How we built WE while testing no-code solutions

Development is a process that is crucial to achieving business goals in an organization. However, it comes with many challenges. As a business grows, its needs often evolve as well. Excellent evidence of this is the genesis of WE, the tool we use every day at Innovatika to organize our work.

Until the development of WE, Innovatika had not used any global, commercial solution to manage administrative processes internally. Like many organizations, we struggled with data fragmentation. Much of the key information for employees was stored in emails, files, clouds and single process management software. As the company grew and the number of employees increased, we began to feel the need for change.

This need became particularly apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the very first months, when we were forced to switch to a complete remote work mode, the existing approach to managing administrative processes proved to be a major challenge. It was then that we made the final decision to implement a solution that would facilitate our daily work.

While reviewing the available commercial solutions, we unfortunately did not find anything that met our very specific requirements. The tools available on the market lacked flexibility and openness to the changing needs of our team.

However, the lack of an obvious answer to our challenge did not make us forget about it. Since the market did not offer us a ready-made solution, we decided to develop one on our own. The final aspect that led us to this decision was our testing of no-code/low-code tools. Implementing our own solution using traditional programming work would have been costly and, above all, time-consuming. Given the number of ongoing projects at the time, this was a significant obstacle for us. However, better knowledge of news from the world of no-code opened new horizons for us.

At the planning stage, the project was divided into several key phases. First, we moved to an in-depth analysis of the needs of future users. Employees in different positions had varying expectations regarding the management of administrative matters. It was very important for us to study and respond to the needs of all users. So we decided to divide them into groups. We identified the roles of Administrator, Manager, Project Manager, Back Office Operators and Employee.

The next step was empirical research. We conducted them both quantitatively and qualitatively. From each of the identified groups, we selected at least one representative with whom we conducted an in-depth interview. In the interview, we were able to learn more about his specific needs and his previous experience with administrative processes. The remaining employees took part in an anonymous survey on a similar topic.

This stage allowed us to define the final requirements for our solution. An additional advantage of the survey and interviews was that they also allowed us to generate new ideas for functionality. A large part of them found actual application in the final version of the application.

After defining the requirements, we were able to start creative work. At this stage, cooperation between our product design team and no-code engineers proved exceptionally important. The designers responsible for UX and UI had the opportunity to work side by side with the developers, which allowed us to take into account comments on the feasibility of the designed solutions on an ongoing basis. This approach provided us with time savings and flexibility during implementation.

Since we executed the project in-house, we had a constant opportunity to test the implemented elements “on a living organism.” Agile cooperation between teams with different sets of competencies, was also conducive to quickly finding and implementing new solutions.

Ultimately, the WE project is an excellent demonstration of the importance of multidisciplinarity of the teams that create solutions designed by Innovatika.

The final stage of our work was to implement and make the created management system available to our employees. Due to the attention and time devoted to researching their needs, the process went really easily – our users got the solution they were waiting for. After a company-wide presentation of the solution and a short trial period, we were able to successfully implement WE at Innovatika. The advantages could be seen just a few weeks after implementation. Many processes that until then had no fixed place were finally anchored in a central, company-wide tool.

At this point, everything is available in one place: space for time reporting, HR/PR communications, communication with the organization’s various departments, space for industry reports and analysis, and even access to a library or employee benefits.

WE streamlines daily administrative tasks, making processes easier and, most importantly, giving us more time for our daily creative work.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that WE is a solution extremely close to Innovatika’s employees. It is a solution that has brought a new quality to the management of our daily duties. At this point, we can’t imagine working without WE, and we certainly don’t want to return to old habits.