Lexor joins forces with Dashdot: “They really jumped into our thought process”

When Flexsoft created AI-driven time-tracking solution Lexor, founder Alexander Desaver brought us on to help develop it. From conception to coding, together we brought their new product to life. Alexander looks back on how Dashdot went beyond classic consulting to strengthening Lexor’s team:

Starting with a blank canvas

Dashdot had already worked with Lexor’s parent company, Flexsoft. But Lexor was going to be something completely new. The comprehensive time-tracking product started off as a blank canvas. “We normally create classic client service solutions,” says Alexander. “With Lexor we ventured into building a cloud-based solution for the first time. That requires another kind of team with different skills and a different mindset.”

“Dashdot understood exactly what we needed from the start”

Dashdot helped guide Lexor through the process, although the collaboration wasn’t a classic way of working together with a client. “We weren’t looking for a 100 percent partner who codes analysis and then comes up with something for us,” Alexander clarifies. “We wanted our existing or new team members to be able to lean on the expertise of another party. Dashdot understood exactly what we needed from the start.” For Alexander the real added value was that Dashdot was integrated into the internal development team. “As a partner, they could simultaneously train our people and give them skills they can use themselves later.”

It’s all about people

For Alexander the biggest benefit has been the way Maarten and Dries of Dashdot approach collaboration. “Lexor is an innovative and complex project. We’ve already worked with a lot of consultants for the AI and data science aspects,” he says. “The way I make decisions really focuses on my connection with a person.” Alexander especially values people’s capacity to translate their expertise relatively quickly into Lexor’s way of working, adding: “It’s important to be agile but also to be real, to go beyond post-its.”

“Dries and Maarten have a very solution-oriented way of thinking, they’re not just trying to fill the hours”

Alexander had the feeling that Dries was completely absorbed into the team and product. “He was completely into Lexor, he was really on the same page. That’s what you need, that’s the added value,” he explains. “You didn’t get the feeling that he was just showing up for his job. They really jumped into our thought process and made us question things.” For Lexor it’s about going the extra mile: putting classical methods and modes of analysis aside and coming up with fresh ideas. “Dashdot put their heads together with ours, going along with how we work. In that sense they’re not classic consultants,” says Alexander. “They have a very solution-oriented way of thinking, they’re not just trying to fill the hours.”

Double wins

According to Alexander, the collaboration with Dashdot has yielded great results. He can name two immediate wins to start with: a strong, well-functioning platform and a great employee experience. “You see the experience Dashdot has built up by doing so many projects in so many different sectors,” he says. “That helped them put forward certain components and technical preferences, and they did that really well.”

Alexander also credits Dashdot with helping Lexor provide a great employee experience to their existing staff. “Our staff had to start from scratch in React Native, the programming language Lexor was created in,” he explains. “With Dashdot’s guidance our developer has become fully competent in React Native and can work completely independently.” As a result, Lexor has someone who is happy to work for them and who can handle the work without taking on an extra person. “Dashdot delivered great work and helped train an employee along that way: isn’t that ideal?”