sozial-pr: developing digital strategies for social organizations
sozial-pr runs great projects for good causes: providing digital consulting services to social and welfare organizations in the DACH region. Since 2019, they’ve used MeisterTask to organize their work in communication, social media and community management – as well as supporting clients through their digitalization process. Today, the tight-knit team is streamlined and productive, but things weren’t always so simple. With clunky, complex software getting in the way of the work that mattered, Founder Christian Müller needed a smooth, secure way to bring projects, documentation and communication together. That’s where MeisterTask came in – and now there’s no turning back.
The challenge: barriers to collaboration and knowledge sharing
For sozial-pr, MeisterTask was the solution to a problem: endless information and a lack of structure. A growing client list brought significant challenges, and the team was desperate for a way to keep both internal and client projects organized, transparent and accessible. When a quick fix with Microsoft Planner and OneNote – included in their Microsoft 365 package – failed to deliver results, the search for simple but effective project management and documentation software became top priority.
We could do the basics, like creating a to-do list for our individual tasks, in MS Planner – but when it came to collaboration and project management, it was cumbersome, complex and slow.
Christian Müller
Founder, sozial-pr
However, Office 365 would remain part of their workflows – Teams worked well for their instant internal communication, and it stored a lot of their existing data. As such, MeisterTask’s MS Teams integration – which meant they could manage project boards in Teams directly – was a check in the right box.
“Our clients are primarily social and welfare organizations in Germany, so privacy and data security is paramount. Tools such as Trello and Asana are not GDPR-compliant enough for our clients.”
The most important consideration, though – and another area where MeisterTask excels – was security. With US-based tools failing to meet rigorous data protection standards, MeisterTask’s GDPR-compliance and robust security features sealed the deal.
The solution: better collaboration with MeisterTask from day 1
Christian reached out to the Sales team at Meister to request a free trial of the MeisterTask Business plan for his team. The trial phase was an undeniable success. Creating defined workflows and sharing information with clients was a nightmare with MS Planner, but this was MeisterTask’s bread and butter. The unanimous decision to commit to the Business Plan took only four days, which was largely down to MeisterTask's ease of use.
“My team felt at home with MeisterTask straight away. It’s a lot more intuitive than other tools we’ve used.”
Progress was lightning-fast, and before long, all of sozial-pr’s projects and notes were up and running in the software. At last the team could wave goodbye to the knowledge gaps and frustrating technical issues that had been adding unnecessary complexity to their daily work.
Christian points out that though MeisterTask can be as simple as you want it to be, you have the flexibility to structure your projects to suit your needs. For example, sozial-pr prefer to structure their projects based on the context of their work rather than their clients. MeisterTask’s tagging functionality helps them filter tasks and identify which tasks relate to which clients. As a result, they can maintain an overview of what they’re working on for each client at any given time. The same applies to internal projects. The project board below illustrates how sozial-pr organize and track their marketing to-dos in MeisterTask.
Managing large amounts of information is now much easier with MeisterTask, which means a lot less time searching for information, and more time to focus on the work that matters. Christian explains:
“We create a task in MeisterTask for each client, and link to our client documentation in Notes from the task. This way, we have everything relating to one client in one place – and we don’t need to go hunting for information in other tools.”
This documentation includes brand and editorial guidelines, strategic documents and project plans. These are shared with the client, who is invited to add their feedback in comments and contribute additional information to the note directly. As such, collaboration is faster and turnaround times are reduced. The same approach is taken when collaborating with industry experts who contribute to sozial-pr’s podcast. Plans, requirements and resources are all shared via Notes in MeisterTask to keep all stakeholders up to date and on the same page.
Christian and his team also use MeisterTask for planning and documenting meetings.
Step 1: Task checklists are used to outline the agenda of the meeting in MeisterTask.
Step 2: The resulting meeting notes are documented in Notes, along with decisions and next steps.
Step 3: Christian creates and assigns tasks from the action items in the note, ready to work on in MeisterTask's project boards.
As a rule, everything that is action-oriented lives in MeisterTask's project space. Everything that results from actions or meetings which they need to refer back to lives in Notes. With task details and developments centralized, and tasks connected to contextual information in Notes, Christian and his team are always on top of what is happening and when – all while keeping the bigger picture in view. As a result, their workflows are streamlined and their projects are more transparent. This prevents misunderstandings and duplicate work and saves them valuable time.
The outcome: smoother projects, greater knowledge retention – and up to 4 hours back each week
“The results speak for themselves. Switching to MeisterTask has saved us up to 4 hours per week and increased knowledge retention by 40%.”
Since making the switch from MS Planner and OneNote, sozial-pr has saved a significant amount of time each week. Knowledge-sharing runs like a well oiled machine, efficiency is at its peak, and the team is more productive than ever. As Christian explains, this is in part due to the simplicity of MeisterTask.
“MeisterTask isn’t overloaded with features, which is an issue we had when trialing software like Asana. The tool blends into the background so we can simply get on with our work.”
By documenting client feedback, outcomes and learnings in Notes, everyone on the team has the knowledge required to take over when necessary. Important information is no longer kept “in our heads”, Christian says. These learnings inform the team how best to interact with clients, how to refine creative work, and how to further improve strategies for the greatest possible results.
Ultimately, with project execution and documentation connected, the team have been able to significantly streamline their workflows for easier project management and smoother collaboration, both internally and with external collaborators. Such is their confidence in MeisterTask, sozial-pr recommend it to all of their clients as a way to improve their daily work – and reach their goal of a fairer, more equitable society.
“If you’re a small to medium sized team looking for a way to combine project management with knowledge management and reduce friction between the two, I highly recommend MeisterTask.”
