Scaling new heights of collaboration at Montblanc

Highlights

Challenges

• Montblanc's Asana rollout began during the COVID-19 pandemic, a time of major shifts in work dynamics and a growing need for digital collaboration tools. 

• Before Asana, there was no centralized platform for managing Montblanc’s complex projects efficiently.

• Key information was difficult to locate, and tracking project statuses at a glance was nearly impossible.

Solution

• Montblanc chose Asana because of its wealth of work management features, such as clear project portfolios, multi-homing of tasks, direct conversion of emails into pending tasks, and the ability to create custom fields that matched the teams' individual way of working.

• Asana has already helped foster internal and external collaboration and accelerate processes in dozens of areas at Montblanc, from developing new digital products and customer experiences to the faster processing of purchases and invoices.

• Integration with Microsoft Office 365, Figma and SAP allow Asana's work management approach to be linked to workflows in existing tools. This makes everyday work easier and leads to significant time savings.

Outcomes

• With Asana, project management has become more transparent. Meetings are more focused, and email traffic has been reduced. 

• Through Asana’s integration capabilities, nearly 1,700 tasks from 14 other apps are seamlessly linked, saving Montblanc approximately 645 hours of work.

• The automation features in Asana help significantly increase efficiency – in one year alone, Montblanc employees created over 4,200 automations. Automations and status updates save the company an estimated 25 hours per month.

• In total, Montblanc manages over 1,700 projects with nearly 70,000 tasks in Asana. More than half of the collaborations span multiple business units, such as marketing and design tasks, and joint projects between product and engineering teams.

Asana has fundamentally improved collaboration across Montblanc HQ. With transparent workflows and clear task distribution, we have reduced meetings, increased efficiency, and simply brought our teams closer together. The platform is a cornerstone of our digital transformation - an indispensable tool for modern, agile companies. This success was built on a strong partnership and personal relations with our colleagues at Asana Europe.”

Maximum transparency across all IT projects

Each year, Montblanc’s 40-strong IT team works on around 120 major projects, such as the introduction of new HR software, data transformation projects – and the development of the Montblanc Limited Edition portal.

Previously, project plans and information were not always held centrally, but stored in SharePoint files and distributed among e-mails. Important information was sometimes only exchanged in meetings, which made planning difficult.

Asana now provides the big picture. Montblanc employees get a new level of visibility, as the entire project portfolio and status of any project can now be viewed by everyone, at any time, and work steps can easily be traced.

• Together with the management team, project forms, workflows and processes were defined, project views and boards were created, and Asana was seamlessly integrated with Microsoft Teams, Outlook and SharePoint. 

• Thanks to the Asana API, Montblanc developed an interface to its SAP system, allowing employees to access budget planning and internal orders in SAP directly from Asana.

SAP integration is a real game changer. The fact that the team can access all the information they need from the Asana interface without first needing to switch platforms makes their daily work much easier. That's how we really got started with Asana.”

Smoothing out processes in the Montblanc Academy

The Montblanc Academy, responsible for employee training, continually interacts with multiple internal departments including sales, marketing and human resources, and with external partners such as trainers.

Before implementing Asana, it was difficult for the Academy team to keep track of projects, tasks and individual participant progress.

• Asana fundamentally changed the way the Academy manages projects, helping coordinate training sessions, collect feedback, and optimize project tracking, ensuring smooth operations.

• With Asana, the Academy team can better coordinate training, gather feedback from participants, and streamline project tracking to keep things running smoothly.

• Asana facilitates comprehensive collaboration and is proven as an efficient project management tool. Even with a heavy workload, it allows for a more relaxed approach and helps distribute tasks more evenly among team members. Vacation and sick leave replacements are also easier to organize.

Asana provides an accurate view of project progress, so we can quickly identify which steps could lead to bottlenecks and take proactive measures to avoid delays.”

Efficient and transparent Marketing Campaign Management

Montblanc’s marketing team needed a dynamic content calendar to manage campaigns and collaborate efficiently with e-commerce and external agencies. Asana delivered a clear project roadmap, streamlined approval processes and improved alignment on content planning, from Instagram posts to CRM newsletters.

At Montblanc, the marketing department needed a detailed, cross-functional and up-to-date communications calendar to plan and manage both campaigns and content. 

The deployment of Asana is enabling Montblanc to better manage upcoming projects and makes it easier to align with the ecommerce department and collaborate with external agencies. 

Projects the Montblanc marketing team handles on the Asana platform range from monthly content planning to editing, adapting or creating content based on creative specifications. The roadmap gives a clear overview of all projects and their individual requirements.

• With Asana, marketers can organize all the necessary project steps and tasks, making the execution of their campaigns more efficient.

• A clear timeline enables precise coordination of marketing content across Instagram and CRM newsletters, driving audience growth.

• In addition to planning, Asana also provides an overview of all major marketing activities, such as advertising or pop-up stores, and helps measure their success. 

With Asana, I can easily track project progress and collaborate with everyone in one place. The risk of information loss is eliminated. It serves as a hub for communication, sharing feedback, retrieving information, and project planning.”

Around 300 Montblanc employees already use Asana, and the company aims to expand access to all who can benefit. As new use cases continue to emerge, Asana is helping to streamline daily tasks and workflows. Teams regularly share their experiences, fostering a culture of learning and continuous improvement, which drives the platform’s evolving usage.

Montblanc is already making concrete plans to further integrate Asana into its operations. For instance, connecting Asana with the SAP Project System (PS) will enhance the product development team’s work on new writing instruments.

Additionally, in the training department, Asana is set to help manage the training plans of Montblanc’s 20 apprentices and facilitate communication with various departments. An interactive Asana app will allow apprentices to track their assignments across different production areas, ensuring a more seamless and structured learning experience.

As Montblanc continues to blend traditional craftsmanship with modern technology, Asana remains a key enabler of their digital collaboration strategy, helping teams across the organization work together more effectively.