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Website: www.kolping-hochschule.de
Growth as a Turning Point for Committee Work
As a young university, Kolping University has been fully digitally organized from the beginning. Employees and committee members work distributed across Germany, and meetings take place virtually. In the early founding phase, committee work remained correspondingly manageable.
"At the beginning, committee work wasn't really an issue. We had few committees and members," recalls Ina Stückmann, Quality and Committee Manager at Kolping University.
With the growth of the university, however, the scope and significance of this work changed fundamentally. New study programs, additional university members, and increasing institutional maturity led to existing committees becoming larger and new formats emerging. Parallel to this, demands for transparency, reliability, and clear traceability of decisions grew.
"After a few years of growth, we realized: The requirements are increasing," describes Stückmann. "Especially the issue of traceability became increasingly important - that was also clear feedback from colleagues."
Committee work thus evolved from an organizational support task to a central component of effective university governance.
When Manual Processes Reach Their Limits
Before implementing Boardwise, committee work at Kolping University was digitally organized but still heavily manual.
"We had Word templates for protocols, meeting materials, and agendas, filled them out, created PDFs from them, and then sent them," describes Ina Stückmann of the former practice.
Formal approval processes were also established: Agenda and protocol were reviewed and approved by university management or the respective chairperson. With the growing number of committees and participants, however, this approach proved increasingly time-consuming and poorly scalable.
What was missing was a comprehensive system that brings together committees, documents, and processes in a consistent logic. Individual steps were each traceable, but the overall process remained fragmented.
"Our goal was therefore very clear," summarizes Stückmann.
"We wanted a tool with which we could map all committees, all documents, and all processes related to committee management."
Single Sign-On Instead of Media Breaks
In the selection process, Kolping University examined different solution approaches. The decisive factor for Boardwise was not a single feature, but the consistent interaction of functionality, technical integration, and user-friendliness.
"We were convinced that everything works in one system," summarizes Ina Stückmann of the central decision basis.
Especially against the background of continuous growth, ease of use played a crucial role. New university members must be able to orient themselves quickly and become immediately operational - also in committee work.
"Easy operation was important for us," emphasizes Stückmann.
"You know how it is: Something new comes along, you don't know how it works. With Boardwise it was different - it was simply very intuitive."
Added to this was the seamless embedding in the existing Microsoft 365 environment. Single sign-on, Outlook-based invitation management, and structured filing via SharePoint made it possible to adopt existing working methods while systematically developing them further.
"That invitations run through Outlook, everything is integrated in Office 365, and we can track tasks and votes at any time was central for us," says Stückmann.
Implementation During Ongoing Growth
The implementation of Boardwise at Kolping University did not take place as a completed individual project, but as a gradual implementation that was oriented to the further growth of the organization. First meetings were planned early via Boardwise, while additional functions were successively integrated into daily work.
"I could first try everything in the system, plan meetings and send invitations," describes Ina Stückmann of the beginning. "Then step by step more was added."
Short decision paths enabled a quick transition from the selection process to application. Acceptance in the team is based primarily on the intuitive operation of Boardwise, which facilitates entry and makes processes quickly understandable. New university members can work independently quickly after brief introductions.
"At the beginning there is often first this feeling: 'Oh dear, something new again,'" says Ina Stückmann. "And then after a short time comes the feedback: Boardwise is self-explanatory."
Uniformity as Central Organizational Principle
One of the greatest added values of Boardwise is seen by Kolping University in the consistent logic of its committee work. Regardless of whether it concerns formal committees such as Senate, Rectorate, or Examination Committee, or discussion formats without decision-making: processes always follow the same structure.
"What makes Boardwise particularly valuable for us is the uniformity," explains Ina Stückmann. "We always have a clear process and can trace what happened at any time."
Especially in the context of a growing organization, this procedural reliability acts as a stabilizing element. It creates orientation across committees and roles, increases transparency of decisions, and at the same time conveys security - both for the participating committee members and for the organization as a whole.
Conclusion: Structure That Grows Along
With Boardwise, Kolping University has early placed its committee work on a structured and scalable foundation. Where manual processes were still viable in the initial phase but reached their limits with growing complexity, an integrated system today ensures clarity, uniformity, and reliable traceability.
Boardwise enables the university to organizationally cushion its further growth and accommodate new requirements without carrying additional complexity into processes and responsibilities. Committee work thus becomes not only more efficient, but also more consistent and future-ready.
"Boardwise is intuitive, well-supported, and very close to our needs," summarizes Ina Stückmann of the added value.
Ready for the Next Step in Your Committee Work?
Are you facing growing demands for transparency, traceability, and structure in your committee organization?
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