Blue Ant Project Management Software in Use at Alpha IC GmbH

How Alpha IC GmbH Uses Blue Ant to Drive Efficiency, Transparency, and Digital Transformation in Real Estate Consulting

Sebastian Hein, Partner and Head of Project Management, is responsible for the digitalization and optimization of internal processes. In conversation with Norman Frischmuth, Managing Director of Blue Ant, he shares his experiences with the introduction and use of the project management software Blue Ant at Alpha IC.

Welcome, and thank you very much for taking the time for this interview. Before we go into the details of your experience with Blue Ant, could you briefly introduce Alpha Inside Consultants, or Alpha IC for short, and your role within the company?

Thank you very much for the invitation, Mr. Frischmuth. My name is Sebastian Hein, I am Partner and Lead Project Management at Alpha IC. In addition to my work in internal project management, I also focus on digitalization consulting, particularly in the areas of Computer Aided Facility Management – or CAFM – as well as data management and smart building consulting.
Alpha IC is a consulting firm specializing in real estate management. We support a wide variety of clients, including project developers, property owners, corporations, and public sector organizations.

A core topic that strongly concerns our clients is climate change, or more specifically, the decarbonization of existing properties. This area has enormous potential, since around 40 percent of global CO₂ emissions come from the real estate industry. Our consulting aims to use this lever effectively – not only to meet legal requirements but also out of a deep intrinsic motivation to take responsibility for our natural resources and living conditions.

That sounds like a broad range of projects and an extensive service portfolio. How many people work at Alpha IC within this structure?

We are a total of about 80 colleagues, around 60 of whom work directly in consulting. For us, consulting automatically means that these employees are not only project members but also take on project management responsibilities. Essentially, that means we have 60 project managers who are actively involved in our projects and contribute their expertise.

Sixty resources who are all taking on project management roles in consulting – that sounds like a very large and certainly complex project landscape. How exactly is this structured? What does it look like from the outside?

Our project landscape is divided into two main areas: on the one hand, we have internal projects that focus strongly on developing our consulting areas further. These projects are continuously adapted to current and future requirements and are administered using the OKR method. They are represented in Blue Ant as agile projects.

The larger part of our projects, however, consists of client projects, which are currently displayed mainly in classical planning mode. We are planning to expand this to include agile approaches for these projects in the coming year.

In Blue Ant, we record all working hours – not only for specific projects but also for general activities that cannot be assigned directly, such as administrative tasks. This holistic time tracking helps us maintain a complete overview of resource utilization.

Our client projects are extremely diverse: they can range from short projects lasting about three months to long-term engagements over seven to ten years. Project durations often depend on external factors such as the client’s progress – for example, in construction projects. Construction delays or other obstacles pose particular challenges for resource planning, since these phases often involve fluctuating workloads. Our resource management must be able to reflect this dynamic.

Another particular feature is our interdisciplinary way of working at Alpha IC. Our employees are not limited to a single consulting field but contribute their expertise in two or more areas. This means we do not have traditional departments or line structures. Instead, we rely on maximum flexibility and personal responsibility.

Accordingly, we have no department heads but rather partners who do not lead in a disciplinary sense but put people at the center of leadership. Every employee chooses their own leader. This structure not only fosters individual responsibility but also enables our colleagues to act independently and in the company’s best interest in client work. At the same time, this approach naturally brings specific challenges for project management, since we make few classical top-down decisions and aim to preserve the freedom of our project teams.

That sounds like an extraordinary approach. To better understand this: how many projects are running in parallel each year, and roughly how many overall?

Each year, we manage around 500 to 600 projects in parallel – that has been our typical workload in recent years. In addition, there are about 20 to 25 internal projects, such as product development or strategic topics. This number alone shows how diverse and demanding our project landscape is.

That is an impressive number of projects managed simultaneously – a highly complex project environment. Before we talk about how you manage this complexity today and how Blue Ant supports you, I’d like to take a step back: what was the decisive reason for changing your tool landscape?

We had reached a point where a fundamental digitalization of our client projects was unavoidable. Previously, we used a tool that covered only commercial project aspects – it could manage fees, record working hours, and report completion levels. But beyond that, there was no functionality – particularly no way to centrally allocate or plan resources.

As a result, project organization was heavily dependent on individual approaches. Each project manager used their own tools, such as Excel spreadsheets or MS Teams. In some cases, that worked reasonably well, but as an organization we had no overall transparency. While the commercial overview was solid, we were in the dark when it came to resources. There was no central visibility of actual workloads. Everyone maintained their own spreadsheets. Adjustments or project shifts were often noticed only with delay.

