Time saving thanks to interface
Success story from molpe Softwareentwicklungs GmbH
The Projektron BCS software covered all the points we wanted. Even though we have only used a small part of the range of functions so far, we are very happy to have come across Projektron BCS and would no longer want to do without it in our daily work.
molpe – Software made im Ländle!
molpe Softwareentwicklungs GmbH has specialised in the development of software solutions in the health sector since its foundation in 1995. The company founder and managing director is Ulf Ehninger.
The focus of our first major project "Software for quality assurance in the field of bone marrow transplantation" was on therapy documentation, therapy control and quality assurance of the therapies performed.
Shortly after our foundation, we started our cooperation with the world's largest stem cell donor centre, with which we still work hand-in-hand today. And our laboratory information system (LIMS) is still in use today at one of the world's largest HLA typing laboratories. This was followed by software solutions for the complete documentation of the collection of stem cell preparations from allogeneic and autologous donors as well as for the validated manufacturing area. With our know-how and our products, we can thus cover the entire process in bone marrow and stem cell transplantation.
With molpe.DONOR, we have also been offering a software solution for smaller stem cell and bone marrow donor centres since 2023, in order to facilitate donor management and to provide the possibility of mapping important processes (e.g. fundraising, apheresis) in one system.
The special feature of our software solutions is their modular structure. Therefore, we can adapt them to the working methods and workflows of our customers and, if desired, combine them with other modules and add-ons from molpe, e.g. labelling, equipment management, materials management.
Our products are used today in laboratories, university clinics, hospitals and non-profit organisations. We are proud that with our 20 employees we contribute to giving over 80,000 people a chance for a "second life"!
Informative overview at any time
Due to our many sub-projects with our clients, it is important for us to have a precise overview of which projects take how much time. On the one hand, this helps us to better plan our internal resources and, on the other hand, it allows us to provide our clients with timely feedback on the status of their projects. Since some projects are very similar, we were looking for a good way to make a rough estimate of new and comparable projects.
In the past, we used a provisional and partly unclear tool for time recording, in which it was only possible to view this data with considerable effort. The accuracy and also the information options still left a lot to be desired. Since the majority of our tasks are carried out via our ticket system Jira, but the old tool did not have an interface, the employees had to record the bookings in two tools. This double posting was not only annoying and cost everyone a lot more time, but was sometimes error-prone or forgotten. Conversely, this meant that the bookings had to be reconciled with each other - which also cost time.
Invoicing with MS Excel and MS Word was also no longer up to date and not necessarily reliable.
It was therefore indispensable for us to introduce a professional and clear tool, where we had the possibility for individual settings.
Customisable despite complexity
We had a list of points that were important to us when choosing the right tool.
On the one hand, the new tool had to be user-friendly. On the other hand, we wanted to have a way to map our complex and long-term projects in a well-structured way and to be able to invoice them at any time, not just after the project is completed.
Since our clients have different project structures and billing settings and presentations, the new tool had to be flexible and customisable and administrable by us at any time, despite its complexity.
Of course, the interface to our ticket system Jira was also indispensable, so that we could finally do without the annoying double booking and spend time on more important things.
As a software development company, we know that not only good support is worth its weight in gold, but also a good test system. Therefore, we needed a support system that takes care of our concerns in a timely manner and a test system in which we can test new updates and "try things out" at any time without having anything blow up in our faces.
Another decisive factor for our decision was that the service provider of the tool is from Germany. This way we wanted to make sure that legal requirements and data protection regulations were adhered to and that we didn't have to worry about these issues.
A web-based system was important for us, as this not only facilitates access for employees, but also maintenance and backups.
In our search for a suitable tool to professionalise our processes, we came across Projektron GmbH during our research at the beginning of 2017. The Projektron BCS software covered all the points we were looking for.
After an informative presentation and discussion of Projektron and the test use of the system, BCS convinced us the most, so that we finally decided in favour of the company and the tool.
The implementation began promptly after signing the contract, so that we were able to start directly with BCS less than three months later.
Initially, we used pure time recording in conjunction with the Jira interface. Since 2020, invoicing and our applicant management have also been carried out via Projektron BCS.
Time savings thanks to Jira interface
Our employees use BCS exclusively for time recording, to keep track of hours worked and holidays. The majority of our BCS licences are therefore Time Recorder I in conjunction with a Jira interface. Likewise, the majority of bookings on tickets are made in Jira. As a result, our employees are not aware of the complete functional scope of BCS.
Since our ongoing projects are mostly not plannable in the classical sense, typical project planning is not necessarily possible with us.
Our customers have several cost centres that belong to the different projects. Thanks to the interface, we can easily link them to Projektron BCS in the Jira settings. If the synchronisation does not work, e.g. because the cost centre has been changed for a ticket that has already been billed, the reason for the synchronisation message is visible in the error message. This means that not much time has to be invested in troubleshooting.
Management, sales and project assistance use the sales, project management and personnel administrator licences.
With the help of the monthly working time evaluation, we can quickly see whether all employees have entered their working hours or whether something has been forgotten. This is important for the correct invoicing of our customers.
Invoicing works via BCS with just a few clicks. Due to the possibility of individualisation, the invoice presentation is adapted to our corporate design. All our customers have their own invoice template in which the information they require (e.g. order or contract numbers) and the presentation of the invoice items (per task, per project, etc.) are stored. Should an invoice correction be required, this is also possible without much effort.
In the sales area, we can see our customers and interested parties with the corresponding contact history at a glance. This is especially important when several employees are in contact with the respective persons.
We do not use the applicant management frequently and it is absolutely sufficient for our purposes.
Small piece of the "BCS functional scope" - let's see what the future brings
Since the beginning of our cooperation with Projektron, we at molpe have been very satisfied.
In addition to the initial training courses on the implementation of BCS, we have also taken advantage of the training courses on invoicing and project management. The trainings are informative and of very good quality, so we can definitely recommend them.
At the moment we are certainly only using a small part of the very complex "BCS pie." We will see what the future brings. For sure, we will deal with quotation generation in the near future and possibly the topics of ticket system and asset management will become interesting in the near future.
