Hamburg Airport uses Box to make mobile collaboration take off

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Hamburg Airport / A Case Study
Hamburg Airport Uses Box to Make
Mobile Collaboration Take Off
The Challenge
Opening in 1911 as a hangar for the famous Zeppelin airships, Germany’s Hamburg Airport
is the world’s oldest operating airport and has long been a leader in delivering new aviation
services to global passengers. In 1919, the world’s first airline-operated scheduled flights took
passengers between Hamburg and Berlin. The first international service followed the next
year, flying from Amsterdam to Hamburg and then on to Copenhagen.
Today, more than 60 airlines fly directly from Hamburg, Germany’s second-largest
city, to 120 destinations worldwide. The airport employs more than 1,800 people and
served nearly 15 million passengers in 2014. As a pioneer in aviation, Hamburg Airport has a
tradition of embracing technological advances.
Recent examples include Hamburg becoming the first German airport to provide current
waiting times at security checkpoints, with updates posted every 15 minutes on its website
and via an app for mobile users. Webcams in the terminal departures area and on the apron
feed live streaming of activity at the terminal directly to the website for passengers to view.
Hamburg Airport also embarked on an innovative Executive Mobile Communications
programme across its four core corporate divisions with more than 225 iOs / Android devices
designed to let its executives be more effective while on the move.
Between them, these four divisions are responsible for all aspects of running the airport.
Aviation works closely with the airlines to ensure processes run smoothly; Ground Handling
controls all ground and traffic services; Center Management covers all non-aviation
activities such as advertising space, retail and catering activities; Real Estate Management is
responsible for buildings and land development.
Although the mobile devices are excellent devices for browsing and media consumption,
they didn’t, at least not on their own, equip the Airport’s executives with the productivity
tools needed to share or actively collaborate on content. This was a clear weakness as
the four groups needed to link with others, including staff members, providing important
planning, consultancy or supervisory functions.
These executives also had to communicate with a network of subsidiaries and independent
suppliers who supply specialist services critical to the running of each of the four divisions.
These include GroundSTARS for aircraft loading/unloading and luggage handling, CATS
for cleaning, STARS for transport services, and AHS Hamburg for check-in and other
specialised services.
“Feedback from our users
had been very positive.
Box has opened up a
whole new way of working
more creatively.”
Danny Heyn
Project Manager of IT at
Hamburg Airport
Learn More
0808-189-0504
box.com

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Hamburg Airport / A Case Study
The Airport’s File Sharing Platform system had limited capacity to share files across
multiple platforms and devices. This was an obstacle to productivity as Hamburg has a
mixed estate of mobile devices. Storage capacity was also meagre and running cost were
high. With a strict 10MB limit on files shared over eMail, employees were forced to rely on
fax and other suboptimal methods to share PDFs or send large files to each other, as the
formerly used File Sharing Platform has been complex in administration and had limited
capabilities for sharing files.
The Solution
Danny Heyn is an IT Project Manager at AIRSYS, Hamburg Airport’s subsidiary responsible
for IT operations. He quickly realised the cross-platform collaboration capabilities and flexible
storage benefits that cloud solutions offered could be the answer to turning the airport’s
mobile-enabled workforce into a truly flexible and effective modern mobile team.
Heyn therefore scouted for options, examining possibilities such as Google Drive, Apple
iCloud and Dropbox. But in the end he selected Box because he saw it as offering the best
enterprise-grade functionality for sharing content across platforms, including mobile systems.
However, Heyn initially faced stiff cultural resistance to entrusting data to a third-party,
especially if the service provider was based outside Germany. Box was the only system with
the credentials to resolve these concerns because it offers the stringent security features
needed to be compliant with both German and European data protection regulations. The
US-EU Safe Harbor Certification specifically distinguished Box from competing solutions
in the eyes of Hamburg Airport’s CIO, and allowed it to surface as his top security choice
despite it being the only non-EU-based alternative.
Deployment began in summer 2013 with an initial 60 licences for executives working within
the four core divisions. The number quickly tripled to more than 180 licences spread across
supporting business departments and external partners. Licences are now being added on
an ongoing basis.
Today, airport employees are creating and storing all files on Box. Users from any of the four
core divisions, other business units and external partners can view, edit or make comments
on meeting notes, presentations and other documents. Unlike the previous system, Box has
no limitations on file size, so now employees can share files no matter the size.
Cross-platform needs are well covered as users can open files on mobile devices running
Windows, iOS and Android. Because Box permission settings allow file owners to have
complete control over who sees what file and how they can manipulate it, there’s no threat of
unauthorised data access and security processes can be managed effectively.
“Box provides IT with
all the controls and
administrative capabilities
required to govern and
protect sensitive data.”
Danny Heyn
Project Manager of IT at
Hamburg Airport
Learn More
0808-189-0504
box.com

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Hamburg Airport / A Case Study
Hamburg Airport now has a system for collaboration across all areas and can better
deal with its partners to improve workflow and make processes more smooth – without
communication boundaries or the need to develop workarounds.
The benefits of collaborating in the cloud are catching on even outside the airport’s
boundaries. One of Hamburg Airport’s partners went so far as writing to Heyn to thank him
for the advice to consider using Box, saying that working with Box “is really fun.”
The Results
Box is currently used not only for the cross-divisional initiatives within Hamburg Airport (like
its website re-launch), but it also facilitates the data exchange and organization of large-
scale, mobility-related projects between Hamburg Airport and other German as well as
European airports.
Airport employees are now using mobile devices to share large files internally and with
external suppliers, quickly, reliably, and securely.
Having centralised, cloud-based files, and storage requires less IT involvement and less
investment in hardware infrastructure. To maintain the momentum of this trend, Hamburg
Airport’s IT team is piloting and pushing for further collaboration with Box Notes as
well as the Box Mobile App to enable on-the-go presentations via Apple TV / Samsung
Allshare Cast.
The certified security features Box provides enable compliance with European laws
concerning data governance in the cloud.
Twelve months after deployment began, Hamburg Airport is already seeing a return on
its mobile investment through slicker productivity, open communication channels, and
noticeable operational efficiency gains across all four core divisions.
“We can now provide our
people with the necessary
tools to access and share
content across platforms
and to be optimally
effective, not matter where
they are and what device
they are using.”
Danny Heyn
Project Manager of IT at
Hamburg Airport
Learn More
0808-189-0504
box.com