Spaces of opportunity
Everything can, nothing must. We open up opportunities for our members that they can use.
In 2023, we worked intensively on developing our strategy. With the involvement of our Management Board, our member companies, the team and other stakeholders, we developed a mission statement based on our values in a trusting, open and innovative/innovation-oriented manner. This was followed by a vision, mission and strategy.
The most important result of this process is the focus of our work on providing opportunities. Interdisciplinary and cross-functional topics are at the forefront of our work. This makes it easier to deal with growing complexity, values the interfaces and allows for a fluid, agile approach between the opportunity spaces.
The key areas of our network work are summarized in the opportunity spaces “Sharing knowledge”, “Working together” and “Buying together”. Sustainability, digitalization and innovation are always taken into account.
In addition, there is our harbour room, where many of our events take place. It is equally suitable for co-working. Member companies can also use this real space.
Possibility room "Working together"
We focus on collaboration in everyday and extraordinary business – primarily collaboration between people, of course, but increasingly also between people and machines.
A lot has changed in our network since the coronavirus pandemic. We now hold many events online and appreciate all the more the quality, energy and connective properties of meeting people in person.
We work together in our network in many different formats and on several levels.
We organize workshops on specific key topics, working group meetings, regular get-togethers, excursions, information events and formats for sharing experiences and networking.
With suitable funding projects, we try to obtain and make available to our members in a structured and sustainable manner results that can be utilized and applied in a variety of ways.
We expand the circle of people who work with us on an ad hoc basis.
In addition to members who work together, these can also be customers of byNIRO GmbH, suppliers from our purchasing pool and other interested companies, such as during the Digital Week Dortmund in cooperation with the Digital Workbench. The NIRO Academy also expands our internal network circle to include new people with whom we work.
And we always look beyond the end of our nose.
Possibility room "Shopping together"
Our purchasing pool is an important pillar of our network.
It strengthens our members’ competitiveness through joint purchasing. Through the purchasing pool, our member companies can take advantage of numerous framework agreements in the categories of operating resources, office, IT and communication, energy, waste disposal and recycling, industrial services, personnel, travel and mobility, transportation and e-procurement.
The concept of joint purchasing is based on the bundling of requirements and results in framework agreements with suppliers and service providers. Reliability, predictability, negotiated conditions, tried and tested partners and a functioning network ensure the security that our purchasing pool offers. This success is largely due to the commitment of the purchasing managers in our member companies. In our purchasing working group, they make decisions on possible purchasing topics, suitable suppliers and the (further) development of framework agreements. All framework agreements are subject to a complex tendering process and are the responsibility of negotiating groups. They decide on the criteria for a tender, conduct the negotiations and present the results to the Purchasing working group for a decision. For certain framework agreements, managers from the relevant functional areas, such as logistics or HR, are also involved and strengthen the negotiating group. The result, the negotiated framework agreement, can be used by all member companies on the same terms.
With the funded project “Sustainable supplier management in accordance with the DNK standard – a purchasing pool on the way to a sustainability report” (NaLiMa for short), we have been able to implement sustainable supplier management for our purchasing pool since 2021. We have also intensified the sustainability focus of our purchasing pool. Every two years, we use a questionnaire to assess our suppliers’ commitment to sustainability and review their further development. For new tenders, we require our suppliers to operate sustainably as a prerequisite for a future partnership.
Our partners for your purchase
Our real space in the Port of Dortmund
NIRO has been based at the Port of Dortmund since the beginning of 2024. The industrial campus is being developed here as a new quarter. In close proximity to the digital economy on the other side of the port, new synergies, collaborations and opportunities for cooperation can be expected in the future.
We use our harbor room on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
If you would also like to use this room for your own purposes: It can be rented.
