Digital Expansion for Day Care: How Stackfield supports AlexA

About AlexA Seniorendienste GmbH

AlexA Seniorendienste GmbH, also known as AlexA Pflege (AlexA Care), offers residential and nursing care services at more than 20 different locations via the group of companies, which also includes two other care brands: from assisted living and outpatient care to daycare to inpatient care and more. The medium-sized company which has been successful on the market for more than 20 years lovingly looks after senior citizens who need support.

Thomas Henschke is the manager of the team Marketing and corporate development and has been employed at AlexA for ten years. However, there is more to Henschke than just Marketing: I also like to think outside the box to initiate and support innovation and digitalization topics, he recounts.

Classic office communication as a brake for expansion projects

Thomas Henschke describes the time in project management before Stackfield as the classic office situation. Communication was held via mail, phone, or personal exchange which resulted in common known problems that needed to be optimized from Henschke's point of view. We needed something more agile than traditional mailing, something different than sending documents back and forth which probably are being edited in the meantime. Particularly in the context of expansion projects, the company wanted to work more effectively in terms of time, regardless of location, and with greater transparency in interdisciplinary teamwork. In this respect, a digital tool would offer enormous progress.

Stackfield combines all requirements in a single tool

Being open to new ideas and not only accepting innovation but proactively promoting it - that is our claim is written on AlexA's website. In line with this motto, the care company decided to bring Stackfield on board as a collaboration tool after checking out several potential providers. Stackfield not only combines project management, communication, and document management but also scores highly as a German company, especially in terms of data protection. With hosting in Germany, GDPR compliance, ISO certification, and end-to-end encrypted rooms, Stackfield protects the data protection standards that were decisive for AlexA in the selection process. As a licensable system, the tool was also ideal for starting with a small team, gaining experience, living the benefits, and then gradually rolling them out across the organization, just like the company had planned.

Accompany, supervise, and support: How to make the first steps a success

A test phase in the beginning, followed by training for the individual departments at the company's Berlin headquarters, and ultimately still jumped in at the deep end: onboarding with Stackfield was bumpy but ultimately successful for the care company.

Thomas Henschke now knows better how to spread Stackfield throughout the rest of the company and provides valuable tips for companies in a similar situation: Small- and Medium-sized companies in particular often do not have dedicated project management resources or even a dedicated position for the introduction of digital tools at disposal: However, convincing employees of the benefits of an upcoming change, motivating, supporting, and assisting them is important and should not be underestimated in the planning stage. Sufficient time and resources should therefore be allocated for the introduction and work of the mentors, Henschke recommends.

Experience-based planning: extensive expansion projects in Stackfield

New locations for inpatient care and residential and care quarters alongside outpatient care, daycare, and retirement and residential communities: AlexA's numerous expansion projects require clear structures, follow familiar processes, and need a good overview within the project management.

Based on projects that have already been completed, it was possible to create detailed room templates, as the project steps follow a comparable pattern. These templates are then used to create project rooms for the individual projects on Stackfield. The room is then further adapted and expanded according to individual characteristics. This means you don't have to start from scratch every time, but you can apply your previous knowledge, Thomas Henschke explains.

Real-time log and calendar subscription: properly conducting meetings

Weekly kick-off meetings or other recurring meetings are given their own room on Stackfield. The room hereby serves as a real-time log: be it for the agenda, the corresponding preparatory work, or the follow-up – the work relating to the meeting is stored directly in the room and can thus be referred to in the next meeting. When meeting results lead to tasks, they are created and assigned for further editing directly. This way, meetings become more effective and additional minutes become obsolete.

Furthermore, to make sure no appointments are overlooked, the team members subscribe to the Stackfield calendar via Outlook meaning that all appointments are imported directly into the external calendar. This works wonderfully, says Thomas Henschke.

Always up-to-date with Stackfield's file versioning

Sending files back and forth via mail can pretty quickly lead to confusion, especially with interdisciplinary teams. Thomas Henschke remembers: One works with the supposedly latest document, while another person is also correcting versions. However, these changes are not automatically passed on to everyone involved.

Now, thanks to Stackfield's file versioning the team always keeps the overview. Everybody can access the newest version with just a few clicks and, if needed, further edit them. This made a lot easier for Henschke's team. Also, files are anchored directly in the respective task to provide an immediate link, which in turn eliminates the need to search for files, Henschke praises.

Plans for the future: further rolling out Stackfield

Over the next few months, Stackfield is set to become a small expansion project on its own: We are convinced of the advantages of the tool and the benefits for our company and want to take the next step in our organizational development, says Thomas Henschke. In the medium term, the intention is to roll out Stackfield to other levels and locations thus taking team collaboration to the next level.