Steeltech: keeping long-term real estate projects under founder's control with GanttPRO
“GanttPRO allows us to connect the fairly independent processes and see the high-level picture which is crucial for me as a founder.”
A story about connecting project stages, maintaining high-level control, and giving the founder visibility into long-term development projects.
Company overview
Company: Steeltech
Roles interviewed: Madiyar Kystaubayev, founder
Project types: client-orientated, full-cycle construction projects
External pressures: long decision-making cycles, client-facing accountability, need to connect different stages of work
Tool history: local business management platform
Problems hinted at: need for a high-view timeline-based solution
Summary
Company Background
What does your company focus on?
Steeltech is a full-cycle development company focused on building from scratch, rebuilding, reconstructing, and repurposing existing commercial real estate.
“We are not a classic construction company. We are a full-cycle development with three main directions: concept development, design, and construction. These areas are fairly independent but still connected to each other. That is why we need GanttPRO: it allows us to connect the processes and see the high-level picture which is crucial for me as a founder.”
Setting dependencies between the tasks and seeing connections at different levels is a must in construction. Together with high-level control, it fully meets my needs for what a Gantt-based tool should do.
Struggle
How did your approach look before GanttPRO?
Previously, the team used a business management platform which was lacking an important element that could support long-term planning – a cohesive timeline. GanttPRO seemed like a suitable option at first glance and that’s how the adoption process began.
As Madiyar recalls it, the experience was quite gradual: “I was discovering the tool in two stages. Implementing something new is always difficult and time-consuming, so during the first stage I didn’t manage to dive deeply into full functionality. Then I looked at the reviews and realized that the issue wasn’t about the complexity but the lack of effort. What I eventually did was deliberately setting aside time to figure it out myself.
The second stage came naturally and then I understood how great the functionality in fact is. I haven’t entered into all the features yet, but now I have the level of control I wanted from a project management tool.”
Solution
For Madiyar, setting dependencies became the stand-out feature that shaped his positive impression of GanttPRO as a whole. In the context of Steeltech’s main services, concept development, detailed design, documentation, and construction, each stage requires a detailed timeline that is clear both for the team and for the client.
“Setting dependencies and seeing the connections between tasks at different levels is a must in construction. Together with high-level control, it fully meets my needs for what a Gantt-based tool should do.”“In our field, budgeting is very complex. There are many factors and volumes changing constantly. I use the budget feature mainly for approximate estimations and for me, that’s enough. In construction, going much deeper would probably require a separate module to account for measurements, volumes, and many other details, and I think that would be overly heavy.”
For Madiyar and his team, GanttPRO became the missing piece in keeping all projects visible, including the slower-moving ones that could easily fall out of focus.
“I also realized that we have different types of projects. In some – we interact with the client almost daily, in others – only once a month. Previously, I would sometimes forget about these slower-moving projects and now they are all under control. This became the most obvious benefit: GanttPRO helps me not forget about projects that may seem less active at the moment but are still important strategically.”
Impact
What does your work look like now with GanttPRO?
Now, GanttPRO serves a strategic planning purpose and gives Madiyar, as the company owner and main project lead, a clear view of each ongoing development. As he explains, being the owner does not mean getting into every single detail, but it does require seeing the bigger picture, noticing critical changes as the project progresses, and reporting clearly to the client.
“The first thing GanttPRO gives me is transparency. I monitor the construction schedule at a high level, without going too deep into the details."
I see the exact deadlines and assign people responsible for each item. This is why we only have five users: the people I assign tasks to are the key heads of departments. I do not go all the way down to the lowest level, I only need the key result.”
With GanttPRO, Steeltech can manage around 10–11 properties without a separate project manager. Madiyar keeps the high-level picture under control, while his assistant updates tasks and collects key metrics from the team: “We have a lot of projects, and with the help of the platform, I can control them all myself. Usually, companies tend to have a project manager responsible for this, but in my case, the work is handled by me, my assistant, and GanttPRO, which reduces the need for a separate employee.”