Interview with Res Niemeyer, Head of IT
EBP is an internationally active consulting and engineering company with over 600 employees worldwide. The company works interdisciplinary on topics such as environment, mobility, infrastructure, IT, and sustainable development.
As the central platform for project work, Microsoft Teams forms the foundation to efficiently connect internal and external experts, share information, and maintain structured project workflows. Since several hundred new project rooms are created each year and business units have different requirements, EBP needed a flexible solution for creating, monitoring, and archiving project spaces in Microsoft Teams.
Before introducing Seamless, the Zurich-based engineering company used PowerShell scripts to create new project rooms in Microsoft Teams – an approach that became increasingly difficult to maintain and could no longer meet growing requirements.
We spoke with Res Niemeyer, Head of IT at EBP Schweiz AG, to learn why Seamless became the right solution.
Mr. Niemeyer, what distinguishes EBP as a company?
EBP operates as an independent company in the fields of consulting, planning, engineering, IT, and communications. Our employees develop solutions for complex challenges – always with a strong focus on sustainability.
Our project work is team-oriented, interdisciplinary, and often international. Microsoft Teams supports us in efficient collaboration. That is why order and security in Microsoft Teams and in working with external partners are critical to our success.
How were projects created in Teams before Seamless?
For a long time, we attempted to manage project creation and our guidelines with scripts. At first, this worked well, but over time, more and more challenges emerged:
- Scripts or parts of them suddenly stopped working reliably
- New features in Teams were not supported correctly
- Adjustments became increasingly complicated
- The requirements of our different business units could only be met with great effort
In short: the manual scripting approach could no longer support the strategic importance of Teams for us.
What were the main reasons for choosing Seamless?
1. Different requirements for each business unit
Since Microsoft Teams is our central project platform, our business units need specific structures, templates, and processes.
Seamless allows us to define suitable templates for each business unit – without additional development effort.
2. Fast and close collaboration with the vendor
The exchange with the Seamless team was extremely efficient. Questions were answered quickly, inputs were taken seriously, and adjustments were implemented in a timely manner.
3. Transparency across the entire Teams landscape
For a platform that is strategically so important to us, we need transparency:
- Which teams exist for which business unit?
- Which ones are inactive?
- Who is the project manager?
- Which teams are non‑compliant?
With Seamless, we now have complete governance transparency.
How does Seamless support your project processes in practice?
Since Teams is our project platform, new workspaces must always be consistent and correct. Seamless automatically enforces the following requirements:
- Consistent naming with project number
- Consistent permissions
- Standardized channels and folders
- Transparent ownership (project management)
This ensures that project teams can collaborate efficiently from the moment a project is created.
How do you handle external guests since the introduction of Seamless?
Due to the rapid adoption of Teams, we had accumulated a large number of external guests over the years – many of whom were no longer active.
Seamless enables us to:
- centrally identify external guests
- efficiently remove outdated access
- significantly reduce risks
- establish clear rules for the future
For the strategic role that Teams plays for us, this cleanup was an extremely important step.
What impact does Seamless have on the IT department?
For us, Seamless means:
- no more maintaining PowerShell scripts
- no more time spent on troubleshooting
- automated, standardized, and above all strategically aligned processes
- governance that grows with Teams and the company
We can refocus on strategic tasks – and continue to advance Teams as our central project platform.
Conclusion
EBP uses Microsoft Teams as a platform for project work and therefore needed a governance solution that is flexible, secure, and scalable for hundreds of project rooms. Seamless delivers exactly that: templates for each business unit, clear processes, full transparency, and close, responsive collaboration with the vendor.
The move away from scripts toward Seamless was decisive for EBP to operate Teams in a stable, clean, and professional way in the long term.