Kiandra
Australian technology provider, Kiandra, is known for its inclusive and fast-paced team culture. They shed their complex business system for a simpler one that matched their team’s agile way of working.
Kiandra are rapid software development specialists and have developed the core business applications underpinning some of Australia’s most iconic brands. Over the past 24 years, Kiandra grew a team of 50+ and now deliver enterprise-grade solutions to customers around the globe. Kiandra attributes their success to their vibrant team culture, one that values employees and puts a priority on owning outcomes.
“What we got with Projectworks was really aligned with the way we wanted our business to work. It’s truly a system built for services businesses. It is what we would have built if we were to have done it ourselves.”
— Cam Brookes, Co-founder & Managing Director
The Challenge:
A complex project management system didn’t align with the way Kiandra ran their business.
Heading into their 25th year, Kiandra was proud of their international success and their team culture. The business looked to refresh its brand and review some of their internal processes to keep their company humming.
The project management and delivery team identified that one of their most significant barriers to optimized performance was the system being used to manage workflows and projects. It was disjointed and so complex that members of the team were turned-off using it. Management also struggled to pull reliable, real-time data from the system, something that is critical to monitor the performance of their services business. A simpler solution was needed, one that matched Kiandra’s way of working.
“With Projectworks, because it’s easier for everyone to access, I now see our project teams being more proactive about the time they’ve been resourced and quicker to make adjustments when needed. As a project manager, I can clearly see and track the financial position of my projects.”
— Susie Breen, Project Analyst
The Solution:
Projectworks provided an intuitive solution that was easier for staff to use, enabled new internal processes, and allowed management to access real-time data.
For Kiandra, a switch to Projectworks meant getting more with less. They left behind their complex system and the costly features they didn’t use. Projectworks offers Kiandra the core functionality their services business needs, putting timesheets, financial forecasts, capacity planning, resourcing, and invoicing all in one place.
The team at Kiandra agree that Projectworks is more intuitive and accessible compared to their previous system. They didn’t need to spend excess time on training. A more straightforward system enabled Kiandra to update their internal processes and push more responsibility to project managers who now set up and track projects themselves from start to finish. The team also cut steps out of the invoicing process. The ability to generate invoices inside of Projectworks has made the interface with the finance team faster and has reduced the margin for error.
A priority for Kiandra was the accessibility of real-time data to measure the health of their business. Because Projectworks is an open platform, it gives the power back to businesses to access and view data in a way that is most useful to them. Using Projectwork’s direct data connection, Kiandra can pull out information instantly and integrate it into their existing Power BI reports and custom-built dashboards. Being able to visualize forecast revenue and see how it is broken down per project, per employee or per month provides insight to Kiandra so that they can make informed business decisions.
The Results:
API and data connection to Power BI reports
Access to reliable real-time data to inform decisions
Ability to simplify processes and save time
Kiandra is ready for their next milestone.
Kiandra finally feels that the tools they use at work align with their business culture. As the company reaches its 25th anniversary, they look forward to continuing the great software development work they are known for.
Ready for the next step?
For more information on how Projectworks can transform your services organization book a demo today.