Case Studies & References

Context: Over a decade of collaboration with Information Desire Software GmbH, the company behind the ERP/project management software Projectile. Not a single project, but a continuous partnership: countless customer rollouts, custom extensions, interface development, training, and system adaptations.

Challenge:

• Every customer brings different requirements – Projectile must adapt to the business needs, not the other way around
• Countless interfaces to third-party systems and continuous development – without disrupting day-to-day operations

My Role (ongoing):

1. Requirement Engineering: Capturing end-customer requirements, translating them into actionable specifications, and refining iteratively
2. Custom Extensions: Specifying and overseeing extensions to the Projectile core as well as individual customer-specific adaptations
3. Interface Specification & Implementation: Interfaces: DATEV, Salesforce, Atlatos, Diamant, Rex, and others – technically implemented via REST API, shadow tables, or file exports; data mapping as a core task in every integration
4. Rollouts & Training: Onboarding new customers to Projectile, supporting existing customers through version upgrades, training key users
5. Testing & Go-Live: Structured integration testing, production deployment, monitoring during the first weeks

Results:

• Success rate: 100% of projects completed successfully (no cancellations, no rollbacks)
• Interfaces: Countless integrations specified, tested, and deployed to production
• Process efficiency: Average 25–35% efficiency gain per year at end-customer sites
• Scaling: Supported customers from 10-person agencies to companies with over 1,000 employees – systems and processes grow with the business
• Cost control: Under budget through clean specification and planning

Client quote (directly contactable): “Over more than a decade, René and I have successfully delivered countless projects. His pragmatic approach – structured yet flexible – is unique. He strengthens our team instead of replacing it.” – Peter Schaub, CEO Information Desire Software GmbH

Context: Architecture and engineering firms work according to the HOAI (German Fee Structure for Architects and Engineers). Billing by service phases, fee zones, and eligible costs is complex and error-prone. No solution existed that could map this seamlessly into Projectile.

Challenge:

• HOAI fee calculation is regulatorily complex (service phases 1–9, fee zones, renovation surcharges, ancillary costs)
• Existing solutions were either pure billing tools without project management or ERP systems without HOAI capabilities
• Engineering and planning firms needed both: project management and HOAI-compliant fee processing in one system

My Role:

1. Functional Specification: Based on my Master Thesis on the HOAI topic (International Management program), I translated all regulatory requirements into actionable system specifications
2. Product Definition: Together with IDS, defined the industry solution as a standalone module in Projectile – from fee calculation to service phase tracking to final invoicing
3. Testing & Validation: Verification against real project data from engineering firms
4. Market Launch: Supported the first customer rollouts

Results:

• Projectile-HOAI launched as a standalone industry solution on the market
• HOAI-compliant fee calculation directly within the ERP – no more media discontinuity
• Engineering and planning firms can manage project control and billing in a single system
• Foundation for opening up a new customer segment for IDS

Client quote (directly contactable): Reference via Peter Schaub, CEO Information Desire Software GmbH (see Case Study 1)

Context: Internationally operating corporate group (ZARGES GmbH, Dresden site). Challenge: production processes had grown organically, not by design. Project management lacked structure.

Challenge:

• Production processes inefficient, many manual steps
• Project management: everything ad-hoc, schedule overruns frequent
• No transparency on costs and capacity

Approach (16 weeks):

1. Process Audit: Documenting actual workflows (not theoretical ones)
2. Project Management Structure: Implementing a pragmatic PMO
3. Training & Handover: Enabling the team to continue independently
4. Quick Wins: First efficiencies visible by week 3/4

Results:

• Production efficiency: +18% throughput in 16 weeks
• Project accuracy: Schedule overruns reduced from 35% → 8% within 6 months
• Cost monitoring: Automated cost tracking (previously: Excel chaos)
• Team adoption: PMO structure is lived, not resented
• Scalable: System holds when growth comes

Client quote (directly contactable): “René transformed our project management from ad-hoc to structured – without overhead. Production runs smoother, costs are more transparent, and the team knows what it’s working toward.” – Marc Meschenmoser, Operational Site Manager ZARGES GmbH, Dresden

Context: Mid-market company (250 employees) in the pharma sector, consisting of multiple divisions with separate systems. Goal: consolidation onto a single ERP system (SAP).

Challenge:

• 3 legacy ERP systems, different data structures
• Finance needed a centralized reporting structure
• Change resistance in Operations (department managers feared loss of control)

Approach (16 weeks):

1. Analysis & Requirements (Wk 1–4): Process documentation, data mapping, identification of problem areas
2. Fit-to-Standard & Design (Wk 5–8): SAP configuration, decision points, change management plan
3. Data Validation & Rollout (Wk 9–16): Data quality checks, 2-wave go-live, training

Results:

• On schedule: Exactly 16 weeks (vs. estimated 18–20 weeks)
• Data migration: 99.7% data integrity (only 45 out of 15,000 records manually corrected)
• Reporting: Report generation reduced from 8 hrs/week manual to 2 hrs/week (75% efficiency gain)
• User adoption: 94% active users after 4 weeks (industry average: ~70%)
• Cost control: 5% under budget (savings of approx. €18,000)

Client quote (anonymized): “René managed to get Finance and Operations to the same table. That’s rare. The go-live was stress-free – because everything was prepared.” – CFO, Pharmaceutical Company

Context: Acquisition: international corporation acquires a mid-market company (80 employees) from the consulting sector. Goal: integrate all systems and data into the corporate landscape.

Challenge:

• Legacy systems were undocumented
• Two different cost accounting models
• Cut-over had to happen over a single weekend (no business interruption)

Approach (12 weeks + 1 go-live weekend):

1. Discovery Phase (Wk 1–4): Reverse-engineering legacy systems, documenting all interfaces
2. Mapping & Testing (Wk 5–10): Detailed data mapping, multiple test runs
3. Go-Live Prep (Wk 11–12): Writing runbooks, training the team
4. Weekend Cut-Over: Live migration Friday 6:00 PM → Monday 8:00 AM

Results:

• Go-live: Successfully executed over one weekend, zero business disruption
• Data integrity: 99.3% match between source and target systems
• Reconciliation time: Finance reconciliation reduced from 3 days to 6 hours (95% automated)
• No rework: No critical errors, no rollback required
• Cost: Exactly at the agreed fixed price

Client quote (anonymized): “In other mergers, the go-lives were chaotic. With René’s planning, everything ran like clockwork – we knew exactly what would happen, when it would happen, and what could go wrong. Nothing went wrong.” – Team Member Integration, M&A Project