While searching for a supplier, the Max Bögl group quickly came across Hallo Welt!, the developer of BlueSpice. A strong search engine, clear and intuitive usability, a clean authorization structure and a proven, open-source system architecture are the main arguments Peters cites for the decision. “We wanted a wiki that users would like to work with.”

In the meantime about 900 articles are integrated in BlueSpice. In addition to IT, it is also used to present corporate strategy topics. And there are numerous training documents and extensive documentation on specific areas such as tunnel construction or maxmodul.

Picture: Participant of the “Max Bögl Praxistag” in Nuremberg

“Our employees saw BlueSpice as an opportunity right from the start,” says Peters. After a one-year test phase it was made widely known in the Max Bögl group of companies. Wikimax is currently being used by more than 1,500 registered users – and more to join.

According to Olaf Peters, it was crucial for the successful introduction of the wiki to define goals for the specific application at an early stage and to approach the matter with realistic expectations. “One of the things that helped was the admin training, which I did right at the start at Hallo Welt! GmbH”.

Alliances within the company and people who were enthusiastic about BlueSpice from the very beginning have proven themselves in offering lots of support and communicating the advantages of a wiki to as many employees as possible. “The first step was taken. Now we’re moving forward step by step together.”

Since then, BlueSpice has been expanded more and more from the initially defined target group. There are attractive templates for portal pages and picture tiles, from which you can go directly to the article pages with just one click. There you can – depending on your level of knowledge – delve deeper and deeper into the material without having to torment yourself with page-long continuous texts.

Thanks to the strong search function already mentioned, which allows you to narrow down areas very precisely and forgive spelling mistakes, information can be found quickly – both in the articles themselves and in the attached media files.

“An example of our topics in wikimax is Building Information Modeling (BIM),” says Peters. BIM is an integral working method for the optimized planning, execution and management of buildings. The data generated during the project execution is collected and coordinated using a central data model. In this way, data entered can be reused in subsequent processes and work steps can be digitally networked with each other.

In wikimax the BIM method is explained to our employees. In addition, they find technical contact persons and can dive into typical application cases of the BIM method.

In the meantime, Max Bögl has established contact persons for the various focus areas in wikimax. Depending on the topic writing rights are assigned to a specific group of people who maintain the content. Since wikimax should be accessible and transparent for everyone, reading rights are not restricted as far as possible. For Peters, a central task for the future is to expand into other departments. “We want to provide an even broader information base to our employees.” On top of that we are interested in strengthening the depth of information.

Peters summarizes: “Basically, we want to know what the system is capable of an make full use of its potential. “Semantic MediaWiki in particular offers opportunities for data management that are only just beginning”. Being an innovative company, we have set that claim to ourselves.” (sa)