Meet LAIKA
LAIKA is a successful and growing interior design firm, known for its quality work. But behind the scenes, their success was creating a new problem. The manual processes and disconnected tools that worked for a small team were now breaking under the pressure of scale.Their operation was running on a mix of Zalo, Google Sheets, personal Excel files, and emails. Instead of helping them grow, their tools were holding them back. This article breaks down the specific “pain points” in their workflow—challenges that are common in many growing businesses.

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A Look at LAIKA’s Disconnected Workflow

Here is a phase-by-phase look at the operational challenges that created friction, delays, and a constant risk of error for the LAIKA team.

1. Marketing & Lead Capture

Leads from web forms were sent to a shared email, then manually copy-pasted into a Zalo group chat. This created delays, risking “cold” leads, and made it nearly impossible to track which ad campaigns were actually effective.

2. Sales & Consulting

Leads were assigned manually in Zalo based on who “seemed free.” Each salesperson kept notes in their own private files, creating data silos. Scheduling meetings with designers required a messy back-and-forth on chat, wasting valuable time.

3. Contracts & Payments

Contracts were created by manually filling in a Word template, a process ripe for typos and errors. Invoicing was tracked on a separate Excel file, and payment confirmations relied on clients sending Zalo screenshots, delaying the start of new projects.

4. Project Implementation

Project information was scattered across Zalo, emails, and personal Google Drive folders. There was no single source of truth. Design feedback happened in chaotic group chats, making it a “nightmare” to find the correct file version or final client approval.

5. Handover & Customer Care

Post-project customer care depended entirely on an individual employee’s personal calendar reminders. There was no consistent process, creating a risk of losing client history if an employee left and missing out on valuable upsell opportunities.

6. Management & Reporting

To get a business overview, the CEO had to manually request reports from each department. The resulting data was often outdated and inconsistent. This lack of real-time visibility made it impossible to make timely, data-driven decisions.

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The Core Problem: A Tax on Growth

These individual issues created four overarching problems that acted as a “tax” on the entire business:
  • Data Fragmentation: Critical information lived in dozens of disconnected places, from Zalo chats to personal Excel files.
  • Manual Work & Human Error: Constant copy-pasting and manual data entry wasted time and inevitably led to costly mistakes.
  • Lack of Real-Time Visibility: Leadership was always managing based on data from “yesterday,” unable to see a live picture of the business.
  • Poor Client & Employee Experience: Internal friction, delays, and miscommunication ultimately impacted the experience for both customers and staff.

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The Vision: A Unified Operating System

Before we build, let’s see the end goal. The video below shows the “after” state for LAIKA: a seamless flow of information where every team works in sync on a single platform. This is the system you are about to build. 
# The LAIKA Universal Automation Vision
A video showcasing the seamless flow of information between Sales, Design, and Site teams in the final, unified system.
![LAIKA Automation Vision Video](https://path/to/laika-automation-video.mp4)

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Our Build Plan: The 3 Phases

We will construct the LAIKA Operating System in three logical phases, mirroring the journey of a real-world implementation project.

1. The Master Plan

First, we’ll analyze LAIKA’s business challenges, design the high-level, cross-functional system blueprint, and set up the foundational governance structure for users and permissions.

2. Building the Core Functions

Next, we will build LAIKA’s two primary Functions: a powerful CRM to manage their sales pipeline and a comprehensive Project Delivery system to handle everything from design to construction.

3. Operating the Unified System

Finally, we will connect the two Functions using Universal Automation and build a unified executive dashboard for a complete, real-time view of the entire business.
What’s Next? Now that we have clearly defined the problems, let’s look at the architectural solution designed to solve every one of these challenges.