Greater transparency and performance thanks to Asana

CyberCompare is a Bosch subsidiary that has set itself the goal of making cybersecurity simpler, easier to understand and more affordable. As an independent partner, it helps customers to optimise the tendering process in order to identify suitable measures, providers and solutions in the field of cybersecurity. Launched in 2021, CyberCompare has now supported more than 400 customers in over 600 projects.

As the team grew in size and the complexity of the projects increased, it became increasingly urgent for CyberCompare to introduce a centralised work management tool. Previously, employees used a mixture of pen and paper, OneNote, Excel or MS Teams to collect information or track tasks and projects. However, these different methods significantly impaired transparency and efficiency. In addition, there was no clear overview of the workload of the individual team members, making it increasingly difficult to allocate projects in a balanced manner.

In the area of subscription management in particular, the tasks involved are interdependent and require a great deal of coordination. This led to frequent meetings to keep everyone involved up to date.

Patrick Eberle, Senior Consultant and Project Manager at CyberCompare, was therefore looking for a tool that was suitable for both project management and workflow automation.

Due to time and capacity constraints, the team decided to call in external support for the implementation of the work management tool. Patrick Eberle explains: ‘Although we have tech-savvy employees, we wanted to bring experienced experts on board so that we could focus on the business perspective.’

After a thorough selection process, including a proof of concept for various tools, CyberCompare finally decided in favour of Asana. Patrick Eberle on the advantages: ‘Working in Asana is easy to learn and the many integration options mean a high degree of flexibility. There are also extensive options for automation.’

At the same time, CyberCompare began working with the Public Cloud Group (PCG). ‘The collaboration started when we had already purchased Asana but had not yet configured it. PCG supported us in the complete implementation of our processes from greenfield.’

The introduction of Asana took place step by step. After an onboarding workshop by PCG, the team members familiarised themselves with the tool at their own pace as part of a self-learning project. PCG also worked with CyberCompare to develop project templates and workflows for recurring processes, customised to the individual needs of each team.

With Asana, for example, a seamless and automated subscription management system was developed. As an intermediary in the cyber security market, CyberCompare is in constant contact with various providers. For better visibility in the market, providers can be listed in the so-called provider directory. Thanks to Asana, all steps are now centrally coordinated and automated: From the initial contact to the annual renewal of subscriptions. This includes the clear recording of provider information, the coordination of feedback interviews, as well as billing issues in collaboration with the accounting department. This also includes links to tools such as Hubspot and Microsoft Teams.

The collaboration

PCG and CyberCompare met once a week in half-hour video calls to record processes and optimise the portfolio and workflow templates in Asana. Patrick Eberle is very satisfied overall:

‘The collaboration was excellent in many respects: I was particularly impressed by the speed and efficiency with which we were able to work. PCG demonstrated a high quality of work and independence, so that we made rapid progress. Another plus was that we didn't need any additional status meetings because all the information was transparently available.’

By implementing Asana, CyberCompare was able to achieve significant improvements in collaboration. These include:

• Increased transparency: All team members have access to the current project status and the respective tasks at all times. Portfolios can be used to track overall progress across all projects with the most important key figures.
• Increased efficiency: The automation and structured workflows reduced overheads and enabled faster project completion.
• Reduced meetings: Thanks to the real-time overview in Asana and improved cross-team collaboration, meetings could be reduced or merged, resulting in significant time savings.
• Optimised resource planning: Thanks to workload tracking, project planning could be carried out precisely and based on actual capacities.

A particular highlight was the successful integration of the marketing team. Initially sceptical, the team quickly recognised the benefits of Asana and now actively implements its projects and workflows.

The collaboration with PCG also played a decisive role in the success of the Asana implementation. Their expertise enabled CyberCompare to concentrate fully on process mapping and less on the actual implementation in Asana. Patrick Eberle: ‘The ability to work decentrally and asynchronously proved to be a great advantage, as the implementation hardly affected our daily operations.’

Thanks to Asana, we have been able to significantly reduce the time we spend in meetings and significantly increase efficiency.

Patrick Eberle

CyberCompare

Public Cloud Group (PCG) supports companies in their digital transformation through the use of public cloud solutions.

With a product portfolio designed to accompany organisations of all sizes in their cloud journey and competence that is a synonym for highly qualified staff that clients and partners like to work with, PCG is positioned as a reliable and trustworthy partner for the hyperscalers, relevant and with repeatedly validated competence and credibility.

We have the highest partnership status with the three relevant hyperscalers: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, and Microsoft. As experienced providers, we advise our customers independently with cloud implementation, application development, and managed services.