Messer is the world’s largest family-owned industrial gas company, with $2.6 billion USD in sales and more than 5,000 employees. In the Americas, which includes the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Chile, and Colombia, the company runs hundreds of projects to improve operations, remove waste, and boost performance. These efforts are part of EMBRACE, a regional program focused on driving continuous improvement across business functions.
But the tools that teams relied on slowed them down. Their system did not have project management capabilities. Reports were disparate and often involved multiple steps to consolidate. Leaders didn’t have the visibility they needed to make fast, informed decisions.
We spoke with Sema Tekinay, Senior Practice Partner of Performance Transformation at Messer Americas, to learn what changed and how Planisware helped.
The Challenge
As the EMBRACE portfolio grew, Messer’s legacy systems began to show their limitations. The company had relied on their primary system and a patchwork of documents to track project status. The setup was difficult to maintain and hard to use. People didn’t know where to go to update information. Some reports required referencing five or more files. For a large company managing hundreds of projects, this complexity created serious drag.
“It wasn’t intuitive. If you weren’t in the tool every day, you’d forget how to use it,” said Sema. “And it didn’t support the level of visibility we needed at the portfolio or PMO level.”
Worse, reporting was fragile. It couldn’t keep up with the volume of data it was being asked to process, impacting dashboards, reporting and response time. Adding new data or updating visuals was time-consuming. “We were spending more time getting data ready than we were using the data to drive decisions,” said Sema.

The Solution
To modernize project tracking and reporting, Sema Tekinay and her team defined a clear set of criteria to help select a better partner qualified to deliver actual project management capability. The new system had to be easy to use, match Messer’s six-phase lifecycle, and support growing volumes of data. It also needed strong financial tracking and real-time visibility.
After thorough analysis, Messer agreed that Planisware Orchestra was the best fit.
“It gave us one place for everything from updates, reports, dashboards, even documents,” said Sema. “We finally had a system that made our work easier and enabled us to catapult into true portfolio management.”
With Orchestra, teams manage both programs and individual projects in one place. They can customize views, drill into details, and track performance without switching tools. Dashboards update automatically, so leaders can monitor key metrics and see which projects are adding value.
“Planisware let us go from chasing updates to managing performance,” said Sema.
Now, ~ 2,000 users across the Americas work from the same system. Updates that once took hours now take minutes. Teams enter data directly, and portfolios update automatically. Everyone works from a single source of truth, which makes it easier to track progress and take action.

The Outcome
With Planisware, Messer fixed reporting and created a shared system that helps teams work together, move faster, and get better results.
The EMBRACE program has helped drive a 31% increase in productivity over two years. Projects that took weeks to review now get tracked in real time. Teams no longer spend hours chasing updates. Instead, they use that time to solve problems and deliver real impact.
“The user-friendliness of the tool resulted in more engagement across the organization with the Performance Transformation team,” said Sema, "which led to more ideas and projects to improve productivity.”
Now, with one connected system, Messer has clearer performance, faster decisions, and steady progress.
Messer Americas Fast Facts
- Industry focus: Industrial gases for healthcare, manufacturing, food, and clean energy
- Americas reach: U.S., Canada, Brazil, Chile, and Colombia
- Employees: 5,000+ regionally
- 2024 sales: $2.6 billion USD (Americas)
- Key program: EMBRACE portfolio of operational improvement initiatives
- Planisware adoption: ~2,000 users across operations, finance, and strategy teams
- Use case: Align project data, streamline reporting, and support cross-country collaboration across the region
- Business impact: 31% productivity improvement in two years