CreAct

The client

CreAct is a strategy consulting firm with a presence in the UAE and Switzerland, working with organisations in IT, real estate, trading and government services. Its site, creact.ae, describes an approach that combines creativity with action, delivered through strategy consulting, strategy assessment in management workshops, and software tools of its own.

Those tools are CreActionBox (CAB) and IdeaCreAction (iCAB). CreAct describes CAB as a way to standardise business processes with CAB documents tailored to quality and compliance needs, and iCAB as a way to turn ideas into actionable plans. It works with client teams in a team approach, or in one-to-one sessions for C-level managers, board members and senior government executives.

Its pricing page shows how consulting and software fit together: a Strategy Snapshot, a visual assessment of a business or marketing strategy with CAB; a Strategy Blueprint, built with the client in interactive workshops; CAB Training Core, which teaches the CAB application; and a CAB | iCAB Software Subscription, a one-month licence that gives a client access to its own CAB documents and files, to manage and visualise its strategies online.

The problem

CAB is CreAct's own framework; its pricing page calls it "our unique Creativity Action Box". The software that carries it has to follow CreAct's method. CreAct's home page lists what the software does for its clients:

• keeps all CAB and iCAB documents in one secure place, easy to organise, search and manage;
• makes compliance simpler, with structured, traceable and standardised documentation that meets audit requirements;
• protects sensitive information with role-based permissions;
• lets teams work together on the same material.

CAB and iCAB serve different parts of that method. CAB is for processes: a way of working written down in a standard form, so that it can be followed, traced and audited. iCAB is for ideas and strategy: turning a vision into a plan and making it visible to the people who have to act on it.

The people using the software include board members and senior government executives working on their organisation's strategy. The software is also a product in its own right, not only a tool used inside consulting engagements: clients subscribe to it next to CreAct's consulting packages. It serves more than one client company, and each company's processes and strategy belong to that company alone. Access has to be set for each company, and within a company by role, not once for the whole application.

What we built

WeebPal built CreAct a custom web application from scratch to carry CreActionBox and iCAB. It runs on Drupal at creact.ae and serves both as CreAct's public site and as the application its clients log in to.

The application behind the login covers the parts of the method described above:

• CAB, for standardising business processes. Users create and manage CAB documents, the form CreAct uses to set a business process down in a standard way, with the structured and traceable documentation CreAct's home page describes for compliance and audit.
• iCAB, for visualising strategy. Ideas and strategies are turned into actionable plans and shown visually. CreAct's training page describes the CAB application as a way to map out scenarios, options and outcomes as interactive diagrams, and to assess risks, opportunities and innovations.
• Companies with their own permissions. The application holds more than one company, and each company is set up with its own permissions. Role-based access then decides what each user in that company can see and do.
• One place for the documents. CAB and iCAB documents are kept together, to organise, search and manage, which CreAct's home page calls a centralised document hub.

The public side presents CreAct's consulting, assessment and software services, its approach, its pricing, a contact route, a privacy policy and terms of use. The Log in link in its account menu leads to the application. The screens on this page are from the public site; the application behind the login is described here in words only.

The scope recorded for this project covers strategy visualisation, a SaaS platform, enterprise security and process automation on Drupal. It is the kind of work described on our web application development page.

Our role

WeebPal worked directly with CreAct. We developed the application from scratch, not from one of our own platforms: the CAB and iCAB features, the structure of companies and permissions, and the Drupal build that carries both the application and the public site. We maintain it now that it is running. Maintenance is described on our support and maintenance page, and more of our work for companies is collected under enterprise.

The result

The application is running at creact.ae, and WeebPal maintains it. Konrad Schwitter, Project Owner at CreAct, wrote this for our reviews page:

Working with the WeebPal development team has been a real pleasure. For creact.ae, they built us a completely custom, highly tailored application that truly has its own unique character. Both speed and quality are excellent: sometimes they deliver so fast that the client can barely keep up. I can only highly recommend Hai and his entire team.