When Carpool opened its doors in 2010, it was a prototypical tech startup. It had a basement office space in the central business district of Bellevue, Washington, an open-office floorplan, and even a foosball table. Its focus in those early days was to create a product that would revolutionize inter-office communications. Unfortunately, not everything went to plan.
Seeing a need to adapt to their landscape, agency leadership shifted focus from product development to applying their advanced communications skills and specialized knowledge in a more immediately impactful way. Instead of competing with existing products, Carpool would offer consulting services to companies who wanted to get more out of their collaboration solutions.
“The name Carpool, even though it was serendipitous that we called the company that, actually rings quite true to what we do now,” says Reid. “We work with partners to help our clients get to where they want.”
With its business interests realigned, Carpool next had to reshape how it went about that business. Workflows needed to be adjusted, as did the physical office footprint. As Reid puts it, “When you improve your internal workings and the flow of information through your organization, you can look after your customer better. You can create a better product, reduce costs, and increase profits.” This was what Carpool was preaching to its customers, and by living up to the ideals of its own teachings, the agency itself could become a powerful sales tool.
Any solution that Carpool implemented would have to satisfy all the varied criteria the agency wanted to showcase to its customers. It would have to allow Carpool to operate cheaply, effectively, and from anywhere. Ultimately, Carpool selected Microsoft Office 365.