This was manageable in our early days with fewer employees, but at some point, we reached a threshold where this fragmented way of working no longer worked. We realized we urgently needed centralization – both in resource planning and in the unified organization of our projects.

Another factor was the interdisciplinary nature of our teams. Because our employees work in different areas, questions often arose about how certain aspects should be documented. Project members frequently had to ask project managers which individual preferences applied. That was inefficient and created uncertainty. With the introduction of a central tool like Blue Ant, we were able to standardize these processes. Today, all projects are organized in the same way, which is a huge advantage for us.

Before introducing a new solution, there is always the search and selection phase – especially with such a complex and demanding initial situation as yours. Which factors were ultimately decisive for choosing Blue Ant?

One key reason for our decision was resource management. Blue Ant enables us not only to represent client and internal budgeted projects but also general projects. This flexibility was crucial for us because we have to manage a wide spectrum of project types.

Another important factor was the commercial component. Blue Ant covers the entire process from quotation to invoicing – including invoice proposals that can then be finalized. This was particularly important to us since our previous focus was heavily on commercial project management. This functionality made it easier for us to make the transition to a new system smoother for our employees.

We were also convinced by the possibility of using agile and hybrid project planning. Blue Ant allows projects to be organized flexibly – whether they run over several years or are divided into yearly segments. This flexibility was a central aspect for managing our complex project landscape.

Another feature that quickly proved valuable is knowledge management. Blue Ant helps us identify employees with specific competencies in certain subject areas and assign them to projects accordingly. This transparency is a major advantage for our interdisciplinary teams.

Finally, our gut feeling played a role as well. Mr. Frischmuth, you were part of the discussions yourself. From the very beginning, we had the trust that we could successfully implement the project together. It was particularly important to us that Blue Ant and your team could do justice to our interdisciplinary way of working – both in reporting requirements and in solution approaches. That trust ultimately proved decisive for our decision that Blue Ant was the right choice and Hypergene the ideal partner for us.

Given your complex starting situation and specific requirements, the implementation process was certainly not an easy task. How should readers or listeners imagine this process? How did you proceed, and were there any particular challenges you had to overcome?

Since we ourselves work in consulting and often support our clients in selecting and implementing software, we already had a good understanding of how such a process must be structured. We knew that it’s not only about technical requirements but also about preparing our employees early for the upcoming changes.

We began with a comprehensive analysis of our existing situation. We not only examined our project management but also the relevant secondary processes – with the goal of determining which of these could ideally be integrated into a new project management software. In parallel, we conducted internal interviews to identify the most significant “pain points” and prioritize them.

The result of this preliminary work was a detailed requirements specification. A special feature of this process was that we used what we call a “future dialogue” in Switzerland – similar to a company-wide employee meeting. This gave all colleagues the opportunity to share their ideas and wishes for an ideal project management solution. Many of these suggestions flowed directly into the specification document, which we then submitted to various vendors, including Hypergene.

For the software selection, we created a standardized evaluation matrix covering which functions could be fulfilled in the standard version, which required customization, and which might not be feasible at all. From an initial list of eight to ten providers, three finally emerged as the best fit for us.

In this phase, it was important for us to set up a broad team. Alongside a small core group of three colleagues who managed the selection and implementation, we involved key users early on. These employees helped refine the requirements and evaluated potential solutions using a standardized catalog. This broad approach ensured that the chosen software met the company’s needs while also gaining strong acceptance within the team. That’s how we finally made our decision.

After awarding the contract, the real implementation began. How did you proceed in this phase? After all, the introduction wasn’t only a technical challenge but also a structural and cultural one – especially regarding changes to work processes. How did you organize this and what lessons did you learn?

It’s worth noting that we had less than four months from awarding the contract to going live. That was an extremely tight schedule. Nevertheless, we knew that we could handle it organizationally at Alpha IC. We had a strong core team with sufficient resources and the full backing of our management. Thanks to our experience with IT and digitalization projects, we knew we were well prepared and capable of succeeding.

In the first workshops with Hypergene, we dealt with fundamental topics such as master data and basic settings in Blue Ant. But due to our unique organizational structure and specific requirements – for example in reporting – we quickly moved into the details of our particular needs. Within four to six weeks, we had the software in a state that allowed us to go live.

The biggest challenge was replacing our existing central system with Blue Ant. Alongside Microsoft products, it was the backbone of our workflows, meaning we had to migrate an enormous amount of data. These data had to be structured and integrated properly. In addition, we needed answers in advance to many potential questions from our colleagues to make the go-live as smooth as possible.

