Meet Pipefy: the tool that will retire forms and spreadsheets

Hi, guys! I’d like to share my new project with you – Pipefy.

We focus on helping small and midsize businesses be more organized and productive by running their processes and day-by-day routines on an easy, intuitive tool.

These businesses can leave inefficient manual forms, spreadsheets and email threads forever in the past. To explain how we brought this idea to life, I need to share a bit of my own history.C

The problem

When I worked at my last company, I often felt frustrated because I couldn’t manage the company the way I wanted. There were some situations when the team didn’t follow the right workflow, forgot tasks assigned in emails, or made mistakes using controls based on manual forms and fragile management spreadsheets.

If that weren’t enough, every team member had his or her own way of managing their tasks, which lead to inefficiency, information loss and rework. The information in the company was fragile, obsolete or duplicated, hard to find or even worse, unreliable.

Frustration at the available solutions

At the time, I tried to solve those issues using bulky management systems (custom ERPs and BPMs) to replace forms and spreadsheets.

I ended up discovering that all options available were too expensive, hard to adopt or both. Beyond license costs, we needed to spend thousands of dollars on IT consultants to customize and implement the solutions.

I also tried using simple task and project management tools, such as Trello and Asana. They’re both great tools but their focus is project management, not managing companies’ routines and processes.

These apps didn’t have process templates, workflow charts and many other features that would greatly help keeping a workflow organized. I saw myself being forced to use inefficient controls and redo work because we insisted on using solutions that were not built to solve our problems.

The dream solution

At the end of 2013, I sold my previous company and started to think about what would my next business be. Taking into consideration all the problems I had managing my processes I started to imagine:

What if there was a tool that was easy to use, intuitive and accessible to everyone at an affordable cost?

I talked with some of my friends that had faced the same problems and decided I should draw some sketches of the ideal tool. Later on I went back to my friends asking for their feedback and their reply was unanimous: I need this in my company!

And that’s how Pipefy was born!

We’re a SaaS – Software as a Service – platform for managing processes and routines built to cater the needs of businesses of all sizes.

Our reliable, easy-to-use solution helps companies stay organized and more productive by better managing their processes and day-by-day activities – leaving behind inefficient manual forms, spreadsheets and emails in the past for good.

Why you should you try Pipefy?

Pipefy addresses inefficiency through two means: standardizing the way the team works as well as sharing with transparency the productivity of all departments and team members.

Inside Pipefy, a process can easily be standardized within a few minutes. The manager determines which activity (such as “credit approval”) the team needs to run and then creates a checklist of tasks and persons assigned to those tasks.

Using Pipefy’s structure, each time someone creates a task the tool automatically delegates that task to the appropriate person. Additionally, the tool shows what must be done in each phase, ensuring that each step is always thoroughly and efficiently executed.

The transparency in productivity was inspired by Kanban, a Japanese management technique. It’s well known for its applications in lean manufacturing and, even though it was invented by car manufactory industry Toyota, it’s widely adopted by hospitals, industries, armies, and, of course auto manufacturers.

All of the activities remain visible in the form of small cards that are moved sideways between every phase of the process, as if in a production line. If at any phase of the process stops or slows down the process, the cards start to accumulate, making it easier to identify what’s holding things back.

The reports follow the same productivity philosophy. All the processes are shown with four standard pieces of information: how many cards were created, how many are in production, what was done, and the average length of time taken to complete each activity.

Thank you for your attention and feel free to ask any questions you might have about how we can help your company be more productive!

@alessioalionco