Project snapshot
Intellias has designed and deployed a platform for transparently and securely evaluating investment opportunities. The platform facilitates seamless management of investment projects, allowing our client to gain a competitive edge in the market. It also streamlines data collection, improving transparency in communication to gain a 360-degree view of cross-company processes and providing actionable insights within the organization. Leveraging interconnected low-code capabilities, the platform promotes practical, evidence-based decisions and user-friendliness, granting stakeholders control over data while minimizing time and errors.
Our client is a European specialist growth equity investor that provides capital to fast-growing digital consumer, software, and sustainable society businesses. Their funds have backed more than 135 investments in fast-growing enterprises since 2003, with over €3.6 billion in total commitments. With a team of 100 investment professionals and operating experts across the EU, they are dedicated to being the preferred growth partner for tech-enabled and sustainable businesses in Europe.
Business challenge
Our client faced challenges with fragmented process visibility and limited cross-team communication due to poor data accessibility on account of using Word documents for reports and analyses. This hindered productive decision-making and coordination among teams managing complex investment portfolios and strategies.
As a technology-focused investment company, the client required their collaboration platform to be scalable, be responsive, and integrate with the Salesforce CRM suite, which they used for their core sales activities. For maximum user convenience, the application needed to support multiple web and mobile platforms and allow for offline use. At the same time, it needed to be cost-efficient and easy to maintain.
In addition to compliance with technical requirements, the client’s business situation demanded that the collaboration platform be implemented quickly and with minimum disruption to ongoing processes. For Intellias, this was not a limitation but rather a challenge that allowed us to deliver our standard best practices.
Solution
Workflow automation with Microsoft Power Apps
To meet the need for fast and efficient workflow automation, we employed Microsoft Power Apps, a low-code application builder. Power Apps provides a cost-effective solution for building applications without extensive coding resources. This allowed us to create a fully functional app that complements the client’s cross-company investment management process. Users can interact, create, and comment on issues, as well as add remarks and notes to potential projects.
The solution utilizes Microsoft Dataverse for flexible storage of application data, providing the required level of security while being relatively easy to manage and maintain.
Advanced features with scalability in focus
The client now enjoys an intuitive application for evaluating investment opportunities online and offline that easily supports the current audience of 200+ users and can be scaled as the business grows.
On top of digitalized meeting preparation processes, the app features the ability to add sentiment, replacing the previous method of conducting pre-meeting calls to understand participants’ points of view before discussions.
The application features a secure access management system based on Active Directory and allows administrators to manage role-based access for users.
Seamless integrations and unified connectivity
The app we created runs on smartphones, tablets, or in a browser, allowing users to access functionality wherever they are. The offline data capability enables users to view and participate in discussions even when no internet connection is available.
The solution smoothly integrates with the Salesforce CRM without incurring any additional costs for the client. Compared to Salesforce, the cost of a Power Apps license is significantly lower. Moreover, with built-in connectors to diverse data sources, the application smoothly integrates with Microsoft Teams and Outlook. This streamlines the process of gathering information from various platforms and presenting it in a user-friendly format.
High-level architecture diagram
Business outcomes
Within just two months, Intellias delivered a dynamic, scalable, and highly intuitive application. Its robust functionality is set to empower investment experts to make data-driven decisions and efficiently evaluate potential projects. The team has successfully deployed the application across various environments, addressing initial deployment challenges. We swiftly integrated extra features post-launch, ensuring the application was fully production-ready. This resulted in a significant improvement in communication and decision-making processes for our client, driving growth for their business and partners.
Cost-effective solution. Delivered within strict timelines, the app provides a value-conscious alternative to customizing the Salesforce suite or Microsoft CRM, reducing license cost overhead, especially when bundled with Microsoft 365.
Scalability & operational efficiency. Designed to grow with the business, the app currently supports approximately 220 users and can expand as needed. It fulfills its core mission of giving users consistent access to information (a single source of truth), notably improving cross-team synergy. This collaboration enables secure validation and evaluation of potential projects, ensuring confidentiality and data security.
Enhanced productivity. Seamless integration with Microsoft and Salesforce platforms enhances workflow productivity, as users can access functionalities within familiar environments with minimum context switching and friction. Additionally, responsive cross-platform availability and offline mode ensure uninterrupted productivity. Now, users can access the app anytime, anywhere, making it easy to fit it into daily routines and fostering a more productive work environment.
200
active users
30+
available integrations
€18.70
license cost per user *
* Negotiable according to Microsoft terms