Published on June 2, 2025, in if.team case
Hanna Pichkur
Copywriter, if.team
Oleh Frolov
CEO, if.team
In the world of architectural design, every project follows a unique journey—from initial idea to the realization of creative concepts in architecture. At each of these stages, the Ukrainian architectural bureau “Drozdov & Partners” needed reliable support, which they found seriously and for the long term in if.team ERP for architects. Now this talented team, which creates architectural masterpieces in various corners of Ukraine and around the world, has gained a centralized platform that fully matches the agency’s ambitious projects. Learn about the benefits of ERP solutions for architectural fims like “Drozdov & Partners” and how the Ukrainian team is conquering new heights with if.team in our case study. Because we haven’t yet delved into the details of digital transformation in the architecture industry.
Industry Architecture and design
Company size: 11–50 employees
Start of ERP implementation for architectural firm: April 2024
Since its founding in 1997, Architectural Office Drozdov&Partners has become synonymous with an innovative approach to spatial solutions. The company was born in Kharkiv during a period of radical changes in the architectural landscape after the collapse of the USSR, and opened a completely new perspective on modern architecture that appeals to the world of human emotions and feelings.
With the start of the war, the design firm, like most Ukrainian companies, again faces new challenges and was forced to relocate to Lviv. During this time, the team has been joined by talented architects, and the bureau’s portfolio has grown by dozens of projects related to residential and public development, recreational centers, and heritage reconstruction.
Yes, the company dared not only to relocate to the city of Lviv, but also to migrate projects to the if.team, new ERP for architectural and engineering firms. From the first orders that appeared on the wave of private investment to large-scale international projects—the team has always sought flexible solutions. Architecture, urban planning, interior design, landscape, planning, and research—the spectrum of the design firm’s specializations is impressive in its diversity. Ultimately, so is the geography of projects, which covers Switzerland, France, the USA, Spain, Kuwait, Korea, and other countries around the world.
The professional recognition of Architectural Office Drozdov&Partners has been repeatedly confirmed on the international stage, including nominations for the prestigious EU architectural award Mies van der Rohe Award 2019 and 2022, which recognized the Theater on Podil, VG Horse Club, and Sense Dental Clinic, as well as the victory of the public sports complex in the city of Daegu in the Daegu International Architecture Competition 2014 in South Korea.
Such a global approach not only enriches the professional experience of the architectural office, but also requires special sensitivity to time, local culture and context of each project. The high quality and creativity of Drozdov&Partners’ architectural solutions required the implementation of equally high-quality and flexible ERP for architects that would allow optimizing not only large-scale projects, but also the company’s internal processes.
Designing architectural masterpieces requires not only the talent of creators, but also flawless organization of processes. Architecture and design office Drozdov&Partners used various architectural project management software, including the financial program FinMap. Although it met the company’s financial accounting needs, the growing scale and ambitions of the architectural office required a more integrated approach. The team management faced typical challenges familiar to many creative agencies: disparate systems for different aspects of business, difficulty tracking project progress, and inability to see the financial picture of each project in real time.
Therefore, for an office with so many international projects like Drozdov&Partners, not only financial control is important, but also clear organization of work processes—from concept to realization of the architectural object. Creative work doesn’t follow strict schedules, and numerous approvals and adjustments can significantly affect completion deadlines. Therefore, to simultaneously manage creative, operational and financial processes, the office needed a flexible All-in-one tool. It was then that Drozdov&Partners came to if.team, which had already proven its effectiveness for project teams in various creative industry sectors. Since the team migrated to ERP for architectural and engineering firms, it has fundamentally changed its approach to project management.
The ability to unite all projects in one digital environment has become particularly valuable for Architectural Office Drozdov&Partners. Now each architectural project in the if.team system has its own page with detailed description: files, participants, tasks, and finances.
