A journey through IKEA's digital transformation | Supriya Chitale & Björn Ramberg

Thank you. All right. Anyone here who knows who this is? Let's go for it. It's Billy. It's Billy. Awesome. Perhaps not everybody was going for hands in the air here. So maybe not everybody knows that much about Billy. So maybe we should start talking a little bit about bookcases today. Yeah, absolutely. We will talk a little bit about bookcases like, for example, Billy here has been part of the IKEA range since 1984, and it is a timeless piece of home furnishing. But what's also interesting and what we are here to talk about is IKEA's digital transformation journey, which is almost like a book in the bookcase. Yeah, you're right. And a chapter in that book should absolutely be about a word and a value that we hold very dear at IKEA, which is togetherness. And togetherness builds on collaboration. So maybe we should spend some time today as well talking about togetherness, collaboration, and what role Inner Source has played in that for us as well. Absolutely. Let's dive in. First, we introduce ourselves. Who am I? My name is Björn Ramberg. I started working for IKEA in 2017. I have around 20 years or so in the IT industry. I've been working a huge amount of different roles through different sectors such as maritime, telecom, and now retail. I always had a passion for technology, new and old, retro as well. I love travel. I love to spend time with the family. What about you, Supriya? My name is Supriya Chitale and I have been working at IKEA for three years, moved to Sweden in 2024. Prior to that, I've been working in the United States and India for many years, 20 years in the software industry, 14 years working with InnerSource, open source topics. I also have a 16-year-old teenager back at home and love to travel and love to learn about new things. So should we start from the beginning and perhaps with a question that many of you are sitting here with? What does IKEA have to do with DevOps? IKEA only makes furniture, right? Well, not really, and definitely not from the beginning. So IKEA was established in 1943 in a shed, which you can see over here in the picture, in Elmtaryd, Småland in Sweden. Our founder, Ingvar Kamprad, was running this out of a family farm, and it was a one-man show selling pens and matchboxes, among other things. Fast forward to today, we are 220,000 co-workers across the globe in 63 different markets. And just 4,000 curious rebels out of those are working with central digital solutions. So it's not a one-man show anymore. And regardless of the physical solutions or the digital solutions, something that we have been passionate about in our 80-year history is to make and to bring IKEA products to the many people. And that's why we are constantly renewing and improving to become the world's leader in life at home. This comes from the company being driven by our vision to create a better everyday life for the many people. That along with a strong bond for our values such as simplicity, togetherness and renew and improve. These are not just words on the wall. These are actually fundamental to everything we do, from how we create our products to how we interact with customers. And in reality, these are actually also words on the wall because we do have them on all the offices around the world. We are constantly striving to become more affordable, more accessible, more sustainable and more relevant for the many people. And that's not just for today. It's about building a better tomorrow where quality products and great experiences are within everyone's reach. That with respecting the planet's limited resources as well. For the many people part that is underlined here in the vision, we do mean customers, co-workers, everyone, including the coming generations as well. So this gives us a strong sense of purpose. And when we say everyone, we truly mean that as well. From the new family furnishing their first home to our dedicated co-workers. The organization has been fantastic with a 400 percent increase in three years and 172 million package downloads in 2024. So talk about reusability. For both of these examples, the necessity to have collaboration as a fundamental pillar and good, solid ways of working was the key to achieving success. And these are just two examples, but two really good examples in how togetherness is leading the way in how we work with code. So, we are back at Billy again. As we said in the beginning, we have a lot of things to talk about, like our company, the digitalization journey, and how inner source ties into all of that. But we wanted to leave where we started, and that is talking at least a little bit about bookcases. It's funny how something as simple as a bookcase can have such a rich story to tell. Yeah, and as you recall us starting out the presentation with the very lovely but empty Billy bookcase, this picture here is actually the natural habitat of the Billy. This is where life happens. So a Billy isn't fully a Billy until it becomes part of someone's story, part of someone's memories, also passion and part of their life. Well, life happens. Really love that. And that ties in with inner source as well. Whether it's the many contributing code to a product, digital product, or many contributing books, precious items, and other things to a bookcase. There is a strength in the many. And it's beautiful how these parallel stories of collaboration, digital and physical, come together. They're both about creating spaces where people can build, contribute, and share something beautiful together. Sure is. So thank you all for listening to us here today. We hope this has given you a little bit of insight into how we're working, our journey, and also perhaps some inspiration for how we can all contribute to the better everyday lives for the many people. One line of code at a time or one bookcase at a time. - Absolutely. - Thank you so much.