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When Growth Becomes an Organizational Challenge

The company Volksbank im Münsterland

Before: Lots of coordination, little transparency

The first software: a step forward—with clear limitations

With anny: Less effort, more visibility, and true scalability

More clarity for employees in their day-to-day work

A solution that makes all the difference

How Volksbank in Münsterland organized over 20 locations with anny and significantly reduced administrative effort

5 min.

When Growth Becomes an Organizational Challenge

With more than 100 locations, over 1,400 employees, 1,000 workspaces, 100 meeting rooms, and an organization spread across several cities, Volksbank im Münsterland operates in a highly decentralized structure. Many employees are no longer tied to a fixed desk; instead, they work flexibly — even across locations. Like any evolution, this one also came with its challenges: without a central system, organizing workspaces, meeting rooms, and other resources was often confusing. Employees had to coordinate among themselves, check availability, or find ad hoc solutions on site.

With anny, Volksbank found a solution that centralizes all processes, covers every use case, and significantly reduces administrative effort.

The company Volksbank im Münsterland

Volksbank im Münsterland is one of the larger regional banks in Germany. With more than 100 locations—from smaller branches to large administrative centers—it serves an extensive business area.

Lisa Wolters works as a specialist in infrastructure management at Volksbank im Münsterland and is responsible, among other things, for space management. Together with her team, she ensures that locations run smoothly, workspaces are used efficiently, and employees can work optimally across locations.

In concrete terms, this means:

Managing and maintaining buildings
Organizing and assigning employees and workspaces
Coordinating cross-location usage

That makes Lisa’s role crucial when it comes to bringing structure to a complex organization.

Before: Lots of coordination, little transparency

Before a central system was established at Volksbank im Münsterland, resource management was handled largely through personal coordination. Anyone who wanted to work at another location had to organize it themselves, often without first knowing whether a workspace was available at all.

"Then colleagues would simply drive to the location and ask, 'Do you still have a workspace available?'" Lisa reports.

What may sound practical at first quickly becomes inefficient with more than 1,000 employees. There was a lack of transparency and, as a result, a lack of planning reliability for everyone involved.

The first software: a step forward—with clear limitations

To create more structure, Volksbank introduced its first booking system. This allowed Volksbank to solve fundamental challenges. Employees could see which workstations were available for the first time, book them in advance, and find their way around unfamiliar locations more easily. But in day-to-day operations, it quickly became clear: this first solution brought new challenges with it.

“The software before that had its quirks and, above all, meant a very high manual workload for me.”

In particular, the lack of integration and synchronization with existing systems such as Outlook made many processes unnecessarily complicated. New employees had to be created manually, permissions maintained individually, and changes actively tracked afterward. Booking different resources was also not possible from a central place.

In addition, important functions were missing, such as the ability to block work areas in advance, for example during renovations. Adjustments could often only be made at short notice, which required additional coordination.

“We had to manually create new employees and manage permissions every month. It was extremely time-consuming.”

With anny: Less effort, more visibility, and true scalability

With the switch to anny, Volksbank im Münsterland has fundamentally restructured its resource management. Processes that were previously manual, error-prone, and time-consuming now run automatically and are centrally controlled.

A key component is the real-time synchronization with Microsoft 365 and Outlook. This means that the availability of workstations and meeting rooms is always up to date, and bookings flow seamlessly into one another. Double bookings or inconsistencies between systems are now a thing of the past.

“With the old software, you could only book workstations and had to switch to another system for meeting rooms.”

Permission management has also been made much simpler. While user groups previously had to be maintained manually, including time-consuming adjustments when departments changed, anny now handles this through Communities. Employees are automatically assigned to the right groups and only see the resources relevant to them.

“When employees changed departments, I had to adjust it manually – that always took a huge amount of time.”

Another key advantage is evident in operational planning: with global blockers, locations or areas can be blocked in advance, for example during renovations. This is a huge step forward, especially for infrastructure management. Changes can be planned early and mapped in the system.

“In the past, we couldn’t set in advance that an area would no longer be bookable from a certain point in time – it only worked on the same day.”

For the employees of Volksbank im Münsterland, using booking software has also improved significantly since the introduction of anny. With anny as a central booking platform, they can view and book workstations and meeting rooms across locations. The interactive 3D maps of all locations also help with orientation, especially at unfamiliar sites.

“When you’re at an unfamiliar location, you immediately have your bearings and know right away where you need to go.”

The Volksbank im Münsterland setup is complemented by room displays that show on site whether a room is occupied or available. This allows employees to quickly see whether a room is free, and book it at short notice and use it right away.

What used to be a high, manual administrative effort is now a lean, scalable solution that grows with Volksbank im Münsterland and makes everyday work much easier for everyone involved.

More clarity for employees in their day-to-day work

The rollout of anny was adopted at Volksbank im Münsterland faster than initially expected. What made it especially exciting: Lisa’s team counted how many follow-up questions came from employees during the onboarding phase. The result was clear: significantly fewer than expected.

„We had expected many more follow-up questions, but it actually worked really well.“

One reason is the simple, intuitive experience. Many employees now use the system naturally and are increasingly discovering new possibilities. Instead of just using it, they actively contribute ideas.

„What I hear over and over again is that employees ask: Could we make that bookable through anny too?“

The impact is also clearly visible on the administrative side: all organizational work around anny at Volksbank im Münsterland is managed by just two people, even with more than 1,000 resources. Thanks in particular to synchronization with Microsoft 365, many manual tasks are eliminated altogether.

„I no longer have to remember to process any requests at the beginning of the month — everything runs automatically.“

A solution that makes all the difference

The Volksbank im Münsterland shows how even complex structures can be organized clearly and efficiently with the right tools. With anny, processes were not only simplified, but sustainably streamlined – for infrastructure management as well as for employees in their day-to-day work. What remains is a solution that works reliably in the background and provides support exactly where it matters. The result is a work environment that thinks ahead, grows with you, and paves the way for modern, well-organized collaboration.

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