Interim project governance
doesn't require permanent presence.
It requires structure.
One remote session per week. One person who shows up prepared, asks the right questions, ensures follow-through — and leaves. One on-site visit every two months.
For internal leaders in Digital Real Estate and ERP environments — SAP, Yardi, Planon, Oracle. When the team runs but progress has stalled.
DACH · Teams from 3 to 20 · Engagements from 6 weeks to 12 months
That's the Jour Fixe model.
Book 10 min. call
This is for you if…
Your team has tried one or two people in a steering role already. It didn't work. You may already know who is blocking progress — but you haven't been able to address it.
Someone in your leadership is temporarily absent — illness, parental leave, role transition — and you need a bridge structure that holds the team together without replacing the person.
The project runs. People are busy. But nothing moves forward. Decisions accumulate undecided. You want a temporary structure — six weeks to twelve months. A scaffold, not a crutch.
Prerequisite: you are a decision-maker (department head or above) with the authority to give someone a mandate. Without that, the format doesn't work.
Not the right fit if you need a full-time embedded consultant. Book one. We are a weekly structure with clear rules.
Not the right fit if you are a systems integrator looking for sub-capacity.
Why the embedded model fails here
If you know interim management, you know the principle: a senior person, temporarily deployed, with authority. That principle is sound. The problem is the format. The reflexive response when a project stalls: bring in someone senior. Full-time. On site. Five days a week. The problem is not the person. The problem is the model.
Proximity kills perspective.
The interim sits in the team, absorbs the culture, becomes part of the dynamic — and after six weeks, is no longer able to see what is wrong. They go to the same lunch. They hear the same complaints. They stop asking the uncomfortable questions.
Support without mandate.
The team already knows who is blocking progress. The interim knows too. But the engagement is structured as "support", not as "governance". No authority. No consequence. No change. Over a thousand euros a day for presence without power.
The potential is already in the team.
Corona proved that people can take ownership remotely — if someone gives them the framework. Most organisations still operate as if it's the 1980s: low autonomy, high supervision, constant oversight. The employees are grateful for ownership. They just never got it. Nobody ever said: this is now your decision. Make it.
And it's not cheap.
A senior interim project manager in the DACH market costs between €1,200 and €1,400 per day. The 2026 average: €1,317. Five days a week, twelve weeks: that's €72,000–84,000 in fees alone. Add the standard provider margin of 25–35% — and you're at €90,000–113,000. Add travel and accommodation: over €100,000 for one quarter. For one subproject.
That buys presence. It does not buy governance.
Sources: DDIM Marktstudie 2026, AIMP DACH 2024/25
What's needed is not more presence. It's a temporary structure with authority, discipline, and an expiry date.
How the Jour Fixe works
Phase 1
Setup (Week 1–2)
One intake session. We understand the project state, the team, the dynamics, the blockers. You define the authority level: what can we escalate, what requires your sign-off, who must attend. We agree on rules — agenda submitted before the session, decision-makers present or reachable, no rescheduling without reason.
Phase 2
Cadence (Week 3 onwards)
One remote session per week. Fixed day, fixed time. Open issues addressed. Blockers named. Responsibilities assigned. Decisions made — or explicitly deferred with a date. Nobody leaves the session without knowing what they owe and by when.
One on-site visit every two months. For the conversations that don't work on screen. For reading the room.
Phase 3
Handoff
The goal is to make us unnecessary. When the structure holds without us — we say so. We don't create dependency.
In one case, a junior team member adopted our format within four months — the meeting structure, the accountability framework, the way decisions were forced. We noticed. We told the project lead: the scaffold is no longer needed. That's not a loss. That's the product working.
The expectations.
There's a well-known anecdote about a food vendor who became famous not for his friendliness — but for the consistency of his product. The rules were clear, the standards were high, and the result was reliable. Every single time.
That's the principle behind the Jour Fixe. Focused rather than popular. And the expectations apply in both directions.
What we ask of you
Thorough preparation. Agenda items submitted before the session. Decision-makers present or reachable. No rescheduling without reason. If the team isn't ready, the session is postponed — and that's noted. You give us the mandate. If someone doesn't participate, that's a question for you — not for us.
What you can expect from us
No filler. No status updates disguised as steering. If there's no open topic, no blocker, no pending decision — we cancel the session. You don't pay for a meeting without substance. Every Jour Fixe produces output: a decision, a clarification, a resolved issue. Or it doesn't take place.
What you receive.
Every session
Every engagement
What you do not receive: a consultant who needs to be here next quarter for the same reason. A dependency. A relationship that exists for its own sake.
Evidence, not promises.
We don't have a slide deck with 47 logos. We have this:
4 months → natural handoff
Junior adopted format independently. We told the client to stop booking us. Most consultants would never say that. We did. The team ran without us. That’s the product working.
Published: SAP RE-FX technical article, ILM archiving research, academic work. The facilitator understands the subject matter — not just the process.
73% of ERP implementations fail to meet their objectives. The documented cause — across Gartner, Panorama Consulting, and Resulting IT — is not technology. It’s governance: steering committees without authority, decisions that accumulate undecided, accountability that fragments across subcontractors. That is the problem the Jour Fixe exists to solve — at session level, every week.
Panorama Consulting 2025, Gartner ERP Analysis 2024, Resulting IT / Computer Weekly
How we work — controls and transparency.
Under CSDDD, LkSG, and CSRD, every link in a subcontracting chain is an uncontrolled liability. With us, the chain has two links: you and us. No sub-sub. No agency. No margin layer.
Scheinselbständigkeit risk: zero. Own social security. Multiple clients. Werkvertrag or Dienstvertrag.
Interested? Book 10 minutes. We’ll tell you honestly whether the format suits your situation — or whether a different approach makes more sense.
Book 10 min. callOr write to us: info@metaneering.com
