An intranet that replaced Trello and a maze of server folders

01The challenge

Consult Construct is a multi-disciplinary team of surveyors and architects advising homeowners, businesses, contractors and the public sector. Its files lived in a labyrinth of Windows Server folders, and the versions people found were often out of date, so templates were used inconsistently and clients saw the knock-on effect. Projects ran in Trello, but the set-up was hard to keep updated, management struggled to see where projects stood, and tracking and chasing deadlines was difficult.

02What we did

1. 012023 — a deep-dive discovery workshop with staff and senior management on the software in use and the processes behind it
2. 02Discovery: a staff questionnaire on how the team actually used Trello
3. 03Recommendation: platforms compared, SharePoint ruled out as too expensive and inefficient, and a no-code platform chosen that the team could change themselves
4. 042024 — Notion configured as the company intranet and workflow system: databases, views, forms, news and permissions
5. 05Rollout: data migrated from Trello and the shared folders, then sessions with the team on running and adapting the system

03What we built

• Central library of current report templates
• Workflow management in place of Trello
• Company news, forms and policies
• Time tracking and invoice values
• Calendar integration with CitrusHR
• Permissions and access control

04The result

Staff now pull templates from the central intranet, so the documents and reports clients receive are consistent. New admin personnel can use the system after five minutes of training, and because it is self-managed, Consult Construct can change it without waiting on us. Lost documents and out-of-date versions stopped being part of the working day, and we stayed on hand through the transition for anyone who needed extra help.