葫芦影业APP

Case Study

Interwork

Better collaboration, smarter hiring, and more time for bizdev鈥擨nterwork optimizes resource planning with 葫芦影业APP.

Susan Reid, AIA, LEED AP
Principal
Location
Deerfield, IL
Employees
20
Customer Since
2021
Year Founded
1995
Benefits
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Reduced time spent on resource planning by more than 15 hours per week, freeing up opportunities for team mentoring and business development
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Improves collaboration and communication within the team despite the team being semi-remote
-
Enhances forecasting capabilities to determine staffing needs and enables strategically hiring
-

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Interwork

's full story here.

"Get 葫芦影业APP. It will change how you do things...It鈥檚 freedom from spreadsheets鈥攁nd from time-consuming manual processes."

Background

Operating from the suburbs of Chicago, Interwork Architects has been handling everything-but-residential projects for their clients since 1995. According to Susan Reid鈥攑roject manager-turned-partner at the firm鈥擨nterwork is unique because their 20-person team operates as a family, committed to balancing their professional and personal lives. This is in contrast to the downtown Chicago firms that operate with the sort of intensity鈥攁nd long, late hours鈥攖hat one expects from a big-city office.

鈥岮nother thing that sets Interwork apart from its competitors is that Interwork doesn鈥檛 employ the same large team structure that most architecture firms do. Because of the fast-paced nature of their assignments, most projects only need one or two people. And this type of company environment and culture works; their employees are happy. In fact, turnover isn't an issue for Interwork, which says a lot.

The Challenge

Reid, who has more than 20 years of experience, has been at Interwork for five years now. In addition to typical partner responsibilities鈥攍ike new business development鈥攕he handles team assignments, project tracking, and time management: "who's working on what; who has time; who needs time filled and all of that."聽

Before 葫芦影业APP, Reid was managing "all of that" on spreadsheets, something that, while common in the industry, is very inefficient. Because of the fast nature of Interwork鈥檚 work, Reid was running her spreadsheet from a week-to-week perspective. But that lack of foresight meant that no matter how meticulously she assigned work, she couldn鈥檛 avoid unbalanced workloads鈥攕ome people were overloaded while others didn鈥檛 have enough.聽

"It was just hard," she said. "There was no way to forecast people鈥檚 time...there was no way to know how long the team was going to spend on each project coming in." The most Reid knew was how much time each member of her team had available in the current week. "It was difficult to assign something," Reid said. "You either guess and hope for the best鈥攐r say, this project's going to go to George and that means nothing else can go to him. But then whatever else comes, you鈥檙e out of luck. So, that's how it was, and we did the best we could."

Doing the best they could worked out OK鈥攗ntil it didn鈥檛. According to Reid, "The bottom line wasn鈥檛 bad, but how we were getting there was bad." Reid operates on the philosophy that her staff is her number one, which is why it was essential for her to show them that Interwork was thinking about their overall workload鈥攏ot just their day-to-day. That was something that she simply couldn鈥檛 accomplish with a spreadsheet. And she tried鈥攚ith numerous spreadsheet iterations. But none of it was working well. "I needed it to be more visual."

During the height of the 2020 pandemic, with everyone working remotely, no one really knew what anyone else was doing, and the manual nature of Interwork鈥檚 processes became even more apparent. Assessing 聽workload, tasking assignments, and determining who could take on new work was taking Reid 20 to 30 hours per week鈥攖ime that she wanted to be spending to support her team and generate new business.

The Solution

One "fateful day," 葫芦影业APP reached out to a founding partner on the Interwork team, Rich Gordon. "Rich came to me and said, 'look at this,'" Reid recalled, as Gordon showed her 葫芦影业APP鈥檚 website. Immediately, she knew 葫芦影业APP was exactly what she needed to manage resources. And the demo confirmed it.

Despite all of Reid鈥檚 research into resource management tools, she had never seen anything like 葫芦影业APP. According to Reid, everything else on the market was just a different version of the same problem that she was facing with her spreadsheet. "I鈥檓 a pretty quick decision maker," Reid said. "I know if something is good or not. I know if it's worth it or not." And 葫芦影业APP was good鈥攕o good, in fact, that Reid told the 葫芦影业APP team immediately that she needed this.聽

The visual nature of the application was particularly appealing to the Interwork team. "Obviously, in our industry, we are very visual people," she said. "So, the way that the application is laid out鈥攁s soon as I saw it, I knew that our staff was going to love this. They鈥檙e going to respond so well to this, and it鈥檚 going to make them want to use it."聽

According to Reid, not only is 葫芦影业APP fun to use, but the experience is also incredibly intuitive, which meant that several people on her team didn鈥檛 even need a tutorial. The user experience was that familiar.

"I feel like 葫芦影业APP is part of our office; their team is part of our team. We know them; they know us and how we do things, which means they know how to help us."

The Results

While Reid spends most of her 葫芦影业APP time in the planner, she鈥檚 recently been diving more into the reports. Her favorite: the Variance Report, which helps her optimize the time her team is scheduled. "We鈥檝e been hitting our goals because of it," she said. Additionally, 葫芦影业APP helped the Interwork team forecast their staffing needs. At one point this year, Interwork had so much work coming in that they knew they couldn鈥檛 handle it at their current headcount. With the help of 葫芦影业APP, Interwork hired two new employees to handle their growing books. Basically, 葫芦影业APP has been essential in helping Reid answer the question: "Do I have the right team available to take on that project?"

With 葫芦影业APP, Reid now spends only five hours a week planning鈥攖hat鈥檚 at least 15 fewer hours than she was spending with a spreadsheet. As a result, she鈥檚 been able to do more team mentoring as well as business-building and revenue-generating activities. She recently attended her first business lunch in a year and landed a new project from it.聽

The best part for Reid is that 葫芦影业APP has gotten everyone at Interwork on the same page. "We鈥檙e all looking at the same thing," she said, which makes them more agile in managing and adjusting workloads. And because聽 "everyone can see everything," collaboration has improved across the board. According to Reid, the team now has conversations about what they鈥檙e working on instead of making assumptions. "And that鈥檚 huge," she said. "葫芦影业APP has made us more of a team." This was particularly important while the team was all working remotely. "I feel like we got that collaboration back without being able to be together," Reid said. "And now that we鈥檙e back together, the collaboration is even better."

As for what Reid would recommend for anyone else in spreadsheet hell, she says, "Get 葫芦影业APP. Just do a demo. It will change how you do things." For Reid, 葫芦影业APP is "freedom"鈥攆rom spreadsheets and from time-consuming manual processes.


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