Team '25 Europe - inside BarmeniaGothaer's post-merger technology transformation

When Baris Yorganci recalls having to "shut the doors" on volunteers eager to join a major IT transformation project, it signals something fundamentally different at the merged German insurance giant BarmeniaGothaer. So often, change management typically involves coaxing reluctant users toward new systems - not in this case.

Yorganci explains:

People need to know that the work they are doing is valuable. There is not a more obvious [way] to align them.

When companies are going through merger integration or technological change, this human element may prove more critical than the architecture itself.

The integration challenge

The BarmeniaGothaer merger was closely followed across Europe for its scale. Yorganci, as Head of Workplace and Collaboration faced the challenge of enabling effective collaboration between two distinct organizational cultures from day one. German antitrust regulations prevented even basic planning conversations until official approval, leaving technology teams with no runway to prepare unified systems. He ...