Regarding training: we deliberately decided to conduct it internally. This decision wasn’t a criticism of Hypergene – it was a strategic choice. We knew our internal terminology and could better guide the transformation from the old to the new software. In hindsight, this was absolutely the right decision.

A key success factor, finally, was that we involved our staff early on. More than a year before the implementation, we provided continuous updates on the planned change. After awarding the contract, we invited you, Mr. Frischmuth, to present the software to all employees. You patiently answered questions and provided a clear overview of the new possibilities. This early involvement ensured that our colleagues felt well-informed and included – which I believe is the be-all and end-all in any software project.

When you look at the current use of Blue Ant, which main functions and features have proven to be particularly relevant in daily operations?

The central function of Blue Ant is, of course, project planning – that’s a given in our daily work. Another essential area is resource planning, which we use intensively. It helps us manage projects more efficiently and make optimal use of the availability of our interdisciplinary teams.

Another important topic is time tracking. Especially the completion reporting for calendar weeks has significantly improved the quality of our data. Through the timely recording of all working hours in the software, we now have much more precise data and can plan more effectively.

Blue Ant also plays a major role in the commercial area. We use it for quotations, completion percentages, and performance reports. The system allows us to convert this data directly into monetary values. We also use invoice proposals to automatically signal to the accounting department when invoices for a project can be issued.

Another highlight is the dashboard feature: there are two specific dashboards available for project managers, giving them a comprehensive overview of their projects. At the same time, there is a company-wide dashboard currently used by management. This transparency across all levels is a major advantage for us in our daily operations.

Looking at today’s use: how do your processes run, how do you evaluate the data quality and efficiency? What has changed through Blue Ant?

What has definitely improved is the administrative exchange between project participants. Particularly, the reporting of completion levels used to be a time-consuming process before Blue Ant was introduced. Employees had to be contacted individually: “How far along are you?” “Shall I enter that for you?” – it was tedious and inefficient. With Blue Ant, completion percentages can now be reported directly within the time tracking process, which has greatly simplified this workflow.

Another clear benefit is the standardization of project management. This has reduced the overall communication effort within the organization, saving us a lot of time. However, we have also noticed that this standardization sometimes limits the agility of our projects. Especially in more complex cases, some of our colleagues would prefer greater flexibility.

That’s why we are planning to offer additional options next year, enabling teams to plan projects more flexibly if they wish. We’re taking a measured approach here, as it’s a learning process. Initially, we believed that traditional planning would be sufficient for our client projects. But we now see that in some cases, agile methods are necessary to meet specific requirements more effectively. We plan to take this into account more in the future.

It’s certainly helpful when the tool supports such developments. Let’s take a look into the future: what’s currently on your internal agenda or roadmap? Which functions or processes would you like to use differently or more intensively going forward?

At the moment, we are focusing heavily on optimizing our invoicing processes. Our goal is to create a direct interface – for example, between the invoice proposals in Blue Ant and our accounting software. This would allow invoices to be generated automatically, which we expect to bring a significant increase in efficiency.

Another key focus is agile planning. We plan to place greater emphasis on hybrid approaches next year. Project templates play a central role for us, but we also want to encourage colleagues to plan less rigidly in some cases and instead work more with to-do lists. These kinds of impulses – for example, from webinars – show us that a more flexible approach can make sense for certain projects. The hybrid model could be a great way to increase both efficiency and flexibility.

This year, we’ve focused on ensuring that all employees become familiar with the system and can use it intuitively. That process was important for everyone to understand how changes in the system affect others. Now, we’re ready to take the next step and fully leverage the potential of Blue Ant.

It’s understandable that not everything runs perfectly smoothly in everyday operations. In such cases, support becomes essential. How have you experienced the support provided? What has your experience been like?

Alongside the introduction of Blue Ant, we established an internal Project Management Office (PMO), which also serves as the first point of contact for our colleagues. Of course, as a PMO, we sometimes reach our limits – that’s completely normal.

Our experience with Hypergene’s support has been consistently positive. It’s really important for us to feel heard and to get quick responses, and Hypergene delivers both exceptionally well.

Our goal is to offer quick solutions to our employees, and this approach is perfectly complemented by Hypergene’s support. If we reach a dead end, we usually receive a response within just a few hours – either as interim feedback or directly as a solution. In 99 percent of cases, we immediately receive a concrete solution that we can implement right away.

This outstanding support is an enormous help and clearly stands out compared to experiences we’ve had with other providers in the past.

That was a truly comprehensive insight into your implementation story and your experience using Blue Ant. Thank you very much for the valuable information! Perhaps in a year or two, we can do a review and see how everything has developed further. Thank you for the interview!

Thank you very much.