“Productivity is up 100%” How atempo Uses the Meister Suite To Orchestrate Complex EU Projects (Success Story)

Keeping team members everywhere up to date, aligned and engaged is a challenge familiar to all project managers. Especially when projects involve so many moving parts. Meister Expert Partner and NGO atempo works with hundreds of partners across the EU and manages multiple sensitive and complex projects. Faced with a shift to remote work, the team could not afford to let productivity suffer. Fortunately, the tools in the Meister Suite enabled atempo to execute a seamless transition into the digital space. Now, thanks to MeisterTask and MindMeister, the team is communicating better than ever and collaboration has never been easier. Read on to find out how the team has been able to stay agile, transparent and connected.

Founded in 2000, atempo is now one of the leading inclusive social enterprises in Austria. The NGO’s mission is to ensure that everyone has equal rights to live, learn and work. atempo provides services in four categories: persons with disabilities, education and social affairs, economy and businesses, and public authorities. It has over 760 employees in its network, more than 1,000 partners in the DACH region and an impressive 23,500 clients.

atempo is also a digital transformation pioneer that is always on the lookout for innovative digital tools, which led a project manager in the organization to MeisterTask and MindMeister. What started out as one employee’s personal discovery quickly became the cornerstone of efficient and flexible collaboration.

Thanks to MeisterTask, productivity is up 100%.

Lockdown made in-person communication impossible. “We’d already tried out MeisterTask and MindMeister, which gave us a decent head start,” explains Aaron Reitbauer, Trainer and Head of EU Projects at atempo. “During the pandemic we were able to use the tools from home. This seamless transition enabled us to stay flexible, transparent and connected, and we were even able to collaborate better and more effectively after a while. Thanks to MeisterTask, productivity is up 100%.”

Handling the Switch To Remote Work

The pandemic heightened the need to be agile and flexible. atempo manages multiple EU projects in parallel, so a seamless transition to a remote-capable environment was crucial. The organization’s employees, working from kitchens and living rooms, could not afford to waste time searching for information, jumping between tools or struggling with transparency.

We needed a fast way to transport our team and our work into the digital space.

Clearly, a tool was needed. Long-serving project manager Thomas Narowetz had been using the Meister Suite as a private user for months already, but was so impressed by the tools that he immediately suggested them as a solution to the team’s remote work problems. The team quickly jumped on board, impressed with the Meister Suite’s ease of use. Despite working remotely, they were able to remain creative, plan projects easily, stay connected and communicate effectively. In fact, he describes the transition from office-based to work-from-home as “entirely painless”.

Staying Aligned With the Meister Suite

MeisterTask is extremely intuitive and so simple to use.

After researching various task management tools, atempo found that only one was flexible, intuitive and scalable enough to meet the team’s requirements. “We were looking for something simple: one interface to give us the big picture. That’s exactly what MeisterTask does,” explains Aaron Reitbauer. “MindMeister was also love at first sight, it meets all our mind mapping needs. The integrations in the Suite enable us to work across both tools without missing a beat.”

MeisterTask became very popular very quickly: 25 project team members now use the tool to stay organized and aligned. Since going digital, the team has found that transparency has increased significantly: everyone is on the same page, and each team member knows who is doing what, when. Both MeisterTask and MindMeister have become an integral part of atempo’s digital landscape.

MeisterTask has lent much greater structure to our work.

Working with MeisterTask has enabled Anneliese Franz and her Digital Education team to optimize their day-to-day processes. She says, “MeisterTask has lent much greater structure to our work. We use the tool to manage pretty much all of our projects. MindMeister helps us to visualize large-scale, complex EU projects and track project progress at a glance. The tools are simply essential to project success.”

The atempo team also loves MeisterTask for its intuitive navigation and ease of use. Some team members use it more intensively than others, but even casual users can get up to speed without any complex user onboarding.

More Agile Than Ever

In atempo’s EU projects, MeisterTask has made internal communication and stakeholder management simple. The team uses the tool to keep both in-house and remote staff up to date on task status and project progress. For those on the go, there’s a MeisterTask app for mobile devices, too.

Simple Yet Powerful Features

However, beyond the stylish interface, there are a number of key features that allow atempo to stay agile and flexible. Aaron Reitbauer explains: “I love MeisterTask’s flexible Kanban-style boards. I can view projects how I want and use filters to display task-specific information. For instance, I can filter by Assignee, Tag, Watcher, Due date, Status, or Schedule. Likewise, Timeline lets me view and schedule all of my tasks in a Gantt-style chart.”

Anneliese Franz concurs. While she adores the entire Meister Suite for its simplicity, she singles out MeisterTask’s checklists, which help her stay organized and complete tasks correctly – vital in the context of large-scale projects. She also uses Agenda, MeisterTask’s “personal project board,” to organize tasks from multiple projects in one place.

MindMeister Keeps Ideas Organized and Secure

In many cases, atempo’s EU partners will determine objectives and requirements. In projects like Strategies for Teaching in a Digital Era or Me and the Media, data security is governed by strict guidelines, which adds complexity. However, MindMeister’s security features mean that the team can safeguard sensitive data according to leading EU standards.

Anneliese Franz pinpoints one specific project, powered by MindMeister and MeisterTask, that she is particularly proud of. This involved creating a Europe-wide course for teachers: twelve learning modules pitched at two proficiency levels.

All the video and content creation tasks were managed by just three project managers, but with MeisterTask they could track progress and keep the project moving. Meanwhile, MindMeister bridged the gap between ideation and implementation.

It would never have been possible to plan and execute so many large-scale projects without MindMeister.

atempo uses MindMeister to visualize key tasks, then exploits the integration with MeisterTask to keep track of them at a glance. “With MindMeister, we can create action items and define responsibilities in mind maps. After that, we turn everything into actionable tasks in MeisterTask. MindMeister is the reason we are now better than ever at ensuring that all people have equal rights to live, learn and work. It’s teamwork at its best. A symphony,” says Anneliese Franz.

Celebrating One Year as an Expert Partner

atempo is more than just a happy customer: the organization became an Expert Partner for MindMeister and MeisterTask in early 2021. Anneliese Franz explains the rationale:

“We see the benefits every day and we’re happy to share our experiences. We place a premium on long-term, close and mutually beneficial relationships and these are the key ingredients of the Expert Partner program.” 

MindMeister is popular with consultants, mind mapping coaches and EdTech experts around the world: perfect for helping clients, partners and students to realize their goals. Becoming a certified Expert Partner like atempo gives you access to an exclusive network of trainers and consultants and a whole range of benefits, including a free MindMeister Pro account, discounts and trial licenses for clients, marketing support for campaigns and workshops, and 20% commission for referrals.