Implementing a digital tool: Kensal Arquitectura & Ingeniería

We want to share a new success story with you. This time, it is a Peruvian company that chose to work with us, so that we could provide them with advice on the best way to implement digital business management tools to incorporate into their team.

Kensal Arquitectura & Ingeniería is a company located in Lima focused on the development of infrastructure for retail. Kensal is made up of a team of architects, engineers, and interior designers who design and implement shopping centers and various smaller stores. Its professionals have extensive experience offering a high-quality service, to integrate architecture and engineering, based on the use of agile methodologies.

Without postponing it any longer, we present the interview we had with Irma, founder and Project Director of Kensal, and the ideas that were exchanged there, regarding the recent incorporation and experience with digital platforms.

Drew: As you had already told us, Kensal started two years ago and the challenge they were facing was to create an online work structure.

Irma Sócola:

Our challenge as a company was to find a digital platform that would allow us to manage and monitor the development of our projects, considering that the entire Kensal team works from home. Therefore, not being physically in a single space, the team had to look for tools so that all project participants could stay informed of its status. In addition, more people joined the team during the quarantine.

The challenge for us has been to communicate effectively and control the projects we had even without knowing each other. Learning to work from home has always been challenging; for this reason, we have invested in these virtual platforms to help us improve these processes

Drew: Could you mention the stages of a project in Kensal? How could you describe those stages?

Irma Sócola:

We use "agile methodologies" to manage projects and we take into account the following stages:

• • • Analysis of investment in commercial infrastructure.
    • Design of architecture and engineering projects for retail.
    • Management and supervision of work.
    • Implementation of commercial premises.
    • Visual merchandising and showcases

Drew: When you hired this tool to manage, you told us that you felt frustrated. Why couldn't you manage to use it autonomously and what motivated you to request our help?

Irma Sócola:

We chose this tool because it is a visually attractive and easy-to-use platform, and it also allows us to invite other users with whom we want to share specific information about our projects. Although the use is very intuitive, we needed guidance in Spanish on the different aspects of the platform and so we chose to work with Drew because it was the Latin American company that offered us a flexible and dynamic proposal that adapted to our work schedules.

The main barrier we had was the language since the platform's automation settings and webinars are in English. That is why we needed an advisor in Spanish to explain the functionalities and scope of monday.com.

Drew: What tasks do you currently use the platform for?

Irma Sócola:

We use the tool to manage each of our projects, for example, shopping centers, we also manage the administrative and accounting part, we have our database, and we work with partners or associates for certain company tasks.

Drew: Could you describe Drew as a supplier in three concepts?

Irma Sócola:

• • Positive answers: in each training they gave us precise and fast answers to all our questions, which speaks of the extensive knowledge that you have of the platform.
  • They use simple language: this is favorable since not everyone on our team is an architect. This means that they adapt even linguistically to our needs. In other countries, this closeness is not always seen.
  • Dynamic advice on managing the platform: it allowed us to streamline certain processes, especially the administrative ones. We used to use Excel before and now we move everything to monday.com with no problem thanks to your help.

Drew: How was working together with Drew?

Irma Sócola:

Drew's team has been flexible to our schedule and structured the training sessions in short periods in such a way that our team stayed focused during these sessions. Today, our entire team feels more confident in using the chosen platform and when we have any doubts about its use, we turn to the recorded videos of the sessions we had with Drew.

Drew is empathetic to the needs of their customers, they have a broad command of the platform with which the customer decides to train and they use simple language to reach all users who participate in the training sessions. We recommend Drew for the high-quality service they can offer to any Latin American company.