Client overview
Netlife Design is a user-experience consultancy based in Oslo, with additional offices in Bergen, Norway. They offer a full range of digital consulting services to optimize user experience, working with some of the largest brands in Scandinavia, including Norwegian, Nortura, Coop, and Telia. Their 85+ experts specialize in services like user insight, design, technology, and strategy, focusing on understanding and enhancing the digital user journey.
The challenge
Netlife’s consultants work across various industries, while the management team handles multiple project proposals simultaneously. Before adopting Flowcase, they used an inefficient, manual process involving multiple tools like Word and PDF files, alongside traditional file servers. This disjointed approach made it difficult to find the right consultant qualifications and to update or manage CVs, leading to time-consuming, error-prone workflows.
“It was close to impossible to find exact qualifications for consultants, and very difficult to search for individual CVs. Updating CVs was a major hassle for everyone.” — Netlife’s Client Manager, Jørgen Nygaard Andreassen
Why Flowcase
Netlife needed a system that would streamline the search for consultant CVs, simplify updates, and offer a better overview of the company's knowledge. The solution had to be easy to use, provide rich data about consultants' skills and projects, and improve the proposal process. Jørgen noted that, “for a new system to prove its worth, it had to simplify or enhance three key areas: our CV database searches, usability for consultants to update CVs, and a more in-depth overview of our company knowledge. Flowcase had everything we needed.”
Flowcase provided the perfect solution. Its user-friendly interface combined advanced search functionality with an automated index for storing and retrieving CVs. With free text and fixed-field search options, Netlife’s management team could efficiently search for specific skills and qualifications, greatly improving their proposal preparation process. The automated workflow replaced the tedious manual process of searching for and collecting information from multiple, outdated sources.
Pilot and implementation of the tool
After a face-to-face meeting in Oslo, Netlife decided to trial the tool in early 2016. Since Flowcase is cloud-based, no complex infrastructure or software installation was required. Jørgen led the implementation from Netlife’s side, and the four-week trial phase demonstrated Flowcase’s ability to save time and money by improving the data used for proposals.
The trial concluded with Jørgen presenting a business case to Netlife’s executive management, showing the potential time savings and efficiencies that Flowcase offered. “The decision to move forward with the full-scale rollout was very easy,” Jørgen explained.
The biggest challenge during the rollout was migrating CVs for about 70 team members into the new system. Flowcase’s team assisted with a data scrape from Netlife’s website, allowing for an initial import of consultant information. Once this was done, the process of completing and maintaining CVs became much simpler.
“The initial setup was time-consuming, but it paid off quickly. Our consultants now spend just a few minutes updating their CVs.” - Jørgen Nygaard Andreassen
“Before, we could spend hours hunting for the CVs to include in a bid. Now, we spend at least 50% less time creating proposal documents and making sure CVs are up to date."
The Results
Netlife’s consultants now spend significantly less time updating their CVs, while managers have slashed the time spent creating proposals by 50%. This increased efficiency benefits both consultants and the organization, allowing them to deliver high-quality proposals faster than ever before. Jørgen notes that “before, we could spend hours hunting for CVs to include in a bid. Now, we spend at least 50% less time creating proposals and ensuring CVs are up to date. This is a huge saving for everyone involved.”
Responses From Outside the Company
Flowcase not only improved internal processes but also impressed external partners. During one joint tender meeting, a partner was so impressed with Flowcase’s efficiency that they decided to order a trial, eventually becoming full-time clients.
Flowcase has also enhanced Netlife’s joint tender processes with partners, ensuring all CVs from both companies share the same format and structure, further streamlining collaborative proposals.
Overall, Flowcase has transformed how Netlife manages CVs and bids for new projects. Beyond the tool itself, Jørgen emphasized the outstanding service and support Flowcase has provided from day one: “we want to highlight the great service and support Flowcase provides to us as a client.”
