Creativity and numbers: how they can work together on wethod to support business growth

Founded in March 2018, Planum is an integrated design company specializing in architecture and engineering. Despite its youth, Planum draws on the expertise of collaborators with 2 to 25 years of experience, creating a dynamic and stimulating work environment.

Alessandro Checchin, Managing Director and Head of Architecture, leads a team that manages projects in areas such as structures, infrastructure, hydraulics, environment, safety, and final verification and validation. One notable project includes the new road layout for H-Campus at H-FARM in Treviso.

In just six years, Planum has grown from 3 to 60 people, earning a reputation as the third-fastest-growing company in Italy by revenue in the architecture sector, according to Il Sole 24 Ore.

“Back in 2018, we started with just three people, all in the same room. Organization was simple: you just raised your voice to be aware of everything,”

- says Alessandro Checchin, Managing Director of Planum.

Such rapid growth brings significant challenges, and effective information management becomes crucial. Initially, a simple Excel sheet was sufficient to track expenses, but as business costs grew from €4,000 to over €350,000, that system became unsustainable.

“Strangely, on the same day, two people from our team suggested Wethod to me. It seemed like a cosmic alignment, so I thought, let’s see if this solution could work for us!” - says Checchin.

Switching to Wethod, Planum found a strong alignment with the product’s philosophy: promoting a horizontal work organization to empower people and make teamwork more efficient.

“Our company philosophy is geared towards shared decision-making. We’ve always tried to counter a hierarchical structure because our reality is both creative and, in a sense, artistic. An overly hierarchical approach could limit creativity. Sometimes, though, unchecked creativity can lead to inefficiencies, and Wethod helps us balance these extremes,” - explains Checchin.

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The product’s logic aligns perfectly with Planum’s internal workflows: estimating hours needed for a project, tracking progress, and monitoring outcomes. The most innovative aspect lies in future projections. Previously handled in Excel and reliant on individual intuition, Wethod now provides real-time updates, making data much more intuitive. For example, it allows for predicting budget overruns before a project is completed. The “Budget Consumption VS Status” graph enables early identification of potential issues.

Daily, Planum relies on features like the Invoice Plan and Order Plan, which are essential for managing invoices with suppliers and clients.

“The biggest support from Wethod lies in the financial aspect of our company, in managing orders from external suppliers, and throughout the administrative sector. As for our creative work, meetings, paper, pen, and pencil remain our primary tools, and I believe they always will,” says Checchin.