With cloud-based ERP for architectural and engineering firms, teams can work on projects, including international ones, anytime and from anywhere in the world. Even a new architect can quickly dive into a current project without needing to switch between different programs and chats. Understanding the scope, timeline, and progress of a project in if.team can be done within a single screen.
Thanks to the system’s intuitive navigation, managers can easily navigate between projects, efficiently allocate resources, and focus on critical tasks. This is especially important when working on large-scale projects like public buildings or urban spaces, which require coordination of large teams.
An iterative approach is not only characteristic of tech companies, but also of architectural offices, where continuous project improvement is the key to achieving perfect results. This perfectly aligns with the creative process of Drozdov&Partners office, whose projects develop through a series of successive sketches, prototypes, and concept validations.
This perfectly aligns with the creative approach of Drozdov&Partners office, where each project goes through a journey of sketches, prototypes, and sequential concept validations. Indeed, if.team ERP for architects has a convenient tool for structuring projects into separate iterations, where each one has its own budget, deadlines, and set of tasks. This allows for step-by-step progress tracking, more efficient resource planning, and better control of financial performance.
One of the key functions of ERP for architectural and engineering firms is convenient visualization of work schedules weeks in advance. Indeed, at the request of Drozdov&Partners office, the if.team technical team enhanced the Gantt chart with a weekly task display mode, which significantly improved calendar planning for long-term projects with clear deadlines.
The weekly Gantt chart displays priorities, statuses, task dependencies, and the smallest schedule deviations. Moreover, now the ERP for architects and designers of the office allows seeing not only daily tasks, but also all projects several weeks ahead. And not just see them, but:
Like any architectural object, design work in the design office has a complex structure, where one large-scale task, for example, “Sketch development,” can contain dozens of subtasks, such as “Site plan diagram,” “Floor planning,” “Building and structure facades,” and so on. Therefore, another important improvement, implemented at the request of Architectural Office Drozdov&Partners, was enhancing the user experience when working with subtasks.
Since the Drozdov&Partners office team works in Gantt chart mode, the ERP software for architectural design if.team received an enhanced interface for working with subtasks. The system summarizes progress and time spent across all subtasks, giving architectural project managers instant understanding of the overall picture. The Gantt chart provides convenient navigation and efficient subtask management, including the ability to collapse and expand lists and change deadlines and duration of subtasks.
Financial planning is the foundation for successful implementation of large-scale and long-term projects, especially in the field of design and architecture. Therefore, the budget burndown chart became a key tool for Drozdov&Partners office, providing visual representation of the project’s financial status at each stage.
The chart demonstrates the cost and profitability of the project, paid funds and total expenses, including team labor costs. This allows timely identification of potential overspending risks and making informed decisions about resource allocation.
For an architectural office with a rich portfolio of international projects, it’s important to have clear understanding of finances in real time. Therefore, if.team ERP for architects allows maintaining balance between creativity and financial responsibility.
One of the key advantages of the if.team ERP system is the automation of employee labor cost accounting. Each architect, designer, or engineer can easily track time spent on tasks and projects, as the program automatically converts hours into money based on timetracker data and established rates—fixed or hourly.Одна з ключових переваг ERP-системи if.team — автоматизація обліку витрат на оплату праці співробітників. Кожен архітектор, дизайнер або інженер може легко відстежувати час, витрачений на завдання та проєкти, тому що програма автоматично перетворює години на гроші на основі даних таймтрекера та встановлених рейтів — фіксованих або погодинних.
Automated salary calculation not only reduces administrative burden, but also ensures accurate cost calculation for each project. Therefore, an ERP software in architecture, where each project is unique and requires an individual approach to cost calculation, is an indispensable tool for transparent budgeting and financial control.
Moreover, the built-in if.team timetracker allows not only performing calculations, but also analyzing architect efficiency. Thanks to progress visualization and the ratio of completed tasks to planned ones, it’s easy to track the timeliness and quality of project implementation. And most importantly—timely identify bottlenecks and find ways to effectively resolve them.
