Bleau Consulting began working with ITK Solutions Group in early 2022, when they approached us to provide our expert insight and development support on their client initiatives. As a Microsoft services provider, their workload can vary greatly, and we stepped in to supplement their team’s efforts for digital implementations. Over the months working together, we have expanded the scope of our work and our responsibilities as a long term partner. Now, we manage end-to-end project architecture to design and implement solutions for their clients. As a result, ITK is one of our most successful partnerships.
Our partnership began because Jared, our founder, had a previous relationship with members of the ITK team, which led them to reach out to us for support on a one-off project. After reestablishing the relationship and developing a working partnership, we continued to provide supplemental help on ITK’s existing projects. Our project management expertise and Power Platform product development experience was crucial to helping them complete some smaller projects at the beginning of our engagement.
After building trust and proving our value, we began taking on more responsibility from ITK to help lighten the load for their internal team. ITK was appreciative of our speed and agility, plus the personal approach we bring to all our relationships, which led to more opportunities to collaborate. We proved that we are a trustworthy partner by jumping into the fire with the ITK team to tackle challenges, which set the foundation for our current partnership. Now, we have transitioned to project and architecture leads for their client-facing work, including managing digital transformation projects and developing the necessary Power Platform components of those projects.
Most recently, we helped ITK deliver an app that had been behind schedule and in danger of missing the launch date. The goal was to build and launch an app for a Catholic Charity using Microsoft Power Apps within a month. The charity was making a national push to provide housing and funding for Afghan immigrants, which needed to be managed through a user-friendly app in multiple cities throughout the United States.
ITK trusted us to take the reins on the app build for the San Diego chapter. Thanks to our excellent working relationship, ITK knew that our team was ready to tackle the design and management of the app within a month, even though it was already behind on the project timeline.
Using the foundation that ITK had provided, our team put all hands on deck and created an efficient solution with Microsoft Power Apps. While some of the backend pieces and database were there, we needed to create the frontend from scratch and finalize the work that the ITK team had already started. We guided this custom app through user acceptance training and sandbox testing to create the final product within a month. After weeks of late nights and weekend work, we successfully launched a working app.
Besides the severe time crunch, our team also ran into a challenge with the application requirements. Users needed to be able to download, fill out, upload, and submit documents through the app. With our custom solution on Microsoft Power Apps, we created a seamless, easy to use platform for the charity’s intake volunteers to collect applications.
As a result of our effort, we met the deadline with a successful app build that helps house refugees and provide the support they need as they adjust to life in America. So far, the San Diego app has received over 900 submissions to support a total of nearly 4,000 refugees in the area. ITK noted that our team’s attention to detail, responsiveness, initiative, quality of work, and willingness to take the extra steps to ensure a successful end product reaffirmed their belief in our abilities and partnership.
Thanks to the personal connection we had with the ITK team and the trust we built up over a few years of working together, we had the opportunity to work on an impactful app build and highlight our strengths as a partner. We value our long term partnerships and the efficient working relationships we build with our repeat clients. With ITK, we were able to navigate the expansion of our duties while continuously supporting their team, proving our value as a dependable partner.
As our relationships with ITK and other partners develop, our team has become masters at managing workflows so we can accommodate these partner projects as they come in. We pride ourselves on our ability to step in at crucial moments for our partners, no matter what one-time projects we have on our plate. Growing long term partnerships has taught our team the importance of agility and effectively allocating our time to support all of our clients. As a partner, we’re here to fill in the gaps during crunch time while going the extra mile to provide the services that our clients need.
When it comes to finding effective solutions with Microsoft Power Platform, we’re dedicated to providing our expertise and experience. If you’re ready to see how we can partner with you, or solve an immediate problem, get in touch with our solutions experts today.
