achelos GmbH: Secure and Efficient Project Management with Blue Ant

How the Cybersecurity Specialist from Paderborn Optimized Its Project Processes with Blue Ant

Welcome, Ms. Pöppel, and thank you for taking the time to speak with us. Before we dive into the topic of project management and Blue Ant, could you briefly introduce yourself and your company, achelos GmbH?

With pleasure. achelos GmbH is a system house for cybersecurity and digital identity management based in Paderborn. We make companies and their products more secure by ensuring the safety of IT systems and components and by supporting the entire development process with our security expertise. Our customers come from the healthcare, industry, public sector, and digital payment sectors. We have a broad portfolio and manage many customer projects in parallel.

I am the Corporate IT Manager — or, as I often like to say, the “go-to person” for everything related to methods, processes, and tools. In my role, I’m responsible for administering Blue Ant and handling IT matters in general.

So you’re basically the PMO of your company. How many employees does achelos have, and how many projects are running in parallel?

We have around 80 employees, most of whom work on customer projects. At the moment, we are running about 47 projects simultaneously. The size of these projects varies greatly — some are long-term and involve several resources, while others are smaller and move more quickly.

What was the main reason you started looking for project management software?

Our biggest pain point was the lack of proper resource management. Project plans were created in separate files that were sent back and forth, and resource allocation often only existed in the managers’ heads. That simply wasn’t scalable in the long run, especially for a growing company.

Which features or aspects of Blue Ant ultimately convinced you?

For us, it was essential that the software could run on-premise since we operate in a security-critical environment. Blue Ant impressed us with its clear user interface and a wide range of features — particularly resource management and project planning — that won us over quickly. After the initial presentations, we had a good feeling that this was the right tool for us.

How did the implementation go? Were there any particular challenges?

We started with a short pilot phase, but our colleagues didn’t have enough time to really get familiar with the system. After extending the test phase and providing additional training, we were able to properly get things up and running. We created internal how-to videos and held training sessions to make onboarding easier. A gradual transition — where new projects were started directly in Blue Ant while old ones were finished in the previous system — turned out to be the right approach for us.

Which functions do you use most today?

Agile and classic project planning, as well as resource management, are central for us. At the moment, we’re focusing more on reporting, since management increasingly wants to access data themselves. I’m currently showing colleagues how they can use key figures to extract the information they need directly from the system.

How has time tracking developed? For many customers, maintaining data and tracking time can be a challenge.

Overall, time tracking is running smoothly. Employees record their time and absences reliably. Since we activated the overtime accounts, colleagues have become more motivated to keep their entries up to date because they can now see the status of their hours. A little extra motivation was that Controlling promised ice cream for everyone if time entries were completed fully and on time.

Creative incentives can work wonders! What are your plans for the future with Blue Ant?

We want to make greater use of the portfolio management features, which we haven’t fully implemented yet. In the long term, we also plan to introduce more automation — for example, by integrating Blue Ant with other tools such as our CRM system. That way, new projects could automatically be created in Blue Ant once they reach a certain status elsewhere.

What has your experience been like with Blue Ant’s support and consulting services?

The support is truly excellent. Whenever I can’t find a function or have a specific requirement, the support team is quick to respond and solution-oriented. Even for more complex requirements, we work together to find a solution. And if a feature isn’t available yet, it sometimes even gets added to the list of potential features for future versions.

Thank you very much for the conversation, Ms. Pöppel. We wish you continued success with Blue Ant!

(Customer review 2024)