Re-energising meetings: How Repower uses Sherpany

 

Repower is a leading energy company based in Switzerland, providing end-to-end solutions across the energy value chain, from generation to sales. In Summer 2022, Repower made the decision to implement Sherpany to support its board and executive meetings — and has since moved all of its board meetings, executive committee meetings, and board committee meetings into Sherpany.

The energy industry is subject to wide-reaching geopolitical changes and is swiftly being revolutionised, as renewable production methods gain increasing attention. Therefore, executive and board meetings play a central role in maintaining Repower’s position as a leading Swiss energy provider. 

We caught up with Head of Strategic Projects and CEO Office, Fabian Meierhans, to find out the origins of their Sherpany story, and to find out how the partnership is going.

 

Bringing outdated, manual processes to the cutting edge

Prior to implementing Sherpany, Repower’s executive board meetings, and board of directors meetings, were entirely manual. A member of the CEO’s office was responsible for compiling board packs, which were distributed to board and executive board members. For some participants, they even relied on physical documents for these meetings — creating the need for printed board packs. 

In 2021, the CEO office recognised the need for change, and began exploring potential solutions that would enable them to digitalise the entire meeting experience for both meeting types.

In this process, three primary solutions were explored:

1. Building a bespoke meeting management solution internally. 
2. Sherpany’s meeting management solution, and 
3. A competing meeting management solution. 

The core selection criteria for Mr. Meierhans were:

• Robust document management, 
• Security and compliance, and 
• The ability to enhance the time-keeping of board and executive board meetings.
   

Sherpany’s powerful solution eventually won on all three vectors, offering the ability to centralise all meeting documents into a secure solution, fully digitalising meetings, and providing clear, time-bound agenda items that help keep meetings on track.  

The adoption of Sherpany was also an opportunity for Repower to end participants’ reliance on physical board packs. The roll-out of Sherpany was mandatory, bringing all executives and board members onto a single digital platform, ensuring alignment, security, and efficiency. 

On the adoption of Sherpany, Mr. Meierhans stated that “First, we let everyone use the tool without any instruction. We were pleased to see how quickly they found their way around. This also meant that they broke their understanding ahead of the scheduled training with Sherpany, so they had relevant questions to ask. Overall, this process was very effective.” 

 

The impact of Sherpany on Repower’s meetings

Following the roll-out of Sherpany, Repower migrated all of their executive and board meetings onto the platform. This included their executive board meetings, which take place every two weeks — as well as their eight board of directors meetings which take place each year, and two sub-committees, which meet six times per year. 

In preparing these meetings, the impact of Sherpany was immediately evident. Mr. Meierhans commented that, “there is a full-time member of the CEO office who is suddenly much more available after the implementation of Sherpany.” The centralised, unified meeting experience cuts down the manual processes significantly, and unlocks this time to be directed elsewhere.

Certain features stand out as game-changers for Repower — such as the document management functionality, which ensures security and version control for all, but also the Digital Circular Resolution feature, which Mr. Meierhans recognises is used beyond its original intended purpose. 

“Historically, our CEO has taken many decisions which were recorded manually, or shared over email,” he reflected. “With Sherpany, we now have a centralised way to communicate, store, and keep track of these decisions — in an auditable way.” 

Sherpany has also elevated Repower’s approach to meeting preparation and time-keeping. Mr. Meierhans comments that the quality of individual preparation has increased, as has the awareness for good time-keeping in meetings. He reflects, “while meetings might still run over time, it is clear that individuals prepare with efficiency in mind — and this has an impact on the quality of discussions, and the intention with which meetings are prepared.”

 

Repower and Sherpany: Meetings to power Switzerland — and beyond

In light of challenging geopolitical and economic headwinds — from digitalisation, to shifts in make-up of the energy market globally — Repower utilises Sherpany to ensure that timely decisions are made, and that the company can react swiftly — and completely. Repower is using our solution to bring greater security, efficiency, and impact to meetings of the executive board and board of directors.

We would like to thank Fabian Meierhans for this open and candid discussion.

About  Repower

Repower AG is an international energy provider, with its headquarters in Switzerland. Repower’s origins date back more than 100 years, and the company operates the entire electrical energy value chain — from generation, to distribution and sales. With more than 600 employees, and more than 4.7bn CHF in annual revenue, Repower is a leading force in the Swiss, German, and Italian energy markets.