culture in this new direction”. Therefore, discussions on knowledge management, wellbeing and ways of better knowing each other completed the programme of the day.
In his closing remarks Vice-President Ansip stressed the importance of DIGIT's work in areas such as cybersecurity while praising the process undertaken in this digitally-oriented infrastructure project. DIGIT's Black Pearl Building and solutions have served as a first practical experience in this area and serve as an example of how the Commission can pave the way for the workplace of the future.
News | Friday 3 February 2017
More than 500 DIGIT colleagues will be moving to a new building on Rue Montoyer 15, the Black Pearl building (MO15) starting from 1st of February and finishing on 22nd of February.