SGW Bad Oeynhausen: a housing authority looking to the future
SGW Bad Oeynhausen is a municipal housing authority in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Founded in 1916, this non-profit organization — which is majority-owned by the city — manages around 1,200 properties in the area.
The management team and Helene Heck, Management Assistant at SGW, observed that the organization’s reliance on paper-based processes was hindering efficiency and transparency. With the managing director regularly out of the office for external meetings, they needed a straightforward solution that would allow them to align virtually and collaborate from anywhere. Helene led the evaluation of MeisterTask to fulfill these goals. Here’s how they found success with the platform, boosting transparency and communication.
The challenge
Before turning to a digital solution, the SGW team was inundated with emails and documents. Helene often had to print out certain emails that needed approval before she could reply to them. This led to multiple inefficiencies — and plenty of wasted paper.
For the Managing Director, keeping up with work while on the go was difficult. The organization lacked a central (online) source of truth to give leaders a clear overview of project progress. SGW has always valued transparency, but until recently, it didn’t have the right setup to achieve it. The organization was aware that implementing any solution would be a challenge, as countless digitalization efforts fail due to challenges with adoption of new tools. Helene and the team knew that this type of change often takes more than just software.
The solution
Overall, SGW aimed to improve operations by:
making communication efficient
ensuring oversight while on the move
getting all employees involved with any new software
boosting transparency across departments
Let’s look at each of these objectives, and how MeisterTask helped the team to fulfill them.
Making communication efficient
Before we implemented MeisterTask, our Managing Director was overwhelmed with a flood of emails and tasks. Emails were sometimes printed out and had to be approved before they could be answered. With MeisterTask, we found the perfect solution to make communication efficient, sustainable, and environmentally friendly.
Helene Heck
Management Assistant, SGW
Integrating MeisterTask with their email provider, the team could instantly send emails to a "for info" column within a MeisterTask Kanban board, to easily follow up on later. Alongside a big reduction in the volume of internal emails, this also gave the team a central space where all information was easily tracked and available at their fingertips. A productivity boost that also met the organization’s commitment to sustainability.
Ensuring oversight while on the move
MeisterTask’s tablet app is a huge win for the team, enabling on-the-go communication and collaboration on projects and tasks.
“We love using the app to maintain communication while on the go. It’s easy to use and allows us to instantly capture important documents, photos, and tasks.”
As Helene highlights, the app's feature-rich, user-friendly interface made it a go-to solution for maintaining seamless operations at SGW. Overall, SGW digitalized many processes with MeisterTask, using the platform to manage a wide variety of projects, from planning and approvals, to travel and invoices.
Getting all employees involved with any new software
SGW's experience with MeisterTask's onboarding process was overwhelmingly positive. The team’s dedicated Customer Success Manager took the time to ensure that everything was running smoothly, tailoring their setup to their unique needs. Helene explains:
“After deciding to integrate MeisterTask into our daily operations, we gave our employees a two-week period to familiarize themselves with the tool. Our goal was to eliminate internal emails and record all information, including absence notes and internal updates, exclusively in MeisterTask.”
The MeisterTask Academy played a pivotal role in this transition. It’s a collection of tailor-made courses that help teams make the most of the software no matter their technical expertise. As Helene notes:
“Thanks to the well-structured onboarding videos in the MeisterTask Academy, employees quickly became comfortable with the tool and soon recognized the positive effects of digital collaboration.”
Boosting transparency across the organization
Beyond the project management capabilities of MeisterTask, the team at SGW also makes use of the Notes functionality to create, share, and align on plans, announcements, strategic documents, and tons of other internal information. Ultimately, it replaced numerous meetings for SGW. According to Helene, that’s because it’s a two-way, transparent solution.
“We place great value on transparency in our daily business. Everyone can view and comment on Tasks and documents. We no longer have to worry about whether all our employees are up to date.”
In her role, Helene appreciates the ability to notify all colleagues simultaneously using the @all function. This ensures everyone remains informed and engaged. And it’s removed the need for multiple phone calls, distribution lists, or daily meetings, making operations more efficient and helping the team focus on the work that truly matters.
“With MeisterTask, everything is transparent and available online.”
The outcome
Ultimately, SGW has transformed its daily operations with a straightforward, central source of truth. We know that digitalization often requires a trusted partner to complement any software implementation. And that’s what made MeisterTask a great fit for SGW. Combining straightforward, easy-to-use software with a dedicated digitalization partner can create a step-change in the operations of a 100-year old organization. With efficient communication, smooth collaboration and greater transparency, SGW can refocus its time on its truly important work that impacts the lives of thousands of people.
