andcards Helps Ipade Automate Workflows & Make Members Self-sufficient

 

A Sanctuary Free from Racist and Sexist Discrimination

Ipade is a Black-owned coworking space in Washington DC, that welcomes Black women, women of color, and gender-expansive people of color who are craving a friendly collaborative community to grow, succeed, and make a positive impact.

Here’s what Elizabeth Gay, the founder of Ipade, says about this unique facility.

“Ìpàdé (“meeting” in Yorùbá) is DC’s first co-working and event space and community of support designed for Black women and people of color entrepreneurs, professionals, and creatives. At Ìpàdé, we bring together women of color to build skills, resilience, and power to transform society for the good of our communities.” — Elizabeth Gay here and below unless otherwise specified

The space has a noble mission that requires much time, energy, and community-building effort. Let’s figure out how andcards helps Elizabeth stay on top of the hassles and keep Ipade community connected.

 

Challenges Ipade Was Looking to Resolve with andcards  

Ipade opened its doors for members in April 2022. Elizabeth wanted to create a space ideal for members and easy to manage, so she decided to implement a coworking platform right from the start.

Here are key challenges Elizabeth wanted to address with the help of andcards.

• Manual membership management

Since Ipade is an extremely community-focused space, they wanted to minimize the time administrators spend on manual operations such as membership plan management, invoicing, and room and desk booking. These workflows were supposed to be fully automated by the system.

• Keeping members self-sufficient and connected

The next critical point for Ipade was to connect members to space managers and each other. To give them a simple tool to report issues, pay by invoices, book rooms and desks, discover and join events, and hang out with friends.

“First of all, we wanted andcards to help us manage memberships and stay connected. We wanted to make it really easy for the members to use the app to pay their invoices, book space, and reach out if they have any issues or questions.”

Now let’s see how andcards meets the unique needs of this amazing coworking space.

 

Ipade + andcards, the Beginning of Partnership

• Excellent onboarding experience

Just like all other coworking space operators starting up, Elizabeth had plenty of things to take care of and not too much time for this. She didn’t plan to spend this precious pre-launch time on training and academies where coworking software vendors teach managers how to use their products.

andcards was a perfect fit in this regard. The system is usable right out of the box, so no special training is required for admins or members. Elizabeth just jumped into an onboarding call with her personal account manager, who showed her around.

The entire platform set up, which included adding members, assigning plans, automating invoicing, and starting to engage with members via the newsfeed and events, took less than a day.

“Setting up andcards was really easy and an excellent experience! The onboarding call was extremely helpful and the andcards staff is very responsive. It made setting up my account and platform seamless.”

• Effortless adoption of the platform by members

When choosing a coworking space app, it’s utterly important to make sure that members will enjoy it even more than admins. andcards has done a great job here in terms of design and user-friendliness. Google and Apple guidelines are at the core of our apps, so the interface looks familiar right from the start. Members just open their apps and use them worry-free without asking administrators additional questions.

This is exactly what happened at Ipade. Admin invited members to the app, and after a quick registration process, the entire variety of space offers was available to them. It’s elementary for members to book a desk or a room via a familiar calendar, pay by invoice, join an event, post on the newsfeed, or purchase an item they need.

What’s more, non-members can also experience the hospitality of Ipade through the app. And they already do it. For instance, external customers can easily check desk availability, book a desk and pay for it with a card. Everything without calling or messaging the manager. Needless to say how beneficial are such external bookings for space revenue and new customer attraction.

It’s safe to say that the process of members onboarding at Ipade is really smooth with andcards. They like the transparency of their monthly fees, which they effortlessly check at any time in their apps. Members don’t need to ask the manager every time they want to book a room or learn what’s new in the space. They just enter their apps and get what they want.

“Using andcards helps members feel secure. They are in control of their payment options, they can see their plan, and they stay in the know. This sense of security makes onboarding pretty straightforward and minimizes the need for questions regarding the management of their account.”

• Building community is much easier with andcards

Being a community-focused space is not easy. You need to keep members connected and informed about all networking and educational events you host. Besides, you want to be the first to know when members need your help or want to share feedback.

andcards is delivered with a bunch of tools that assist administrators in their community-building activities and keep community together. All of these tools are actively used by Ipade. They are:

• Community Catalog that includes all members' details and can be browsed like your phone contacts.
• Member Support, which provides members with a quick way to report their issues, and allows managers to resolve them immediately before they become problems.  
• Events Showcase, where members easily discover and join gatherings they are interested in.
• Community Feed where Ipade posts all its news and updates that spark members’ discussions and reactions.
• Benefit Catalog where members find and apply for perks that make their Ipade membership outstanding.    

“andcards helps members know what’s coming up at the space so they can mark their calendars! They hear about all of our events first through the andcards platform.”

Just imagine how much time and effort Ipade managers save on their marketing activities. Thanks to the app with its beautiful catalogs, showcases, widgets, and push notifications, they effortlessly keep members in the loop of all the latest developments.

• Automation of administrative tasks

Every coworking space must think about practical matters such as revenue, plans, payments, and bookings. Ipade is not an exception but a good example here.

With andcards, all major management processes at the space are fully automated. For instance, the admin assigns a plan to a member, and then the system automatically generates invoices on the agreed date including recurring and all one-off fees into the doc. A member gets the invoice and pays it with any convenient method inside the app.

“andcards helps us easily manage every administrative aspect of membership. We assign them plans with their exact dates, and it makes paying super easy. We’re also able to easily track when someone’s membership is expiring so we can reach out.”

As to bookings, Ipade admins don’t need to manage them. Members are fully self-sufficient here. They just open their apps, check available dates and time, and book and pay in a few clicks. Admins have a full overview of all bookings and payments in a single place, which lets them keep things in control and save time.

 

Key Results of andcards Implementation

• The entire system setup took less than a day

andcards implementation doesn’t require any special skills or training from managers. With a dedicated account manager, the onboarding turns into an exciting, stress-free experience and the entire system setup usually takes less than a day.

• 100% automated workspace administration

The most time-consuming processes such as invoicing and bookings are fully automated at Ipade. Administrators invite members to the app, assign membership plans and then just supervise the process from the unified dashboard making tweaks when necessary.

• 43% space revenue growth, 118% members growth

Since its launch in May 2022, Ipade shows a stable revenue and members growth. In just five months the revenue of the coworking space grew by 43% and the number of members by 118%.

• Connected and engaged community with 162,5% engagement rate

According to analytical data, that is available in Ipade app, community engagement on their newsfeed is 162,5%, which is the best evidence of connected members.

• 100% self-sufficient members 

Members at Ipade are fully self-sufficient. They pay by invoices, book desks and rooms, join events, make purchases in shop, and communicate with the community without the administrator’s help. They get everything they need in a few clicks in their app.