UEBE GmbH: 95% Fewer Emails With MeisterTask.

UEBE Medical GmbH, a family business rooted in Germany, boasts a legacy of innovation spanning 125 years. Founded in 1890 by Wilhelm Uebe, the inventor of the first fully encapsulated and hygienic clinical thermometer, the company continues to lead the market in state-of-the-art medical technology for self-monitoring.

Today, the company exclusively distributes clinical thermometers, blood pressure monitors, and pregnancy tests to specialist retailers. Its workforce of 50 individuals oversees four product segments and brands:

• visomat: High-end blood pressure monitors
• visocor: Cost effective blood pressure monitors 
• cyclotest: Natural family planning without hormones
• Domotherm: Clinical thermometers and home care

To organize his projects, Stefan and his colleagues at UEBE worked with an ERP, or enterprise resource planning system. Initially implemented to map the company’s flow of goods, the ERP system was not optimized for project management. However, the team worked with what they had, using the system’s task module for task management and project documentation. Unfortunately, the results left a lot to be desired. Stefan says:

The two biggest challenges they faced:

• Creating and filing tasks: This process was cumbersome and complicated. The structure of the ERP system made deciding where to host or store projects difficult. 
• Maintaining an overview: There was no straightforward way to view, track, or share the status of a project.

In response, Stefan embarked on a search for a Kanban project tool to streamline the process. He and his colleagues tested 10 different tools, including Trello and Jira. After a  time-consuming and intensive search, MeisterTask emerged as the preferred choice.

Ultimately, Jira was also deemed unsuitable for UEBE:

The deciding factor in Stefan’s choice to go with MeisterTask was its simplicity:

Stefan presented his findings from his extensive tool research to his colleagues from IT and management, and MeisterTask was given the green light.

Onboarding with MeisterTask couldn’t have been easier. Stefan initiated basic training sessions and created test boards for the marketing department to familiarize themselves with the platform. Subsequently, MeisterTask was seamlessly rolled out across the company.

Despite the smooth onboarding process, Stefan recalls that initially, the team continued to use the ERP tool alongside Meister software during the transition phase. This meant some projects were in the ERP, and some were in MeisterTask. It wasn’t ideal, but thankfully it was only a temporary solution.

While Meister software is not yet utilized by every team, most have adopted it, from the management board to the janitorial staff.

Collaborating with external contributors in MeisterTask is seamless, according to Stefan:

Thanks to the smooth onboarding process and ample support resources, integrating new colleagues into MeisterTask is straightforward. Stefan elaborates:

Stefan is also a big fan of the quick response time of Meister’s support teams:

Although MeisterTask is the most popular Meister tool at UEBE, Stefan and his marketing colleagues also collaborate using MindMeister. They utilize mind maps for brainstorming, market analyses, sitemap adaptations, as well as for presentations and training courses. They are then able to easily share these maps with the whole company.

Typically, Stefan uses the standard mind map template for brainstorming in MindMeister, but he also recommends the Eisenhower Matrix template or the BCG template for product evaluations or analyses.

Stefan says that MeisterTask has completely changed communication in the marketing team:

When asked which tool they use for internal communication, Stefan’s shares that they now rely solely on MeisterTask.

One example of collaborative work in MeisterTask is the Process Optimization board. Here, the team utilizes automatic task assignees and checklists for efficient workflow management.

Another helpful automation for Stefan and his team is the email-to-task function, which automatically generates tasks from email requests. If there is an email request to the janitor, for example, a task is automatically created on his MeisterTask board. 

Stefan’s favorite feature, however, is Agenda. This private, customizable dashboard in MeisterTask allows Stefan to access tasks from many different projects in one central location:

Efficiency and productivity are paramount at UEBE, with the marketing department eliminating nearly all internal emails thanks to MeisterTask.

Stefan is already planning how else they can use MeisterTask to their advantage. The next step is to set up an API interface to merchandise management so that the purchasing team can also work and communicate efficiently in MeisterTask.

For the teams at UEBE, good task management includes thorough documentation. Stefan was an early adopter of Notes in MeisterTask:

In the past, teams at UEBE created their own meeting minutes – and nobody could find the relevant information after. Since the team started documenting meeting minutes in Notes, this is no longer an issue:

For even greater clarity, they divide their meetings into “new meetings” for planned meetings, “open meetings” for meetings that have already taken place and where there are still open points, “completed meetings,” and “annual meetings”.

Notes are also used to document details about UEBE products, like the cyclotest app. The team records information and requirements for new iterations of the app, documenting details like how the proposed app screen should look and which functions should be included.

For Stefan, the advantage of using Meister software at UEBE is clear:

Stefan emphasizes the effectiveness of Notes for meeting documentation and project details.

Overall, Stefan believes that MeisterTask and MindMeister are the perfect solutions for UEBE: