How zeb Uses MeisterTask to Help Financial Service Providers “Go Agile” (Success Story)

In the unpredictable world of finance, customers are uncompromising when it comes to having their needs met. Agile organization can help firms stay ahead: consulting firm zeb has managed to retain the edge in a fiercely competitive market by embracing digitalization and an Agile philosophy with MeisterTask. You can enjoy the benefits too: our online task management tool is built to help you respond to user needs and market changes fast.

zeb – “Partners for Change”

The financial services industry is always changing, driven by consumer demand for new and innovative products and personalized services. Most financial service providers have embraced digitalization as they try to maintain customer centricity. The key to gaining a competitive edge? Flexibility in continuing to adopt new and emerging technologies, coupled with an Agile approach that enables more responsiveness to user needs and market changes.

As “Partners for Change”, consulting firm zeb is already ahead of the game, helping clients in finance evolve, adapt and lead in their field since 1992. Now established as Europe’s leading strategy and management consultancy for financial service providers, zeb helps banks, insurance companies, specialists and tech companies take advantage of the opportunities offered by digital transformation. 

zeb’s expertise covers the entire value chain – from strategy conception through to implementation. This means they can deliver outstanding services that cover:

• Agility and new work.
• Change and organization.
• Digitalization and data.

zeb uses its expertise to create sustainable solutions for the financial service providers it serves, but it needs the best tools for the job. Let’s find out how MeisterTask plays a central role in their operations.

Agility Is Key

zeb has always based its consulting services on the latest scientific research. Convinced that going Agile is the best way to adapt to change, respond better and faster to consumer needs and make the right decisions, the company commissioned its own Agile Readiness Study. Adopting an Agile philosophy has enabled zeb to improve its own consulting services while at the same time helping its financial services clients stay competitive.

MeisterTask was exactly what zeb was looking for. While the Agile methodology is at the heart of zeb’s consulting services, the team also needed a tool that offered unparalleled security. Keeping sensitive data secure is a must in any industry, but perhaps even more so in the financial services industry, where hackers and fraudsters are always ready to exploit the slightest vulnerability. MeisterTask is a proven secure task management solution that Germany’s biggest banks can trust, so implementing the tool was an easy decision for zeb.

What are three of the biggest challenges that MeisterTask has enabled zeb to overcome? Let’s take a closer look.

Challenge 1: Secure Remote Work

 

Why MeisterTask? Its rich feature set and GDPR-compliance made it a no-brainer.

zeb was quick to recognize the need to make remote work sustainable – even before the pandemic. Despite the uncertainty and unpredictability, everyone – from zeb’s own employees to its financial services clients – still expected the same level of security and seamless service. And rightly so. The firm realized that by using tools that would benefit its own team, it would also help its many financial services clients be successful as well. So it set about finding a secure digital solution.

Marco Rubert, Head of ORG/IT at zeb, evaluated several task management tools, but only one fit the bill. “We needed a tool that complied with the strictest guidelines for customer data protection and that was capable of storing data securely,” says the IT expert. “We quickly narrowed it down to six, but MeisterTask stood out because of its rich feature set, GDPR-compliance and the location of its servers in Germany.”

Fewer Vulnerabilities, More Trust

zeb is focused on helping its financial industry clients transition smoothly into remote workflows, where security vulnerabilities are still a major concern. How do you prevent sensitive data from being hacked or misused? How do you promote trust among employees to ensure their full commitment while working remotely or from home? The answer? By implementing a secure task management tool. MeisterTask’s servers are located in an ISO 27001-certified data center in Germany and guarantee a 99.9% service uptime for paid accounts. Two-Factor-Authentication adds yet another layer of protection, keeping accounts secure even if passwords are lost or stolen.

Very quickly after implementing MeisterTask, zeb noticed several major benefits. Thanks to MeisterTask, zeb was able to streamline team communication. Not only that, there was a marked improvement in accountability among team members. With fast, real-time access to all the information they needed, zeb’s employees also became more productive. External communication with clients was also faster and easier. With little to no user onboarding required, the zeb team was able to get to grips with the tool from the get-go, meaning high user acceptance. MeisterTask was the sustainable solution zeb had been looking for.

Challenge 2: “Going Agile”

Our customers are always amazed at the level of transparency that can be achieved.

In the ever-changing financial sector, where balancing market trends and consumer needs is a tough ask, Agility is key to success. The Agile manifesto can serve as a guideline, helping teams deliver value to customers faster and with fewer headaches. Prominent German banks, including Sparkasse Mainfranken, Volksbank Raiffeisen Würzburg and LBBW have all used MeisterTask to implement Agile project management. Via Kanban and Scrum frameworks, they saved time and increased efficiency: fewer meetings, fewer emails, fewer delays. This leaves more time to focus on customers and offers greater flexibility in implementing change.

zeb believes that the secret to Agile success is how quickly users accept new tools. Pascal Uhl, Senior Manager in the Practice Group Merger & Integration Management, sees this as a key factor when introducing MeisterTask. “Most customers are new to virtual projects and Agile methods. When I’m working with teams, there’s always an Aha! moment when they realize how transparent, clear and simple communication can be when it’s kept on-task. Everyone in the team can keep track of what’s going on centrally and in real time.”

There’s little to no user onboarding with MeisterTask. You can get productive straight away without any tutorials.

Herfurth Justus, Manager Digital Financial Services, is head of the digital unit “Tabularaza by zeb” – a trailblazer for digital transformation in the banking and insurance industry. He was  impressed by MeisterTask’s easy implementation and how quickly new users could get on board. “Users have no problem getting to grips with the tool. It’s so intuitive, easy to use and centralizes communication on the task. Teams love the trial and error aspect, which makes getting to know your way around the software much more fun,” says Justus.

Challenge 3: Master Change

MeisterTask’s features for assigning roles and permissions and streamlining communication just make life so much easier.

Another challenge facing both consultants and service providers is how to set up banking projects to be both scalable and efficient in the long term. The solution? A task management tool that does the heavy lifting for you. A feature loved by MeisterTask’s users: automations. MeisterTask saves teams time by automating ​​recurring workflow steps, increasing efficiency and consistency.

Financial and banking projects involve so many moving parts, different stakeholders and vast amounts of sensitive data. The best way to manage data access and keep communication transparent? A task management tool that puts you in charge of who can see and do what in projects. zeb uses roles and permissions in MeisterTask to assign different roles and permissions to project collaborators. For the project members who need to know, the centralized communication and collaboration that MeisterTask offers is a huge benefit: changes are instantly visible, which makes it possible to keep stakeholders aligned.

Thorsten Ströhl, Senior Manager at zeb, says that every single project with MeisterTask has been a breeze to implement. He’s been using the tool since 2015 – privately at first, before then introducing it to his colleagues. He loves MeisterTask because it makes even the most complex tasks and projects easy to manage: “MeisterTask’s Kanban-style project boards are a godsend when it comes to managing backlogs and structuring sprints. My team uses it day-to-day to manage all our projects,” says Ströhl.

Be Prepared

The only certainty is that nothing is certain. However, with a task management tool like MeisterTask you can be well prepared for almost anything. MeisterTask helps organizations like zeb to empower their clients to deal with change faster, more flexibly and more effectively. Their motto: less reactive, more proactive. Like zeb’s clients, you can evolve, adapt and lead in your field. If data security is as important to you as it is to us – and to zeb – and if you’re looking for task management software that your team simply loves to use, then look no further. Why not make MeisterTask the cornerstone of your digital transformation strategy?