Looking beyond individual projects to view the financial state of the architectural office is another advantage of if.team. Such ERP solutions for architectural firms automatically generate Cash Flow and P&L reports, providing management with a comprehensive picture of the company’s financial health.
The interactive Cash Flow report displays cash movement and helps predict possible cash shortfalls, which is critically important for an office working with large projects and international clients. Now the Ukrainian company Drozdov&Partners has the ability to plan financial flows considering seasonality and the specifics of international contracts.
Also, if.team cloud-based ERP for architects automatically generates P&L (Profit and Loss) reports, which allow evaluating the profitability of both the entire design office and individual projects. This helps management make strategic decisions about company development and focus on the most promising segments of architectural design.
Design office Drozdov&Partners involves clients in the workflow through if.team cloud-based ERP for architects. Thanks to flexible role and access rights configuration, clients can not only track project progress, but also effectively interact with the team online. Instead of lengthy email exchanges in messengers, all communication is concentrated in a single workspace with complete interaction history—in project chat or comments on specific tasks.
An ERP software in architecture, such as if.team, enables file sharing and online progress viewing regardless of time zone, which significantly simplified approval of architectural decisions and strengthened trust with international clients. This also allows maintaining constant communication, responding quickly to project changes and, as a result, increasing the architectural office’s competitiveness in the international market.
Despite the fact that each architectural project is unique, many processes repeat and consist of sequential stages. ERP solutions for architectural and engineering firms allow creating projects with one click and using templates with ready-made sets of services, performers, task statuses, and so on.
This function allows the office team to apply proven methodology when working on similar projects. For example, for interior design projects, it’s sufficient to create a standardized template in if.team ERP for architects with typical stages—from object measurements to author supervision.
Templates not only save time on work planning, but also reduce the risk of missing important stages in the architectural project development process. For junior specialists, this is also an opportunity to quickly understand the office work methodology and integrate into the new team of architects.
Effective human resource management is another important aspect for a design office, where each specialist can be involved in several projects simultaneously. ERP for architectural and engineering firms includes a team workload calendar that helps management at Drozdov&Partners company track employee availability and optimally distribute tasks among project participants.
The calendar visualizes each employee’s work schedule considering planned vacations, business trips, and other non-working days. This allows avoiding specialist overload and ensuring even distribution of projects among architects.
The workload calendar became a particularly valuable tool not only for work time planning, but also for organizing the teaching process involving many office employees. It helps coordinate commercial projects with the teaching activities of specialists at the Kharkiv School of Architecture, which was co-founded by Oleg Drozdov.
ERP implementation for architectural firms can be an important step in the development of not only a specific company, but the entire industry as a whole. The experience of Architectural Office Drozdov&Partners proves that ERP software in architecture not only harmoniously integrates with creative processes, but also enhances architects’ creativity.
The if.team system became a powerful foundation on which all office processes are built. Now Ukrainian creators of modern architecture have the opportunity to:
This and dozens of other ERP implementation for architectural firms cases demonstrate that if.team is ideal for teams that combine creative components with a clear approach to financial and legal matters. All information regarding deadlines, terms and calculations, as well as regulatory requirements for design and construction, is contained in one place. Design studios and engineering firms working with long-term projects find in if.team not just ERP for architects, but a comprehensive solution for managing all aspects of business.
Thanks to close collaboration with a leading architectural firm in Ukraine, the system continues to develop and improve. Thus, if.team functionality implemented at the request of Architectural Office Drozdov&Partners team is available to users engaged not only in architectural design, but also in many other areas of the creative industry.
So if you strive to focus on creativity while not losing control over operational and financial processes, we offer an optimal solution—a powerful and flexible ERP for architectural and engineering firms that continuously develops thanks to valuable feedback from industry professionals.
For architectural firms that strive to focus on creativity without losing control over operational and financial processes, if.team ERP system offers an optimal solution—powerful, flexible, and continuously improved thanks to feedback from industry professionals.
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