Idea Link

Please describe your company and your position there.

Founder-Director and CEO

For what projects/services did your company hire Idea Link, and what were your goals?

Our company faced an enormous challenge of managing our data, task management, and CRM. We were using a number of costly tools to help us keep track of these dails, and in some cases, we were not using any tools at all. Our aim was to find an affordable, single-window solution that would quickly bring our data management under control, and have it be easy to adapt, customize, and evolve with our rapidly growing company.

How did you select Idea Link and what were the deciding factors?

We chose to work with Idea Link because they specialize in No Code solutions, and proposed the most efficient way for us to move ahead. Their iterative approach made it possible to start quickly and get quick results in a piece by piece manner; we didn't have to know the end picture and could design and develop as we went along, constantly changing along the way, but having an immediately and continuously usable system. That was a game changer.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The entire project was built in Coda. Our company, Multiple Natures International, has a core team of 5 people, with an extended team of freelancers and partners that span the globe. We create human alignment tools--a psychometric test and training programs that enable people to understand their unique potential and connect it with what they do.

There are thousands of things to take care of--product development, sales, marketing, course management, participant management, certification management, email and communication, research, etc. Really speaking, it's an insane amount of detail, and as the company expands, it just grows exponentially.

For the task management, Idea Link structured our data in the most flexible ways, enabling us to view the details precisely as we needed. We can see tasks according to individuals, as well as by milestones, and can also see the load management with useful Gantt charts.

There are also Kanban boards for certain processes (like our certification process), so we can easily track where students are in the process, and ensure that the right printed certifications reach them on time. We did away with Asana which was an expensive solution that didn't give us half the functionality as this new solution.

Idea Link also created a CRM to manage our courses--tracking students each step of the way--their course completion levels, sending them automated reminders, scheduling their live exams, and more. In fact, they did such a comprehensive job, that we realized that in a few more iterations, we will be able to do away with our very costly Learning Management System, and will be able to add a few more sections and create our own LMS. It's just brilliant!

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked directly with Rokas (CEO).

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

With each iteration of the tools we get more productive and efficient. It's a constant process of improvement that saves us time, energy, and money. And that makes us more productive.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

The project mangement style has been very personal and professional simultaneously. We keep a log in Coda of the types of issues we're facing. We then book one hour sprints and get online and solve many of the problems right then and there. This approach is really quite novel. You are present while much of the development goes on, so you can give direct inputs and guide the process.

We have also made use of Bloo.io to track project work.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

How easy they make the solutions seem to complex problems. And how their No Code approach provides virtually immediate solutions that can be modified at any stage. The tools totally evolve with us at the most micro level.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

I think at the beginning there was not enough focus on making the pages visually appealing. I believe functionality is paramount, but form is also important because it often makes the user experience more engaging. However, once we addressed this, Idea Link really picked up on that and I'm really happy with the way things are being handled visually.