Functionality and customizability
User report from ZENIT GmbH
The support from Projektron was characterized by trust and reliability right from the start. The decision in favor of Projektron BCS was ultimately made because of the professional individual consulting: We were able to discuss our specifications with our Projektron consultant and together we found ways to best meet our requirements with the software.
Center for Innovation and Technology
ZENIT stands for "Center for Innovation and Technology in North Rhine-Westphalia". As an innovation and European agency, we advise small and medium-sized businesses, often on behalf of the EU, the federal government and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. In projects for cooperation between business and science, our partners are universities, research institutions, business development agencies and chambers of commerce.
Since its foundation in 1984, our GmbH has supported and accompanied technology-oriented companies, universities and research institutions in innovation and internationalization projects. From start-ups to small and medium-sized enterprises to large companies - over 60 employees help our customers bring business and science together at local, regional, national and international level, develop new, innovative products, processes or business models and launch them successfully.
Our mission is to establish North Rhine-Westphalia among the top 3 innovation states in Germany and Europe. Our customers are primarily technology-oriented or innovative small and medium-sized enterprises from NRW. In addition, we also support owner-managed SMEs innovative start-ups.
Success through networking - network and project management
Our 20 to 25 project managers oversee an average of 15 larger, multi-year projects and 15 to 30 smaller projects per year. These are consulting and service projects whose durations vary widely: Publicly funded projects usually have longer durations of two to three years. Smaller privately commissioned projects, on the other hand, can be completed in as little as ten working days. On the one hand, these are one-to-one consulting projects, on the other hand, they are long-term and international large-scale projects with networking events with up to 600 participants.
"Achieving more together" is our motto. Especially when it comes to developing new products or solving technical challenges, networks are crucial for:
- Exchange: Network ZENIT e.V. for exchange between companies and organizations among themselves.
- Internationalization: Enterprise Europe Network, the world's largest internationalization network.
- Know-how transfer: Cooperation between various players from business and science, for turning good ideas into marketable products.
- Securing skilled workers: Joint initiative Future through Innovation.NRW for setting up structures to counteract the impending shortage of MINT skilled workers.
We act as network manager of ZIM networks (Central Innovation Program for SMEs), in which SMEs join forces with universities and research institutions in the pre-competitive area to develop innovative products, services and processes. The topic of networking is also lived every day in the ZENIT e.V. network, which is a shareholder of ZENIT GmbH along with the state of NRW and a consortium of banks. The forum by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs accompanies and supports its more than 200 members and makes them fit for the diverse requirements of the constantly changing markets.
Decision and implementation: Professional and individual
We have been using Projektron BCS since 2019. Previously, we used self-programmed Microsoft Excel and Access-based solutions for our time recording. However, the solution no longer seemed up to date and the effort for further development was too high due to the specific and personal know-how required. In addition, we needed a system that would guarantee us greater process and legal security.
So we started a market analysis together with an external IT consultant. At the outset, our goal was simply to find time recording software that met our requirements and was suitable for billing publicly funded projects. It quickly became clear that we actually needed an integrated software solution.
We became aware of Projektron BCS during a trade fair. Actually, we had already decided on another software solution, but BCS impressed us with its more coherent user interface. We therefore carried out a functional comparison and compared the possibilities of the software products with our requirements as defined in the specifications. Projektron BCS proved to be the more suitable solution for us.
The support from Projektron was characterized by trust and reliability right from the start. We initially received a demo and a test environment in which we were already able to implement some of our specific requirements.
Our account manager always had an open ear for our questions. The decision in favor of Projektron was ultimately made because of the professional individual consulting: We were able to discuss our specifications with our Projektron consultant and together we found ways to best meet our requirements with the software.
BCS usage expands steadily
The decision-making phase lasted about three to four months. We then started a three-month test phase in September 2019, during which we initially only used time recording in BCS in parallel with our legacy system. The introduction of time recording met with broad acceptance. Subsequently, we recorded our times only in BCS and started to perform target/actual comparisons in BCS. Since the beginning of 2021, we have been conducting our project planning, project controlling and project accounting exclusively in BCS.
After we had been working with Projektron for some time, we realized that we could use the many possibilities of the software much more intensively for us. In the meantime, we not only use time recording and vacation management, but also resource planning, project planning, project controlling and accounting at the project level. Every project is now created in BCS at our company, and all project managers use the software.
We have developed standard queries for project managers and employees to record the effort required for project work, in order to make it as easy as possible for everyone to use. To increase acceptance, especially among project managers, we have involved them in the design of our individualized reports. Reports that used to require tedious input in Excel can now be generated by them at the click of a mouse.
However, there is much more planned: We would also like to soon use the ticket system and workflows in BCS to structure and document our project work and workflows. For this reason, we recently spent a day at Projektron GmbH in Berlin. There we received numerous suggestions on how we can use the ticket system, standardized workflows and checklists to distribute tasks and improve workflows.
Everyone would benefit from this, but especially newly hired employees would find it faster and easier to integrate into existing processes. The employees of Projektron GmbH gave us an insight into how they themselves implement projects and organize internal collaboration on a daily basis using their own software. The visit to Projektron was worthwhile in every respect and we were able to take away a lot of "homework".
Professional, transparent and solution-oriented
What makes the BCS software so special for us is its enormous variety of functions, combined with its high degree of customizability. Of course, this goes hand in hand with a certain complexity and depth of familiarization. For this reason, we had some employees trained in the use of the software by Projektron GmbH at the beginning. These employees then conducted in-house training sessions and academies to familiarize the rest of the workforce with basic BCS usage, such as how to use time recording or how to request leave.
Communication with our account manager and other Projektron GmbH employees is dedicated and professional. Support is perfectly organized and processes our submitted tickets. Here, the tickets also ensure a high level of transparency. We feel informed about the ticket at all times, what is being done and how long the processing will take. Video calls are also possible if required. The behavior on the part of Projektron here is very attentive and always solution-oriented.
We are completely satisfied. I am sure that we will use Projektron BCS much more intensively in the future. We are currently planning to introduce personnel management software in the near future. Of course, we are also sounding out the software market here, but at the same time we are also confident that Projektron BCS, with its personnel and applicant management module, will be able to meet our needs in this respect as well.
