With agile change management, A EINS focuses on its innovative Smart City Super App

A EINS Digital Innovation GmbH, based in Wittlich, is a project service provider and product supplier for innovative digital solutions. Founder and CEO Andy Altmeyer sees the future of the company in the expansion of the standardised solutions business, especially in comprehensive SMART CITY solutions. A EINS' flagship product is PORTAZON - the Smart City Super App. At the beginning of the project with noventum, A EINS had the challenge of finding a healthy balance between requested project services at its customers and the investment in the further development of the Smart City App PORTAZON. It was clear to the visionary Andy Altmeyer that the entire company A EINS had to change its focus towards a product company if it wanted to use the enormous potential of the Smart City solution PORTAZON. This change of the own company had to be organised and for this the noventum consultants were commissioned with their Hercules method of agile change management.

Seeking new solutions for a new corporate focus

The kick-start workshop took place near the A EINS headquarters on an event boat on the Moselle. This gave the change an unusual setting and a positive emotional anchoring. After the kick-start workshop and the initial energy it generated, noventum had the task of structuring and moderating the agile routines to safeguard the change for another six months, until the role of agile coach was handed over to an A EINS employee.    

In a nc360° interview, A EINS Managing Director Andy Altmeyer talks about the changes in his company and the exciting road ahead.  

Do not remain trapped in a culture of pure discussion

nc360°: Andy, why was it so important for you and for A ONE to change the focus of your company?

Andy Altmeyer: Since 1998, the company has had a core focus on people AND business. Why? The "what" and the "how" are always in focus for me and have to "do good" for people. From the user's point of view and also from the consumer's point of view, you can't fade out the "feeling". The Corona Pandemic was the ideal time to activate a year-round training programme. It was quickly clear to me that this pandemic was going to "do something" to us humans, because isolation and distance are not (human) competences. We were simply "ripe" and willing to realign all of us and willing to be allowed to learn something quite modern again.  

nc360°:What were the highlights of this agile change management project for you?

Andy Altmeyer: The personal development of an individual. We all deal with (young) people, or people who start "young" in the digital world. All of them have felt enormous influences on themselves through access to the digital offerings and I have been "reading" people very, very closely for more than 30 years and looking for the connection in the matter. Because if nothing unites you, nothing can really separate you and that's why I always pay attention to a character-clean partnership at eye level. We can't just discuss wishes, we also have to deal with the business-relevant issues.   

nc360°: How do you feel that the change is working?

Andy Altmeyer: The feedback and the approach in direct dialogue. I simply want to hear that even after such measures, people dare to point out new solution paths on new maps. Whether it's a day in the company, whether it's in training. It doesn't matter, it can be felt that we are all courageous and efficient in pointing out topics and solution paths and not remain trapped in a pure discussion culture.  

nc360°: And what do your customers get out of it?

Andy Altmeyer: That we can occupy the thematic and cultural "driver seat" if desired. In our daily role, we are often co-pilots for very complex and disruptive ideas. Here, someone must always be prepared to want to occupy this driver seat, but also to be able to control it. This means that we simply add more "airbags" to the project and take the customers on hot test drives. During these, however, we also change the driver's seat with the passenger seat once in a while in order to promote trust and desire at the same time as challenging them. In this way we are always agile and fast-paced on the road and at the same time have achieved maximum trust at the end of the "ride". From then on, both parties can really speed up.  

nc360°: Can you give us an example?

Andy Altmeyer: Let's take the example of Portazon, the platform for the business city of "tomorrow". The city of Trier is already a market leader with the platform in terms of technological scalability and services. Digitizing an entire city with such a history is something I've been working towards for more than 15 years. And it is precisely now that it is paying off that we have really arrived in the platform mindset. But this is also where the danger lies, and that's why it quickly became clear to us that we were taking a real inventory of the company. And one that not many people have on their (cultural) radar. Losing people. Exactly THAT was also and may also be part of the realisation. People will no longer be able to feel comfortable because they "feel" themselves properly for the first time and realise that you can reposition yourself. I found this honest, very naked fact exciting to the max. One must be allowed to realign oneself through further education and its impulse. From my point of view, this is mega important and right. If you want to play in the digital Champions League, a company must be prepared to re-evaluate top performance in the training camp (change). This was the only way we could agree on the strategy with the team and the goals. You don't play a final twice.

The noventum transformation heroes and the Hercules promise

From noventum's point of view, this project is a good example of our Hercules Promise. We help manage mission-critical change with the superpowers of corporate culture. What is special about our Hercules is that the application of the routines, roles and artefacts in the Hercules project does not only set the business change on its way, but also develops the corporate culture quasi on the way and thus positions the company for the future.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Andy Altmeyer and his staff for the extremely pleasant, trusting and goal-oriented project work.

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