IdeaToLife

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Reelly, a marketing and communication consulting agency based in Lebanon. We operate across the Middle East, mainly within Lebanon, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia. Through my different projects, I came across IdeaToLife for two of my projects: Elevator Express website and the Elevator Express Tracker CRM, both for the elevator industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IdeaToLife?

We needed a technical partner who could understand the complexity of the elevator industry, someone who could bring to life a search engine that was very industry-specific with a lot of confidentiality. The first project was some kind of an Amazon for the elevator industry, and the second project was an ERP with a lot of complex features.

It was a very challenging project because it’s very industry-specific and complicated. As a marketing agency, it took me over six months to understand the project. Then, when I briefed IdeaToLife, they actually assigned a team to understand the elevator industry before starting to work on the project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We needed something that was 100% custom. We couldn’t use anything that was template-made then adapted to our project. Everything was custom created for us. The complex features include notifications and escalations, messaging, finance tools, and real-time chatting for employees that are doing maintenance and service jobs on the ground for elevator clients. All of these needed to be developed into an ERP that needed to be flawless.

I’m in touch with a project manager who coordinates with their team, and I have bi-weekly meetings with the entire team. The team is comprised of a project manager, a CTO, a frontend developer, a backend developer, a UX designer, a web designer, and a regular designer as well. I also have a team member who’s in charge of quality assurance.

How did you come to work with IdeaToLife?

The industry isn’t very big in Lebanon, but it is in Dubai. It was very scary to go with someone in Dubai because most of the work is outsourced to India, Pakistan, or even to Armenia or the Eastern European countries. I started looking in Lebanon, and I could only find a few companies that understood what we were looking for. It was a rather nice and easy task to find them. It was risky because I didn’t know if they’d be able to bring that project to life. However, they excelled at what they did.

A deciding factor in hiring IdeaToLife was the way they got involved in the project. Not coming from the elevator industry, they actually assigned a team to research the industry and understand all the specificities we wanted for that given project. That made me and my client decide to go with them. We saw they were involved even before we signed with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started at the end of 2014, and the work is ongoing. It’s a never-ending workload, as we keep on updating and testing with the industry. We keep getting feedback and implementing the new features that are needed for the industry. Whenever we have new clients, we get feedback and then give that to IdeaToLife. They are in charge of all versions and updates.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Without them, we wouldn’t have a project. The biggest success, from a technical point of view, is that they brought it to life. The first project is more of a complimentary tool for companies and individuals within the elevator industry. The tracker product is used in a lot of companies, and we are finding clients across the Middle East, so we’re not limited to one country anymore and that’s mainly due to word-of-mouth.

Because it was a new product, there are still a lot of features we need to add, but that’s not an issue that was missed by IdeaToLife. We just hadn’t thought about it from a business perspective. We received the feedback, and we’re going to be implementing it. In terms of user journey and the ERP’s ease of use, we are receiving great feedback from the industry and from the clients who have signed with us.

How did IdeaToLife perform from a project management standpoint?

They had a restructuring of their team less than a year ago. Since then, we have an assigned team that only works on our portfolio. The communication is great. We have daily status updates. We have a rather efficient flow because, on a daily basis, we know everything that’s happening on the project. IdeaToLife is very transparent with us, so we’re always updated. We send them new feedback and tasks every day.

The dedicated team and their transparency have affected us positively. At any given time, even on weekends, we have an automated status report about what’s happening and what’s pending. Quality assurance is being done from their end, before we start doing it from the client side, on a daily basis. I believe this is amazing from a service provider. It’s something I started doing in my company after experiencing it with IdeaToLife.

What did you find most impressive about IdeaToLife?

No matter what the challenge is, they will do their best to find a solution for you. I’ve never heard them say no. That’s common in the service industry, but I’ve never seen reticence from their side. I come up with a lot of ideas that are crazier than crazy, and they’re always happy to look for a solution. They find the better solution, and we usually agree on the way forward on any type of request.

Are there any areas IdeaToLife could improve?

Their headquarters are in Lebanon, and they have teams in other countries as well. Their company is growing at the speed of light, which is great for them. Because they have some specialties in the other offices, it sometimes creates a bit of a delay. It hasn’t impacted our business negatively, but maybe that’s the only thing that could be improved, in terms of adapting to the client’s time zone. I understand that sometimes they can’t have all their team members in the same office.